Christ in Majesty/Last Pentecost

November 20, 2022

 

Jeremiah  23.1-8; Luke 23.33-43

 

+ Today is, of course, Christ the King Sunday.

 

Or Christ in Majesty Sunday for those of us who are more inclusive in our language.

 

And it is one of the truly beautiful Sundays of the year.

 

Everybody loves this Sunday.

 

We love it because it the last Sunday of the old Church year (Year C)  before the Season of Advent and the New Church Year (Year A) begins next Sunday.

 

But… as beautiful as this day is, it is not quite what you think it is.

 

First of all, this Day is not an Episcopal Feast at all.

 

In fact, if you look, you will not find the words “Christ the King” designated for this Sunday or any other Sunday in our Episcopal calendar.

 

You can’t find it in the BCP outside of the reference to Christ the King in the collect and in the lectionary’s choice of scriptures for today. .

 

It sounds like it’s an ancient feast.

 

But, it’s not.

 

It’s not even 100 years old yet.

 

The Feast of Christ the King was first introduced to the Roman Catholic Church by Pope Pius XI in 1925.

 

And his reasons for doing so were not necessarily pious.

 

His reasons for introducing this feast had to do with a situation that we are ourselves have dealt and may be dealing with again.

 

It’s that ugly called FASCISM.

 

And just as it was 100 years ago, it is still an issue now.

 

For Pope Pius XI it was a way of countering the nationalist fascism of Benito Mussolini.

 

It was a clear rebuke of Mussolini.

 

It was a statement making clear that as much as leaders in this world want desperately to hold absolute power, there is only one ruler that we as Christians hold up as our true leader.

 

And that the leaders of this world, who naively think they can gain and maintain absolute power, will fail, and fail miserably.

 

They will lose.

 

But before we move on from that, some people really don’t quite know what fascism is specifically.

 

So, let’s ask Google.

 

There, it is defined as

Fascism a far-right, authoritarian,  ultranationalist political ideology and movement, characterized by a dictatorial leader, centralized autocracy, militarism, forcible suppression of opposition, belief in a natural hierarchy, subordination of individual interests for the perceived good of the nation and race, and strong regimentation of society and the economy

 

It characterized by racism and oppression.

 

Any of this sound familiar?

 

It is, to be blunt, anti-Jesus in everything is stands for.

 

And it is our duty, just like Pope Pius Xi, to stand up and speak out against it again and again.

 

Because it is when we are silent and complacent that fascism comes back.

 

If I despair over anything, I despair over the fact that here we are, in 2022, still preaching against fascism.

 

We fought a whole war in the 1940s so that fascism would be eliminated from this world.

 

And we have, in recent years, seen fascism make a come-back in the very country that fought it.

 

And, ironically, holds up those same people who fought as heroes of this neo-fascism.

 

But our scriptures today speak clearly to us about all of this.

 

In our reading from the Hebrew scriptures, we hear this:

 

The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land.

 

And in our Gospel reading for today, we see the end-result of fascism.

 

He find Jesus beaten and abused and whipped and mockingly crowned as King of the Jews.

 

This is exactly how fascism has dealt with its enemies over and over again throughout history.

 

It silences, beats, whips and murders its opponents.

 

I also believe a priest should not share their politics from the pulpit because many people here came from churches and denominations that had clergy who got up and not only shared their political views, but even went so far as to tell people how they should vote.

 

And that, to me, is an absolutely terrible thing.

 

And just so no one would ever think that I would do that—and I would NEVER do that—I purposely try to avoid politics as much as possible/

 

The exception for me is when a politician crosses the line and starts advocating for things that oppose basic human rights or human equality.

 

And I have spoken out on those issues.

 

Many, many times.

 

And will continue to do so any time it happens.

 

Let’s face it: Jesus did so many, many times.

 

But to be clear fascism is not only present in politics.

 

We see it in the Church too.

 

After all, as you have heard me say again and again, the Church is not historically a democracy.

 

And we continue to see fascism in the Church as a whole.

 

We see it when people continue to be oppressed.

 

We see it when people continued to be shunned.

 

We see it when we say things like, “Well, we don’t need to work on reconciliation with LGBTQ people, because it’s a non-issue now.”

 

I would like to say to those people:  come here to St. Stephen’s and say that.

 

Say that to the queer people in this parish who have been hurt by the Church, even in this Diocese, who have been shunned and discarded.

 

Say that to the queer people here are still bleeding from the wounds that the Church and this Diocese has done to them in our not-so-distant past.

 

Or rather say this to the 4 people killed night at shooting in an LGBTQ club in Colorado Spring.

 

It is NOT a non-issue.

 

Let me tell you as the priest and pastor of those hurt and wounded people, people hurt and wounded by the words and actions of clergy and people in the Church and in this Diocese in the past, we most certainly need reconciliation.

 

We most certainly need things to be made right after the behavior of so many clergy and people who are still active, who are still in leadership positions, who still say these things and believe these things.

 

But today, on this particular Sunday, we deal, somewhat indirectly, with another kind of political and religious fascism.

