The Straw Letter

11-22-15 (Christ the King Sunday, Year B)

1 Samuel 1:4-20; Mark 13:1-8

Who Is Your King? (2015)

As we come to the end of another liturgical year and look ahead to the start of Advent next Sunday, I don’t know about anybody else, but find myself already starting to feel worn out and weary.  Each week seems over before it even begins, and in the midst of the rush that happens this time of year, we also find ourselves as a nation and as a people in a state of perpetual alertness and outrage that just seems to move from one thing to another without even a break to rest, to catch our breath, or to process anything.  We are caught up in a deluge of information and situations, each battling for us to form some kind of opinion, to take some sort of stand, to be involved in one way or another, whether emotionally, actively, or otherwise.

There are things that deserve honest and discerning conversations, both in our churches and in our governing bodies.  With the growing violence across our globe, we recognize the pressing need for us to continue to stand against extremism and terror, but we still find answers elusive when it comes to how we should go about doing that.  As many begin to take up patriotic imagery and attitudes that strangely echo the messages, posters, and responses we saw at the beginnings of the Second World War, it’s hard not to ask ourselves whether we stand at the precipice of yet another global conflict in which countries will yet again be forced to take sides.

And then, even in the midst of the global tensions we find ourselves under, we still find the time to get embroiled in still other conflicts and arguments.  As we move definitively this week into the “Holiday Season,” finalizing our preparations for Thanksgiving this week and the start of Advent next Sunday, it brings with it a cacophony of conflicting messages, commercialism, and religious angst that leave us to feel sometimes as if we, too, are embroiled in the trenches of a yearly battle.  Some people call it the “War on Christmas,” others see it as their annual competition to “Win the Holidays” (as some larger retailers have been including in their advertising through the last few years), and still others see it as a battle to simply keep their heads down and survive through to the new year.  Frankly, I don’t know how anyone stays on top of it all anymore.  Are we supposed to be upset about a plain red cup?  If we are, do we boycott Starbucks or do we give them more business, but force them to say our names as “Merry Christmas?”  If we light up a Christmas tree before Thanksgiving, will a turkey kidnap a reindeer?  Have we updated our list of stores to know which ones are open on Thanksgiving, which ones are choosing not to put up Christmas decorations yet, which ones are giving the best deals on Black Friday?  Have we finally given a name to each day after Thanksgiving between Black Friday and the 1st of December?  And how long until we make a name for each day right up until Christmas?

It’s wearying, and it feels like more and more we lose any sense of purpose to any of these holidays as we’re more and more inundated with people telling us what we’re supposed to think about all these problems.  But this is also why I’ve really come to appreciate the fact that the last Sunday of our church calendar, the last Sunday before Advent begins (and usually the last Sunday before Thanksgiving itself) is celebrated as “Christ the King Sunday.”  This Sunday is a chance for us to collectively take a deep breath, to step back, and to be re-centered.  We need to embrace this Sunday in the liturgical calendar as the reminder we need it to be: that in a world where nothing is certain and even God is doubted, we find our strength and hope in the knowledge that Jesus is Lord.  But what does that mean for us?  What does it mean when we say that Christ is the King?

The reading in John certainly doesn't help us as much as we might like it - Jesus responds to Pilate’s line of questioning by saying that his kingdom is “not from this world.”  He does nothing to confirm or deny Pilate’s questioning as to whether he should even be called a king.  And yet in Jesus’ statements, we have our first centering reminder of what our confession of Christ is all about:  when we call Christ our lord, our king, we do so as a proclamation that Christ is bigger than any political system, movement, crisis, or conflict that we may face.  We call Christ our King because he is bigger than any coffee cup or other piece of commercial kitsch, and nothing this world does can ever really take Christ out of Christmas.

So weary and uncertain as we may be, much as we recognize that we are only at the beginning of another season of Christmas conflicts and Holiday hullabaloo, we also know that we once again near the beginning of something completely other, completely not of this world.  Jesus tells Pilate that he came to testify to the truth.  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, as David writes in one of the recorded instances of his last words, “like the light of the morning, like the sun rising on a cloudless morning, gleaming from the rain on the grassy land.”  A kingdom whose king uses his power and authority, not for his own selfish amusement, but to empower others.  Whose king 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 coffee cups and material goods, but to share with one another in everlasting life and happiness.  So I ask us all this day: 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.