Christ the King
A Sermon on John 18:33-37 and Revelation 1:4b-8
In Two Voices (by Griff Martin and Jared Slack)
On Christ the King Sunday
November 25, 2018
John 18:33-37
Then Pilate entered the
headquarters again, summoned Jesus, and asked him, “Are you the King of the
Jews?” Jesus answered, “Do you ask this on your own, or did others tell you
about me?” Pilate replied, “I am not a Jew, am I? Your own
nation and the chief priests have handed you over to me. What have you done?” Jesus
answered, “My kingdom is not from this world. If my kingdom were from this
world, my followers would be fighting to keep me from being handed over to the
Jews. But as it is, my kingdom is not from here.” Pilate asked him,
“So you are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. For this I was
born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who
belongs to the truth listens to my voice.”
Revelation 1:4-8
Grace to you and peace from him
who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven spirits who are
before his throne, and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn
of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth.
To him who loves us and freed us
from our sins by his blood, and made us to be a kingdom, priests serving his
God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.
Look! He is coming with the
clouds;
every
eye will see him,
even those who pierced him;
and on
his account all the tribes of the earth will wail.
So it is to be. Amen.
“I am the Alpha and the Omega,”
says the Lord God, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.
The Sermon:
Incarnate and Resurrected God,
we ask that you once again take the Word and transform it into a living and
breathing new reality we can all together experience. Make us aware of you
presence here in this space and in these words God for if we are present to you
then nothing else will matter, but if you are not present to you then nothing
else will matter. In the name of the Creator, the Christ and the
Comforter. Amen.
Introduction (Griff):
We just assume that most of Church
tradition is as old as time. In Baton Rouge during a Bible study someone raised
their hand one morning and asked me what I thought Jesus gave up for Lent
before he was crucified, they were not kidding, I could not even give them an
answer. They just assumed that once a religious tradition, always a religious
tradition.
And some of our church seasons do
date pretty far back, Lent and Advent date pretty far back. Our church father
Irenaus writes about an observation of something Lent like in 180 and by the
time of the Council of Nicaea in 325 Lent looks like a 40 day preparation
period, we are not sure if it was for the entire church or just those about to
be baptized, but it still has ancient roots.
Lent, Advent, Pentecost… these are
Sunday’s and celebrations with 1,000’s of years of history and practice.
Today does not have ancient roots
of 1,000 years of history. Christ the King Sunday is a newbie for us, not even
100 years old yet. Christ the King Sunday begun in the 1920’s as a result of
World War I. Pope Pious XI began this Sunday in 1920 to remind the church who
they worshipped. The world was changing and after the war there were questions
of who was in charge and powerful, in a world of Czar Ferdinand or Kaiser
Wilhelm, it seemed important that that the church be reminded who was King.
I don’t know how I feel about
this.
One, I think that is actually the
point of every worship service and prayer and meditation we hold as a community
and every spiritual discipline we practice together, to remind us that this is
not about us, that we are not in control, that this is a bigger story than us
and that the world does not revolve around us, no matter how badly we want it
too.
Second, King? Really? I don’t know
about you but my experience with kings is limited to The Crown, bedtime
stories, fairy tales, Game of Thrones and BBC series. King is not a language I
use.
In the words of Nadia Bolz Webber:
“I always have resented this day because the idea of the kingship of Christ may
have meant something in the political climate 90 years ago but now it’s like
celebrating Christ the CEO Sunday.”
The King I Want (Jared):
And
yet here we are this Sunday after Thanksgiving, the last Sunday of November,
the very last Sunday before Advent… with a story about Jesus’s trial before
Pilate just hours before his death.
We
quickly find that at the center of this conversation is one single, incendiary
word that through out the years wars have been fought for and movies have been
made about… a word and title given to an exclusive and powerful few who’ve
inherited it or taken it by force. And of course we all what that word is… King.
And
this exchange between Jesus and Pilate is but a mere moment amidst others that
day… Moments involving a cranky crowd, some whip happy guards, and all the
requisite legal procedure needed to put together a trial and smear campaign
centering around Jesus’ alleged “claim” to this silly little… chaos
creating… four letter word, King.
Sometimes
if you’re a couple of mostly white, entirely privileged men like us yahoos up
here and all of our yahoo brethren in this building and all over the world… you
might have a hard time seeing why over and over throughout history and right
this very moment in time understanding others are acting on there need to
raise a stink about yet another yahoo in a long line of yahoos laying
their claim to power.
