Christ the King

Pentecost 26 year B 12 Sermon Christ the King

‘Christ the King?’ imagine some atheist asking...

What crazy people these Christians are...

followers of... this Jesus...

hanging up there on a cross...humiliated... ridiculed...bruised...bleeding... dying... dead...

Christ the King? Why he was powerless to prevent his own execution...his subjects...so few and so weak...
there was no one to fight for him

What sort of insanity... keeps these Christians faithful to Jesus Christ...when they can see with their own eyes he has no power at all. I mean, that’s the point of being a king isn’t it?  Power?

Aren’t kings supposed to be in complete control, possess absolute authority, the right to command armies and obedience, the privilege of punishing anyone who won’t comply? Don’t kings have palaces, wealth, vast empire, loyal subjects...Power!

These Christian’s don’t seem to understand power at all. [pause]

today is Christ the King Sunday...the last Sunday in the Church year...a day to celebrate... the rule and reign of Jesus our Lord.

over all things... in heaven and on earth.  

A day to celebrate the victory of God in Jesus...
over the powers of darkness...a day to rejoice...
in the glory of the kingdom of light...
to which we belong.

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Are we crazy...to proclaim that... in Jesus the kingdom of God has somehow already come...

though not yet complete...Are we foolish to believe... that in Jesus...the very power of almighty God...
is revealed and established...
right here in our human dimension.

I don’t think we’re crazy...not if the gospel is anything to go by. I just think our Christian understanding ...

of authority and kingdom and power...is mysteriously and utterly different...from of all those sneering cynics...
who watch Jesus die on the Cross... and who laugh at the apparent powerlessness... of Jesus’ followers and friends. [pause]

In his book Parables of the kingdom...

Robert Capon tells us... ‘if scripture has a single subject

at all...it’s the mystery of the kingdom of God...

not someplace else called heaven...not somebody at a distance called God, but [in] this place... right here...

and the Holy One who moves mysteriously... to make all creation true... both to itself… and to him.’

And how does God get the job done...the job of reconciling all creation to himself?  What does the Bible teach us… about the way God uses his power ...to achieve his purposes?

If we come to scripture... with a nice respectable notion of an omnipotent God... who has all the controlling and zapping power he needs to do anything he wants… any time he wants to...

we immediately have lots of questions don’t we...

like why is God taking so long to complete the project ...

‘why doesn’t God just knock some heads together,
put all the baddies under a large flat rock...
and get on with the job?’

Instead...when we read the Bible carefully...we see since the time of Noah... God’s had no interest...
in using direct power... to fix up the world.

Well, what do I mean by direct power... Well that’s something you and I use it everyday don’t we?

Direct power is mechanical power... it’s like force

...this morning at breakfast for example you probably used direct power to lift a steaming cup of tea or coffee to your lips...the cup didn’t have any say in it ...you used the power at your disposal to lift it...
and we use this direct kind of power all the time…
to mow the grass or arrange a bunch of flowers or type in a text message button by button.

This kind of direct power is ‘responsible for almost everything that happens in our human dimension of time and space. And one of the advantages of direct power... is that it works! From taking a splinter out of our finger...[pause]

to removing an enemy... with a hand grenade.

But you can already guess that using direct power... has one heck of a disadvantage...

Especially if you believe your purpose in life...

is to remain in loving relationships
with other people and with God. [pause]

Oh, sure you can drag your children out of the way of a moving car...but just try intervening...
 in their plans for the summer...
when they’re eighteen...
especially when their plans mess up your plans.

Let’s say your daughter sneaks out of the house at night without permission. You get angry and try to scare her out of doing it again...yelling and taking away privileges. But she does it again anyway...and again and again and again...

What do you do next...if you’re committed to using direct power as your parenting style...committed to using force?
Yell till your voice gives out?

Take away privileges till there’re no more to remove?

With nothing left...you beat her [if you’re stronger than she is]

until you’re exhausted... then you lock her in her room ...[pause]

Well, I hope you can see the logic… of why direct power is fruitless ...I hope you can see that
very early on in all this... your relationship with your daughter will be destroyed...

unless at some point...you simply refuse to use
the direct power you have at your disposal...


and instead of imposing the pain and punishment your rebellious daughter deserves... you
make yourself vulnerable...

and take onto yourself... all her sneering disrespect her haughty eyes and her pounding fists.

What kind of power is that... for heaven sake...

you might well ask? [pause]

Well disciples of Jesus… from Martin Luther to Martin Luther King… have said that kind of power
is the opposite to direct power. But it is power…
Some say it’s the difference between right and left handed power.

Just look at your right hand for a moment...make a fist ...Right handed power certainly looks forceful and strong and in control...

Now look at your left hand...and hold it out like this in a gesture of welcome or support...

left handed power might look weak – it may be difficult to tell the difference between intervention and nonintervention when you’re using left handed power...

and you certainly can’t guarantee left handed power
will stop evildoers at all.

Well it could soften their hearts but then again…
it might not.

In fact the only thing… left handed power does guarantee... [pause]

is that after you’ve been rejected and battered and hung out to dry or to die...

you won’t have closed any doors...
from your side of your relationship.

Now you might say...that’s not exercising power.

But when we turn our eyes to the Cross of Christ ...

we see... that left handed power is power...
so much power...that it’s the only thing in the world...

that evil can not touch. [pause]

Jesus died forgiving.

Robert Capon puts it this way ‘with the dead body of Jesus ...God wedges open the door between himself and the world and said. ‘there, just try to make me take that back!’ [pause]

At the beginning of his ministry...Jesus was tempted in the wilderness...tempted to use direct intervening power
to accomplish his mission
and establish the kingdom of God on earth.

His disciples hoped he would use force...
direct right-handed power... to overthrow the Roman’s and restore David’s holy city... to the Jews.

But even at the start of his work as a rabbi...
Jesus warns his followers to keep quiet…
about his use of right handed direct power...
When he feeds the five thousand... There’s no hocus pocus... no long prayers... no holy exhortations...
no dazzling sweeps of the cape...that would make great prime time TV…

Jesus simply asks ‘How much food have you got?’

And...Jesus just breaks up the loaves and fishes and passes them around. Jesus doesn’t want his followers to make a fuss about right handed power...he seems to realise the world isn’t going to be saved by miracles...

No the world’s going to be saved...
by a deeper more powerful left handed mystery...

at the centre of which… would be Jesus’ own death.

What saves the world...what saves us... is Jesus...

Because in the right handed realm of Caesar and Herod…
Jesus the King…feeds us with his own hands…washes our feet…heals our broken hearts…restores us to loving community…Jesus completely redefines what it means to be king.

and the way we lay hold of that salvation...

is through faith. And faith simply means...

trusting Jesus...saying yes to him rather than no ...

turning our faces toward him...modeling our lives on him. Modeling our church community on the values of mercy and forgiveness he preached.

What isn’t going to save us is turning our faces toward Caesar or the religious authorities in the Temple...
or any other power and principality… in existence today...

and if… as it was in first century Jewish culture...
if the title of king... is the highest rank we can think of…
if we understand the promise they held onto
that a descendant of David would indeed inherit his earthly throne...and rule over the kingdom of Israel…

as Paul wrote to the church at Philippi

slide words

Christ Jesus, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death— even death on a cross.

Slide words

Therefore God also highly exalted him
and gave him the name
that is above every name,
so that at the name of Jesus

every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue confess
that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.

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When we take up our cross and follow him...as individual disciples and as a community of faith…we commit ourselves to Jesus left handed power... proclaiming him to be the ruler of our hearts…and Lord of our Lives…

announcing to the world that through his rule
will come the salvation of the earth….