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Last Pentecost / Christ the King2015
John 18:33-37
Many years ago, in fact while I was still a student preparing for ordination, I heard an absolutely brilliant sermon preached on the text, “Pussy Cat, Pussy Cat, where have you been? I’ve been to London to visit the Queen. Pussy Cat, Pussy Cat what did you there? I frightened a mouse under her chair”. That sermon was a real turning point in my theological development because up until that time I would neverhave thought of taking a secular text or image as the lead in to a sermon—using a nursery rhyme to introduce the Word of God seemed like a sacrilege! Real learning starts when school ends.
Shortly after I was ordained,I preached a sermon which could have been titled “Chutes and Ladders and the Kingdom of God.” It was based upon a board game I played as a child and which I later played with my own children when they were small. Looking at that game as a preacher — as a priest trying to proclaim good news to a hurting world — I came to recognize that “Chutes and Ladders”exemplifies a terrible theology. Obviously the point of the game is not to teach theology, but preachers are always on the lookout for sermon illustrations.For those not familiar with the game, players roll the dice and move their pieces along an S-shaped path. As with all these games, reaching the top is the goal. But in “Chutes and Ladders” there's a catch. If you land on one of the spaces with a ladder, you get to climb up quickly over your opponents to a higher place. But if you land on a space with a chute, you will tumble all the way down the path, and you are likely to be the loser.
The point of that sermon was that many people perceive life in the very same way. Life is about getting ahead, about accumulating wealth, fame and power. We use the phrase “Climbing the ladder of success” and that is what drives many of us in this world, including clergy! Conversely, we desperately try to avoid the chutes. Failure of any kind in this world sends us backward down the path of wealth and success and notoriety. When we tumble, we lose ground on our opponents, and in the eyes of the world, we become losers. In short: ladders equal success which is good, chutes equal failure which is bad.
While greeting people on their way out of the church that morning, I received several of the obligatory compliments; “Nice sermon.”“I enjoyed your message.”“You really made me think today.”Then one jerk – I mean parishioner – came through, and made this remark: “Thanks a lot. You just ruined my family’s favorite game.”I thought he was joking, but I never saw him again.Someone once said, “If you throw a stone into a pack of dogs, the one that comes out yelping is likely the one that you hit.” To this day, I try to remember that when someone tells me they didn’t like my sermon.
Today, I’m not preaching about chutes and ladders but another favorite board game from by youth, checkers.I know chess might serve as a better example with all its sophisticated figures of kings, queens, knights, bishops, and pawns, but the truth is I never advanced beyond checkers, and I think this simple game does have a thing or two to teach us about life.
Checkers is also a game about moving forward; advancing toward a goal. The way you get there — the way you succeed in checkers — is to conquer your opponent. Jump them and they no longer exist. Double-jump them and they disappear faster. As a child, my dad and I played for hours on end. I don’t know if he was just lucky or I was a poor player, but I seldom won. Generally if I don’t win a game at least occasionally, I’ll give up and quit, but with checkers I just kept going.The lure of winning was addictive.
The game changes dramatically when a player reaches the opposite edge of the board. When one lands on that far side, you look your opponent in the eye and proudly say, “King me!” Our opponent puts one of our own captured pieces on top of the checkerwhich made it through enemy lines to that far side, and now we are declared “king”. Kings are to be feared, you know. Kings can go anywhere they want to go and virtually do anything they want to do. Whoever is “kinged” first holds power and advantage over his opponent, and stands a much better chance of winning the game. Understand that basic fact, and you understand human nature, which says that power is everything, wealth is everything, and winning is everything —in checkers and in life.
