Christ the King (message of November 22nd)

[GUMC Guam United Methodist Church]

Let me share with you again my message (from my working desk) last Sunday.

 

                                       Christ the King (John 18: 33-37)

 

Many of us are already thinking of Christmas.  The sights and sounds at the malls here in Guam and Manila suggest it won't be long before it's Christmas. And soon it will arrive in our emails or snail mails.  Christmas catalogues were sent more than a month ago, for sure. 

 

For now, in the gospel reading in John 18, we will see not the baby in the manger, but the adult Jesus undergoing trial of which he is accused of being a pseudo king for which the Roman authorities and the religious establishment during his time will not tolerate---no other king but Caesar!

 

Israel always wanted a king, so that it could be more like other nations.  The other nations had kings, and kings have a tendency to act like God.  A king is the embodiment of power. Sovereinty. Prestige.  And so Israel take their chances, they want to have a king.

 

But just as the prophets prophesied and predicted, things did not go well for Israel's monarchy.  Israel experienced great moments and proudly inscribed in their religious history the reign of King David and his son, King Solomon.  But almost all of them such as Joachim, Ahab, and Zedikiah are names nobody remembers.  And one king stood to be remembered as this king, Nebuchadnezzar came from the north, devastated the whole of Israel, destroyed everything of value, and took the best of its citizens back north into cruel exile.  A moment for God's people when they cannot sing songs of their heart, a moment of sadness, and a desire for a king to save them became uppermost in their mind.

 

One day. Some of the prophets like Isaiah, who had been strong critics of the monarchy, said one day Israel would get a king from God who would be worthy of the name.  This king would be known as the Messiah, the anointed one.

 

When a baby named Jesus was born out in the hinterland, in an isolated village of Bethlehem, Matthew said that there were some that saw in this baby great possibilities.

This prophetic word from Matthew must be true. Herod didn't want any other kings troubling the arrangement that he had worked out with the Romans.

 

And so Christ the King is coming to a place and time where he is not wanted or desired.  Not even wanted by his own people. His capture while spending sometime with his friends after his last dinner, kangaroo trial, putting him on a tree to die are all segments of an orchestrated design for him not be recognize as king.

 

In 1925 Pope Pius XI declared and decreed for a special Sunday now known as Christ the King Sunday.  It was declared when both Mussolini and Joseph Stalin were in power and Adolf Hitler's book, Mein Kampf, has just been published.

 

Throughout history, when the title King referred to God, and through his son, Jesus, is being threatened to diminish its  value or being usurped by history's pseudo kings, men and women came out to declare God's kingship and to dedicate their lives to make sure there is only one king.

 

Second century rabbi, Akiba, died witnessing to his commitment to the sovereignty of God. It was during the time of Hadrian--when the relations between the Jews and the Roman authorities disintegrated and the Romans destroyed the Jewish resistance, killed thousands of Jews, forbade the few remaining Jews to practice their religion.  Akiba, who had continued to to teach the Torah against the Roman decree, was imprisoned and brought to trial.  The story is told that the Romans killed him by tearing his flesh from his living body.  Just as he was laying in extreme agony of dying, he suddenly noticed the first streaks of dawn breaking over the eastern hills.  It was the hour when the Law requires each Jew to pronounce the Shema.  Mustering his courage and oblivious to whatever else is happening around him, the great rabbi said, "Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is One.  And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might." He said to his captors,

"I have always loved the Lord with all my might, and with all my heart; now I know that I love him with all my life."  (Patrick D. Miller, "The God You Have: Politics, Religion, and the First Commandment", 2004).

 

On this Sunday, Christ the King Sunday, the church proclaims there is only one king.  The church announces that it bows only to Jesus the Christ.  The king. The church declares that it does not give allegiance to any other person, principality or power claiming to be sovereign. Yet will the church live out its profession?  Forever fearful in this increasingly post-Christian era of losing members and thus losing influence in the community, does the church temper its message and its mission in a desperate effort to maintain position?  Is our main agenda, the reason for being is to maintain a healthy membership list, raise good amount of money to take care of our expenses, be in mission and ministry enough to feel good that we are doing our share?

 

Jesus said, "Everyone who belongs to truth listens to my voice."  But to receive it (truth, leading to abundant life) it means facing the truth about our lives, the truth Jesus holds up before us.

 

Truth in Christ, or truth in a profoundly theological sense can be transforming if we seek it through discerning obedience that asks us to look deeply into who we are and what we have become, to try to live into what we can be, should be.  By looking deeply, we must look at what is right and wrong in our actions and attitudes toward others and within ourselves.

This means that we challenge ourselves to look beyond what we think to be the truth found in God as represented by Jesus.  The truth that Jesus represents is found in God, who is love and grace.  This means we carry on an intense individual and communal dialogue to help ground ourselves.  We do so in private and communal prayer, worship, religious education, meetings, and all the other ways which could be joining fishing fellowship or bowling with in-between breaks sharing of interests how to improve or contribute positively to church life as a people of faith, as active witnesses in the world.

 

Lifting up the cross of Christ, recognizing Christo Rei, was not just Christians humbly and sacrificially offering their lives as rabbi Akiba, and St. Polycarp did, it is being aware that in this post-modern era, we are facing principalities and powers often not seen and yet its effect is felt in places where we see the images of death and symbols of meaningless abound. 

 

The challenges for us could be daunting as our enemy is all around us. Perhaps not the likes of King Herod or Emperor Nero.  It could be the enemy within, something we can't quite put our finger on but its debilitating and subtle signs of death is real. Let us not get discouraged.  Greater is he who is outside of us who will never leave us nor forsake us---Christ the King

Pastor Fred
Guam United Methodist Church