Christ the King, Yr C
The Rev. G. Hendree Harrison, Jr.
In search of a king
I have been looking for a king lately. I have been searching for a sovereign ruler so that I will have some idea of what today, Christ the King Sunday, means for the church.
This may sound strange, but the first person I thought of was the actor Leonardo DiCaprio.
Do you remember the movie Titanic that came out a few years ago? It was a super popular film and one of the most memorable scenes had DiCaprio’s character, Jack, perched standing up on the bow of the giant ship Titanic. He is standing as far to the front of the great boat as possible, and he is sort of leaning out over the water and he shouts into the wind and waves, “I’m king of the world!”
Jack was a poor kid who was small and insignificant, standing on the dock next to the regal sea vessel, but he felt empowered after he climbed up high into the bow.
The next thing I thought of in my rummage for royalty was the presidential election of our United States. In the coming year we are going to elect a new president, and that person will be the head of the most powerful country in the world. The president will have the power both to wage war and push for peace. The president will have extraordinary power as chief of the richest, strongest empire in history. The president’s source of power will be the voice and votes of the American people who will choose to give power to the most popular candidate. In a sense, that person will be king of the world (or queen, I suppose, as the case may be).
Finally, I am reading a book about John Adams who was a founding father of our country so, I have thought about the European kings whose power is rooted in their respective bloodlines.
George the Third was King of Great Britain at the time of the American Revolution, and as I understand it, he was king because his grandfather George the Second was king. So, George was powerful because his family was powerful.
These three kings each have extraordinary power and they have folks who follow after them. In the film, the character Jack was a leader of the rabble rousers and miscreants, and the celebrity actor Leonardo has millions of adoring follower fans. The future president of the United States will have power and followers aplenty. George the Third had command of nations, and he tried, at least, to level his strong arm down upon a country across the ocean.
King Jesus is different though.
The three kings I thought of are celebrated on thrones and podiums. King Jesus is found in this morning’s gospel an eventual victim of murder, and he is not perched high on the bow of a sailing ship or b
Where my three kings all walk down some elegant carpeted way to their respective thrones- King Jesus walks a darker corridor. He dies to ascend to his throne seat, and on his way out he doesn’t take a final bow before an adoring crowd. He takes the hand of a common criminal, and they walk together into death.
“Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise.” says King Jesus.
King Jesus is a curious king indeed.
The source of his power and the effect of his power upon the world are the two most remarkable things about King Jesus. What is the source of Jesus power?
Paul pins the power of Jesus to God in a poem embedded in the Colossian letter. “[Jesus] is the image of the invisible God,” writes Paul. “The firstborn of all creation; for in him all things in heaven and on earth were created; things visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or powers…. “-all things have been created through him and for him.”
King Jesus is the image, something here among us that could be felt and touched (a person), of the invisible God. Jesus is God incarnate in human form. So in a way the source of King Jesus’ power is elementary – He is God. Almighty and inaccessible God who none of us has seen is seen and made accessible in Jesus Christ. So I figure on source of power alone, King Jesus wins the seat of power in any race. The effect of his power though is what takes my breath away.
Our Sunday school class is getting serious. We have folks coming to Sunday school with original and deep thoughts on the scriptures we are wrestling with. I told them a couple of weeks ago that if we aren’t careful, we’re going to have a real live Bible study on our hands. And who knows what that will lead to!
What really has me spooked though is that people are starting to witness in our Sunday school class. Most of you don’t even know what that word means, do you? Witness in our faith context means to share with others (even by speaking out loud!) the effects of God’s power and Grace on our lives.
Two people have witnessed in our Sunday school class in the past several weeks. I won’t give their names or the exact date of their witness so as to protect their stuffy Episcopal integrity, but they both said something to this effect – “When I start my day by asking God to come into my life, by the power of the love of Jesus Christ I can feel a remarkable difference.”
They even went so far as to say that without making this call on the Lord, the days seem darker and they feel some deficit of meaning and Grace.
These two witnessing folks essentially said- calling on the name of King Jesus makes a real difference in the experience of life- day to day.
That, good friends, is a powerful king!
I have never heard anyone say, if I just wake up in the morning and pledge allegiance to the president of the United States, or read as my morning devotion a few lines from People magazine on the latest hijinx of the princes of England, then my day goes smooth and things even-out just right.
But King Jesus is a different kind of king with a different sort of power. King Jesus is the source of all creation, God incarnate, present and palpable in our lives. At least that’s what our Sunday school witnesses would have us believe when they say, “I can feel a difference.”
Christ the King Sunday is the last Sunday of our church year (next week, frighteningly enough, is the beginning of Advent!). In a sense, today is the day on which we say finally, “what has all this Sunday stuff, the teaching, preaching, witnessing, and Bible banter meant? Where has it all led us?”
The church’s answer is simple –we stand, and sit, and kneel at the foot of the throne of King Jesus who is the clear and salvific image of the invisible God.
Today, we will baptize- and what a good day for a baptism. Today, we welcome into our Christian midst a new member of the body, and we say, “little one rise each day calling on the name of the Lord.”
Don’t rise and worship some political leader; don’t bow down at the foot of culture; don’t sit spellbound at the foot of some Hollywood starlet; don’t kneel in submission to your job or favorite hobby. We have witnesses among us who report that those are all empty pursuits. We have Christian witnesses among us who swear up and down, that the best thing is to climb up to the highest perch and shout with all your might, Jesus Christ you are king of the world! Come into my life this day and heal my broken heart! Reign over me O’ Christ, and take me too, take me into this paradise that you promise even to the lowly criminal.
May we call on the name of the Lord dear friends. May we call on King Jesus to come among us right here, right now, this very day…