 

Today, we recognize that no matter how terrible or how great a leader may be, there is one leader for us, as Christians, who is the ultimate Leader.

 

The King of Kings.

 

Advent, that time of preparation for Christmas, is about to happen.

 

The Season of Advent is, of course, the season of anticipation—of longing.

 

And dare I say, maybe a fair share of healthy impatience.

 

Maybe that’s why I like it so much.

 

I am an impatient person—as anyone who has worked with me for any period of time knows.

 

Certainly, we, as followers of Jesus, might get a bit impatient about that for which we are longing.

 

Our journey as followers of Jesus, is filled with anticipation and longing.

 

We know, as we make this journey through life, that there is an end to our journey.

 

We know there is a goal.

 

But we might not always be aware of what that goal is or even why we’re journeying toward it.

 

But today, Christ the King Sunday, we get just a little glimpse of that goal.

 

We get to get an idea of what it is we are anticipating.

 

The Christ we encounter this morning is coming to us on clouds, yes.

 

But he also comes to us while standing on the throne of the Cross—an about-to-be condemned criminal—engaging in a conversation with Pontius Pilate about who he is.

 

The Christ we encounter today is crowned, yes—but he is crowned with thorns.

 

This King we celebrate today—this King crowned as he is with a crown of thorns—he is the Ruler of all of us, no matter who the rulers on earth may be.

 

And because he is our ruler, in him whatever divisions—especially political and ecclesiastical divisions—are eliminated.  

 

After all, he too lived in a world of terror and fear, in a world of division, where fear and terror were daily realities in his life.

 

This is the Christ we encounter today.

 

The Christ we encounter today is Christ our majestic King, Christ our Priest, Christ our ultimate Ideal.

 

But he is also so much more than that.

 

He is also the one that some would also judge as Christ the Rebel, Christ the Misfit, Christ the Refugee, Christ the Failure.

 

And what the Rebel, the Misfit, the Refugee, the Failure shows us powerfully is that God even works through such manifestations.

 

God works through rebellion, through ostracization, through failure even.

 

And this is a very real part of our message on Christ the King Sunday.

 

In the midst of the brokenness of Christ, God is ultimately truly victorious.

 

And because of what God does in Christ we too, even despite our own brokenness, despite our own  rebelliousness, despite our own failures, we too will ultimately triumph in Christ.

 

The King we encounter on this Sunday, the King that awaits us at the end of our days, is not a fascist despotic king.

 

The King that we encounter today is not a King who rules with an iron fist and makes life under his reign oppressive.

 

This King is not some stern Judge, waiting to condemn us to hell for what we’ve done or not done or for who we are.

 

But at the same time the King we honor today is not a figurehead or a soft and ineffective ruler.

 

This is not a spineless chameleon of a leader.

 

Rather, the King we encounter today is truly the One we are following, the One who leads us and guides us and guards us.

 

This King does not allow us to have fear as an option in our lives.

 

This King eliminates our divisions.

 

The King we encounter today is the refugee, the misfit, the rebel, the outcast, the marginalized one, who has triumphed and who commands us to welcome and love all those who are marginalized and living with terror and fear in their own lives.

 

And his Kingdom, that we anticipate, is our ultimate home.

 

We are all—all of us, every single one of us, no matter who we are—, at this moment, we are citizens of that Kingdom of God, over which God has put the anointed One, the Christ.

 

That Kingdom is the place wherein each of us belongs, ultimately.

 

You have heard me say it in many, many sermons that our job as Christians, as followers of Jesus, is to make that Kingdom a reality.

 

You hear me often talking about the Kingdom breaking through into our midst.

 

That’s not just poetic talk from the pulpit.

 

It is something I believe in deeply.

 

The Kingdom—that place toward which we are all headed—is not only some far-off Land in some far-away sky we will eventually get to when we die.

 

It is a reality—right here, right now.

 

That Kingdom is the place which breaks into this world whenever we live out that command of Jesus to love God and to love one another.

 

When we act in love toward one another, the Kingdom of God is present among us.

 

Again, this is not some difficult theological concept to grasp.

 

It is simply something we do as followers of Jesus.

 

When we love, God’s true home is made here, with us, in the midst of our love.

 

A kingdom of harmony and peace and love becomes a reality when we sow seeds of harmony and peace and love.

 

And, in that moment when the Kingdom breaks through to us, here and now, we get to see what awaits us in our personal and collective End.

 

As we prepare for this END—and we should always be preparing for the END—we should rejoice in this King, who is the ruler of our true home.

 

And we should rejoice in the fact that, in the end, all of us will be received by that King into that Kingdom he promises to us, that we catch glimpses of, here in this place, when we act and serve each other out of love for one another.

 

The Kingdom is here, with us, right now.

 

It is here, in the love we share and in the ministries we do.

 

So, on this Christ the King Sunday, let us ponder the End, but let us remember that the End is not a terrible thing.

 

The End is, in fact, that very Kingdom that we have seen in our midst already.

 

For us the End is that Kingdom—a Kingdom wherein there is a King who rules out of love and concern for us.

 

And it is in our End that we truly do find our beginning.