The King Who Inspires By Hope, Not Fear
Christ the King, Last Pentecost, Year B,
2015
Today is the last
Sunday of the Christian calendar and is appropriately marked by what is known
as the Feast of Christ the King when we proclaim that God in Christ is the King
of kings.
(Christ the King Window at St. Paul's)
The celebration of this feast is a relatively new
concept on the Christian calendar and was instituted by Pope Pious XI in 1925
during a period in world history when nationalism and secularism were on the
rise. In other words, Pope Pious XI
noted that many people were pledging a higher allegiance to their country than
to Christ who begs our ultimate allegiance.
During the 1920s, the
world saw the rise in power of Mussolini in Italy and Hitler in Germany. And worship of the almighty dollar eventually
led to a Great Depression not only in the United States but around the
world. Ultimately, the worship of earthly
rulers and the worship of false promises led to a time of terrible unrest in
the world and eventually led to World War II.
So the Pope called Christians of all nations to remember who their true
leader is in Christ the King.
Our epistle lesson for
today points to a time of civil and political unrest in Asia Minor as the Roman
Empire continued its expansion in the 1st century. John of Patmos, the writer of Revelation,
wrote this piece of scripture in a prison cell.
John was imprisoned for his worship of God in Christ and the letter he
wrote was a message of hope that he received from God in a vision to the
persecuted Church.
The first readers of
this letter would have received the Book of Revelation as a breath of fresh
air. I know that is hard to believe
given the terrifying images. After all,
the text says that the “tribes of this world will wail” at the sight of Christ
the King. But one biblical scholar
points out, while the Book of Revelation is a terrible warning to the leaders
of the world, it is good news to those who are being persecuted at the hands of
the power hungry leaders of the world.
Above all else, the
Book of Revelation is a reminder to the persecuted Church to hold fast in their
faith. The book gives the Church the
conviction to be bold in their worship of Christ even in the face of certain
death by the rulers of the earth. The
book reminds the Church of who her true allegiance belongs to and that no other
allegiance should trump her allegiance to Christ the King.
In today’s gospel
lesson, we see Jesus stand before a Roman governor because of charges brought
against him by his own people. The
leaders of Jerusalem have been mounting a case against Jesus because of claims
that say he is the Messiah or the King of the Jews. Ultimately, the Temple leaders feel
threatened by Jesus’ power as he has managed to attract quite a following.
As we remember on Palm Sunday, Jesus’ entry into
Jerusalem is marked by people cheering and waving palm branches as he arrives
on a donkey. Jesus is a threat to the
corrupt Temple system and so the leaders in Jerusalem want to get rid of him
and so they hand him over to the Roman authorities for execution.
Today we see Pontius Pilate ask Jesus about the
charges brought against him. Through our
earthly lens it would seem that Jesus is on trial here, but if we look again,
it appears that Jesus is not only putting Pilate on the stand but also the
entire world. Jesus says, “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.”
This statement from
Jesus is a sobering reminder that those responsible for his death weren’t just
the Jewish leaders and the Roman authorities but also his closest friends. Jesus’ statement is a sobering reminder that all
of humanity, even his closest followers are prone to worship the leaders and false
promises of this world instead of the God of all truth. Even Judas and Peter, two of the twelve,
cannot escape this judgment of pledging allegiance to earthly leaders and
ideals instead of worshiping Christ their true King.
I am deeply aware that
our lessons for today feel especially heavy in light of recent events around
the world, in our country, and in our state.
The world and our country are experiencing a time of great unrest. At times, it seems as if we are on the brink
of World War III. I don’t mean to catastrophize
things but there is no doubt that fear seems to have taken hold of our
collective conscious.
While fear is a natural human response to danger and
fear can help us to be more prudent and sensible, fear also has the power to
breed more violence and discrimination.
Worst of all, fear has the power to harden our hearts to the point where
our only response can be one of more hatred and violence.
