Christ the King, 2012-B: Living in accordance with divine truth

Lectionary: Daniel 7:9-10, 13-14; Psalm 93 ; Revelation 1:4b-8; John 18:33-37



En el nombre del Dios, Padre, Hijo, y Espiritu Santo.

Hoow many of you have ever seen a 3-D movie? I saw Avatar in 3-D and it was amazing.
It was amazing to me that I could even share in the 3-D experience.

You see, growing up, I could only see in two dimensions due to an issue with my eyes. I wasn’t able to see in 3-D until 8 years ago following some laser eye surgery. Up until then my world looked pretty flat, like a picture or a photograph.

I remember (years ago) chaperoning a school trip to Disney’s Epcot Center where we took the kids to one of the first ever 3-D showings. I watched as the kids would reach out toward something that they said looked like it was right in front of them. They would back up when it looked like something was coming at them quickly.

To me, everything just looked like two blurry images, one mostly red and one mostly green,
sitting almost on top of each other. Looking through the 3-D glasses with 2-D vision made me feel like my eyes were crossing, so I took the glasses off and watched a flat but enjoyable show.

When the surgery gave me three-dimensional vision I had to learn to “see” my world all over again. Stairs were the best thing I re-learned. They had always looked like stripes to me and if there were shadows on them, it really very hard for me to see them at all. With new new-found ability to see depth, I finally understood what I was looking at, when it came to stairs, and they became much easier (and safer) for me to maneuver.

Many people had tried to explain depth to me over the years, but it was simply outside of my ability to see and comprehend until the surgery opened my eyes to it. This is kind of what it was like for Jesus as he tried to answer Pilate’s questions about kingdoms and kingship.

Pilate asks a question from an earthly experience - one bound by place and time, kind of a 2-D question: “Are you the King of the Jews?” (which would be the crime of sedition). “Am I a Jew?” (which would be the crime of treason). Your own people have handed you over to me.
Why? What have you done? Pilate needed a reason to put Jesus to death.

Jesus answers with eternal truth… a 3-D answer, you might say, and it’s something Pilate simply can’t comprehend: If my kingdom were of this world, my followers would be fighting to save me because that’s how things work in the world. “But, as it is, my kingdom is not from here.” Pilate hears Jesus’ reference to his kingdom and asks, “So you are a king?”

There was just no way for Jesus to answer that question. “King” is too small a word, too small a concept for the Incarnate God.

King is your word, Jesus says, not mine. I came to testify to the truth. Those who belong to the truth listen to me and obey me. Pilate did neither, nor did the religious authorities. Do we?

As we celebrate our patronal feast, the Feast of Christ the King, I want you to know that some people prefer to call this the Feast of the Reign of Christ. (And since this isn’t in our Prayer Book yet, we’re free to play with this a bit)

I like that. I like the Feast of the Reign of Christ. It’s more in keeping with Jesus life and teachings. Jesus never sought titles or privilege while he was among us – quite the opposite. He arrived as a helpless baby born to a poor, unmarried girl.

His ministry leadership was comprised of some fishermen, a tax collector, a doctor, a zealot, and some women – hardly a powerful or threatening group. Jesus’ ministry was about bringing in a new age – the reign of God - and he spent his time focused on the poor, the sinful, the excluded, and the powerless.

Rather than gathering up the things earthly rulers did to secure their reign, e.g. armies, riches, and lands, Jesus spent his time giving things away, e.g., food, healing, forgiveness. Yet, something about Jesus and his followers threatened the authorities and caused the religious leadership to tremble. That thing, I think, was truth.

In his presence, everyone knew that Jesus was the embodiment of truth and whenever we are in the presence of real truth we know our bubbles are going to burst – bubbles we’ve carefully and collectively constructed to make ourselves feel safe and in control. When those bubbles burst, we feel nervous and insecure because we realize how small we are in the presence of so great a truth as God.

That’s why so many religious leaders – then and now - break God down into small, comprehensible, controllable bits. But there is nothing small or comprehensible or controllable about God. And there is nothing to fear about that. It’s the truth. We can expect it, trust it, and count on it. We can surrender to the truth that God is God and we are not. And thanks be to God for that!

The reign of Christ isn’t about power, or glory, or privilege for a deity. It is now and always has been about salvation, about reconciling all who have been separated or lost back into the unity and presence of Love, who is God.

That’s why everything about Jesus’ earthly life and ministry kept catching the earthly authorities by surprise. They knew how a zealot would act, or a would-be warrior king. But they had no way to understand or respond to someone who acted out of selfless love, someone who would die in a moment in time so that all people could live eternally.

“For this I was born”…Jesus says…”for this I came into the world.” Christ our King does not rule over us using power or force, but reigns in love. Our King is not a great warrior or a mighty soldier, but a humble child, a sacrificial lamb.

We who hear this story today are witnesses of Jesus’ testimony, and we are invited by our King to listen to his voice. Listen, as it is being used here, is not about using our ears to hear, or even about paying attention to what is being said.

It’s a practice of living in accordance with divine truth. (The New Greek Lexicon, Wesley J. Perschbacher, ed., Hendrickson Publishing, 14.) In Greek, the word for “listen” and the word for “obey” have the same root and it refers to a way of being, not to something we do.

And the way of being to which we are called is found in the testimony of Jesus Christ. His is a testimony of humility, faithfulness, and obedience to God’s will, even in the face of injustice and suffering; of walking non-violently toward what may, at times, seem like certain death trusting that is actually the path of life and truth.

“For this [Christ our King] was born…for this [he] came into the world.” May we who belong to the truth listen to his voice.

May we who belong to the truth listen to his voice. So let’s say together now words that will commit us to that. Please open your Prayer Books to page 832, and let’s pray together prayer number 61: A prayer of self-dedication.

Almighty and eternal God, so draw our hearts to thee, so guide our minds, so fill our imaginations, so control our wills, that we may be wholly thine, utterly dedicated unto thee; and then use us, we pray thee, as thou wilt, and always to thy glory and the welfare of thy people; through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.