"Christ the 'No-Kings' Sunday" (sermon)

Two Rivers Pastoral Charge
Sunday November 23, 2025 – Christ the King / Reign of Christ Sunday
Scripture Readings:  Colossians 1:15-20 and Luke 23:33-43



Has anyone been following the protest movements that have been happening down in the US this year?  The biggest and most organized of these protest movements is called “No Kings” and uses the logo of a large gold crown with a bold red X over it.  I commented to a colleague earlier this fall that this year’s sermon for Christ the King Sunday was essentially writing itself – all you had to do was follow the news!

It's an interesting – and relevant – fact that celebrating the last Sunday before Advent as Christ the King Sunday is a relatively new addition to the church calendar.  This minor holy-day was added by the Roman Catholic Church 100 years ago in 1925, under a global political situation that has some resonances with what is going on in the world in 2025.  The 1920s saw a distinct rise in fascism in Europe, with the rise of both Mussolini and Hitler’s authoritarian regimes.  And the church saw this happening and said, “No. Our ultimate authority isn’t any political leader, even when that leader tries to claim ultimate authority.  For us, our ultimate allegiance is due to Christ, and to Christ alone.  Christ is the only king that we are loyal to.”  Christ the King Sunday, Reign of Christ Sunday, is, at its heart, a lower-case-p political statement by the church.

And I think that the lectionary readings assigned to today force us to ask ourselves, what sort of a king is this, that we follow.  We heard two very different pictures of a king in the two different readings today.

First was the picture painted by Colossians, a letter written to the very early church.  This is a hymn to the Cosmic Christ who rules over all of creation and over all of our hearts.  To the author of this letter, the Reign of Christ wasn’t only located in the future.  Because Jesus died, was resurrected, and ascended into heaven, the reign of Christ has already begun, and is in the process of unfolding over the whole world.

This is maybe the more traditional picture of a king – ultimate power, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords (to borrow a phrase from either the book of Revelation or the Hallelujah Chorus from Messiah!).  A king in whom all things were created, and who has dominion over all of creation.

But can we hold this picture of a king up next to the picture painted by the gospel of Luke?  This is maybe an… unexpected… reading to hear at this time of year, as it is one that we would normally hear on Good Friday.  It is also an unexpected type of king that it pictures.  Here we see a king enthroned on a cross rather than a golden throne, and crowned with thorns instead of jewels.  A king who rode a lowly donkey into Jerusalem rather than a war horse.  A king who has been stripped of all of his robes, regal or otherwise.  A king who refuses to call on weapons and armies to defeat the ones crucifying him, but instead extends forgiveness for what they are doing.

Back in the summer, I read a book called Jesus and John Wayne, written by Kristin Kobes Du Mez.  In this book, she points out how the world – especially the American evangelical world, and the various spheres that it influences – the world has created a Christ in the image of John Wayne, the cowboy hero who depended on might making right, who had an arrogant confidence that his way was the right way, who imposed his will on everyone around him, whether they wanted to or not.  This Christ-in-the-image-of-John-Wayne would sit on a golden throne, would be robed in ermine and velvet, would mete out judgement and punishment without mercy, would hold all power and glory and dominion.

A John Wayne Jesus would not have suffered on the cross.  He might have appeared to suffer at first, but then would have zapped the wooden cross into splinters, leapt down, and launched an attack against Rome.  He would not have extended forgiveness to the ones crucifying them, but would have rounded them up, arrested them, and ensured that they were suitably punished.

But when we worship a crucified Christ, the image of a John Wayne Jesus feels a bit ridiculous.

But then, in some ways, the idea of a church holy-day dedicated to kings also feels a bit ridiculous.  Because in the stories of the bible, kings never come across in a very positive light.  God definitely seems to be part of the “No Kings” movement!

If you go back in the Old Testament to when the people first entered the Promised Land, they said to God, “All of our neighbours have a king – we want a king too!”  God said to the people, “You don’t want a king. Under a king, you will be at constant war, you will be taxed into poverty, your women won’t be safe, and your children will be slaves.”  The people said, “We don’t care, we want a king anyways,” and eventually God relented and gave them a king.

If you move through the Old Testament from that point onward, the people had kings, but just as God had predicted, most of the kings of Ancient Israel and Ancient Judah did not do good, but instead drew the people away from God.  If you do the math, it’s probably something along the lines of 85% of the kings did evil, while only 15% of them did good.  (And bible study folks – last year when we were reading about these kings, we saw that even the so-called “good” kings tended to be flawed.)

And then in the New Testament, in the time of Jesus and the very early church, the king was the Roman Emperor – again, not a person or a concept that is usually celebrated in the bible.  This is someone ruling from afar, and usually most concerned about acquiring power and conquering new lands, to the suffering of the people he ruled over.

Like I said, a king is a funny thing for the church to be celebrating.

But what today’s celebration does, is that it flips the image of a king upside down.  Jesus is a king, with the absolute authority that a king has, and demanding our ultimate allegiance the way a king does, but he is unlike any earthly king, past present or future.  This is a topsy-turvy king who reigns over a topsy-turvy kingdom where the lowest and the least are the first at the feast, where outsiders are insiders, and where abundance means that there is more than enough for everyone.

Today asks us to consider what sort of king do we want?  Do we want a king who can command an army where tomorrow we or our children or our grandchildren may be conscripted to serve in a war we didn’t choose?  Do we want a king who decides who is in and who is out of the kingdom, and with a wave of his hand makes it so?  Do we want a king who tariffs us into poverty and then uses that money to build new ballrooms and buy gold toilets?

Or do we want a king who chooses service and humility up to the point of death, and then through his death and resurrection, overturns all earthly kings?  In some ways, today is Christ the No-King Sunday, because when Christ reigns over our hearts and lives, no earthly person or thing can do so.

But if the Crucified Christ is the sort of king that we want, if this is the kingdom that we want to be a part of, then we too have to choose to embrace the way of service and humility.  We too have to choose forgiveness over retaliation.  We too have to choose relationship and community over a need to win.  We too have to choose the way of love and peace and joy.

And once the whole world has chosen this path, then the kingdom of God will be here, and the reign of Christ will be complete.  And may it be so.  And may it be so soon.  Amen.