A sermon preached at St George's, Waddon, on Sunday 25th November at the Eucharist for Christ the King. The readings were Daniel 7.9-10, 13-14; Revelation 1.4b-8 and John 18.33b-37.
‘So you are a King?’ asked Pilate. Jesus answered, ‘You say
that I am a king. For this I came into the world, to testify to the truth.
Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.’ (John 18.37)
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We are living in an age where there is a crisis of
leadership. It has been called ‘the Age of Anger’ and
‘the age of upheaval’.
Either way, a collective nervousness has taken hold and expectations of our
leaders has, at the same time, gone up – “they should sort this for us” – and
has gone down – “they can’t do anything even if they were up to it”.
This crisis of leadership touches the church, with some
people asking why our Bishops and parish priests are not doing more to arrest
the decline in church numbers, and others saying that whatever they do the
church is doomed.
In British politics we see the political classes flailing
around all saying that clear leadership will sort out Brexit, austerity and any
other woe we have. They have ditched the phrase ‘strong and stable leadership’
and in the vacuum all sorts of characters barge each other around, thinking
they could do a better job.
And globally we see the rise and rise of the likes of
Putin, Xi Jinping and their highly
questionable approaches, the tyrants and dictators of war-torn and afflicted
countries, and then, of course, there’s Trump.
In the midst of all that despair about leaders and ruler,
what can be said of Christ our King? And how kingdoms and systems wax and wane?
The disruption to an established order that these rulers
represent is deeply unsettling: the fabric of the democratic system that seems
to have served us well is fraying at the edges.
All of this begs deep questions about how nations, local
communities, families and relationships are ordered and sustained. Where does
the power lie in our nation; where does the power lie in our local community,
in Waddon, in Croydon; where does the power lie in our families and in
relationships?
When we ask that question we are asking ‘what do we want of
a King?’ We know that actually most political leaders and tyrants – global,
national and local - live in terror of being ousted, either by a coup or an
election, or pushed aside by their own supporters. Most people in families who
dominate, coerce or control, who make themselves rulers of their household,
usually are fragile people who lash out because they are afraid.
It is tempting to think that the brutality of the Roman
Empire is something of another age. But human nature and the corruption and
manipulations of power remain constant, as does fear of being ousted. Pontius Pilate
knew in his mind what kingship and political power was all about.
So Pilate’s questions are today’s questions; Jesus’ answers
are today’s answers.
Jesus’ vision of kingship and the kingdom is so at variants
with Pilate’s that Pilate keeps on asking, probing, what this kingdom could
possibly be and how Jesus could possibly be its king.
In St John’s gospel the theme of kingship keeps coming
back. After the multiplication of the loaves and fishes the crowd wants to make
him a king, yet he fled. The expectations of a king were not for him, not
because social and political power is something Christians should shy away
from, but because the presence of a king subcontracts responsibility. That’s
why in the Old Testament the prophet Samuel keeps warning the People of Israel
against having a king. The king is always a scapegoat to pin our own frailties
on.
In other words, if we leave everything to politicians,
politicians will get on and play the power games and then we in turn resent
that and want to see them booted out.
Jesus reimagines what human power is and what human life
and society can be. This is not a withdrawal from the world but walking head on
into its mess, violence and death.
Having prayed for unity, Jesus enters into the world of
conflict. Alone and vulnerable in the face of worldly and religious power,
Jesus, the one who came into the world to proclaim the truth, the God of love,
is arrested and condemned to death.
Jesus only accepts the title king when he is bound in ropes
and standing before the representative of the Roman Emperor, the ultimate in
kingly power. And yet that self-same Pilate will have declared above Jesus on
the Cross as Iesus Nazarenus Rex Iudeorum:
Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews.
The best summary of this that I have come across is in the
writing of Jean Vanier, the founder of the L’Arche community with and for
people with disabilities, which gives him another perspective on what is strong
and what is weak in the world. He demonstrates that true power, true kingship
comes from the priority of love, seeking God’s truth and kingdom, because as St
Paul says, ‘the kingdom of God is justice and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit’
(Romans 14.17).
Vanier writes:
Jesus
is the king of love
who
wants to communicate his love
in
and through his weakness and vulnerability.
He
is a king yearning for the communion of hearts.
This
is the truth he has come to proclaim.
Not
power for the sake of power, but to build a world of love
at
the service of the communion of hearts,
the
power of love and compassion that heals, liberates and gives life,
that
calls people to live in love with him.
We
are all called to live a deep friendship with this vulnerable king.
That
is why Jesus came to be with us.
Yet
so often we want to be on the winning side
and
would like to have a triumphant king,
a triumphant
Christianity,
a triumphant
church that imposes laws and has global influences.
Like
Peter we can be ashamed of our humiliated king.
And
like him we can learn from our humiliation.
Perhaps
it is only those who are humiliated and excluded
who
see in the humiliated king their friend and saviours…
…The
soldiers weave a crown of pointed, piercing thorns
and push
into his head;
Jesus
is blinded by the blood that flows into his yes.
They
put a purple gown, a royal colour, around him,
and
making fun of him, say:
“Hail, king of the Jews”
May we all find our place as citizens of the Kingdom of
Heaven and know the reign of Christ our King in our hearts, the world and the
heavens, and herald the coming kingdom of justice and peace, and joy in the Holy
Spirit.
Amen.
© Andrew Bishop, 2018
