"Christ the King" (John 18:33-37)

Today is “Christ the King” Sunday. It’s the last Sunday of the church year. Next week is the first Sunday of Advent, which is the first Sunday of the new church year.

And the scripture for this “Christ the King” Sunday deals with an exchange between Jesus and Pilate, in which Pilate tries to figure out just what type of king Jesus is.

Pilate asked Jesus: “Are you the king of the Jews?” There is a little back and forth between Pilate and Jesus, in which Jesus utters the phrase “my kingdom” - three times Jesus says that - and then Pilate says: “So, you are a king?...”

Jesus had been arrested and brought to Pilate for questioning. Pilate had been told by Jesus’ accusers that Jesus was claiming to be a king. However, only the Roman Emperor had the power and authority to declare someone a king. If Jesus was claiming to be a king, this was clearly something Pilate needed to investigate.

Jesus didn’t give a straight answer. Jesus said, “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.”

What did Jesus mean by this? Pilate had to know. If Jesus claimed to have a kingdom, then was he also claiming to be a king? It sure sounded like it.

I’m guessing that Pilate didn’t understand what Jesus meant when he said, “My kingdom is not from this world.” Pilate didn’t really care exactly where Jesus’ kingdom was, or what type of kingdom it was. All Pilate needed to figure out is if this person, Jesus of Nazareth, was claiming to be a king while living within the borders of the Roman Empire.

“So, are you a king?”

To Pilate, Jesus sure didn’t look like a king. He had no palace. He had no crown upon his head. He had no real army - all he had was a group of backwoods followers, mostly unarmed, with no military training, who posed no threat at all to the Empire. How would they conquer their enemies in battle? By waving palm branches at them?

Jesus said that his kingdom was not from this world. If it were from this world, his followers would fight on his behalf.

But it’s not from this world. So his followers aren’t fighting. But what kind of a king has followers who won’t fight for him?

It didn’t make any sense.

“So, are you a king?”

It doesn’t always make much sense to us today. Jesus is a king? Well, kings are rather old fashioned these days. The idea of a king implies an out-of-date system of government, one that is patriarchal, one that is undemocratic.

Kingships and kingdoms have lost favor.

However, Christ the King Sunday occurs every year. Sometimes it gets lost in the celebration of Thanksgiving (at least here in the United States), and sometimes we just don’t want to take the time to figure out what it really means. So even though it happens every year, it can be easy to overlook.

I learned a little about the history of Christ the King Sunday from my friend Sandhya Jha, who directs the Oakland Peace Center. Apparently Christians have been celebrating Christ the King Sunday for almost one hundred years, starting in 1925. In the years after World War I, dictators were beginning to rise to power in many parts of the world. In Mexico, Catholics were being told they had to place all their authority in the state.

So the Pope created Christ the King Sunday, as a day to encourage the freedom of Catholics to practice their religion, and to encourage world leaders to understand that no allegiance is more important than our allegiance to Christ. And when allegiance to Christ and allegiance to one’s country come into conflict, followers of Jesus must always give priority to their allegiance to Christ.

Doing so has been, and is today, a radical commitment.

In today’s scripture, Jesus’ kingship is the point of discussion. But what does it mean to say that Jesus is King?

As Jesus seemed to imply in his response to Pilate, a lot depends on how one defines what it means to be a king, and what kind of a king Jesus is.

Is Jesus a king according to Pilate’s definition of a king? Is Jesus a king according to our definition of a king? Is Jesus a king according to the definition put forth by all the fairy tales and Disney movies we’ve seen and heard? Is Jesus a king according to the up-and-down history of Israelite kings in the Hebrew Bible?

Or is there some other definition of kingship?

You know, a lot of theologians and a lot of pastors have searched for other language. Words like “king” and “kingdom” are just too problematic, too confusing. So they have come up with alternative phrases…

Instead of “Christ the King,” they say, “Christ the Cosmic Ruler.”

Instead of the “Kingdom of God,” they say, “the reign of God,” or, “the Commonwealth of God.”