And
maybe you catch yourself not really and truly seeing the issue that people
like Nadia Bolz-Webber have with a Holy Day like today being called
Christ the “Four-Letter-Word” Sunday.
I’ll
confess that there are some days when I find myself wanting to climb up to the
tippy-top of my well-ridden high horse and with a willful sort of ignorance
ask, “Why all the fuss about a goofy little king? They’re all alike.”
But
then there are days like today when I just feel this insatiable need to say out
loud the thing that often goes unsaid by people like me and often un-listened
to when it comes from people who are not like me.
It’s
a dark truth that I’ve known from early on, ingrained into me through all of
life’s experiences both big and small. It’s a truth that many of you will know
almost instantly and maybe even resonate with.
It’s
the dark truth that for a “good ole boy” looking, secretly half-Mexican man
like myself, whether or not I get to experience any semblance of what it is
that I feel is “the good life” has little or nothing to do with who is or who
isn’t in power.
And
right off the bat, not yet half way into this little duo sermon thing
we’re doing up here, that’s a super tricky truth for us to own, Griff and
myself included.
And
I’m not trying to lay the guilt of that on anyone in this church today that
doesn’t want to take that on. That’s between you and the person that Pilate is
having this conversation with.
But
I wanna ask you to go with me here for a second and let’s see if we can’t
somehow stumble into something worth our time and attention…
What
if it’s possible that yet again our sacred scripture and the greater Christian
tradition we participate in is somehow mystically, thoughtfully, or however you
wanna describe it, curating this very moment for us. Hoping that we might pause
here for some time to put ourselves into this story and let it form us into
something better.
What
if right from the get go we consider Pilate’s opening question, “Are you
king of the Jews?” As though it was that exact same question that you
and I need to ponder together today. Because maybe you’re like me and you can’t
make a lick of sense of what comes next in this story anyways… so it might be
best for us all to stay up here in the shallow end before moving on to the
Advanced Defense Against Dark Arts down below.
But
I gotta say that the longer I stay here splashing around in these waters this
question gets slowly shaped into something new, and soon I find this very real,
very intrusive question has taken form. A question often ignored by
people who are like me and often required material for people who are not
like me… that question being what kind of king are you?
Even
with all of our varying opinions about whether or not Christ and King should be
spoken in the same breath, at the end of the day, deep down we’re all just
wanting to know what kind of king we’re supposed to follow what it’s going to
cost us.
And
there are a lot of times that I catch I catch myself being lulled into wanting
the kind of king that asks very little of me in comparison to the benefits I
receive in return.
A
king that puts my comfort and my personal preferences above all others.
The
kind of king that let’s me eat all the turkey and gravy I want on Thursday and
not have to feel the after effects of that decision the morning during yoga.
I
want a king that keeps all the change that’s needed to improve our world to
take place far away from the sphere of my experience, or at least lets me
pretend that going along with all this was my idea.
A
king that let’s me settle for the comfortable illusion of my own control,
versus one that asks me to open me eyes and see things as they really are.
In
short, I want an Easy King, one that swings a big stick but never in my
direction… but it feels like every single time I open scripture I’m met once
again with a King named Jesus who is anything but easy.
The King I Don’t Want
(Griff):
A few months ago the Martin’s all
piled into the car and headed for dinner and we did that thing where we started
driving before we had chosen the destination, which is dangerous. All the
usuals were suggested… Maudie’s, Pinthouse, Top Notch, Fresas, Shady Grove and
they were all shot down by the 2 backseat Martin’s… finally in desperation I
said a little put out, “Well where should we go?” And one of the backseat
angles said, “well I don’t know where I want to go but I do know where I don’t
want to go.”
That is kind of how I feel about
King.
I actually don’t know what I want
in a King, but I clearly know what I don’t want in a King. Look at the John
text we read earlier just for starters, now remind yourself where this is in
the story. This is after the Last Supper, this is after the Garden Prayer and
arrest and all that entails. We are in the dead of the night and Jesus has been
brought before Pilate and Pilate’s question is fairly simple, “Are you the
king?”And Pilate keeps asking this every way he can and Jesus keeps answering
with a non answer and for me it’s a bit infuriating here.
For starters Jesus is in front of
the political power of his day, a man in a powerful situation and with all the
political capital one could hold. And I personally am a big fan of the politics
of Jesus, I think Jesus gives us politics that can actually work in our world
and transform our world. And Jesus refuses to participate in Pilate’s politics,
instead he turns every answer into something theological, something not of this
world.
