Sermon, Sunday 22 Nov: Reign of Christ Sunday

Reign of Christ Sunday/             


Readings:
Ps 19; Revelation 1:4(b)-8; John 18:33-37

SERMON
Let’s pray:
May the words of my mouth and the
mediations of all our hearts be acceptable
in your sight, O Lord, our strength and our redeemer, Amen.

Be thou my vison, o Lord of my heart:
naught be all else to me save that thou art;
thou my best thought in the day or the night
waking or sleeping, thy presence my light ...

The scene is a concert in Indiana, 1974.
Around the arena, the crowds are going wild
after the singer has finished yet another number.
There’s a great buzz in the air - the atmosphere’s electric.
In the midst of saying his ‘thank you’s’ as his audience applauds,
the singer spots a fan waving a sign.
‘Honey, what’s that? The sign? I can’t see it - can you show me?’
She turns the sign so it’s facing him directly.
He thanks her for doing so and then,
is caught on the hop as he reads it.
The sign says:
‘Elvis, you’re the king’
And Elvis, for that’s who the singer is, responds:
‘Darlin’ thank you. The thought is beautiful,
and I love you for it but... I can’t accept this kingship thing.
I’m not ‘the king’.
Jesus Christ is the King:
I’m just an entertainer.’

I love this story.
Apparently, this happened time and time again at Elvis concerts.
For all of his fame, and for all of his flaws,
Elvis was apparently quite a humble man -
and, at one point, was said to have wondered what might
have happened had he followed his other childhood ambition,
and become a preacher instead of a rock star.
Something of the faith of his younger days
apparently stayed with him enough,
that it bothered him when people called him ‘the King’.
He knew who he was, and it wasn’t Jesus.

Our gospel passage this morning talks of kings and kingdoms.
And while this text is more often associated with Holy Week and Easter,
the context of kingship in the passage makes it also
very fitting for this Sunday of the year that we know as
‘Christ the King Sunday’ - or 'Reign of Christ'. 
A little back-story to put the text into its context:
Jesus has entered Jerusalem.
It has been a good start,
with cheering crowds gathering excitedly to see him.
As he arrives, there’s a great buzz in the air - the atmosphere is electric
and as his audience shouts out his name,
instead of signs - as in the case of Elvis - palms are waved.
The week progresses, but, after openly criticising the religious authorities
and upsetting trading tables at the temple, Jesus is a marked man.
We know the story:
a story of love and of betrayal;
a garden arrest and the kiss of death;
interrogation by the High Priests;
denial by disciples.
Religious authorities getting the civil authorities involved -
because they wanted to keep their hands clean on the Sabbath -
best to hand this Jesus to the occupying Gentiles.

It's a game of thrones -
a game of principalities and power:
and in the meeting between Jesus and Pilate,
which of them is really the one in charge - the one with true authority?
From an onlooker’s perspective, indeed, from the perspective
of worldly hierarchies and understandings of power,
it would be reasonable to say that it’s
Pilate who holds the keys to life and death here:
he is under the authority of the Emperor of Rome.
Pilate has the power to make an end of Jesus.
But, from the perspective of God’s understanding of power,
it is Jesus who holds the keys to life and death,
the keys to the kingdom that lasts for eternity,
for he is the Alpha and the Omega:
the beginning and the end.

In their longer exchange - beyond the limits of our text this morning -
Pilate becomes increasingly anxious about this man standing in front of him.
He’s unnerved.
And decides to do all that he can to keep Jesus alive.
But he can’t.
It's not within his power.
Ultimately, the writer of the gospel will demonstrate
that Pilate has less power than he thinks he does.
The religious authorities also think they have power here:
they think that they are driving the action,
getting Pilate to comply with their plans...
but, the truth is, what happens can only happen
because Jesus is allowing it to happen.
His is the true power here:
wrapped up in non-violent self-giving.

Be thou my wisdom, be thou my true Word
I ever with thee, and thou with me Lord;
thou my great Father, thine own I would be,
thou in me dwelling, and I one with thee.