On page 632 of our Chalice Hymnal (you can open it if you want)... #632 in the Chalice Hymnal is a hymn that many of you are familiar with: “Lead On, O King Eternal.” It was written in 1887 by Ernest W. Shurtleff.

Lead on, O King Eternal, the day of march has come…

It presents a perfectly old-fashioned, militant, patriarchal image of a king that so many people today find problematic.

However, on the very next page - #633 - there is another hymn. This one was written in 1974 by Ruth Duck, but it uses the same tune. And instead of “Lead on, O King Eternal,” this song is titled, “Lead On, O Cloud of Presence.” All problematic kingly language has been taken out and replaced.

Or consider one of the songs we sang this morning: “Be Thou My Vision.” It is an Irish song that dates back to the 8th century. This hymn is based on an ancient story of St. Patrick refusing to follow the High King Logaire, and choosing instead the "High King of Heaven."

However, many modern hymnals (including ours) have taken out the phrase “high king of heaven,” because of it being so archaic and masculine; and they replaced it with the phrase,“great God of heaven.”

I give all these folks all an “A” for effort, because the words we use are important. But I’m not convinced that any of these modern phrases are any more helpful. I don’t know about you, but I’m not sure that “the commonwealth of God” (for example) is any easier to understand than “the kingdom of God.”

And I’m not sure that “Christ the Cosmic Ruler” means quite the same thing as “Christ the King.” “Christ the Cosmic Ruler” makes me think of the “Cosmic Muffin Report” that was heard on KLOS when I was a teenager, and what a load of hooey that was…

So I prefer to stick with “kingdom” language…

In choosing to stick with “kingdom” language, I know that I have an important responsibility, which is to define what I mean when I talk about Christ the King, and what I mean when I talk about the Kingdom of God. These phrases don’t mean anything if we don’t know what they mean.

When I talk about Christ the King, I hope I do so in the same way that scripture talks about Christ the King. And in scripture, I see Jesus acting as a king not in same way that Herod or other Roman-appointed kings acted. I see Jesus acting in ways that provide a stark contrast to how all those kings acted.

A few weeks ago, we had the story of James and John, two of Jesus’ disciples who asked for places of honor. And Jesus basically said, “in this world, rulers lord their power over you, but in my kingdom, kings and rulers must act like servants and slaves. They must humble themselves, because in my kingdom, those who are first will be last, and those who are last will be first.”

That’s a very different model of kingship than what the world was used to.

Last week I mentioned briefly Jesus’ arrival into Jerusalem. We usually save that story for Palm Sunday, but it’s actually a great demonstration of just how different Christ’s kingdom is. While the emperor was entering Jerusalem riding a gilded chariot pulled by warhorses, with his soldiers and centurions lining the roads, holding their weapons high in salute, Jesus was entering Jerusalem from the other side, riding a humble donkey, while his ragtag band of followers held branches in salute.

That’s a very different model of kingship, an image that is set up as a direct contrast to the model put forth by the kings of Rome.

And Christ’s kingdom exists, as I said, without palaces, without thrones made of gold, without temples and rituals that exist primarily to reinforce the authority of the ruler, and the debt owed to the ruler by society.

Yes, Herod built temples and roads, and in return, expected a debt of gratitude to be paid to him by the people. A huge debt. Mostly in the form of burdensome, heavy taxes, but also in the form of obedience, and a relinquishing of freedom.

But scripture tells us that in Christ’s kingdom, we owe no debt except the debt to love. In Paul’s letter to the Romans, it says we are to owe no one anything, except love. If you show love, you have fulfilled the law. All the commandments can be summed up in the command to love your neighbor as yourself.

There are a lot more commands than that in the Roman Empire. There are a lot more commands than that in Herod’s kingdom.

But in Christ’s kingdom, every law and command can be summed up by love.

So every sermon I preach, every lesson any of us can give, can be summed up in love. Christ rules in love, and Christ’s kingdom is a kingdom governed by love.

And when we love our neighbor as ourselves, that means we will welcome them in just as we ourselves would desire to be welcomed.

And when we love our neighbor as ourselves, we will notice when our neighbor is suffering. We will reach out to them in compassion. We will search for the causes of their suffering, and work to end them.

