This is the last Sunday in the church year commonly called “Christ the King” Sunday. There was a time when people paid as much attention to the church year as they did the chronological year. And what marks the difference, is that secular calendars track chronological or sequential time -- day by day by day.
But the church calendar goes by Kairos time, that is to say God time. All times belongs to God, of course, but the church calendar marks time in seasons that focus on our tradition and our spiritual life. Today we conclude Pentecost the season of hearing about the teachings, the healings and miracles.
Today we will celebrate Jesus as King of Kings. We’ll sing “rejoice the Lord is King, your Lord and King adore.” And I think it’s worthwhile today to think about how we live that out. How do we express our adoration? Show our devotion to our King? Maybe it starts by letting Jesus in.
Musician and former Beatle Paul McCartney was being interviewed by Howard Stern who asked Paul about a time when a guy named Jesus came to his house. “Yes,” Paul says, “the Beatles were in the middle of a recording session at my home when there was a knock on the door.” “And instead of calling police,” Howard says, “you let him in?”
“Yes,” Paul says. “I asked him what he wanted. It was just an average looking bearded guy. And he said ‘I’m Jesus.’ So I said to him, ‘well you better come in.’” Paul fixed him a cup of tea and started chatting with him. And he thought well he’s probably not Jesus. He might be a hippie, maybe he’s schizophrenic. But you never know. “And I’m not going to say ‘go away Jesus,’” he told Howard Stern.
So he says to Jesus, “look I’ve got this session going on and you’re welcome to hang out with us.” Apparently Jesus thought he would do that. So Paul said he went into the others who were there, the other Beatles and the recording crew, and tells them “he says he’s Jesus and I don’t know if he is or he isn’t. But I’m not going to take any chances here. Is it okay if he just sits in the corner?” And Paul tells Jesus “just sit here and don’t say a word, okay? Just be Jesus.”
Just be Jesus. Howard Stern leaves the story there but I have so many questions. I wonder what Paul had in mind when he said to him “just be Jesus.” What was the expectation? What would any of us expect if we thought it was possible that Jesus was standing right in front of us? It doesn’t sound like he looked or acted much like a king.
But then what we know about Jesus, what we have heard him say and seen him do through out this season of Pentecost – as we have seen and heard him “be Jesus” there’s no evidence of what the world considers to be kingly. The point is, that in spite of everything Paul let him in.
In the events leading up to today’s gospel, Pilate asks Jesus a most intriguing question, “Are you the King of the Jews?” Pilate really wouldn’t have known much if anything about the history of the people called Israel. He may have heard the names of some of the kings.
There was the first king, Saul; then David who was mighty in battle but personally deeply flawed. There was Solomon that built that first temple. But Pilate’s only concern is if Jesus truly poses some competition to the Roman Emperor. Beaten and bloody, Jesus bore as much resemblance to a king as the guy who appeared on Paul McCartney’s doorstep.
The great priest and prophet Samuel warned the people called Israel that they didn’t want a king – “you really don’t want a king,” he told the. “Because human kings will fail you. They will take everything you have and then they will enslave you. You really don’t want a king.”
They did though. They wouldn’t be talked out of it. They wanted a king because they wanted someone to lead them into battle and avenge the terrible things that had been done to them by their enemies. And so they waited – and waited and waited – for that king to come and make everything right.
Except Jesus was not the king that anyone was expecting – including those who engineered the events that bring us to the gospel reading today. Pilate knew a whole different meaning of empire and kingdom. Pilate understood hierarchy, and power and authority which served those who were at the top of that hierarchy and commanded power and authority by fear. But Jesus came to serve not to be served.
Pilate understood an empire that used violence and intimidation to keep everyone in line and obedient to the emperor. Jesus came wielding peace, calming storms, feeding hungry crowds and creating a whole new understanding of what is good.
Pilate’s empire knew sickness and disease and poverty. Jesus brought healing to the sick in body mind and spirit, to make what was broken whole.
That wasn’t what Pilate or anyone else was expecting in a king. Jesus had come to live among us, to be among us and to show us a different path. To show us what being whole and well could mean. To show us what community could mean if we could just love God and love our neighbor.
But old habits are hard to break. And loving God’s way and envisioning God’s kingdom takes some energy and focus and practice. It is not what is reflected in the secular world around us that we must live in. Jesus was here to show a kingdom like no other, a kingdom centered in the needs of our neighbors and being willing to step into the breach to service those around us that God calls us all to embrace, even when it makes us uncomfortable.
So we ask ourselves this Sunday, this Christ the King Sunday, who is really the king in our lives? To what and to whom have we really given our devotion? Have we let Jesus in? Are we devoted to the King of peace and love? Or have we given our devotion to something else – to secularism, to popular culture, to tribalism, to speaking instead of listening?
Have we given our devotion to healthfulness and concern and care? Or have we given it to destruction or neglect? Have we let Jesus in?
Because at the end of the day, what gets reflected into the world is how those of us who call ourselves followers of Jesus live our lives and show his love back out into the world.
Can people look at us in the way we live our lives, in the way we serve our neighbors, in the way we care for everyone around us -- can people look at us and say “yes, I see the reflection of God’s love coming from that person?”
That’s the question for us – this day and every day: how does the world see the love of God radiating from us?
We pray together at each Eucharist “thy Kingdom come.” And God’s kingdom will come through us – individually, corporately as the body of Christ that is St. Matthias – that’s the beginning of God’s kingdom come. And it comes through the way we live and love and serve.
Today we celebrate Christ the King Sunday by recognizing and recommissioning members of two of our ministries here at St. Matthias that have committed themselves to reflecting the light of Christ back into the world: our Stephen Ministers and Daughters of the King. In doing so, we send them into the world with our blessing, rejoicing that they have answered their call to serve God, to reflect God’s love into a hurting world.
Stephen Ministers offer a one-on-one ministry to those in our faith community who are going through difficult times, whether long or short, they are committed companions for the journey. Stephen Ministers are spiritual caregivers, not to try to fix problems, but instead focus on the caregiving process in which God is the cure giver.
Our Daughters of the King pledge to live a life of prayer, service, and evangelism. They make a lifelong commitment to follow a personal "Rule of Life," which includes praying daily for the church and for others, and engaging in service within their parish and community. Their motto is one that especially resonates today:
For His Sake…
I am but one, but I am one.
I cannot do everything, but I can do something.
What I can do, I ought to do.
What I ought to do, by the grace of God I will do.
Lord, what will you have me do?
So it’s a good day for us to ask ourselves to whom and to what have we given our devotion. It is a good day to ask ourselves if we have fully let Jesus into our lives, if we’ve let him be Jesus? It’s a good day to ask ourselves can the world see his love reflected through me? Amen.