November 23, 2008: KING! On Wednesday when I went to put the sermon title on the reader board out front, I discovered I’d only designated today as “Reign of Christ Sunday” in my planning papers. I didn’t think that sounded very interesting, so I put up “KING!” Later, I was struck by the difference between “a king” (with an article) and “king exclamation point no article.” Maybe I was smarter than I thought. “A king” is someone. “KING!” is more than role or person, it’s abstract, absolute. Which made me wonder how Americans can celebrate Christ as king, when our understanding of “king” is so limited.
I’ve struggled for years to come up with a meaningful metaphor for today’s theological point, and I think authority might get at it. “President” won’t work. Christ’s rule is not ordained through election, is not for a measurable term, nor is it impeachable. Christ’s reign doesn’t function through Constitutional balance of power, representative democracy, political process or pork barrel trading. Americans have no reference for the metaphor of king. So I turned to Frederick Buechner for some insight. He writes, “The person of the king was so sacred that affronts upon him were punished with the most horrible of torments, and his touch had the power to heal./ Passionate loyalty, adoration, terror, awe—no words are perhaps too strong to describe the feelings evoked in his subjects by the mere sight of him, and it’s no wonder. He held the power of life and death over them. Their destiny was in his keeping. . . . He was the kingdom.” That helps. Yet, the notion of “king” is central to scripture’s understanding of God. The only rightful king of Israel was God, YHWH, “King!” without the “a.” Israel’s constitution, reflected in Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy, designated God KING! in perpetuity, for the sake of Israel’s prosperity and survival. But once Israel got into the Promised Land and the God relationship strained, Israel decided they needed a king like all the other kids had. They begged and pleaded and, over Samuel’s protests, got a king. The first one, Saul, didn’t work out, but David’s reign seemed to go well. Unfortunately, within a generation, Israel’s monarchies had fallen apart. By Ezekiel, Israel was scattered and in exile, longing to go home, longing for a king of her own. Ezekiel tells us “what sort” of king. In the midst of an alarming book of prophecies, we read about God as Shepherd King of Israel and the promise of “David” to rule. This promise, of course, is not literally for David, it’s messianic. Israel hangs her hopes on that promise, so that by the time we get to gospel times, Israel had staked everything on the coming of a Messiah King who would be a uniter not a divider. A Messiah would enact justice for national security. A Messiah would be concerned for all people, a provider of abundant and enough, a healer, one who gathers and strengthens the weak. Nice job description, if you can get it. We can’t even do that in 21st century America, as the richest nation in history, with access to the world’s most abundant natural resources, supported by a monstrous bureaucracy. But this is Israel’s expectation of KING! We read it in Ezekiel with God the Shepherd King, doing all that and more. In exchange, the citizenry is merely expected to stop fighting with and oppressing one another, to treat each other with equity and justice. Sort of mimicking the king’s job description. So here we are at Reign of Christ Sunday, dealing with a metaphor we can’t make work in our day and age. If this is about KING! it’s the king’s authority at stake. What troubles me is that “authority” doesn’t even play in the 21st century. Americans have an uneasy relationship with authority. We follow the rules (usually), but it’s mostly folks in the armed services and vowed religious orders who have any sense of unconditional acknowledgment of authority. The cover article of this week’s Christian Century says the Pacific Northwest is the “None Zone,” as in the box people out here check when asked their religious affiliation: None. One author (Amy Frykholm quoting James Wellman) suggests that we out here are the heirs of settlers who crossed the Cascades to create a future (not a past). We’re entrepreneurs engaging in low-risk individual practices rather than entangling ourselves with commitments and other institutional annoyances. I think this reflects our view of authority. Authority is the power or right to enforce obedience. When was the last time you heard a Pacific Northwest American talk about “obedience” except as regards children and traffic laws? Even toward God, we’re not exactly willing to be unquestioning. I just read Malachi 3:8-12 this week. In no uncertain terms God says we are robbing God by not bringing to worship a tithe—10% of our income. Robbing God. So much for unquestioning acceptance of God’s authority. I wish I had better answers about authority and kingship. In my personal practice and my work as pastor, I find that authority is one of the central questions regarding spirituality. Whose promises are you going to believe? Whose advice do you follow? Who you gonna trust? And with what? We all need to struggle with those questions. What is the authority of God in your life? How do you show it? “Authority” may be the power or right to enforce obedience, but authority is also about trusting promises. What promises do you stake your life on? Malachi says God will abundantly bless those who tithe. Why do we believe some of God’s promises but not that one? When we respond with our resources of time or money, we demonstrate our obedience to God’s authority. What authority are you responding to with your time or money? The alarm clock in the morning, the telephone that summons you to answer, the balance in your checkbook, the numbers on the bathroom scale, the cool kids at school who mock your clothes, advertisements for the latest video game, your children asking for a loan, the traffic cop’s flashing light. The list is endless. If you had to explain to someone from Mars—or an urban Gen-Xer, someone with no knowledge of religious understandings of God—if you had to tell a totally naïve person the meaning of this “Christ the King” or “Reign of Christ” Sunday, what would you say? Maybe the point of Christ the King Sunday is that, when we give authority to another, we are acknowledging there is a meaning to life and death which is beyond ourselves. We need to choose whether that meaning is constricted by the tiny boundaries of our checkbooks and calendars, or whether that meaning is as large as the creative, redeeming heart of God. This table is an invitation to expand the limits of meaning to our lives. As we prepare to accept the invitation, let us confess the authority to which we hold, using the words of A Brief Statement of Faith, selection A, on the inside back cover of the Presbyterian Hymnal. |
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