Emily Schaming
The first snowfall of the year always reminds me of childhood. It reminds me of wet snow pants, mittens drying over the register, the never-obeyed rule of no snowball fights in the schoolyard- and the game that I think has been played by children ever since snow was first ploughed into a pile, "King of the Castle". For those of you who don't remember the game, if I recall correctly it consisted of the scrappiest kid in the class clawing his (or her) way past the other children to the top of a snow bank and then yelling at the other kids, "I'm the King of the Castle and you're the Dirty Rascal". If they managed to get the whole sentence out before they in turn were tackled by the second-scrappiest kid. Of course, the game had no clear purpose, but did have the advantage of fitting nicely into a fifteen-minute recess break.
So there it is- society in miniature. Being on top and staying on top seems to be the object, and almost everyone knows it. Today is known as Christ the King Sunday. Interesting then, that we choose a gospel reading describing the worst kind of humiliation any person, let alone any king, could experience. Here we have Jesus, hanging on the cross, experiencing his least kingly moment. Or so it would seem.
But for Jesus this is business as usual. This is what one author calls Jesus' upside-down and inside out way of doing things. Here is a man who spent his life subverting the norm. He ate when he was supposed to fast. He worked when he was supposed to rest. He hung out with all the wrong people. He believed in unconditional forgiveness and that those who are persecuted are blessed. He taught the way of service, that the way to the top starts at the very bottom.
When he hung there that day and forgave those whom he would have been justified in never forgiving; when he hung there that day and extended love to a criminal, when he hung there that day and truly believed that the path he was following, hanging there to die, was the path to paradise, he was doing the same thing in the same way he had all along. He was upending the world's notions of what it means to be a king, of what it means to have power, of what it means to be a human being, of what God is really about.
What Rules Our Lives?
What does it mean to be a king in our society? We do not refer frequently to Queen Elizabeth when making our decisions. It is a complicated question when we ask ourselves who -or what- really rules our lives. One theory was put to the test in the documentary Super Size Me. The central figure of the film, a man who eats nothing but McDonald's food for a month, does an informal survey of some American schoolchildren who are around six years old. The children are shown a series of portraits, ranging from George W. Bush to George Washington to Jesus. The only picture the children are able to identify with certainty is the one depicting Ronald McDonald. Their eyes light up when they see his red hair and they happily expound on all of the wonderful things Ronald does, giving them toys, a playground, birthday parties.
We certainly live in a world ruled by marketing experts. How do we shift the focus of our lives? Jim Stentzel of the Washington Sojourners Fellowship says, "If I were a super strong, determined, stubborn, disciplined, organized person I could single-handedly overthrow a lifetime of captivity to the North American consumer culture. But I'm one who makes New Year's resolutions that last about a week. I buy into the televised good life even as I profess my belief in higher things. I am a creature of the Fall whose appetite has moved far beyond mere apples. I need help when it comes to more responsible use of God-given resources."
Do we really want the lonely freedom that being the King of the Castle gives us? The freedom to do what we want, buy what we want, go where we want? Or do we prefer the bondage of companionship with Christ the King, and the difficult road that leads from doing what God wants us to, buying what God wants us to, and going where God wants us to go? Christ the King is a difficult master, mostly because he asks us to consider other people as much as we consider ourselves.
The Jesus Paradox
Jesus also seems to be a bit of a paradoxical king. For example, if I were to say to you, "king of the beasts", you would probably think of a lion, the usual image we have. Now I've never met a lion, but I think that they probably earned their title because of their skill and strength when hunting down their prey. Even though he is called a king, Jesus is not usually compared to a lion, but to a lamb. Lambs are not really known for their skill and strength in hunting down prey. In fact, I have never even heard of a lamb attack. It is in this image of a small, defenseless, spindly-legged creature that we see the feebleness and oddity of Jesus' claim to kingship- he is not a king that any society would choose as a ruler.
