Rejoice, the Lord is King

How does one become a U.S. citizen? As most of you probably know, if you are born in one of the fifty U.S. states or one of its territories, you are automatically a citizen, regardless of the citizenship of your parents. Anyone born here, even the child of foreign nationals, is a U.S. citizen. If you are born abroad to U.S. citizen parents, all your parents have to do is register your birth with a U.S. embassy or consulate, and, again, you are automatically a U.S. citizen. If you are born anywhere else, you may become a naturalized U.S. citizen. You must be at least eighteen years old, must have lived here at least five years as a resident alien, i.e., have a “green card,” you must have a reasonable command of English, and you must pass a citizenship test. After that, you have all the rights and responsibilities of U.S. citizens. You may vote, and you are expected to abide by the law and pay taxes.

How does one become a citizen in God’s realm? For those residents of God’s realm who acknowledge Jesus as their leader, the process is something like that of becoming a U.S. citizen. If you were “born into” the church, i.e., if you were baptized as an infant, you became a Christian by virtue of the promises and commitments of your parents and sponsors. If you were baptized as an adult, you made your own promises and commitments, promises and commitments that you affirmed or reaffirmed in confirmation. As a citizen in God’s realm, you are assured of forgiveness of all your sins, you may share in Christ’s Body and Blood, and you may receive, as the old Book of Common Prayer put it, “all other benefits of his passion.” But what else? To what else have we committed ourselves, and, more important, what are our responsibilities as citizens of God’s realm?

This is a good question to ask ourselves today. We are at the very end of the liturgical year. Next Sunday we will begin a new year, with a new set of Scripture readings. You’ll notice that your bulletin cover and Scripture insert says that today is the Last Sunday after Pentecost and the feast of Christ the King. Why, you might ask, are we reflecting on Christ as a king? Jesus strongly resisted those who would have made him a king. The Gospel of John tells us that, “When Jesus realized,” after multiplying the loaves and fish, “that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, he withdrew again to the mountain by himself.” Even so, the gospels frequently use royal imagery for Jesus. The gospel of Matthew begins by announcing straight out that Jesus is God’s Anointed One. In the same gospel, when the Persian astrologers arrive in Jerusalem after Jesus’ birth, they ask, “Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews?” And towards the end, when Jesus enters Jerusalem in triumph, Luke tells us that people shouted, “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!”

Even so, the feast of Christ the King is not an ancient feast. In the Book of Common Prayer that preceded our current book, the so-called 1928 Prayer Book, we had a one-year lectionary, i.e., the same readings year after year. The last gospel reading for the Sunday next before Advent, as this day was known, was the story of the Loaves and Fishes from John. And this is a strange feast for those who live in a democracy, especially for citizens of the U.S., whose forebears either fought a war to detach from a monarchy or fled tyrannical regimes and persecution elsewhere in the world.

Actually, the feast of Christ the King only dates from 1925. It was created by Pope Pius XI, who also suggested today’s readings. Fascism was rising in Italy and Germany, the Great Depression was looming in Europe, and war was clearly not far off. Pius wanted to remind the faithful that our allegiance as Christians is to something other than earthly rulers. When Protestant churches adopted the three-year lectionary in the 1960’s and ‘70’s, they also adopted the feast of Christ the King with it.

So, as citizens of God’s realm, to what have we committed ourselves, and what are our responsibilities? In our reading from 2 Samuel, we hear the last words of the dying King David. In reflecting on how he has fulfilled God’s covenant with him, David alludes to the just ruler, who is a blessing to all people, and who will eventually triumph over evil. In our reading from the gospel according to John, we hear Jesus confront an earthly despot. Despite facing his own death, Jesus reminds Pilate that the realm that Jesus has proclaimed is totally unlike earthly realms and has its origin and continued life in God.

Our reading from the Book of Revelation gives us more clues as to whom we have committed ourselves and what that commitment might mean for how we actually live. But first a word about Revelation: it’s often misunderstood, especially by those who make the mistake of taking it literally. It was written towards the end of the first century to a persecuted fledgling Christian community. Its writer was most likely not the writer of the gospel of John, but rather the leader of a Christian community in Ephesus, who was exiled by the Romans to the Greek island of Patmos.

Curiously, the book brings together two kinds of writing. First, it is apocalypse, i.e., a vision of a future realm in heaven that contrasts sharply with the present corrupt times. Many of the early scenes take place in heaven, while in the latter part we witness the defeat of Babylon, the writer’s stand-in for the Roman Empire. But the book is also a letter to seven of the Christian communities in cities near Ephesus. The greetings and the praise of God at the beginning of the passage we just heard are standard fare for ancient letters. Even so, in this opening section, complete with quotations from two Hebrew prophets, we have suggestions as to what it might mean to be a subject of this king, a citizen of God’s realm. And what do we hear? We hear something about who Jesus is, what Jesus has done for us, and how we are to live as Jesus’ followers.

Who is Jesus? Jesus is, first of all, a martyr, which literally means “witness.” Jesus is a faithful witness to God’s power and an instrument of it. Jesus is also the one who, though a martyr, overcame death. Most important, Jesus is a ruler, the final authority over all earthly political rulers, indeed of all creation. As a descendant of David, he too has kept God’s covenant, and he will be the just, generous, and merciful ruler to which David alluded in his dying words.

What has Jesus done for us? Jesus “loves us and freed us from our sins….” Notice the tenses. Jesus is present to us now, loving us and caring for us now. More important, Jesus’ saving work is completed. “It is finished,” Jesus said from the cross in John’s gospel. Finally, Jesus “made us to be,” or perhaps enabled us to be, citizens of his country, whose work as citizens is to worship and serve.

So how indeed do we live in this realm? How do we worship and serve? As those who wish to be faithful followers of Jesus, we are, first of all, called to follow Christ’s example as a faithful witness ourselves. We are to acknowledge that our first loyalty is to him: not to our family, not to our social class, not to our friends, our team, our school, our political party, or even to our own country. And here let me say that loving one’s country is not a bad thing, it’s a good thing, but our first commitment as Christians is to God and to God’s realm. As Pius XI reminded faithful Catholics, nationality and all other identities come second. If we are serious about our allegiance to Christ, then we must also be prepared for hard choices, when we must intentionally and prayerfully try to align our will with God’s will.

Truthfully, the only way we can align our will with God’s will is to be in close relationship with Jesus. And that is our second responsibility as citizens of God’s realm. We are called to worship regularly, pray daily, and continue to grow as Christian through study of Scripture, theology, history, and ethics. If we wish to do the works are truly of God’s realm, we must be servant-leaders. Even when the forces of darkness threaten to overwhelm us, as they did in Beirut, Paris, and Mali, we are called to work diligently for peace. We are called to demonstrate compassion for all, as Jesus did, care for those in need, and welcome to our table the least, the lost, and the left behind. In so doing, we are to bring others into Christ’s gracious realm, serving as windows and instruments of Christ’s mercy.

Finally, as citizens of God’s realm, we are called to remember that we have committed ourselves not to a tyrant or a despot, but to a God of love, a God who deeply loves us and all creation as beloved children, a God who has promised to love us forever. “Rejoice, the Lord is King!” This is the good news! Proclaim it and live it!