it takes a lot to pick me up

it takes a lot of rain in the cup




Christ the King Saturday/Sunday; the end of the church-year.
Before we begin another trip through the expectancy of the the Christ-child, the journey to his cross, the horror of the Holy Week and the exultation of Easter; we stop and observe Christ the King Saturday/Sunday.

Truth be told, though; we’re a little uneasy with this day and it’s confession…
We have trouble with the central metaphor; king. 
For one thing, it’s explicitly masculine. Even more troublesome, though; is the poor example we have from kings. As Martin Luther said, a good king is a rare bird. Most of the kings we know of, are either figure-heads or tyrants; inept or power-hungry.
This image of Christ as a king, isn’t exactly helpful…
No, this day and it’s confession, Christ as king, makes us uneasy…

Honestly, though; our trouble with this day doesn’t just have to do with the ambiguity of the metaphor of Christ as a king. Deep down there is something more fundamental about our trouble with this day and it’s confession…

I’d be willing to wager that our real problem with this day and it’s confession, is that we can’t stand the idea of anyone else ruling over us, of anyone else being our king.
That’s what’s upsetting about today and it’s confession, if we must have a king, we want to be the one in charge. We’re not exactly comfortable about Christ as king…

Honestly, we prefer to be our own rulers; thank you very much. We like to imagine we are the rulers of our own fates, the master of our own destinies. 
And us denizens of modern North America, we specialize in this heresy. We imagine we pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps, we insist we’ve made our own fate, we’re certain we’re the ones in control.
Christ the king? No. We want to be king.

Not that it’s actually doing us much good…
After all you only need to spend a little time with the newspaper to see the fruit of our delusion. Politicians using refugees to score political points, excessive force used by the very ones we’ve hired to protect the citizenry, suicide bombers - and those are just popular examples from last week.
Tragically, the outcome of our desire to be king, is a kingdom that’s full of chaos and constant warfare…
In fact, you don’t need even to look so far as the newspaper to see the fruit of our insisting on our own way, at all costs. You only have to look to those relationships we’ve severed, the people we’ve hurt, the way we’ve managed to even sabotage ourselves on our quest to prove we’re the only one’s in charge…

We’ve all been going along, insisting we’re in charge, doing what we want; and all we have to show for it, is the mess we’ve made of everything…
As Bernard Shaw said, “Hell is where you must do what you want to do.”

And that; that is the real trouble we have with this day and it’s confession…
Christ the King Saturday/Sunday, brings into high-relief the absurdity, the tragic irony, of our own machinations, our own desire to be king. Christ the King Sunday reveals the tragedy of our kingdom come, our will be done…

This chaos, this tragedy, this terror we’ve created by the pursuit to be our own kings, has made such a mess of everything that we’ve fundamentally called into question the notion that anyone is in control. We’ve inaugurated such a reign of terror in our own lives, and the world, that when you look around; you can’t help but wonder if anyone, let alone Christ, is in control at all.
There are no kings in this barren wasteland.

It’s funny, isn’t it? We create such a sad state of affairs, and then turn around and wonder aloud, how could God be in control if everything is such a mess… 

That’s what’s deeply unsettling about today and it’s confession, it forces us to reckon with those moments we’d rather ignore; those moments when we finally look at the results of all our efforts to be our own king. 
Today forces us to admit our insistence on being the one in charge, hasn’t gotten us any more freedom; but rather inaugurated a reign of terror we’d just as well be free from; although we can’t imagine how…

In those moments when we are finally honest with ourselves, when we just admit that the sorry state of affairs is consequence of our own actions, our own desire to be king; all we have to fall back on are those old words from the prayer our savior taught us so long ago; “thy kingdom come, thy will be done.”

Trouble is, we’ve let things get in to such a sorry state we can’t imagine how God could ever make good on such a prayer…
That’s what’s so unsettling about this day and it’s confession; in the aftermath of our kingdom come; God’s kingdom seems like a hopeless dream…

Well, in today’s Gospel; Pilate is questioning Jesus, trying to figure out if this fellow from Nazareth is a king.

Jesus is candid with the poor guy. Not that it does anyone much good…
Jesus tells Pilate his kingdom is not from this world.
Jesus muses that if his kingdom were from this world; well then his followers would be fighting, resorting to violence, the way the kingdoms of this world do.
But Jesus’ kingdom, isn’t from this world…

That answer, which ought to give the misguided governor some comfort, only serves to make him more uneasy. 
Just like us, the idea that anyone else would be king, is too much to bear. “So you are a king then?” Pilate pathetically asks.
Turns out Pilate is no different than us; and we’re no different either; even after all these years, despite how much more sophisticated we think we are…

We, like Pilate, think the only way any kingdom can come, is through power and its coercive force. That assumption revealing exactly why all our attempts to be our own rulers are so ill-fated from the start… We, like Pilate, can’t stand the thought of anyone else ruling in our lives, and we will resort to any means necessary to remove any potential threat to our own control.
We must be kings, no matter the costs…

As Jesus says, though; his kingdom is not from this world with it’s paranoia and violence…
Jesus’ kingdom comes from another place, by another way…

You, you who have prayed “thy kingdom come, thy will be done,” doubting that such a thing could ever happen. You, you who haven’t come to grips with the dire state of our kingdom, and prayed “thy kingdom come, thy will be done,” hoping for anything but; open your eyes, unstop your ears!

You want God’s kingdom to come? Maybe you’re not so sure.
Well, either way; it’s too late.
Right now, God’s kingdom comes. As you hear, “In the name of the + Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit + your sins are forgiven - God’s will gets done, God’s kingdom comes!

See, way back at your baptism, God made you into a citizen of the kingdom of God. You don’t belong to the kingdom of this world, and it’s reign of terror - you belong to God, you are a citizen of God’s kingdom and it’s reign of peace. 
This is true, not because of anything you’ve done, and it most certainly comes in spite of anything you’ve done. You’re a citizen of the kingdom of God because as you hear that you belong to God and can’t help but reckon this news as Good, the Holy Spirit gets to work, making good on the old prayer, “thy kingdom come, thy will be done.”

Now, as Martin Luther said, God’s work is always hidden.
In a world of suicide bombers, in a world where politicians will use humans to make points, in a world where those who swear to serve and protect fail and then refuse to admit that, God’s work appears too small, too weak.
Today and it’s confession; is just that, a confession, it’s a matter of faith. 

We all know the state of our lives and this world; violence appears much stronger than this little promise, the arguments we’ve started seem to be bigger than this little promise, God’s kingdom often does seem like a hopeless pipe dream…

Today, Christ the King Saturday/Sunday is a confession. Christ’s kingdom doesn’t comes with power or glory, it comes through God’s surprising work, it’s hard to see. 

But isn’t that what comes next in the church-year is all about? That child born in a lowly estate, is the one who will bring God’s kingdom come?

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