Homily
Solemnity of Christ the King
Christ the King Parish, Topeka
23/24 November 2013
End of the Year of Faith
Readings
Michael Jackson is the king of pop. Elvis the king of rock. Simba is the king of the jungle. Lebron is King James of the basketball world. Perhaps, in a country whose freedom was gained through the toppling of a tyrant king, and who elects a president instead, talk of kings could sound anachronistic. Yet we are not immune to anointing kings. In fact, we still love to do it. Whenever we lack a king, we want to anoint one. We love to find out who dominates in their particular area of reality We love to point out who demands submission, who reigns over his competitors, the one who has power and fame. We love to anoint kings today as much as we ever have. We still love kings, and what is more, we still love seeing them fall.
A king is different than a president. Way different. A president serves at our pleasure. He is elected. A president has great power, but a king is more. A king commands obedience. There is no kingship where there is divided loyalty. Kingship is absolute. It demands submission. When we declare Jesus to be King, then, we are doing something extraordinarily profound. It is not something we can or should do lightly, especially here as we celebrate the namesake of our parish - Christ the King! We are here today to do nothing less than worship. And worship is something different from anything else we do. Worship demands submission. We do not worship that which we elect or that which serves at our pleasure. No, we worship that which is greater than us. To worship is to submit, so if we are here to worship, and to do nothing less than worship, then it is fitting - it is required really, to proclaim Jesus Christ to be our Lord and King!
Today we submit ourselves to the author of all creation, to the one more powerful than the Big Bang because he existed before it happened. We bow down before one whose kingdom does not just occupy a vast portion of the time and space of the universe, but one whose kingdom is alone universal and eternal. Because his kingdom is founded by spiritual not temporal realities - by truth and love - it is a kingdom that even the one with the power to launch a nuclear weapon is powerless to destroy. This kingdom is ultimate, and this kingdom belongs to Christ our King. Whenever we say the personal name of Jesus, then, it is right and fitting to anoint him as our king at the same time. Jesus is the Christ. He is the anointed one. Jesus is the Lord. Jesus is king.
Yet the incomparable power of Jesus our King lies not ultimately in his power to rule and to judge and to dominate. Remarkably, the unique power of Christ lies in just the opposite. Jesus Christ is King not only because his kingdom is bigger and more powerful and lasts longer than any other kingdom imaginable. No, he is king because his kingship explodes all categories of kingship. Jesus is through his kingship the only and ultimate definition of what a king is, and anyone else's kingship is illusory and fleeting unless it shares in the kingship of Christ.
For Jesus Christ is King not simply because he existed before, and is the author of the Big Bang and all that comes after. He is powerful even moreso because He can also make himself small enough to be born in the cold, in abject poverty. He is powerful even moreso in that he can ride into his capital city not with a secret service or an army, but on a donkey, and still his kingship is never touched or threatened. He is powerful enough to hand himself over to his enemies without losing his kingship, allowing himself to be judged by one lesser than he, and to be spat upon and mocked as the most ignoble of kings under the pathetic sign - Ieusus Nazarenus Rex Ieudaeorum. This power shown by our king, a power to increase his kingship by giving himself over in love to one's enemies, is a power greater than the Big Bang. It is the power of sacrificial love shown by our King that is the true ground of all reality. It is this ultimate power that makes Christ the ultimate and incomparable and only real King.
The power of our king to give himself away in love then, is what we have ultimately come to worship. It is our king's choice to be a lamb slaughtered before us on this altar, that precedes his ultimate coming as king to judge heaven and earth. It is this truth, the truth that is Jesus, the truth that he represents and that He is, that we have come to worship. For anyone who belongs to ultimate truth, sees the truth that is Jesus, and declares Him alone to be King. Amen.
Solemnity of Christ the King
Christ the King Parish, Topeka
23/24 November 2013
End of the Year of Faith
Readings
Michael Jackson is the king of pop. Elvis the king of rock. Simba is the king of the jungle. Lebron is King James of the basketball world. Perhaps, in a country whose freedom was gained through the toppling of a tyrant king, and who elects a president instead, talk of kings could sound anachronistic. Yet we are not immune to anointing kings. In fact, we still love to do it. Whenever we lack a king, we want to anoint one. We love to find out who dominates in their particular area of reality We love to point out who demands submission, who reigns over his competitors, the one who has power and fame. We love to anoint kings today as much as we ever have. We still love kings, and what is more, we still love seeing them fall.A king is different than a president. Way different. A president serves at our pleasure. He is elected. A president has great power, but a king is more. A king commands obedience. There is no kingship where there is divided loyalty. Kingship is absolute. It demands submission. When we declare Jesus to be King, then, we are doing something extraordinarily profound. It is not something we can or should do lightly, especially here as we celebrate the namesake of our parish - Christ the King! We are here today to do nothing less than worship. And worship is something different from anything else we do. Worship demands submission. We do not worship that which we elect or that which serves at our pleasure. No, we worship that which is greater than us. To worship is to submit, so if we are here to worship, and to do nothing less than worship, then it is fitting - it is required really, to proclaim Jesus Christ to be our Lord and King!
Today we submit ourselves to the author of all creation, to the one more powerful than the Big Bang because he existed before it happened. We bow down before one whose kingdom does not just occupy a vast portion of the time and space of the universe, but one whose kingdom is alone universal and eternal. Because his kingdom is founded by spiritual not temporal realities - by truth and love - it is a kingdom that even the one with the power to launch a nuclear weapon is powerless to destroy. This kingdom is ultimate, and this kingdom belongs to Christ our King. Whenever we say the personal name of Jesus, then, it is right and fitting to anoint him as our king at the same time. Jesus is the Christ. He is the anointed one. Jesus is the Lord. Jesus is king.
Yet the incomparable power of Jesus our King lies not ultimately in his power to rule and to judge and to dominate. Remarkably, the unique power of Christ lies in just the opposite. Jesus Christ is King not only because his kingdom is bigger and more powerful and lasts longer than any other kingdom imaginable. No, he is king because his kingship explodes all categories of kingship. Jesus is through his kingship the only and ultimate definition of what a king is, and anyone else's kingship is illusory and fleeting unless it shares in the kingship of Christ.
For Jesus Christ is King not simply because he existed before, and is the author of the Big Bang and all that comes after. He is powerful even moreso because He can also make himself small enough to be born in the cold, in abject poverty. He is powerful even moreso in that he can ride into his capital city not with a secret service or an army, but on a donkey, and still his kingship is never touched or threatened. He is powerful enough to hand himself over to his enemies without losing his kingship, allowing himself to be judged by one lesser than he, and to be spat upon and mocked as the most ignoble of kings under the pathetic sign - Ieusus Nazarenus Rex Ieudaeorum. This power shown by our king, a power to increase his kingship by giving himself over in love to one's enemies, is a power greater than the Big Bang. It is the power of sacrificial love shown by our King that is the true ground of all reality. It is this ultimate power that makes Christ the ultimate and incomparable and only real King.
The power of our king to give himself away in love then, is what we have ultimately come to worship. It is our king's choice to be a lamb slaughtered before us on this altar, that precedes his ultimate coming as king to judge heaven and earth. It is this truth, the truth that is Jesus, the truth that he represents and that He is, that we have come to worship. For anyone who belongs to ultimate truth, sees the truth that is Jesus, and declares Him alone to be King. Amen.
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