We Americans have gone for almost 245 years without a King; and officially, we don’t want one. And yet we’ve been glad to hand over authority to Drill Sergeants, Football Coaches, Godfathers and egocentric Presidents. We admire their absolute power, and nod sagely about their tyrannical actions. So with mixed feelings we observe this coming weekend as the proclamation of Christ the King, or in more republican terms, The Reign of Christ. This is the last weekend of the Christian Year, the celebration and acknowledgement that God has already accomplished the fulfillment of God’s Kingdom–even if we can see only glimpses here ‘n’ there…. So relax and give thanks!
Bernhard Anderson reminds us that Yahweh (according to Samuel) didn’t want Israel to have a king. “Israel was not a nation, but a PEOPLE–distinguished from the [other] nations….In becoming like the nations, Israel would be ‘secularized’ and thus no different from any other nation….Israel was not allowed to identify a human kingdom with the Kingdom of God, for Yahweh alone was king.” (Understanding the Old Testament, pp.124-125) Nevertheless, the people persisted; and suffered through the madness of Saul until “good” King David appeared, the pinnacle of the Israeli prosperity. Thus in II Samuel 23:1-7 we have what are remembered as The Last Words of David: “One who rules over people justly, ruling in the fear of God, is like the light of morning, like the sun rising on a cloudless morning, gleaming from the rain on the grassy land.” Well, he tried; but his grandchildren screwed things up. Royally.
Flash ahead about eleven centuries: people still were subject to absolute power, this time seen in the Roman Empire (after some side-trips to Babylon & Syria). John’s Revelation polemic (1:4b-8) includes v.6, “and made us to be a kingdom, priests serving {Christ’s} God and Father…” Thus the Lord’s dominion exudes ultimate authority over all the “lesser” nations & empires, even in every-day matters. But “Christ is not a tyrant; he is a lover. He is not a power-mad despot we are forced to serve or else…” (Peter M. Wallace, in FEASTING on the WORD, B 4:331) Our fealty is admiration and participation in faithful service.
The Gospel, John 18:33-37, is an archetypal intersection of the Kingdom of God and the Kingdom of Humans. Pilate asks leading questions of Jesus, “So you are a king?” Jesus tells him that his kingdom is not one of political terms; the world doesn’t understand this. So a long time before Elvis, the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll, or the Lion King, the Empire Strikes Back with overwhelming power and intimidation. Has the Dark Side won?? “‘What IS truth?’, said jesting Pilate, but would not stay for an answer.” (Francis Bacon) Lucretius adds, “no pleasure is comparable to the standing upon the vantage ground of Truth, and to see the errors, and wanderings, and mists, and tempests, in the vale below…”
Pete Peery concludes, “On this Sunday, the church proclaims Christ the King. The church announces that it bows only to Jesus the Christ. The church declares that it does not give allegiance to any other person, principality, or power [or flag?–HBK] claiming to be sovereign.” (FEASTING, etc., p.335) In all of this civil disobedience, as we continue to speak Truth to Power, we may be passionately patient as we receive God’s actions!
God Bless Us, Every One! “…and be ye thankful” Horace Brown King
My confrontation with lessons assigned to the upcoming weekend can be found every Tuesday at this spot on Facebook; or at horacebrownking.com
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