Kingdom of Grace and Peace

John 18:33-37

Then Pilate entered the headquarters again, summoned Jesus, and asked him, "Are you the King of the Jews?" Jesus answered, "Do you ask this on your own, or did others tell you about me?" Pilate replied, "I am not a Jew, am I? Your own nation and the chief priests have handed you over to me. What have you done?" Jesus answered, "My kingdom is not from this world. If my kingdom were from this world, my followers would be fighting to keep me from being handed over to the Jews. But as it is, my kingdom is not from here." Pilate asked him, "So you are a king?" Jesus answered, "You say that I am a king. For this I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice."

As of a few days ago we have officially entered the holiday season. For the next month and a bit our already busy lives will become busier, and the amount of stress that we are all carrying will most likely increase. The holiday season is one that we all tend to both look forward to and dread at the same time. We look forward to the good times, the happiness, the joy of Christmas morning, the joy of a new year. Yet we also dread things. How will we ever use up all the leftover turkey? How will we deal with those extra holiday pounds that always seem to show up? There seems to always be something that we need to watch out for. As we get older we tend to be better and better in anticipating those potential headaches; it’s either that or we simply don’t care as much.

One of the things that we all have come to understand is that there are certain traditions, certain things that you have to do, and avoid doing at all costs. I’ve noticed that many of them involve the kitchen, or at least mealtime. This last week when we celebrated Thanksgiving, we had to have a roast in addition to a turkey because that’s part of the tradition (my mother-in-law doesn’t consider it a holiday meal without a roast.) I was also reminded that I was now the unofficial, official carver of the meat – which meant that there was absolutely no way any of the slices were the same thickness or size, or stayed the same thickness from the top of the slice to the bottom. Every family has its traditions, has its own unique way of doing things.

One of the hurdles that every couple that gets married, or gets serious has to overcome is learning the rules of the new extended family. The better one learns and masters the rules the happier the holidays and family get-togethers will be. You can always tell the new ones at the family functions, they are the ones who are being a little too helpful in the kitchen, the ones setting uncle Bob and cousin Jim near each other. They are the ones who put the potatoes in grandma’s special bowl. You must learn the ways of the family. We all have things to learn about life and this world.

How often have we observed a child making a mistake in a social situation and commented, “They need to learn the ways of the world.” We go to a mechanic to get our car repaired, and know that they will most likely try to get us to repair something that really doesn’t need to be repaired, because, “that’s the way the world works.” We see businesses and individuals achieving success and notoriety on the backs and hard work of others, and accept it because, ‘that’s the way the world works.” We all have our own memories and experiences when we learned how the world works; when we became hardened to the world around us. I think it’s funny how we sometimes speak of children not yet being jaded by the world, how they have not yet learned the ways of the world. And then we have Jesus’ comment about his kingdom and how it operates. Maybe there is even more to Jesus’ comment about children and the entering the kingdom than we thought.

Today we celebrate Christ the King Sunday. It’s the last day of the church year; next Sunday we begin Advent with its yearly time of introspection and preparation for the Christmas celebration. In recent years, many churches have renamed Christ the King Sunday, and are calling it The Reign of Christ. Most of these have done so because of the term ‘king’. Let’s face it, we’ve all lived in a democracy for so long that our understanding of a king is based on stories and movies. That’s one of the reasons. For others, the term ‘king’ is problematic because of other reasons having to do with the unfortunate misuse of power exerted by men in this world. I grew up celebrating Christ the King, it’s the way I think of this day; but, there is something to opening ourselves to thinking of it as The Reign of Christ.

When we focus on Christ the King, we focus on an event, a person. When we focus on the Reign of Christ we focus on a way of existence, an ongoing process of which we are a part, and can play a part. One way, we focus on the person, in the other we focus on the effects of his reign. A reign, a way of ruling, a kingdom that Jesus said is not of this world; that does not function the way the world thinks things should be. The world has lots to tell us about how we are supposed to treat a king. How we are supposed to quiver in fear at their feet. How we are supposed to avert our eyes not look at them, lest they become angry.

