"Who Is Your King?"

Christ the King Sunday - Nov. 24, 2013
Texts for this sermon: Jeremiah 23:1-6; Luke 1:68-79

Who is Your King?

Today in the liturgical calendar of the church, we celebrate what is called “Christ the King Sunday.”  And I’ll have to ask you to bear with me for a few minutes, because I’d like to do something a little different from what I usually do, and indulge in a bit of church history.  If we were to plot the church year out on a calendar, we’d see it broken up into several different sections: At the beginning of the church year, we have Advent, with Christmas and Epiphany, and then a period called Ordinary Time which leads us into Lent.  Lent moves into the Holy week and Easter, and then eight weeks of Easter later, we celebrate the birth of the church on Pentecost Sunday.  After Pentecost, we go back into Ordinary time for the rest of the church year, with Christ the King Sunday being the last Sunday of the liturgical year, ushering us into Advent once more.  What’s interesting about this arrangement is that every year, it helps the church to celebrate and remember the life, death, resurrection, and kingdom of Jesus by living them out through the worshipping life of the congregation.

But the observance of “Christ the King” Sunday is, perhaps surprisingly, a relatively recent development.  Though we find Christ addressed as a king all throughout scripture in the Gospels and in many of the different letters, this particular feast day was only instated in 1925 by Pope Pius XI.  As he gave his reason for instituting this feast, he made an interesting connection between the kind of secularism that was occurring around the world.  Many people were beginning to express doubts about Christ’s existence and authority, as well as the authority of Christ’s body, the church.  At the same time, strong dictatorships were beginning to rise in Europe; Mussolini was establishing a police state in Italy, Hitler was gaining popularity after his release from prison in Germany, John Scopes was found guilty in Tennessee for teaching the theory of evolution in the famous Scopes Monkey Trial.  It was these kinds of earthly issues that led the Pope to institute this feast day as a way to remind Catholics in particular, but also Christians in general of the sovereignty of Christ in a time when respect for Christ and the Church seemed to be at a very low point.

And it seems today like perhaps some things will never really change.  You know, it’s pretty ironic that Christ the King Sunday is always celebrated within a week of Black Friday, but it also gives us this moment to stop and reflect.  I don’t know if anyone here has plans to go out into the fray this coming Friday, braving the elements to wait alongside the intrepid bargain hunters who begin lining up hours before stores open to find a parking space and take advantage of “door-busters” and “early-bird” specials, snatching up those last few things they need for their Christmas shopping, buying themselves a new TV, or whatever it is that catches their eye.  Department stores begin opening earlier and earlier on Thanksgiving day and run their specials on into the next day, with even further online specials going into what is now being called “Cyber Monday.”

Watching the news reports and videos over the last several years, I’m glad that my family and I have decided not to participate in it.  People have posted videos online from a Wal-Mart in Georgia, in which you can watch a group of people turn into a fighting mob over cell-phone packages mere seconds after they are unveiled.  People are nearly trampled trying to squeeze through store entrances, and in previous years, people have actually died in the attempt.  Customers fight with each other over items, sometimes even if those items aren’t even on sale.  And to add to the problems that Black Friday already causes, with the stores opening earlier on Thanksgiving day, families now have to deal with their loved ones not being able to enjoy the day with them because they have to leave and get ready for work.

All this leads me to ask: Who really is our king today?  What is it that we worship, and what is it that takes the most important place in our lives?  It often seems as if our “land of the free” is more enslaved than we like to think, as we find ourselves lining up to snag that next great piece of gear that we so desperately want, being force-fed ads that tell us to buy, buy, buy, and as we spend more and more time preparing earlier and earlier for “The Holidays” while we move ever farther from the holy days they are meant to be.  We’ve put the cart before the Christ, and we’re more likely to remember Black Friday than Good Friday...

It’s easy to hear God’s warning through Jeremiah, especially coming into this next week as we face such a cacophony of voices that threaten to scatter us and pull our focus away from God.  But look one more time at that liturgical calendar - this Sunday marks the end of a liturgical year.  We’re moving into a new season, a season of expectation - and as we’ll hear emphasized so strongly over the next four weeks leading to Christmas, Advent is more than just waiting to celebrate Jesus’ birth at Christmas.  Today reminds us of what we’re looking forward to now - the reign of Christ as King.  Our scripture passages today should give us hope. Zechariah’s song here, from the beginning of Luke’s Gospel, shows us an image of what the new king looks like that is promised by God in Jeremiah: One who comes to free his people, who rules with compassion and mercy, who remembers and fulfills the promises of God made to Abraham, who frees his people to serve God without fear.

Jesus came to rescue us from the broken sinfulness of this world, to free us to serve God without fear or hesitation.  He came to show us a kingdom that is not of this world.  A kingdom that is yet to come, true - that’s why Christ the King Sunday brings us into Advent - but a kingdom that is our true kingdom, ruled by our true king, who is indeed “a mighty savior for us,” who will be “the dawn from on high” that breaks upon us and “gives light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.”  We have the promise of a king who uses his power and authority, not for his own selfish amusement, but to empower others.  Who brings peace in the midst of terror; who brings justice in the midst of chaos, liberation and freedom to serve others amidst our own personal enslavement.  We worship a King who calls us to gather together, not to fight one another over great deals and material goods, but to share with one another in everlasting life and happiness.  So I ask you again: Who is your King?  Whom do you serve?  May our answer always be the Christ, our King, to whom be all glory, now and forever.  Amen.