25th Nov 2007CHRIST THE KING
Fr Julian Browning
Jeremiah 23 : 1 – 6 ; Colossians 1 : 11 – 20 ; Luke 23 : 33 - 43
I preached on the Feast of Christ the King in this church last year. It was a very dull sermon that day. The sermon was full of information we didn't need. It was about kings, it was about kingship, and the shepherd kings of the Old Testament, and it had a persistent monarchist theme which gets very irritating after a bit. Our religious life, our Christianity, and maybe your worthy lives can be a bit like a dull sermon, if you don't mind me dragging you into it at this point.
The year ends on a high note. It ends where our new way of living will begin, at a place called Calvary...
We know it all, we believe most of it, we practise some of it, yet
still our lives don't catch fire, and so there's no warmth given out
for others either. Religion is about catching fire, God getting through
to us, us reaching out to each other, each of us learning the truth
about ourselves. Without those revelations we get stuck in part time
religion, wondering whether we are Christian at all. We deserve better
than that. We have been offered what St.Paul calls a share in the
inheritance of the saints of light. This year I must try to tell you
what I didn't tell you last year. What we are offered is a way of
living, a way of loving, a way of dying, so wonderful that it can never
be described fully. It is a way of life so mysterious, so deep, that we
can not imagine for ourselves; it is given to us. My kingdom is not of
this world, said Jesus. Jesus takes us out of our little selves, where
we are in charge, to a world beyond worlds, where he's in charge. But
there's a difference. We think of kingship in terms of power and
control. Jesus doesn't; Christ the King is Christ the servant of all.
It isn't easy getting to grips with that idea, I know. It isn't easy,
because all the time we want to be in control, as little kings again,
we want to know it all, and then we can make our decisions. So it is
threatening to be told that the only way to this wonderful new life
I've talked about, is to follow, not to lead. To follow a King not
knowing where he is taking you. Even to Calvary. When we bear the
wounds of Christ, we share his glory as King. Then we reach out to
others on their crosses, and comfort them. That is the 'getting
through' of real religion, not a triumphalist knowing it all. Today is
a sort of end of term treat, the end of the Church year, the end we've
been trying to reach, knowing what it's all been for.
The Feast of Christ the King is a modern feast, if, like me, you regard
1925 as modern. That's when Pope Pius XI instituted the Feast, and the
date is significant because that was an era which saw dictatorships
growing in Europe, and the rise of a secular way of looking at our
lives, which was turning religion into a part time thing, just a hobby,
to make you feel better. The state was taking control. So one of the
themes of this Feast was and is religious freedom. Jesus crosses the
boundaries of our human lives, leads us beyond them. So too, the way of
Jesus, what we call Christianity, is not confined within national or
ethnic boundaries. Christ is king of the cosmos, the whole world. His
kingdom is limitless, without definition. What is it then? His Kingdom
is what we make of it each day, when the Holy Spirit calls out to us.
We fear that sort of freedom to act, we fear open spaces, infinity, not
knowing, but freedom is God's gift to us. As St Paul says in today's
epistle: He has delivered us from the dominion of darkness and
transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son. That is somewhere
where the new dictators of our time, the very clever atheist scientists
and philosophers, can not, or will not follow. They want to set the
boundaries, define the terms, restrict the language, control the
knowledge, and see us live by bread alone. Atheists are long in science
and short of humour. It infuriates them to be told that, however big
their universe becomes, Christ the King has the greater reach.
Thou art a sea without a shore,
A sun without a sphere;
Thy time is now and evermore
Thy place is everywhere.
The feast of Christ the King is a triumphant day. The year ends on a
high note. It ends where our new way of living will begin, at a
place called Calvary, the scene of today's Gospel. You will remember
that two thieves were crucified with him. They represent us, they are
humanity. One knew he had lost all, he railed against this loss of
power, and projected this on to Jesus, rather in the cynical way that
the clever world mocks Christianity today: Are you not the Messiah?
Save yourself and us! Today we look across at Christ from the other
cross. We look ahead to where Jesus is going to lead us. 'Jesus
remember me when you come into your kingdom.' And Jesus replies, 'Truly
I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise.'