“King” is a difficult term for us because we think of King from the perspective of this imperfect world instead of from the perspective of the perfect version of existence God has intended since the beginning of time. It IS a difficult concept to grasp (probably because we are so far from it) but today’s a day of great joy because we, as Christians, know that just as we live in sure and certain hope of our own eternal life, we live in sure and certain hope that through the Love of God as given to us through Jesus Christ, the joy and peace of paradise will reign through all and for all and in all on the last day. It’s what we’re working for—the perfection of God’s creation. And when that day is reached, we believe that Christ will be at the head of that perfect existence, Christ will be the King of that Creation. Hence, Christ the King Sunday. Not a King like Herod, or George or Abdullah, a King unlike any we have ever known.
It’s not the easiest concept to grasp, for us or for Pilate.
In today’s Gospel, Pilate is confused and reluctant. Pilate’s a government bureaucrat in the Roman Empire---he has no beef with this traveling preacher who makes outrageous claims to his small band of followers--- but a big part of his job is to keep the major player in the region---the Temple authorities, happy---or at least QUIET. The authorities have worked themselves up something fierce about Jesus—they want Jesus’ head, Pilate wants peace, and the whole thing comes down to the exchange we hear in today’s Gospel. Pilate’s trying to understand the claim that Jesus is King of the Jews and Jesus wants no part of claiming that “bound by the limits of human understanding” moniker.
Pilate can’t wrap his head around who Jesus is because he was looking at Jesus from the perspective of this world and the perspective of this world is limited and deeply flawed.
Jesus says he’s not the King of anything that originates from this world. Because if he was, he continues, he and Pilate wouldn’t be having a calm and reasoned conversation. Jesus is saying, “If my kingship originated in this world, there’d be fighting, violence, and chaos.”
Exactly.
Look at our world.
In this world we fight, we respond in, with and through violence. And as long as we keep doing that, Christ won’t be the King of anything.
This week Antoine Leiris (Lay’ree) reaction to the death of his wife in the Paris attacks went viral. Why? Because Mr. Leiris told the terrorists that they could not have his or his now motherless son’s hate, saying, “I don’t know who you are…[but] if this God for whom you kill blindly made us in [God’s] image, every bullet in the body of my wife is a wound in [God’s] heart. So no, I will not give you the satisfaction of hating you...”
Mr. Leiris is a prophet. He gets it. Violence begetting violence, hate begetting hate, intolerance begetting intolerance never, ever works. Neither does closing our eyes, our ears, our hearts, our minds, our souls, or our borders
There’s tremendous violence in this world and violence is fed by and through hate. The only surefire antidote to hate is Love.
Early last week, in the immediate aftermath of the eruption of violence in Paris and Beirut, Peter Van Buren , a blogger and political commentator wrote an open letter to France. In it he said “the attacks in Paris are not about the murder of 150 innocent people---that many people die nearly every day in Iraq and Syria. The true test for France is how they respond to the attacks in the long game---that’s the king in all this.”
How true. The King of this world is our response to hate, fear and intolerance---when we respond “in kind” following an “eye for an eye” we stay stuck in the imperfections of this world, promoting and promulgating more and more violence. It leads to nothing but terror.
What if we responded in peace? What if we responded with Love?
We know what happens when we don’t.
But what, what if we really followed Jesus, what if we followed the actions of Antoine Leiris? What if we faced violence with peace? Hate with Love? Fear with hope?
Well, we’d change the world. Forever.
Imagine that for a moment.
There can be peace on earth.
And it begins with us.
Here and now, as we end one church year and begin the next, will you promise to be the agents of change?
Will you promise to denounce violence and promote peace?
Will you lead with love not hate?
Will you live in hope and not despair?
Will you, in all that you do, seek joy?
Because the truth of the matter is, the world is not changed by Kings and Queens, Presidents and Prime Ministers.
The truth of the matter is, the world is changed by you and by me.
So help usher in a new kind of kingdom, the kind that is fueled by love, the kind that is promoted in peace, the kind that Jesus taught and lived and died and lived again to lead.
This is the truth: if we here, now, commit to leading lives of hope, justice and love. If we, here, now, commit to rejecting fear, hate, intolerance and violence then we, here, now, will change the world.
The world’s not going to change from the hallowed halls of Washington, or The Hague, or the UN, or the Knesset. It’s going to change from 96 Jewett Parkway and hundreds of thousands places like this across the world.
As we enter the newness of Advent and the dawn of a new creation through a baby born in a barn, say no to the Kings of this world and say yes to the King of Heaven, our King. Our Savior. Our Lord, Our Hope Our Promise, Our Way, Our truth and Our Life: Jesus Christ.
Amen.
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