Last Sunday after Pentecost: November 24, 2024

The Rev. Nat Johnson

2 Samuel 23:1-7 | Psalm 132:1-13 (14-19) | Revelation 1:4b-8 | John 18:33-37

In 1925, Pope Pius XI declared a new feast day celebrating the reign of Christ in response to the growing influence of secularism and ultra-nationalism. Eventually, this “Christ the King Sunday” was fixed in our liturgical calendar as the last Sunday after Pentecost. Pope Pius wrote the edict establishing this feast day in the context of war and violence on a global scale. This feast day, he said, was meant to be a reminder to all earthly rulers that they would be held to account for their administration of justice and the laws they established to govern the lives of their people. This day was and is meant to be a counterstatement to the tyranny of nationalism and a declaration that ultimately, it is Christ who will judge the nations. In this sense, the proclamation that Christ is King is a negation of all earthly kings and powers, because the reign of Christ stands in opposition to the ways of violence and domination.

But this commemoration was also to be a reminder to God’s people that we belong to another realm, another kingdom – a kingdom not of this world. On this day, the people of God are reminded that our lives are governed not by the kings, rulers, and politicians of this world but by the crucified and risen Christ. In Christianity, we speak a great deal about “the kingdom” or “reign of God.” We acknowledge the tension between the ways that we experience God’s rule in our lives and in the world now, and the hope in God’s promise to bring to fullness the reconciliation of all things in Christ. In theological terms, this tension resides between the “now and not yet” of God’s kingdom. And it is in this liminal space that we are formed as disciples, where we learn to recognize and bear witness to the inbreaking of God’s reign. It is in this liminal space where we learn how to embody God’s “NO” to the violent, oppressive, and destructive ways of the world. To speak of “Christ the King,” is to speak at once about the reign of God already inaugurated and the reign of God as it is coming into being – something begun but not yet fully realized.

This tension between the now-and-the-not-yet is graphically portrayed in the apocalyptic vision given to John at Patmos. From beginning to end, Revelation opens our imaginations to a world made new by the Almighty God who is, and who was, and who is to come. John insists that, despite the experience of persecution and oppression, the God who stands at the beginning and end of history is not absent from the here and now. God’s reign has already begun, is already present in the world and it is manifest in the lives of God’s people, a people God has formed into a new kingdom, a kingdom of priests who serve God in Christ’s name. In poetic words of praise and worship, John declares that Jesus is the ruler of the kings of the earth, the faithful witness to the resurrected life that characterizes life in God’s kingdom.

In our gospel reading today, Jesus tells Pilate that his kingdom is not of this world and that he was born and came into this world with a singular purpose – to testify to the truth. Pilate’s response was to ask, “What is truth?” Perhaps that question resonates with you this morning. We live in a post-truth world, a world in which the most powerful among us live in the realm of alternative facts and spin narratives created in war-rooms. Political leaders and social influencers seek to maintain their grasp on power by building a culture of fear, keeping us all in a state of panic over what might happen if they lose that power.

But Jesus’ life and ministry, his death and resurrection, expose the great lies of worldly power. Jesus shows us that in his kingdom, we need not be burdened by the fears and anxieties of our social and political circumstances.

Living under the reign of God in Christ means that all aspects of our lives are to be made subject to God, to the ways of Christ, and to the transformative power of the Spirit. The ways in which we live, the ways in which we gather, the ways in which we understand who we are and why we are, are determined not by metrics of best practices but by the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The good news of Jesus Christ is that we need not be burdened any longer by the weight of our social injustices and sins. There is an alternative way of life characterized by grace, truth, freedom, wholeness, and restoration. The place where this is supposed to be most evident is in the gathered community, the Body of Christ in all its diverse, local expressions. We are to be a people not of this world!

In John’s account of Jesus’ final meal with his friends, Jesus gives them a new commandment to love one another and tells them that it is, above all else, this characteristic that will demonstrate to the world that they are his disciples. In other words, the way we treat one another, the love that we share with each other, in the tangible context of our parish community, is supposed to be a sign of the alternative way of life under God’s rule. As a parish, we have articulated this call in our mission to be a welcoming and fearless community that provides an inclusive and caring space for reconciliation and transformation. We have learned to walk in love by welcoming the stranger, by being fearless in the face of tragedy and uncertainty, by opening our hearts and our lives to one another so that all who enter this place might encounter God and experience God’s reconciliation and transformation.

This mission is a tangible expression of our citizenship in a kingdom not of this world. And it is a mission that is more important now, in our present moment, as we look ahead to the coming year and discern together the ministry to which God is calling us. Each one of us have gifts to offer this community and to contribute to our ministry in this world. We each have time, talents, and treasure that enable our common faithful witness to the truth of Jesus Christ in this neighborhood.

Today, when we collect the offering, you’ll be invited to place your pledge cards in the plate as it’s passed. I hope you have been prayerfully considering how you will contribute to our common mission and ministry. If you’ve not yet filled out a pledge card, you can do so in the time we share in sacred silence after the sermon. If you’ve already filled out your card or completed the online pledge form, I invite you to spend that time of silence in prayer for our community and for the work God sends us out to do. As we pray and reflect in that silence, I invite all of us to consider how we too can be faithful witnesses in this time of hyper American-nationalism, in this time of economic disparity, in this time climate crisis. What does it mean for us to be a welcoming and fearless community of reconciliation and transformation in our present moment?

My prayer, dear People of St Peter’s, is that we allow the silence of the next few moments to still our hearts and minds so that we might be open to the dreams of God for our parish community. God’s love has the power to cast out all fear and anxiety. God has been and remains faithfully present with us, enfolding us in the Spirit’s life-giving embrace. As we make our pledges to the mission and ministry God calls us to, let us do so faithfully walking in love with one another.