Year B, Pentecost 29 – Christ the King Sunday
(Video begins at 20:15)
In the Name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Good Morning. Most of y’all probably know me by now. I am Charlie Jordan. I am a native of Conway. I grew up at Trinity Methodist just down the street, and my parents still live in my childhood home on Lakeside Drive behind St. Paul’s.
I have practiced law in Myrtle Beach for 28 years, and like other lawyers before like Thomas Becket and John Calvin, I am giving up the law for the church, and Bishop Ruth has sent me here with you.
I appreciate Kevin allowing me in his pulpit this Sunday. Before I begin, I do want to disclose that most all of my sermons are aspirational – in other words, I recognize that although I am standing in this pulpit in this dress, I am in just as much need of God’s grace as anyone else and that any sermon I give is addressed first of all to me.
Today is Christ the King Sunday. This is the Church’s newest feast day, being established by Pope Pius XI in 1925 to remind us of Paul’s statement in Philippians 3:20, that our citizenship is in the Kingdom of Heaven and not in the kingdoms, regimes, and republics of this world.
And so this Sunday brings us to Pilate’s examination of Jesus as told to us in John’s Gospel. The word “King” in Hebrew is “Messiah” and in Greek, it is “Christ,” and so Pilate asks Jesus a legitimate question – Are you the King, the Messiah, the Christ of the Jewish people? And if so, what is your claim to the throne, and is your allegiance to Ceasar?
Jesus responds with one of his many enigmatic statements – “My Kingdom is not from this world.” Too often we in the church take this statement to mean that Christ’s Kingdom is somewhere out there in space and time. That His Kingdom is only available to us after we die and in the Resurrection. If you are from the South, we have all been to a revival or two or three where the question was asked “If you died tonight where would you go?”
This understanding of the Kingdom, however, is not what Jesus has in mind. If you were here for Father Kevin’s institution, in the Gospel lesson (Luke 10:1-9) we read of Jesus sending out seventy-two apostles to go ahead of him into every town and place where Jesus intended to go. Their message was simple – “The Kingdom of God has come near to you.” You see, Christ’s Kingdom is not simply about where we go when we die, but his Kingdom is about where we go now when we are still very much alive. Christ’s Kingdom is not somewhere out there, but it is right here with us and within us, right now.
Throughout John’s Gospel, Jesus is very clear that his kingdom may not be of or from this world, but it certainly is in this world. (John 17) In other words, Christ’s Kingdom is not based upon the power structures of this world – it does not seek to enforce its will through violence or shaming or otherwise – but Christ’s Kingdom is very here, very present, and very now. Christ’s Kingdom inverts the power structures of this world, it means loving your neighbor, regarding others as better than yourself, taking up your cross, being the servant of all, and ministering to the least of these. Christ’s Kingdom means that we who walk with Jesus are becoming like he is.
The question then is what does Christ’s Kingdom look like in our lives, at St. Anne’s, and in Conway, South Carolina? In thinking through this question, and since our reading is from John’s gospel this morning, I thought of two situations where Jesus himself is a working, living example of his Kingdom coming upon another person.
The first story is the Story of the Samaritan Woman at the Well in John 4. You know the story. Jesus and his disciples are on the road and stop at a well. A Samaritan woman comes to the well. We know that women were marginalized in Ancient Near Eastern society and that Jews (like Jesus and his disciples) regarded Samaritans as being both impure in their religion and impure in their ethnicity. They were on the margins of society. And we also know that the village well was one of those few places where women would gather in public. But in this case, the Woman was by herself. She was part of a marginalized people, but she herself was marginalized by these same people. And as her conversation with Jesus unfolds, we know why – she has had five husbands, and she’s not married to the man she is currently with. She was an outcast.
Despite her status, or lack therefore, as a woman, a Samaritan, and shunned by her peers, Jesus engages her in conversation. You see, Jesus sees her humanity. He sees that image of God that is within us all, and he calls that out. Jesus doesn’t seek to help her by chastising her for that which was wrong, ugly, or distorted in her life, rather he sees that likeness of the Divine within her and tells her that she matters. He discloses to her that he is the Messiah and the King and the Living Water from which Eternal Life springs.
As a result of this conversation, she runs back to her village which has effectively shunned her, proclaiming Jesus as the Christ, the King. This woman, this Samaritan, this outcast, becomes the first apostle – the first one to proclaim Jesus’s Kingship – in John’s Gospel.
The second story is from John 8 and is the Woman Caught in Adultery. Again, I assume you know the story. A woman is caught in adultery. The good, law-abiding, and upstanding religious leaders drag her before Jesus and correctly quote the Bible that the punishment is death by stoning.
Jesus looks at these good, law-abiding religious leaders and says whoever lives in perfect accordance with God’s will and whoever has no need for God’s grace and forgiveness has the right to throw the first stone of judgment and condemnation. As time passes, every good, law-abiding religious leader realizes that they too are sinners in the hands of a merciful God and so they too put down their stones. Jesus, who is the only one with the moral and juridical authority to pass judgment against the woman simply looks at her and says – “I do not condemn you either.”
So, let’s get back to the question – what does Christ’s Kingdom look like right now in our lives? What does it look like when the love, and the grace, and the power of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ comes near? How is it that we, like the Apostles, can bring Christ’s Kingdom near in Conway, South Carolina?
We bring Christ’s Kingdom near whenever and wherever we follow in his footsteps. We do this by loving the person in front of us and by treating them with the respect and the dignity due solely to our common humanity and the image of God that dwells within them – regardless of their language, ethnicity, economic class, who they voted for in the last election, or even their religion.
It means that when we see that image of God in every single person we meet, our calling is not to condemn them when they fall short of the image, but to call out that beautiful image that exists within them and by calling out that image we call out that very Divine image within ourselves.
Whenever we serve others in our community – at the Shepherd’s Table, or Churches Assisting People, or the Salvation Army – then Christ’s Kingdom is very near in Conway, South Carolina.
Whenever, we break down the walls that divide us from one another, when there is no longer a “them” and an “us,” when we seek out reconciliation and not division – then Christ’s Kingdom is very near in Conway, South Carolina.
When you take sides with the marginalized in society, with those whom our society has pushed aside or overlooks, then Christ’s Kingdom is very near in Conway, South Carolina.
When we put down our stones of judgment and condemnation of others, when we love our neighbors as ourselves, when we use the Scriptures and the name of Jesus to lift people up and to comfort them with God’s Grace and not as a means to keep them marginalized and excluded, then Christ’s Kingdom is very near in Conway, South Carolina.
Like the 72 that Jesus sent out, our calling is simply to go, to go and to proclaim in word and action that the Kingdom of Christ Jesus is near, in Conway, South Carolina.
Now, every Kingdom, Regime, or Republic has its own loyalty oaths. When I became a lawyer I took an with to uphold the Constitutions of the State of South Carolina and of the United States of America. We have the Pledge of Allegiance and the national anthem. And so I want to end with what I believe is a sufficient loyalty oath for that very present Kingdom of Jesus Christ that is not of this world but is in the world. That oath of allegiance is found in the last several affirmations of our baptismal covenant. And so as I read these provisions, please respond “I will with God’s help” to signal your allegiance to the Kingdom of Christ Jesus:
- Will you continue in the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of the bread, and in the prayers? I will, with God’s help.
- Will you persevere in resisting evil, and, whenever you fall into sin, repent and return to the Lord? I will, with God’s help.
- Will you proclaim by word and example the Good News of God in Christ? I will, with God’s help.
- Will you seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving your neighbor as yourself? I will, with God’s help.
- Will you strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of every human being? I will, with God’s help.
Amen!