And here is what I know, Jesus
would have been victorious in a political debate with Pilate. Yet he choose
another way, as if answering politics with more politics is far less productive
than answering politics with theology.What kind of king is that?
And Jesus does not even put up a
fight, there are no threats or anything like that. It does not even appear that
he fought back when they came to arrest him, instead he surrendered. As if that
is the key. And I don’t need him to put up a huge fight or too get too violent,
I know violence alone is not the answer, but I need a little more than just
complete surrender.
I don’t need Elijah on the mountain
killing everyone with fire from the heavens, that is a little much for my
taste. But I do want someone who holds their own, who does not get walked on
and taken advantage of. I need more than just laying down one’s life, what kind
of King is that?
And Jesus just seems to let go of
control and power and that does not seem anything like a King to me, King and
Kingdom’s are all about power and control, I mean I think that is the defining
feature of a king, someone who is control and has all the power. A king about
love and surrender, what kind of King is that?
I mean let’s be honest this entire scene
with Pilate, it’s really hard to see who stands before who and who is really in
charge, what kind of King is that?
The King We Have (Jared):
And
over and over I’m finding that it’s when I start getting brave enough to ask
these kinds of questions… ones that confront the truths I believe about God and
that truths I really hold deep down in my soul… it feels like I’m slowly but
surely nudging my soul along in the ongoing work of me better following this
Jesus who cares very little about being the kind of king that I have any sort
of earthly experience with.
And
it’s in moments like this when the reality of who Jesus is on
the one hand and who I wish Jesus would be on the other are at
their most tense that somebody like Pilate strolls up and asks a question that
opens to an answer that might just be the most piercingly profound of them all…“If
my kingdom were from this world, my followers would be fighting…”
It’s
bold and snarky words like this spoken right into the face of power, when Jesus
pays not one ounce of reverence to the well worn-patterns and traditional power
structures, that I’m convinced deep, deep down in my heart that if there ever
was actually a King who walked this earth, that can have only been King
Jesus.
And
even more, that none of us would be wasting our time in spending our entire
lives learning how to follow him better and better.
Because
unlike all the other kings before him who gained power and a following through
fear and violence, King Jesus chooses to peacefully stand his ground and speak
his truth to anyone who asks him an honest question. And as always, with his
answers Jesus insists on busting open the cramped boxes of power through
violence and instead hops up onto his own creaky soapbox one final time to tell
Pilate about a kingdom and a king who’s ways are not of this world. Who’s way
are better. Who’s ways are good. Who’s ways are of peace instead of violence.
This
is the kind of kingdom with a King the world won’t recognize at first glance.
The
kind of King that serves rather than is served.
The
kind of king who gets down on his hands and knees to speak with the lowly and
the rejected, and, when needed, stands up on his tip toes to speak truth to
whoever thinks they’re in power.
The
kind of king that’s not beholden to the comfy trappings of the ways things have
always been.
A
king who invites us to step out of the shadows of our own making, and into the
truth telling light about who we really are and what we’re really mean when we
say we follow our Lord.
Over
and over, with each and every little glimpse of this beautiful kingdom, this
King Jesus I keep running into is the only King that I could ever imagine
spending my life following. None of the other kings out there, whether they’re
another yahoo with an army or they’re any number of the other little kings I
fashioned with my own two hand, no matter how many promises they make will
never measure up to the kind of King I have in Jesus.
Follow (Griff):
And of course the main message
today is not to decide if Christ is king or not, we would love to think that
because it makes this about us, but this is not about us. Here is the truth,
Christ is king if you think it or not. What you think about Jesus does not
change the truth, Jesus is Lord and Christ is King.
You accept that or you don’t accept
that.
You make that your truth or you
choose to follow a lie.
It’s that simple.
A king whose kingdom is not of this
world, a king whose ways are not our ways….
But isn’t that Gospel because let’s
be honest the kingdoms of this world are not doing so well these days, they are
crumbling and they are killing us. And our ways are not really helping us. So
maybe it’s time we try something different.
Maybe it’s time to try a different
model of King, to try the work of Jesus and if we are are going to do the work
of Jesus we need to do it the way of Jesus.
Today is the day we pledge our
allegiance, today we give our loyalty, today we commit ourselves the Christ is
king, we are not and no power of this world is and it’s time to try something a
new way… a way of surrender, love (…)
It’s the very prayer of Jesus… Thy
kingdom come.
And I might add, Lord please sooner
than later and may we be part of that.
Amen and Amen.
*artwork: King of Kings, by Steve Gamba, 1-steve-gamba.pixels.com
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