Two Rivers Pastoral Charge
November 25, 2018
Scripture: John 18:33-37
It feels a bit
strange, perched on the threshold of Advent as we move towards Christmas, to
have a reading taken straight from our Good Friday story. In the context of our Sunday-morning readings
it makes sense. Ever since the middle of
September, we have been moving with Jesus towards Jerusalem, and for the past
couple of weeks we have been there in the city, hearing about the events of the
last week of Jesus’ life. And now, even
though we’ve skipped from Mark’s gospel over to John’s, we still have some
continuity. We are there with Jesus
standing before Pilate as the judge.
Christ is on trial.
The church year
doesn’t quite follow the calendar year.
It starts with Advent and cycles through until today, which is known as
the Reign of Christ, or Christ the King Sunday.
We begin in Advent which is a season of waiting and preparing, then we
move through the events of Jesus’ life – his birth, his teachings, his actions,
his death, and his resurrection – and then we come to today which is also a
time of waiting. We are waiting for
God’s promises to be fulfilled, for a time when God will fully rule or reign
over all of creation.
But what does God’s
reign look like? We talk about Christ
the King, but do we really want a King ruling over us? What sorts of models of king-ship to we have
in our world?
In the world that
Jesus was living in, the rule was by the Roman Emperors, who were not known for
their loving-kindness and generosity.
The ancient Israelite people had had their kings too, beginning with
King David and stretching on for several centuries until they were defeated and
sent into exile in Babylon. But if you
look at scripture, you will see that of the 43 kings, only 7 of them did good
in the eyes of God, which leaves 36 of them who did evil from God’s
perspective.
And then what about
our examples of kingship that we have in our world today? We have the British royal family, who gives
us weddings that we can wake up at 4am to watch, and baby bumps that we can
follow on social media; but aside from supporting various charities, they are a
pretty benign force in the big picture of things.
And so when we call
Christ our King, or when we long for the reign or rule of Christ to come, what
are we really longing for? Do we want
Christ to be a king in the way that the Roman Emperors ruled? Do we want a benign and harmless king like
the British monarchy?
I’m fascinated by the
contrast between Jesus and Pilate in today’s reading. Here we have Jesus, who has been arrested
like any other criminal. His followers
have left him. Peter has just denied
knowing him. He’s stood before the High
Priest, and now he’s standing before the governor of the region. Almost immediately following the passage that
we read today, he’s going to be beaten and nailed to a cross.
We used this image in our "Story for All Ages" contrasting Pilate and Jesus
"'What is Truth?' Christ and Pilate" by N. N. Ge
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:What_is_truth.jpg
Public Domain
And then we have Pilate. Pilate was the prefect, or governor of the
province of Judea. He represented the
Emperor in the region; he ruled on behalf of the Emperor; he was the ultimate
political authority in the region. He
was probably dressed in fancy robes representing his status. He was probably surrounded by servants and
slaves and soldiers, ready to do his every bidding.
So when we look at
these two standing together – Pilate and Jesus – which one of them appears to
have the power?
And yet we dare to
call Jesus our king. We are choosing to
follow a king who rode in to Jerusalem on a donkey rather than a warhorse. We are choosing to follow a king who wears a
crown of thorns rather than a crown of gold.
We are choosing to follow a king who is raised up on a cross rather than
on a throne. We are choosing to follow a
king who rules by love rather than by retaliatory violence.
The feminist in me
wishes that we had a good gender-inclusive word that would convey that sense of
absolute authority that “king” or “lord” carries; but we are constrained by the
English language here. And the thing is,
if we call Christ our King or our Lord, we are actually making a very powerful
statement; because if we are subjects of Jesus Christ – if we give Christ the
ultimate authority over our lives – then we can’t give that authority to anyone
else.
If God-in-Jesus is
Lord over our lives, then our possessions can’t be Lord.
If God-in-Jesus is
Lord over our lives, then our political affiliation can’t be Lord.
If God-in-Jesus is
Lord over our lives, then we ourselves can’t be Lord.
If God-in-Jesus is
Lord over our lives, then celebrity and social media culture can’t be Lord.
If God-in-Jesus is
Lord over our lives, then violence and anger can’t be Lord.
When we recognize and
celebrate this Sunday as the Reign of Christ Sunday, we are proclaiming that we
celebrate God’s topsy-turvy, upside-down kingdom where the first shall be last
and the last shall be first. We are
proclaiming that we have confidence that the time is coming when this
topsy-turvy, upside down kingdom will be the only kingdom across the
whole earth and throughout all of creation.
We are proclaiming that we aren’t satisfied with the world as it is,
because we know that something better is coming; and we are proclaiming our
intention to live by the rules of God’s kingdom rather than the rules of the
world around us. We are proclaiming that
we intend to live in celebration of abundance rather than fear of
scarcity. We are proclaiming that we
intend to live by love and peace rather than by fear and violence. We are proclaiming that we intend to live in
community with all of creation rather than in self-centered isolation.
I mentioned at the
beginning that this Sunday is the last one in the church year, and that a new
church year will begin next week with the season of Advent. Which makes today a little bit like New
Year’s Eve. And so as we sit on the
threshold of a new year, I would like to invite you to take part in the
time-honoured tradition of making New Year’s Resolutions. How can we, as a church, resolve to be a
community where this alternative, counter-cultural kingdom can bubble up into
existence? How can we live our
allegiance to Christ the King in the world that we live in?
Let us pray:
Holy God,
blow your Holy Spirit through our
church,
and through our lives,
uniting us with one another,
and making us one with
Christ.
Help us to be a place
where your kingdom can come;
and help us to show the world
that there is a
different way to be.
We pray this in the
name of Christ the King.
Amen.
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