Sermon for Christ the King 2013 - Rev Chris Davey Gospel reading; Luke 23: 33-43 May I speak in the name of God, Creator, Redeemer and Sustainer. We have heard a great deal about coronations in the last couple of years as Queen Elizabeth has celebrated her diamond Jubilee. We have seen a great deal of pomp and pageantry reflecting that day in 1953 when Princess Elizabeth arrived at Westminster Abbey to be crowned Queen. The colour and splendour was something which captured the hearts and imaginations of a generation and many of the images of that day have become iconic. Today’s reading from Lukes Gospel gives us another account of a coronation only this is a very different sort of coronation. No golden state coach down the Mall to the centre of the city but a long painful walk to a place outside the city walls, the crown has no diamonds or rubies only thorns, the throne has no cushions for comfort but bare splintered wood and nails. These two images could not be more different if we look at them and yet they are the same thing, a coronation but of a radically different Kingdom. I think the problem is that we have over time got it all a little confused, and I cite as my example of this the cross we have here, with Jesus dressed in the magnificence of earthly majesty. This can so easily lead us to the wrong place in our thinking about God. I think it is a wonderful example of us creating God in our image. For the truth is Jesus is not a doll we can dress up in our own fashions, a model we can parade down the cat walk in our designs – if we are not very careful on Christ the King we end up doing just that and presenting Jesus in a fashion he, in his earthly life, rejected completely. In Jesus kingship looks absolutely nothing like earthly kingship. The pattern that Jesus gives us is as far removed from the imperial majesty of Caesar or the excesses of his puppet king, Herod, as you could possibly get. So how then can we call Jesus our King, how can we today sing hymns that reflect that? Well we can only do it be understanding a different and deeper truth. Yes we say Jesus is our King because Jesus is our King, but we have to understand what we mean when we say that. When we say that Jesus is our King we are expressing the desire in our lives to embody God’s Kingdom by trying to reflect the life and teachings of Jesus – who rejects the trinkets of earthly kingship in the wilderness before his ministry ever begins and as he took on the mantel of Christ. The Feast of Christ the King is NOT then a time to dress Jesus up in the earthly robes of monarchy – that surely is to fall completely into the devil’s wilderness trap that Jesus escaped from. The feast of Christ the King must really be about realising and committing ourselves to live a different way of life revealing a different type of Kingdom, found though our close relationship with the living God and seeking to see with the eyes of Christ. When we truly seek to do that we begin to understand how different the Kingdom of God is from the Kingdoms of this world. For Christ there is no golden crown but only thorns, no throne but a cross, no orb and sceptre but a towel and basin, no servants only service – it is as far removed from earthly kingship as you can get – in fact with worldly eyes it looks nothing like kingship at all, it looks like foolishness and folly. But it is so easy on this feast day to get it all the wrong way around, to make it about US dressing Jesus as we would like, rather than allowing Jesus through his teaching and example to strip us and re-dress us as children of a new kingdom – for only then can we hope to glimpse and begin to understand what real majesty is. It is only in real simplicity and through generous and extravagant service of our neighbour that the Kingship of Christ and the Kingdom of God is truly revealed and can begin to be fully understood. The feast of Christ the King is the last Sunday of the Church year. Next week on the first Sunday of Advent a new church year will begin. Advent is a season of preparation when we seek to prepare our hearts in readiness to welcome Christ at Christmas. Christ the King then is a perfect place to end, to remind us once more that as we search for the Christ Child that he is not to be found in a palace among gentry but in a stable among the beasts. For if we look for the symbols of earthly kingship, the Bethlehem stable holds only disillusion and disappointment. If however we can use the feast of Christ the King to help us understand what real kingship is about there is the chance of recognising in the new-born in a stable the Saviour of the world, and amidst the dust and the dirt, among the animals and shepherds fall to our knees in worship. For in that child, so special yet so ordinary, is one whose life will turn worldly expectation on its head. One who will show us real power and majesty not by taking on the expensive robes or elevated human status but by taking on the form of, and living the life of, a servant in deep and true humility. To follow Christ means seeking to live that life ourselves as we search for the fullness of God and seek to pay homage to His Christ – our Servant King.
Posted on: Sun, 24 Nov 2013 12:11:38 +0000
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