Jesus said to his disciples, “follow me”, not obey me, not worship me, not submit to me. To follow someone is dramatically different than those things. So often in the church we worship the Christ, rather than following Jesus. Jesus said his kingdom is not from this world, not of this world. The people Jesus was speaking to understood kingdom, understood empire in terms of the Roman Empire. The way Rome did things was the way they understood empire. Jesus said that his way was different. Power was not about how many legions of soldiers you had, or the number of people who cowered in fear and submission. Power was found in service and servanthood.

In Jesus’ kingdom, in his empire, the poor were not put aside as riff-raff, as those that you walked past on the street. The poor were seen as fellow people on the journey, as opportunities to prove that Jesus’ kingdom was truly present in word and deed. In Jesus’ kingdom children were embraced and welcomed as the gifts they were. In Jesus’ kingdom, the stranger and foreigner was welcomed as friends we have not yet met. The sick were cared for. The sinner was not shunned but welcomed into a community of love. In Jesus’ kingdom our belonging, our membership, our citizenship isn’t so much based on our declaration of, “Jesus is Lord”, as much as it is in following.

In the first century, declaring someone as Lord was dangerous. Caesar was, according to Roman Law, the only person to have the title of Lord. To declare someone else as Lord was to break the law, was to invite the punishment of the Roman Empire down upon your head, was to declare that you were part of something other than Rome; and in an Empire that sought for uniformity and obedience, it was a crime punishable by death if one did not recant. Nowadays, things have changed greatly. In this country, we can freely say Jesus is Lord without truly thinking about it. We can stand on the street corner and announce Jesus is Lord to passersby; we can go door to door in our neighborhoods telling people that Jesus is Lord and get little more than a chuckle or a door slammed in our face. The police would most likely not be called; you probably wouldn’t end up in prison. You may even be admired by many and get an article in the paper praising you for your great faith. Certainly you wouldn’t face crucifixion.

Things have changed. So the question we must ask is if Jesus’ kingdom is still not of this world? Something’s definitely different. Is it the world? Or is it the way we have allowed the world to infect the kingdom? Without a doubt there are some ways in which the kingdom has impacted our world. We speak more openly about freedom and equality. We speak more openly about the ways we are called to support one another, and care for one another. But, have we lost our edge? Is the church still a voice that declares that there is a different way of doing things? How different is the way of the world from the way things are within the church? There was a time when to declare oneself as Christian was to set yourself against the world, to place yourself in the minority. When was the last time the church was the voice that rang out against the world?

I just finished reading The Underground Church by Robin Meyers. I whole heartedly recommend it; I am sure it will open your eyes and challenge you as it did me. In the book Rev. Meyers speaks about the church’s need to reclaim its voice of opposition to the world. This rebirth of the church is what he calls the Underground Church. I want to close with a reading from the close of one of his chapters. When he speaks of radical, think in terms of not according to the ways of the world.

“In the Underground Church, not every action needs to be newsworthy to be radical. Visiting a nursing home is one of the most countercultural things a human being can do. All it takes is mindful noncompliance with the forces of death and division. All it takes is a refusal to accept the status quo when the status quo is immoral. If our good news is not bad news to those who steal the future, then what right do we have to sing our hymns about the “sweet by and by”? We should not make promises about things that we refuse to help deliver.

Gandhi once provided a list of seven social sins, which ought to animate the Underground Church, uniting both liberals and conservatives around principles worth fighting for. He said we must resist politics without principle, wealth without work, commerce without morality, pleasure without conscience, education without character, science without humanity, and worship without sacrifice.

Instead of offering up more tired arguments about theological and doctrinal “purity,” let us claim a future that we are simultaneously involved in creating. Christian eschatology is not escapism, not fear mongering, not the anticipation of the ultimate cosmic revenge. It is, as the great New Testament scholar and poet Amos Niven Wilder points out, the basis for Christian ethics. We behave justly in anticipation of a just future.

What could be more radical than that?” (The Underground Church, by Robin Meyers, p. 218)  Can we challenge ourselves to live our lives in the world, not seeking to escape from it, but instead seeking to live according to a different way? We are all in the world; but are we of it? Maybe we’ve learned the rules of the world a little too well. Lord, may thy kingdom come. Amen.