In their encounter, Jesus talks of ‘testifying to the truth’:
if we were to read on, Pilate asks Jesus -
the Way, the Truth, the Life -
‘what is truth?’
As they talk of kingship and kingdoms,
the truth is that, for all of Rome’s might,
there is a greater, more powerful kingdom -
one that is not of this world.
And immediately having stated this,
Jesus goes on to say that if his kingdom were of the world
‘my servants would fight to prevent my arrest...’
Wait.
‘My servants would fight...’
This is a huge clue to the type of kingdom which Jesus reigns over -
there is another way for his servants to act:

Be thou my breastplate, my sword for the fight,
be thou my dignity, thou my delight,
thou my soul’s shelter, and thou my high tower,
raise thou me heavenward, O power of my power.

This is a different kingdom -
not of might,
not of crushing down at the heel,
of subjugation and humiliation:
this is a kingdom where servants choose not to meet violence with violence;
it is where servants of this kingdom choose, instead,
to break from the endless cycle of bloodshed and escalating conflict.
Those who follow Jesus seek the way of peace -
of mediation, of reconciliation -
for in the path of peace is wisdom and life,
and the understanding that we need not fear,
for the power of the One we serve is mightier than any earthly power -
for love and truth are the mightiest of all weapons.
It is a kingdom of love divine, all love’s excelling:
there is no greater love,
there is no greater kingdom.

Riches I heed not, nor earth’s empty praise,
thou mine inheritance, now and always,
thou and thou only the first in my heart
High King of Heaven, my treasure thou art.

The kingdom of the One we serve is a ‘true’ kingdom,
in that it is modelled upon the One who lived his life authentically.
In other sections of the gospels, Jesus talks of living life abundantly - fully.
Here, in his encounter with Pilate, we see this
fullness of life evidenced in his statement:
‘You are right in saying I am a king. In fact, for this reason I was born, 
and for this, I came into the world, to testify to the truth.’
The truth of Jesus is bound up with who he is and what he was
sent into the world to do.
He gave up the riches of heaven,
he gave up his power and became human -
he gave himself up to the authorities
to witness to the truth of God’s love;
standing as a prisoner,
he refused to use his power to return violence with violence;
This is a very different kind of king - a ruler who does not give in to fear,
a ruler who speaks love and friendship to the whole human family:
who opens his arms wide to let all in to his kingdom.

As his servants,
as his friends and followers,
we are called to witness to his kingdom:
to give of ourselves -
to shine Christ in ten thousand places,
to testify to the truth of his kingdom;
to use that which we’ve been given not for personal gain,
but for the common good;
to speak, not of the love of power,
but of the power of love.

High King of Heaven, after victory won,
may I reach heaven’s joys, o bright heav’ns sun.
Heart of my own heart, whatever befall,
still be my vision, o ruler of all...

May he be our vision, and our King, this day, and always...
Let’s pray:
Lord God, you are the Alpha and the Omega,
the A and the Z, and all the letters in between:
Abiding, accepting, awesome …
Beckoning, benevolent, blessing …
Caring, challenging, creative …
Dazzling, demanding, dynamic …
Enabling, encouraging, equipping …
Fair, faithful, forgiving …
Generous, gentle, guiding …
Hearing, helping, holy …
Immortal, inspiring, intimate …
Joyful, judging, just …
Keeping, kind, knowing …
Leading, listening, loving …
Magnificent, majestic, mysterious …
Near, nudging, nurturing …
Offering, omnipotent, overwhelming …
Patient, personal, providing …
Questing, questioning, quickening …
Real, reconciling, refreshing …
Sovereign, speaking, sustaining …
Tender, tough, trustworthy …
Understanding, unique, uniting …
Valuing, victorious, vital …
Welcoming, whispering, winsome …
X – the unknown; extraordinary …
Yearning; yesterday, today and for ever …
Zealous, zestful, zingy …
Lord God, you are the Alpha and the Omega,
the A and the Z, and all the letters in between.
Amen.

We sing together:
HYMN 465 Be thou my vision