When Jesus stood before Pontius Pilate a few hours before his death on the cross, he disagreed. When Pilate asked him for his credentials, Jesus could have called down legions of angels and just walked out of the palace without breaking a sweat. If Jesus had chosen to assert his authority as the Son of God, he could have merely raised his voice and Pilate would have melted. He could have said, “King me!” and he would have won the day. But then there would have been no cross. There would have been no Easter and there would have been no forgiveness for our sins and no reconciliation with God. InSt. John’s account of this kangaroo court, Jesus willinglylets Pilate think that he has the upper hand. He lets Pilate interrogate him like a common criminal. This most unusual king believed in love more than power, and that so baffled Pilate that he did not recognize the nature of the individual who stood directly in front of him. But we shouldn’t blame Pilate; he was merely a creature of this world. Blame Jesus. Jesus modeled the belief that power is not everything. Wealth is not everything. Winning is not everything – and that does not make sense to earthbound creatures like us.
In 1980, Jimmy Carter lost his bid for reelection as president to Ronald Reagan. He returned home to Plains, Georgia, a broken man. Even fellow Democrats turned their backs on this embarrassment of a president. Out of the limelight, he began to quietly work on issues that were important to him as a Christian. He continued to speak out for peace in a world that is bent on war.He gave time and energy to a struggling organization called Habitat for Humanity. He advocated for people of poverty. He continued to teach Sunday school each week at the local Baptist Church which he had attended most of his life. Like all members of that small congregation, he took his turn mowing the church’s lawn, while his wife, Rosalynn, cleaned the church’s bathrooms.
In 2002, Jimmy Carter was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, in the words of the Committee, “for his decades of untiring effort to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights, and to promote economic and social development”. A short time later, author and journalist Phillip Yanceyasked Carter to reflect on his life as an engineer, a Naval officer, a peanut farmer, a governor, and a president. He then asked Carter, which phase of his life did he enjoy most? President Carter thought for a moment and then responded, “Now.” How ironic, that Jimmy Carter was once considered a “loser” in this nation's eyes, and now he is one of the most respected people in the world. According to Yancey, “If someone held a contest for the best ex-president” – and I do acknowledge the prefix “ex” – Jimmy Carter would win hands down.” It causes me to wonder, if what we long for in this life is to be admired, respected and loved, why then do we spend most of our time trying to be successful, powerful and feared? What do these qualities have to do with Jesus standing before Pilate, refusing to act like a king whomthe world would recognize and want to follow?
In his book Faces of JesusFredrick Buechner writes: If the world is sane, then Jesus is mad as a hatter, and the Last Supper is the Mad Hatter’s Tea Party.The world says, “Mind your own business” and Jesus says, “There is no such thing as your own business.”The world says, “Follow the wisest course and be a success” and Jesus says, “Follow me and be crucified.”The world says, “Drive carefully — the life you save may be your own” and Jesus says, “Whoever would save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.”The world says, “Law and order” and Jesus says “Love.” The world says,“Get” and Jesus says, “Give.”In terms of the world's sanity, Jesus is as crazy as a coot, and anybody who thinks he can follow him without also being a little crazy is laboring less under the cross and more undera delusion. “We are fools for Christ's sake,” the Apostle Paul says. “Ultimately the foolishness of God is wiser than the wisdom of men, the lunacy of Jesus is saner than the grim sanity of the world.”
We are well into the silly season occasioned by a presidential campaign. Often hidden behind altruistic language focused on serving the people, we see in virtually all candidates a quest for raw power, status and prestige. Of course no politician would ever admit to such a thing, but in the eloquent language of Donald Trump, a voter would have to be pretty stupid not to spot it. It feels so good, at least to me, to have a little breaka few days from now from all this electioneering nonsense as we celebrate Thanksgiving. More than any other American holiday, even more than Independence Day, Thanksgiving embodies the virtues which underlie this great nation. Thanksgiving is rooted not only in the quest of our pilgrim ancestors to be free from the regal trappings and royal prerogatives of earthly monarchsbut in the acknowledgement that God is the creator of this world and the source of all our blessings .
Such an acknowledgement flies in the face of the “king me” mentality of the world in which we live. In a society which unashamedly proclaims, “Me first!”Jesus challenges us to adopt a creed which says, “Others first.” And so we are presented today with two models of kingship. I invite you to stop playing games, and to decide which king you will serve.