On the Kingship of Christ: another model of leadership
Christ the King, Ordinary Sunday 34: 25th November, 2001
Fr John Davis, Vicar of St Peter's Eastern Hill
From the epistle:
For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and
through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on
earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross. (Col 1:19-20)
From the gospel:
There was also an inscription over him, 'This is the King of the
Jews'. (Lk 23:38)
And the text upon which our psalm response is based:
Blessed is the coming kingdom of our ancestor David! Hosanna in
the highest heaven! (Mk 11:10)
In our observance of the last festival, the last Sunday of our church year,
we are faced with both a joyful obligation and some difficulties. We would want
to honour and give praise to God in and through Jesus Christ, once again
looking to prepare for both the coming of our salvation and the final summing
up of all things. And the name we give to this day is Christ the King.
And yet this proclamation is no simple matter. The Lord himself after all
deliberately avoided being proclaimed king on more than one occasion. The term
is fraught with negative associations, as well as positive. Our lectionary at
least therefore refers both to Christ the King and The Reign of Christ for this
time. The hymnody is rich and varied, embracing both the triumphant and the
self-denyingly simple. So the texts and references will give us much cause for
reflection. What sort of King? What sort of kingdom? What sort of place or
space does this kingdom cover? Are we speaking of the interior or the exterior
world? How will this touch us in our lives, in our living? How do we approach
this in a way that is both honouring and true? How may Christ be King for us?
The range of scriptural texts that relate to today's observance is
considerable, embracing as they do the historical (as in today's Old testament
reference to the kingship of David), the apocalyptic (as in Daniel or in
Revelations), the visionary (as in today's epistle from Colossians), the King
who died on a cross (as in today's gospel) or the faithful simplicity of the
One who entered Jerusalem sitting on a donkey. No ordinary king. No ordinary
power. No ordinary hope.
So many of those who have gone before us in the faith have reflected on
these things. The parables of the kingdom give us gospel material of great
richness reminding us that these choices, these high priorities in our response
to this truth and this good news, are of the most basic importance. The kingdom
of God is like so many things – and surely then some of those points of
comparison will speak to each one of us. There will be a stirring of response.
A kindling of a spark of hope. A slight lifting of the darkness of disappointment. A sense of the possibilities of new beginnings even when it all
seems so very unlikely.
Of course the great spiritual writers of every generation have much to offer
us in our reflections on these things. For instance, we are having a study
group at the moment in our parish on Thomas Merton. It is running for six or
seven sessions so we are able to go into the writings in some depth. As it happens the set readings for this last week included some helpful material
from his 1961 New Seeds of Contemplation . It comes from the final chapter
called 'The General Dance'.
The Lord would not only love his creation as a Father, but he would
enter into His creation, emptying himself, hiding himself, as if He were not
God but a creature. Why should he do this? Because he loved His creatures,
and because He could not bear that His creatures should merely adore Him as
distant, remote, transcendent and all-powerful. This was not the glory that
He sought, for if He were merely adored as great, His creatures would in their
turn make themselves great and lord it over one another....
So God became man.... And he refused at any time to Lord it over men, or to be
a King, or to be a Leader, or to be a Reformer, or to be in any way Superior
to His own creatures....
He is the King and Lord of all, the conqueror of death, the judge of the living
and of the dead, the Pantokrator, yet he is also still the Son of Man, the
hidden one, unknown, unremarkable, vulnerable.
Thomas Merton: Spiritual Master. Lawrence Cunningham (ed)
Paulist Press New York 1992. pp 253-4.
Merton is making a powerful point here. It is about the nature of
leadership. The character, the nature, the model of leadership that is offered
is crucial. Specifically looking at the various models of kingship possible at
that New Testament time – what do we learn of Christ the King? And what
might that indicate to us relating to leadership today? What is here to give
us guidance and a sense of direction that is encouraging and positive?
If the values evidenced by a king or leader are ones that are negative or
positive, then the subjects, the followers will more than likely emulate these
values in their own lives themselves. A God whose prime characteristic is
perceived to be greatness will encourage 'god-like men, who make themselves
kings and masters'. A God who is merely a great artist taking pride in the
creation will encourage followers who build great things and exploit others
for their own glory. Consider the Tower of Babel story.
But a God and King who can be killed? A God who can embrace the dualities
of strength and weakness, life and death? A God and King who seeks to make us
all one; at one with God and at one with each other? There is surely a
different model on offer here. The vocation of all the baptised is to seek to
understand it, to receive it and to follow it.
For some reason at this point I am reminded of a part in Bonhoeffer's
Letters and Papers from Prison where he is writing to a friend on Ascension
Day. It has always stuck with me ever since I first read it. So just in passing
on that June day in 1943 he could write: "Today is Ascension Day, and a day
of great joy for all who can believe that Christ rules the world and our
lives." Theologically speaking, the Christ in glory of the Ascension is a
statement about God, God's power, God's place in this whole creation. It is
possible though a prisoner and in danger of death yet to assert and believe
in the ultimate and overall power and glory of God. What a contradiction.
Surely it is obvious who has the real power? Yet Paul, a prisoner for Christ,
had witnessed to that faith. Wartime Germany did not blind Bonhoeffer to it
either. Perhaps Ascension and Christ the King are after all one extended
festival.
Our scriptures, our credal affirmations, the shape and content of our
central sacramental and liturgical actions, leave little room for doubt as to
the direction in which we are urged to travel. But the sovereignty of God, the
kingship of Christ of whatever model, is not the general experience in the
world or indeed within the Church. Quite the contrary.
It is clear that other powers and other choices are strongly at work in
this world, in the whole created order, within our own lives. This beautiful
and bountiful earth is ravaged, abused and sorely stressed. That Kingdom of
God that is already within us can, it seems, so easily be denied and shut out. And in the wider context there is so much that is beautiful that is not after
all what is most seen and most experienced by most people. It is overwhelmingly
clear that in a world so full of war and terror, of injustice, disease and
famine, there is something more than a little out of kilter. Where is now our
God; where is now our King?
But has it ever at any time really been that much different?
The call remains to every generation to respond to the call of the One who
shows the way towards that complete fulfilment that is life in the nearer
presence of our loving God. Life promised, life hoped for, life glimpsed and
even now touching us as we reach for the one who is reaching for us. This then
is not simply the life of the world to come, affirmed in the creeds and
acknowledged in some perhaps distant part of our minds and our living. This is
life and lives touched now and changed now by the experience of and growing
relationship with that One whose kingship we honour this morning. This is one
who has already found us and claimed us. This is one who has indeed already
shown us a better way.
Hosanna in the highest heaven!
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