Christ the King Sunday is a relatively new addition to the church year. It was added by Pope Pius XI in 1925 as a response to the rise of Mussolini in Italy and other political and economic events around the world that the Pope felt were eroding the rule of Christ. That is why today we assert the gospel message - the message that Christ is in charge. And we assert the gospel message that not only is Christ in charge – but the peace that we need, the hope we need, can be found in him, now, today. But as Jesus himself said to the disciples on the night of his betrayal, the peace he gives – is not the peace the world can give.
In contrast to every other king, Christ is unguarded. He does not have the protection of armies. He rejects self-defense. Is this supposed to be kingship? It seems more like a scandal. And yet, to repress Christ's title of king is to repress the revolutionary nature of his kingdom. The crucified king is also the key to Christ's uniqueness. In celebrating Christ the King at the end of the church year, we force ourselves to remember the fact of our salvation. God has spoken, become flesh, in a way that defies our ordinary humanity. Our hunger for pre-eminence, our desire for dominance, which may well motivate our every choice and decision, is denied by this king.
Philosopher René Girard says, "It can be shown, I believe, that there is not a single action or word attributed to Jesus—including those that seem harshest at first sight—that is not consistent with the rule of the Kingdom. It is absolute fidelity to the principle defined in his own preaching that condemns Jesus. There is no other cause for his death than the love of one's neighbor lived to the very end."
And that is essential to remember as we declare Christ not only as the King of the Universe but as King of our lives.
What Does Power Mean?
What does it mean to our daily lives to declare Christ as King? It means using the power we have been given as Jesus would use it. The Spiderman tagline is that "with great power comes great responsibility", which is certainly true. But if we are to follow Jesus as our king we must realize that with all power comes great responsibility.
J. Allan Peterson tells a story about a small boy who was consistently late coming home from school. His parents warned him one day that he must be home on time that afternoon, but nevertheless he arrived later than ever. His mother met him at the door and said nothing. At dinner that night, the boy looked at his plate. There was a slice of bread and a glass of water. He looked at his father's full plate and then at his father, but his father remained silent. The boy was crushed.
The father waited for the full impact to sink in, then quietly took the boy's plate and placed it in front of himself. He took his own plate of meat and potatoes, put it in front of the boy, and smiled at his son. When that boy grew to be a man, he said, "All my life I've known what God is like by what my father did that night."
We have the opportunity every day to live out the kingdom of God as Jesus did. We can turn the world's expectations upside down. We can smile when we are expected to scream, we can choose to praise people for their successes rather than feel jealous, we can live peace as well as speak about it. The What Would Jesus Do? bracelets, hats and –believe it or not- kazoos have made the phrase into a cliché, but it's a cliché worth remembering. We can decide at any time in our lives to emulate Jesus, to allow him to be our king. No matter how often we try and fail, Jesus welcomes us into his kingdom.
In Christ we have been given a wonderful gift- one that we will begin to celebrate in the coming season of Advent. Paul reminds us God's gift to us in today's reading from Colossians.
He says, "May you be made strong with all the strength that comes from his glorious power, and may you be prepared to endure everything with patience, while joyfully giving thanks to the Father, who has enabled you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the light. He has rescued us from the power of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins."
We are not made strong by fighting our way to the top of the snow pile. Rather, we are made strong in the weakness of Christ, who calls us to redemption, peace and love as we ask the king on the cross, "Jesus, remember me when you come in to your kingdom."
Amen
Companions who share a different vision of the world than our culture provides are clearly the key to living with Jesus as our king. In her book Living More With Less, Doris Janzen Longacre says, "When the first signals of a new king and new kingdom came to Mary, Jesus' mother, she sought out Elizabeth for confirmation and courage. Jesus himself gathered a core of disciples and sent them out two by two to spread the good news…From then until now the practice of church… and of Christian community has never ceased. God is building his kingdom with people whose relationships are being redeemed and who are thus stronger together than any of them ever could be separately."
All quotations of Scripture, unless otherwise noted, are from the New Revised Standard Version.