A Sermon preached on October 23, 2022, at St. Augustine’s and St. Christoph
Jeremiah 23:1-6, Colossians 1:11-20, Luke 23:33-4
The Feast of Christ the King that we are celebrating today is our newest festival. It was originally instituted by Pope Pius XI in 1925, initially on the last Sunday in October before being moved to the last Sunday before Advent in 1970. The feast is not mentioned in the 1979 Episcopal BCP, but in the 1990s it was added to our calendar and the collect for today was already based – loosely – on the Roman collect for Christ the King. The idea of this feast, following the "Great War" and with the rise of totalitarian movements and governments (communism, fascism, nationalism), was to make clear that for Christians that there is ultimately only one sovereign and that there are universal values of human dignity that cannot be ignored. And yet it comes with some “baggage.”
For one thing, some people have a problem with the name, Christ the King! Our Old Catholic brothers and sisters don’t use that term at all, for them it is the “Sonntag vom wiederkommenden Herrn,“ the Day of the Return of the Lord, which is already pointing to the season of Advent that begins the following weekend. Many Episcopal churches also prefer to use the term “Reign of Christ” to avoid the word, king, in part perhaps because of a republican sensitivity – after all America was founded in opposition to a king! And I certainly would not want to compare Christ to any earthly king, definitely not to the monarch of that time, King George III nor even to her late majesty QE II, although she took Christ – the servant king - as her model.
It is important to understand that the king the feast refers to is an ideal king, not the crowned earthly leaders who so often disappoint, who used the term “divine right” to mean “unlimited power” themselves, and who we heard the Prophet Jeremiah condemn in no uncertain terms: “Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture! says the Lord. Therefore, thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, concerning the shepherds who shepherd my people: It is you who have scattered my flock and have driven them away, and you have not attended to them. So, I will attend to you for your evil doings, says the Lord” (Jeremiah 23:1-3). Jesus is not like the wicked shepherds in any way: Christ does not destroy, scatter and divide. Rather, Jesus as good shepherd, the one we believe to be the “righteous branch of David who shall reign as king and deal wisely and justly,” is sent by God to heal, to repair and reconcile, to gather, and to unite everyone and everything. “Through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross,” as Paul tells the Colossians. (1:20)
Jesus stands kingship on its head. He is the king whose throne is a Roman cross, whose crown is made of thorns, whose sceptre was a reed, and whose reign begins with his death – with what looks like a defeat. His judgement from that throne was a message of love, compassion, and forgiveness. Mocked by the Romans as a so-called king, Jesus exhibits the characteristics of a true king anointed by God.
Pope Pius wrote, “Jesus Christ reigns over the minds of individuals by His teachings, in their hearts by His love, in each one’s life by the living according to His law and the imitating of His example.” When we celebrate the Feast of Christ the King, this is the sort of king we mean. I think we should own it and not be embarrassed by it.
The other issue with this Feast is not with the name king, but with the concept, with the whole idea of the supreme authority of God in Christ. We need to be careful not to diminish our king too much. We are often fine with doing some good deeds, and being active in social justice projects, and with some kind of general moral guidance on the lines of “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” (Luke 6:31) But truly accepting a supreme authority, someone we are subject to, someone we call king or lord? That can be very difficult to acknowledge, and yet it is at the centre of our faith. Christ is not just our king because of his moral example and his willingness to serve. He is also our king because “he is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation; in whom all things in heaven and on earth were created, … He is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning … and in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell.” (Colossians 1:15-19)
Pope Pius wanted this feast to inspire the laity, saying, “The faithful, moreover, by meditating upon these truths, will gain much strength and courage, enabling them to form their lives after the true Christian ideal… … as instruments of justice unto God.” He wanted people to feel empowered to act in Jesus’ name and following his example: To heal, to gather, to repair, to restore, to reconcile, and to unite.
To be able to do this, we need to be able to trust in Paul’s prayer from Colossians: “May you be made strong with all the strength that comes from his glorious power, and may you be prepared to endure everything with patience.” (Col. 1:11) We need to know that we can rely on a greater power outside of ourselves, far beyond human capabilities and understanding. They have proven to be woefully inadequate – as for example the current war against Ukraine shows or the lack of real action to stop climate change and to be true stewards of God’s creation.
God “has rescued us from the power of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved Son.” (Colossians 1:13) We are called to live in this world as subjects of that kingdom – owing our primary allegiance to and drawing our strength and confidence from God’s well-beloved Son, who is the King of kings and Lord of lords. (Collect and Rev. 17: 14)
Amen.
