[Sermon preached at St. Mary’s Episcopal Church, Phoenix AZ (https://www.stmarysphoenix.org/online) for Sunday, November 22, 2020, the Twenty-Fifth Sunday after Pentecost and the Feast of Christ the King]
✠In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Prior to 1982, my homeland of Canada was named officially the Dominion of Canada (“Dominion” being a term politicians in British North America and Britain came up with, avoiding the title the Kingdom of Canada, which they felt would be a bit alarming to the United States), the ultimate judicial authority in that homeland was the Privy Council of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the head of state was (and still is) Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth the Second, and our national anthem was buttressed by what was called in my home Province of New Brunswick “The Imperial Anthem.” For me, the concept of the Kingdom of God, the Kingship of Jesus Christ, a Royal Priesthood of Believers was not that difficult, particularly since I grew up in a heavily Royalist area. Fast forward to my immigration to the United States, I encountered a culture that while similar had deep-seated angst around terms and ideas like these. While Canadian monarchy was nowhere near as absolute as the terms might at first seem, even that level of monarchy gave my American neighbours serious agita.
So keeping that in mind, I feel many Americans and also citizens of other republics and direct democracies struggle with the concept of today’s festival. For today is the Feast of Christ the King. While many modern monarchies have dulled the edge of autocracy, the absolute nature of the Kingship of Our Lord might give pause to the absolute monarchs of history, even the crazy ones. A human king has a reach limited to his own territory, his judgements are bound by time and limited in scope to those alive during his reign, his authority can be challenged (with varying degrees of success and finality), and he can and often is remote and unconnected with his subjects. But even so, it is not quite what they might think. Christ’s kingship is different, radically different, much as we Christians are different, radically different.
Our readings today go to some length to describe what having Our Lord as king entails. The Old Testament reading portrays Him as the Shepherd of men, feeding them, protecting them from enemies, and protecting them from each other.[1] In the Epistle, St. Paul points out that the Father has appointed Jesus Our Lord to be over all things and in particular over His Church.[2] The Gospel reading gives us a picture of what can be expected of His mastery, the solemn account which we all must provide to Him of what we have done.[3]
Beyond these readings, however, I want to draw your attention to a few things St. Augustine told us in his commentaries on the Gospel of St. John that have bearing on today’s topic. In commenting on Jesus’ interrogation before Pilate, St. Augustine points out to us that the kingship of Our Lord is not the type of kingship we expect in this world, “..how vain [are] the notions current among men regarding His kingship..Such notions assumed that Christ’s kingdom would be set up against the Jews or the Romans.”[4] To sum it up, St. Augustine quotes Our Lord in Jesus’ answer to Pilate: “My kingdom is not of this world.”[5]
Think about that for a moment. “My kingdom is not of this world.”[6] In another section of the commentary, that on the triumphal entry into Jerusalem, St. Augustine points out that,
“What great thing was it to the King of eternity to become the King of men? For Christ’s kingship over Israel was not for the purpose of exacting tribute, of putting swords into His soldiers’ hands, of subduing His enemies by open warfare; but He was King of Israel in exercising kingly authority over their inward natures, in consulting for their eternal interests, in bringing into His heavenly kingdom those whose faith, and hope, and love were centred in Himself. Accordingly, for the Son of God, the Father’s equal, the Word by whom all things were made, in His good pleasure to be King of Israel, was an act of condescension and not of promotion; a token of compassion, and not any increase of power. For He who was called on earth the King of the Jews, is in the heavens the Lord of angels.”[7]
Our Lord’s kingship here and now is not a political kingship. It is not concerned (directly) with temporal matters like school funding, bridge repair, street maintenance, or trade treaties. Right here and now His kingship is over our hearts and minds and wills. Do the temporal things not matter? Of course they do, but how they matter and how they are handled depend fully on how we conduct ourselves in the matters of our hearts and minds and wills. Here and now the kingship is all about compassion: His compassion for us, our compassion for others. His kingdom is everlasting, eternal, forever; our concerns should be everlasting, eternal, forever. Our growth in Christ is predicated on conforming our wills to His, renewing our minds according to the new creation He has made in us, turning our hearts toward the Father.
Time and again in the Scriptures God has told us to look out for each other. He has told us to lay aside all selfishness and look out for the well-being of each other, particularly the unfortunate. Look out for the poor, the orphaned, the widow, the immigrant, the refugee, the disadvantaged. Likewise, and it’s a bit unfashionable right now to mention it, but He has also told us to put off hedonistic pursuits, not to make our lives here on earth more miserable than they already are, but so we don’t lose sight of Him and of the needs and worries of others. He wants us to discipline ourselves in the little things (granted, that is SOOO hard to do) so that when it comes to the really big things the choice of the way of life, the way of light, the way of goodness, the way of God becomes easier for us. That is what God wants for us. He wants us to grow to be more like Him, to be with Him, to choose Him, and to love the things that He loves, namely His creation and His children.
Conforming to God’s will and His vision is a feedback cycle. The more we turn to Him, the more we experience compassion for others. The more we experience and practice compassion for others, the more we turn to Him. The more we lose ourselves in Him, the freer we become as moral agents and the more impactful our decisions become. Is that not the message in our Gospel lesson for today? Is that not what will commend us to Him at the end of the age when the cosmic order changes and the Kingdom of God overtakes everything?
“Then the righteous will answer him, “Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink? And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing? And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?” And the king will answer them, “Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.”[8]
Christ the King. Think on that. The Word Made Flesh, the Ruler of our hearts and minds and wills. The example on Whom we model our actions and our decisions. The Eternal Glory to Which we aspire. This is no simple wrap-up to Ordinary Time as we begin our inexorable march to Christmas. This is a reminder of what we signed up for. Jesus Christ is Our Lord over our hearts, Our Master over our minds, Our King over our wills, Our Example, Our Judge, and Our Friend. He said in the Gospels that He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. Let us begin to take heed of that for not only our sakes, but for the sake of all around us.
✠Through the Prayers of the Most Holy Theotokos and Ever-Virgin Mary, Saviour save us.
