Title: Christ the King

Scriptures: Revelation 1:4b-8, John 18:33-37

11/23/03 24th Sunday after Pentecost

Rev. Joy R. Haertig

One of the questions that was posed to me on “Ask the Pastor Sunday” back in August was “Who is your hero/heroin?”  I was a bit embarrassed that I could not pull up any particular name - though I did say “Jesus”.  I felt funny saying that, I had a hunch that was not the most interesting response - but hopefully it was not a surprising response given my vocation in life!  

This “hero” question and my response came into my mind again this week, as I saw on the calendar that it is “Christ the King” Sunday, the final Sunday in the Christian calendar.  Next week we begin the season of Advent, the beginning of the Christian year.  

Christ the King Sunday is the Sunday we are to celebrate Jesus, our hero, if you will.  But I suppose the word hero is almost as odd as the word king is when talking about Jesus.  Pastor Mary W. Anderson writes in the Christian Century magazine that “in America we are as distanced from the image of “king” as we are from the image of “shepherd”.  Popular theology is more intrigued with the image of Jesus as CEO…OuOur American brush with royalty comes mostly from Britain.  We may not be able to name any kings, but we are familiar with Queen Elizabeth and with the tabloids and tragedies surrounding her family.”  And of course President Bush just happened to be there this past week having dinner with her, so perhaps we feel a little bit closer to that world if we caught any of it on the news.

When we talked about the word “king” briefly in Bible study we felt like the images of crowns and thrones just did not fit with the Jesus we knew - but I'm not so sure that Jesus as “CEO” fits either.  

A king connotes hierarchy and Jesus was not big on hierarchy.  Jesus did not want to be looked up to - he wanted us to look inward and to discover God - or the Christ-spirit, in our own hearts.  

Tradition holds that the apostle John wrote Revelation while in exile on the island of Patmos during the reign of the emperor Domitian in the first century of the Common Era.  Domitian had instituted a decree that he be addressed as “Lord and God”; those who refused suffered persecution or death.  John's community, faithful to the confession of Christ as Lord, faced a serious dilemma.  This book was written to offer hope and encouragement to early Christians in this situation. (Seasons of the Spirit curriculum) This gives us some context for understanding the significance of describing Jesus as a King, or as it reads in Revelation, Jesus is “the ruler of the kings of the earth”, thus making him not just a King, but “above” all kings.

Still it is a challenge to link the Jesus of the Gospels to this image.  I believe that a relationship with Christ is not at the top of our lives, but at the center.  At the center of the circle of all that is, as the eternal heartbeat of life itself.  

The most powerful images of Jesus as a leader that I carry in my mind are those that find him either cooking, feeding, or sharing water, talking with or healing those he had been taught to ignore.  

He was so concerned with the protection of a person's dignity.  Remember the story of the woman caught in adultery who was about to be stoned to death?  Jesus stepped through the circle of men and joined the woman at the center, saying: “Those of you without guilt can throw the first stone.”  The men walked away, the woman's life was saved.

Another image of how Jesus saw leadership is when he took a basin of water and washed the tired, dusty feet of his disciples and said to them, “this is what it is to serve, now go and do likewise.”    

Because of the difficulty in relating to the language of King, some denominations call this “Reign of Christ Sunday”, but regardless of what we associate with the word “king”, Christ the King Sunday is an opportunity for us to rethink our notions of leadership in light of the example of Jesus.

The first image of leadership that comes to mind for me is political leadership.  People argue over the issue of separation of church and state in our country, but imagine if our government was truly Christian based and Jesus was the model politician!  Who would wear the tuxedos or the formal gowns?  The Senate meeting room would be replaced by a grassy hillside!  There would be no more limos or fancy jets; they would all be walking from town to town!  Think of the money we could save!

In the reading from the Gospel of John that we heard this morning, Pilate, then Governor of Judea asks Jesus if he is a king and Jesus tells him that his royal authority is not the world's kind.  Jesus is not meant to be a model politician, yet I will always look for signs of Jesus' manner of “Kingship” in the leaders and world shapers I look to today.  Whether they be in the church, managing a company, supporting a family, working in the Senate, or bringing order to a court, the condition of Jesus' heart is there for any of us to emulate.  A heart that is grounded in God and is focused on compassion, mutual respect and humility.

This last week the PI ran a series of stories on the closing down of a “sweatshop” in American Samoa that began two years ago, and the final arrest of its owner.  Twelve of the women that worked there have relocated in the Puget Sound area.  All of this was initiated, and for that matter, carried out by a Vietnamese-American Microsoft worker that opened an email one day that was a cry in the dark to just the right person.  His courage and willingness to risk his life and his financial resources was remarkable.  

The article said that he and his wife spent at least $32,000 of their savings.

I was talking with someone recently that was waiting for a bus.  A young couple was waiting at the bus stop as well.  The husband was beginning to berate the wife for something she had done.  His words and tone were abusive and even frightening.  When he walked a way for a short time, my friend had the courage to speak to the woman and said,  “Your husband is wrong, you are not a bad person, you are a child of God.  Believe in yourself.” A few minutes later the husband returned and continued his tirade.  My friend's bus arrived before theirs, she worried for the young woman as she boarded and went on her way.  

A Kentucky columnist named Sydney Harris wrote about a Quaker friend of his who walked with him one evening to the newsstand, paid the surly vendor for a paper, and thanked him politely.  The man said nothing, not even a word of acknowledgment.  “A sullen fellow, isn't he?” Harris remarked.  His friend shrugged his shoulders and said: “Oh, he's that way every night.”  “Then why do you continue being so polite to him?”  The answer was: “Why should I let him decide how I am going to act?”

Not one of these people is famous, no one elected them to step forward, nor did they even have to, but each of them did in their own way.

We are all leaders at some time or another in our lives; and as people that have chosen to follow Christ, we all have the opportunity to allow his spirit to shape our hearts, minds and actions.  Leading is not always someone else's job.  As we are mindful of those who are in obvious positions of leadership and encourage their integrity and humility, may we be mindful of ours as well.