A Sermon by Canon Maggie Guite
Christ the King C November 20th 2016
Linton and Horsheath.
Psalm 46, Colossians 1.11-20, Luke 23.33-43
I’ve heard that when someone was writing round to ask famous people about their favourite Bible verses, Mrs Thatcher chose a verse from Psalm 46 (in the Coverdale version v. 6 – ‘God is in the midst of her, therefore shall she not be removed; God shall help her, and that right early.’
I don’t know if this story is true or not, and if it is, what Mrs Thatcher gained from those words, but when we ehar it told, it rises a wry smile: Mrs Thatcher was herself rather suddenly removed, and with not a great deal of dignity….
Nothing and nobody lasts for ever in the political world!
But these words were written in the psalm of course, about Jerusalem – and we can read many similar passages about God’s protection of the Holy city. And yet, in Old Testament times Jerusalem was very far from secure; it was besieged and conquered by the Babylonians, and even after its people had been allowed back to rebuild it, it was never safe, never fully independent again. It seems that there may have been a time earlier in the Old Testament era when a rather remarkable deliverance of het city did take place –when an army of the feared Assyrians broke their siege and went home –either because of terrible sickness in their camp, or because of plotting against the Assyrian emperor at home which made him leave Judaea. Ort it could be that both these things happened, each on a separate occasion. The hints are there in the book of Isaiah; this occasion, or these occasions, may have become the basis for a belief that God would always miraculously defend his Holy City – but, as we know, right up to the time of Jesus and beyond, this triumphant hope was frequently sadly disappointed.
Even today, Jerusalem is a divided city, and as such, not recognised as the capital of Israel by many nations- although it looks as though the incoming American administration may do so – and whether that is a good thing, you will have to decide for yourself.
And yet, Jerusalem remains the ideal; if you go there, you can’t help feeling that it’s a place fraught with significance, as well as with tension. Mediaeval mapmakers always showed it as the centre of the world; it si a symbol for us of our heavenly home, and we sing of it in those terms in many hymns.
How can Jerusalem be this wonderful place, when it has for so long been such a political and military football, so full of hatreds and divisions and people treating each other really badly?
There’s a disjunction between the language of faith and the language of brute reality. If Jerusalem is a spiritually powerful place, the city of Peace, its spiritual power is hidden and distorted by so much of what goes on there.
Of course, there are people, oth Jews and Christians – and probably Moslems, too, form their own perspective, who look forward to the last days – a time when Jerusalem’s true meaning will be restored in the sight of a all the nations – a time of God’s intervention. Many of the hopes about this are expressed in violent and apocalyptic terms, which may repel those of us who would rather that Jerusalem should become a place of peace in the normal meaning of the term without some terrible final battle between the nations focussed on that city.
Today the church brings its year to a close with the Fesast of Christ the King. Of course, itis what he did in Jerusalem which makes that city so significant for us Christians ; the Gospel reading tells us the heart of the matter – that Christ reigned from his throne, which was a cross, outside the city walls on a rubbish heap, and he reigned in a way that no politician would recognise as rule or authority.
The epistle reading, from Colossians, tells us that this reign of Christ – this kingship from the throne of the cross – is not simply a matter of psychology: it’s not just about having won people’s minds and hearts by his humility;. It’s not just about us being loyal to him because we admire him, It’s about a rule which is absolutely cosmic and very real. He has authority over thrones, dominions, rulers and powers, because, in a way and at a time which is hidden from our eyes, they and all things were created in him (Col. 1.16), and in him all things hold together (Col. 1. 17).This is mind-blowing language, and it certainly takes us beyond what we can experience or understand. But it is the confident claim of the writers of the New Testament, that Jesus Christ, the one who was crucified, is indeed the source of all authority, and will gather it all back to himself again one day.
I don’t know how to imagine all this. I do know that some of the language of hymns and songs about Christ’s majesty, his enthronement, occasionally grate for me alongside the picture I have of him upon the cross, responding to a wretched fellow-sufferer with compassion and hope. The picture of a middle-eastern potentate seems so far from the portrait which St Luke depicts for us of a Jesus who could promise a kingdom to a thief.
Yet I have to hold these different strands of faith together – believing that Christ’s ultimate cosmic authority is very hidden and obscured by the facts of his life and death in Jerusalem two thousand years ago, but not overridden. But I must confess to finding it hard to entertain the very clear picture of Christ’s future coming and turning the tables and revealing himself fully, in an overwhelming intervention, which many other Christians seem to be able to grasp and construct from the pages of het Bible with such confidence.
Speaking for myself, the kingship of Christ is very real, but vey much a matter of hiddenness. I have no doubt at all that l who encountered him in his fleshly life were struck forcibly by an inner authority which no one could account for, and that it was his true nature. I have no doubt that he spoke of the coming of the Son of Man, and of judgement and reversals; in a final age; but none of it can I imagine too clearly. It remains a deep mystery to me.
But the clearer picture I have of the kingship of Christ is enough – enough to give me confidence that in all sorts of ways which are hidden, even in a world which seems deeply divided, violent and self-destructive,, his kingdom is coming, his will is being served, by people who are themselves very obscure and hidden, hardly registered on the world’s news. There is a reality which we cannot see or explain, a yeast working in the lump, a light flashing out through chinks in the world’s darkness, and Christ’s authority and power are being exercised where people least expect it.
Christ is king, yes – a hidden and mysterious king – but no less real and effective for that. And Jerusalem for all its horrors and injustice, is still a holy city set in a holy land, because there he once walked and taught and preached and healed; and there he suffered, died and rose again. In the end, his most startling exercise of power and authority – authority over death itself – was also a hidden and mysterious event, not noticed by the majority of the world. And yet it’s the great truth by which all else hangs – the truth that he has made peace for the universe through the blood of his cross, and that in him all things hold together. And one day we shall see; and one day we shall understand, as much as is needful for us; and, until that day, we can live in the light of the mystery, and profess Christ as our King., with hope.