Christ the King

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Colombian Orchids - Courtesy of Agnes Epp
It's Christ the King Sunday today.

I didn't know that until the pastor announced it at Hively Avenue Mennonite this morning. The sermon was about king, kingdom and the role of subjects of the kingdom of which Jesus speaks when Pilate asks him if he is, or isn't, a king.(John 18: 33-37)


I'm not enthusiastic about kings and queens generally; to me the terms and the political structures they represent are anachronistic at best, archaic at least, and probably representative of multiple evils of power, pomp and class systems . . . always. But in order to emphasize that Jesus is the maker, the finisher of the Christian faith, and God's “governor general” on earth, there had to be a time when the right word was king.
 

Then there's the even more used “Lord,” and the question of whether written in capitals (LORD) as opposed to Lord is significant. I read somewhere that LORD should be used only for God and Lord was permissible when referring to Christ.
 

I suppose the growing Community of Christians could be referred to as a commonwealth and it's leader as its Prime Minister and the intent would be the same . . . but the connotations simply don't make it; I've known too many Presidents and Prime Ministers to allow me to accept that image.


Words, words, words. They always fall short—or beside—what we really want to say. Furthermore, we fall into the trap of making the word the final arbiter of meaning when it's the thought it's struggling to represent that matters. In other words, what are Jesus, the gospel, my heritage of belief to me? Do king, kingdom, subject suffice to describe what my faith is about? Yours?
 

For me, teacher and student come closer to describing how I understand my relationship to the gospel and to the Christ at its core. There's an interchange, an allowance for questioning, a possibility for adding to what the teacher has taught from the ongoing witness of life in whatever age the class is convened. And a good teacher (I've assumed from the gospels that Jesus was highly skilled) doesn't dismiss either the questions or the insights of his students; a working classroom is a generous classroom, forgiving, encouraging, supportive, collegial. My best teachers were not masters, they were friends.
 

I have some positive feelings toward parent and child as representative of the human relationship to the Creator, but because children grow up and may justifiably be said to surpass the parent in every way, this paradigm also has its weaknesses.
 

Some scriptures (can't remember which today) characterize this relationship as master and slave; there may well be folks who find these terms best suit their understanding. Not me. Not now.


I'm sure that Christians who live in dire circumstances, as the early Church did, would very easily come to long for a revolutionary, protective, powerful king-like leader. A king who could match, even overthrow, the Pilates and the Herods who oppress them. I must say that when I see the refugees streaming out of Syria and Africa, I am almost tempted to wish for such a king. Forget the “my kingdom is not of this world” bit; it's this world in which those poor people are suffering.
 

Christ the King Sunday ends the Christian calendar year; we're launched next Sunday into Advent, then Christmas.
 

So what does Christmas mean to you? I mean, really? Bet you can't find the right words. And don't refer to the McDonald's paper mug, please.


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