Friends, if we are not
careful, our hearts will be hardened by all the images and statements of
violence and hate that are almost impossible to escape these days. I hope you are paying special attention to
your heart—take a break from the news, from social media or TV or the newspaper
for a few days if you need to. Even the
best of us can fall victim to hardness of heart.
But the news isn’t all bad. There have been moments of grace over the
last week. One of the most powerful
witnesses to grace came from the husband whose wife was killed in one of the
attacks in Paris. In the video, the man
says to one of the terrorists, “You took the love of my life, the mother of my
son, but you will not have my hatred.”
He goes on to say, “If
for God whom you kill so blindly made us in his image, each bullet in my wife’s
body would have been a wound in His heart.
Therefore, I will not give you the gift of hatred. You have sought my hatred but responding to
it with anger would give in to the same ignorance that made you what you are.” The man goes on to talk about how he will not
live a life controlled by fear.
Friends, the biggest
battle isn’t being waged with guns and bombs, the biggest battle isn’t being
waged between politicians and political parties, the biggest battle isn’t even
between the good and evil regimes of this world. The biggest battle is going on in our hearts,
in your heart. Above all, our heart and
soul are at the greatest risk of being eternally damaged by this hate and
violence.
As your rector, I am
not called to tell you what to think. I
am not called to get you to think like I think.
I don’t even think I am called to give you advice or at least not
unsolicited advice. Instead, my highest
calling is to help you take care of your heart and soul.
So. How does
all of this violence and hate weigh on your heart? How is it affecting your daily life? What kind of response have you noticed in
yourself? Where is that place in your
life where you can go to rest in the peace of God? How can God help you soften your heart so you
can be a beacon of light in a dark world?
As
your rector, it is also my responsibility to tell you that worship can be this
place where your heart and soul are renewed and refreshed by the hope given in God’s
Word. I invite you, therefore, to take
seriously the highest calling of the Church and that calling is worship. As the Church, the community of God’s
faithful, worship is the most important thing we do. Worship is where God heals and transforms our
heart and soul.
Worship is where our hearts are softened. Worship is where anger and fear are
transformed into compassion and hope.
Worship is where false values and allegiances come to die and where the
ultimate truth of God’s goodness is made new in our lives.
In our worship, we remember that Christ our King won’t
be intimidated by any earthly ruler or power even in the face of certain death. Christ our King shows the ultimate display of
strength when he stares down even death.
In worship, we remember that Christ our King takes on
the full force of hatred and violence on the cross and on the third day we see
this hatred and violence take on something new.
As Christians, we are given the faith to believe that God in Christ is
making all things new—even the terrible reality of the worst kind of sin.
In worship, we don’t simply come to sing and pray and
listen to sermons. We don’t simply come
to participate in Holy Communion. Yes,
these things are vital to our worship, but above all we come to pledge our
allegiance to God Almighty through praise and thanksgiving, we gather to
remember who we belong to, we remember that we belong to Christ our King, we
remember that we serve at his pleasure in all that we do and all that we say.
As Christians, our worship reminds us that it is
Christ alone who shapes our response to sin and evil and not the media or politicians
or rulers or even preachers. Our worship
of Christ, our true King and leader, is what shapes how we live and respond to
a world that is too often controlled by brokenness and fear.
Our worship of Christ the King who is risen from the
dead sets us free from fear and allows us to live in a faith that believes love
is stronger than hate, that love is even stronger than death, in a faith that
believes that only goodness and love can transform this world, in a faith that
believes Christ’s Kingdom is the only kingdom that will stand on the last day.
Friends, Christ has set us free to love for Christ the
King, in his death and his resurrection, shows us that love is the only power in
this world that can drive out evil, love is the only power that can cast out
the cosmic forces of evil, love is the only weapon than can defeat the evil powers
of death, and love is the only thing that can set you free from hardness of
heart. Amen.
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