If our neighbor is being mistreated, we will stand with our neighbor. We will say to those who are doing the mistreating, “If you mistreat this neighbor, then you mistreat me as well. If you oppress this neighbor whom I am called to love, then you oppress me as well. If you take away the rights of this neighbor whom I love, then you take away my rights as well.

I will stand by my neighbor, I will stand with my neighbor, because I am called to love. My allegiance is to Christ, and Christ’s kingdom is based on love. Christ’s kingdom is based on solidarity. Christ’s kingdom is based on compassion. Christ’s kingdom is based on justice. Christ’s kingdom is based on understanding. Christ’s kingdom is based on unity.

I will do nothing that harms my neighbor, because I am called to love my neighbor.

I will stand in the way of the forces that seek to harm my neighbor, because I am called to love my neighbor.

It doesn’t matter what country my neighbor was born in.

It doesn’t matter what color their skin is.

It doesn’t matter if they are gay or straight or transgender or cisgender…

It doesn’t matter if they are Christian or Jewish or Muslim or Sikh or Buddhist…

It doesn’t matter if they are rich or poor, old or young…

They are my neighbor, and I am called to love them.

Because my allegiance is to Christ my King.

Sermon: "Something Different About You" (Colossians 1:11-20)

In the church, we start our year on the first Sunday of Advent. The first Sunday of Advent is next week. Which means that today is the last Sunday of the church year.

The more formal churches among us give this day special recognition: it is Christ the King Sunday.

Other churches, not wanting to sound too patriarchal, call it Reign of Christ Sunday, or the Festival of Christ the Cosmic Ruler.

Whatever you call it, this last Sunday of the Christian year just prior to Advent celebrates the anticipation of Christ’s completion of God’s work of reconciliation of all things in heaven and on earth.

Or, to put it another way: it celebrates the day when all things will be made new in Christ.

Our journey to being made new in Christ is symbolized in baptism.

In baptism, what is old is stripped away, and we are made into something new. For some Christians in the early church, the way they practiced baptism, this was done literally: the one being baptized would strip off all their clothes before entering the water, to symbolize the stripping away of all that is old: all the allegiances they had to this world of darkness.

And then, upon emerging from the waters of baptism, they were given new clothes to wear, clothes that were pure white.

All this symbolized what it says in chapter 3 of Colossians: “You have stripped off your old self with its practices – its greed, its anger and malice – and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator. So clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience,… and above all, love.”

There are obvious reasons why we do not practice baptism this way today, but imagine it for a second. If it could be done without the embarrassment of standing naked in front of others, and without the sexualization that our society ascribes to almost any form of nudity, imagine how powerful the symbolism would be.

And, really, it wouldn’t be the first time you were naked in public. The first time was when you were born. And baptism is, after all, a new birth… In baptism “we have been buried with Christ and raised to new life with him through faith…” [2.12].

The purpose of the letter to the Colossians is to remind the letter’s recipients just how different life in Christ is from life in the world. They had been baptized! They had stripped away their old selves, and put on their new identity in Christ. But they – like us – need to be reminded of the significance and the implications of such a radical lifestyle change.

We are made new in Christ! We no longer live in this world. We live in the kingdom of God! We live under the reign of Christ our king. As some Christians like to say, we are in the world, but not of the world.

God has rescued us from the world around us, the world that is ruled by the power of darkness, and God has transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved Son.

In other words, even though our bodies still exist in this present world, our lives are already oriented to that other world, that other kingdom: the kingdom of God.

This year, as some of you know, I had what was for me a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to travel to another country.

I bought the plane ticket six months before the trip. I went online, found the flight I wanted, entered my credit card info, then clicked the button that said “submit.” And from that moment, I began living in Brazil. My body was still here – the actual trip was still months away – but a part of my head and a part of my heart was already in Brazil.

I downloaded an app on my phone and started learning some words and phrases in Portuguese. I started following some Brazilians on Instagram, so I could learn a little bit about Brazilian culture and maybe figure out a few things that I wanted to see once I arrived.

All this, in preparation for a 15-day trip.

