November 25th,
2018 “The Truth” Rev. Heather Jepsen
Revelation 1:4b-8
and John 18:33-38a
Today is Christ the King Sunday. Smack dab in between Thanksgiving and
Christmas, this is one of those liturgical holidays that we totally miss. Advent and Lent have enough Sundays in them
that we are not likely to miss them. But
Christ the King is right up there with Baptism of the Lord and Trinity Sunday
when it comes to easy days to miss.
Christ the King is always the last Sunday in the liturgical calendar,
sort of a final statement in the church year.
Next Sunday we start the cycle all over again as we begin Advent and get
ready for the babe in the manger.
Though we always forget about it, and
it can be a doozey to preach, I happen to like Christ the King Sunday. It’s a sort of “in-your-face” to the powers
that be, and I think the rebel in me gets a kick out of that. You see, today is the day that we declare we
are not of this world. We declare that
political powers and systems may come and go, but we have only one true king
and that is Christ. Today is the day
that we declare that no matter who is elected President, our allegiance lies
with only one being, Jesus our Lord.
It’s pretty exciting really.
In our reading from Revelation we come
face to face with this power that we worship.
This isn’t just some one-time thing, some ruler come into power for a
lifetime. Not a Vladimir Putin who seems
to always manage to get himself in power.
This isn’t even a generation of royalty like the British monarchy where
one family just rules forever and ever.
No, this king we are talking about is the one who is and who was and who
is to come. This is the king of all time
and space, the king of all authority, a king whose reign is beyond the scope of
our imaginations.
Not only is Christ the King’s reign
one of all time and space. He is the Alpha
and Omega. From A to Z this king
encompasses everything. From the grains
of sand, to the forces that spin the earth, to the vast distance of the stars,
to the movement of blood vessels through my very body, this king is the be all
end all of life. This king is ruler of
everything and this king is everything.
As the gospel of Thomas puts it so eloquently, “Pick up a rock, and I am
there.”
The wonder of this great king and
kingdom is that Jesus consented to come among us, to limit himself to the
finite in order to bring us a better understanding of the will of God for our
lives. Of course, for Jesus to come
among us, he could not bring the whole wonder of his presence. Just as Moses could not see God face to face,
Jesus needed to cloak his holiness so to speak.
He needed to hide his otherworldliness in human flesh. Fully human, fully divine, the king that is
Christ was a like a ray of sunshine in a dark world.
I love Jesus’ encounter with Pilate
in John’s gospel because I can see it so clearly in our modern setting. Pilate is the one with power in a form that
we are accustomed to, a form we can recognize.
Like all political figures before and after, Pilate is someone we are
familiar with. Jesus, on the other hand
possess a power that is so distinct and different, a power that is foreign. The power of Jesus is not of this world, and
does not respond to Pilate’s subtle attempt at provocation.
I love the way author Frederick
Buechner imagines this scene in his book “Telling the Truth”. Buechner pictures a modern setting, Pilate as
businessman, and he tells the story like this.
Having just gotten off the phone with his wife
(read selection page 12-14)
Buechner brings this scene to
life. The power of Pilate and the empire
he represents. From the big desk to the
picture of the ruler on the wall, all the trappings of our modern understandings
of power are there. Jesus, a nobody from
nowhere, already broken and beaten in the office. Here is the king of kings, whose kingdom is
not of this world, waiting to be taken to his cross. The contrast between these two understandings
of power creates a memorable scene.
I like to imagine that on that fateful
day, Pilate got a glimpse of real truth.
Pilate got a glimpse of the real kingdom, and real power. This Jesus, who refused to play by the rules
of others, had a certain freedom that Pilate never would. This Jesus had something, he had truth. As if somehow sensing that Jesus is no ordinary
rabble rouser, three times in John’s gospel Pilate attempts to have Jesus released. I think that Pilate caught a glimpse of
reality that day, he caught a glimpse of Christ the King.
In our own lives, we too have those
moments when we see the power of God, when we sense the bigger reality in our
world. There are breakthrough moments,
like when someone is healed from cancer or we miraculously avoid a car
accident. Those are the times when we
encounter the great one envisioned in the revelation to John.
And yet there are also those little
times, times I think we see the Alpha and Omega, the God of it all. In my own life I am thinking of those moments
when I catch a glimpse of my children from afar and it brings a tear to my eye,
or when I am able to somehow be in the right place at the right time to
minister to someone, or those moments when you as a congregation minister to me
and teach me who God is. Perhaps you
sensed a little in-breaking of our great and glorious God as you gathered at
the table with family and friends this past week, giving thanks for all the
blessings of this life.
The wonder of Christ the King Sunday is
this realization that our world of power and money is not the only thing out
there. Is perhaps not even the most real
thing out there. There is another power,
another kingdom, a kingdom of love and justice that doesn’t respond to things
like money and influence. There is
another king, one who is the be all end all of life, one who longs to be in
relationship with us, one whose very name is love.
This Christ the King Sunday, as the
world around us continues to rock with war and violence, with struggles for
power and influence, let us take a deep breath.
Like Pilate, let us ask “what is truth?”
And let us open our eyes to the answer.
From the chance to lend a helping hand, to the smile on a child’s face, to
the love we share within this congregation, there is another kingdom of which
we are a part, there is another king which we serve. Thanks be to God for this one, the Alpha and
Omega, Christ the King, truth himself.
Amen.
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