In the same way – but to an even greater degree – the kingdom of Christ is my home. It is my future home; and it is my present home, even though I still live in this world – this world where the powers of darkness reign.

So what do I do? I start learning the language of the kingdom of Christ, my new home. I start living the values of the kingdom of Christ. I start practicing the ways of the kingdom of Christ.

Because the time to start practicing those kingdom values is right now. God has already transferred us there. “He has rescued us from the power of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved Son.”

The relocation papers have already been completed, filed, stamped, and whatever else is done to make relocation papers official. In a way that’s even more real than my experience of being in Brazil before I actually arrived in Brazil, we are living in the kingdom of God right now, in the present.

And because of that, our lives are changed.

This new life we live gives us access to a new kind of power and strength.

In the kingdom of God, we are made strong with all the strength that comes from the glorious power of God. We are connected to that power through Christ, who is himself the very image of the invisible God. In Christ dwells all the fullness of God.

Ancient people once talked about the fullness of God dwelling in various objects or places. The fullness of God was once said to dwell on Mt. Sinai. The fullness of God was once said to dwell in Zion. The fullness of God was once said to dwell in the Temple.

But now, the fullness of God dwells in a human form – a human form just like you and me! The fullness of God dwells in Jesus.

And you and I are the body of Christ. Just as the various parts of a body are connected to the head, we are connected to Christ.

In the body of Christ – in the church – things are different. We practice the language of the kingdom. We speak it as often as we can.

We practice the customs and traditions of the kingdom.

Day by day, we learn to set aside the langauge and the customs and the traditions of the world of darkness.

In the world of darkness, we look for power in things that can be handled, tasted, or touched. We look for power in wealth. We look for power in fame.

But in the kingdom of Christ to which we have been transferred, power is practiced very differently.

The new clothing that we have put on after our baptism shows the source of our power. That power is found in compassion, kindness, humility. We see that power practiced through bearing with one another, forgiving one another, rather than judging and ridiculing and belittling others.

We see that power is most of all expressed through love. Love has the power to bind all things together in perfect harmony.

It is Christ’s kingdom. And how does Christ rule? With love. Look at everything he did. Look at how he treated people, including his enemies. Especially his enemies. And look at how he had compassion on those who suffered from the prejudice and hatred and fear of society…

Love guided everything he did. You never had to question his motives. What was his motive?

Love.

So the question that the letter to the Colossians asks is this: If you have a present and future home in the kingdom of God, why do live as if you still belonged to this world? If you have been baptized in Christ, why have you gone back and put on those old clothes that you once wore? If you are living in the kingdom, and Christ the king rules over the kingdom with love … where is your love?

Dick Hamm, former General Minister and President of our denomination, wrote a book called 2020 Vision, and in that book he says that many of us in the church could work in an office, sit right next to the same co-worker for 25 years, and that co-worker probably wouldn’t even notice anything different about us.

Not a thing!

But don’t you think there should be something noticeably different about a person who so fully lives in the kingdom, and so fully practices the kingdom value of love? Don’t you think that a person who has stripped off the old and put on the new would look at least a little different? Something that might even look a little strange to other people?

In that same book Dick Hamm tells the story of a church elder “who was sitting in a board meeting one night while a discussion was going on about some matter of importance in that congregation. Someone said something that sparked his anger. As the conversation proceeded, he could feel his anger rising until he could stand it no more. He jumped to his feet, ready to tell them all what he thought about their ‘stupid idea.’ But just as he was about to open his mouth, he remembered something. He slowly sat down and mumbled, ‘I’m sorry, I almost forgot. Dead men don’t speak.’”

In that moment, he remembered that he had been buried with Christ, and raised to new life. He remembered that, in Christ, he was a new person, clothed in compassion, kindness, humility, patience, and love. The old person that he once was, who was quick to tell others how stupid they were, had died. And now he had to let it be dead.

But he remembered. He remembered that he had stripped away that old self and had put on Christ. He remembered where his heart and his home were. And he was trying, as best as he could, to live in the kingdom of God, and to practice loving kindness in every way, with every person.