Beyond Burger King

November 23, 2003 - Twenty-fourth (Last) Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 29B)

  By The Rev. Linda Yeager, Deacon

- Daniel 7:9-14
- Psalm 93
- Revelation 1:1-8
- John 18:33-37

(From The Lectionary Page)

We humans love royalty, don't we? If we look at our common culture, we find kings, queens and assorted other regal types in abundance. We eat at Burger King; we get ice cream at Dairy Queen; our playing cards use kings and queens as the winning cards; every high school girl would love to be homecoming queen; and John Grisham writes about the king of torts. There's King Kong and the King of Beasts, and for those of us old enough to remember, Queen for a Day.  I was talking to my seven-year-old granddaughter the other day about a birthday party to which she was invited -- a princess party. The invitation informed the attendees that "princess attire is optional." My bet is that most of the princesses showed up with tiaras.

What is it about royalty that is so captivating? Why is it that we watch with eager interest all the high jinks of the European royalty? Why have we been accused of wanting to make our own President into a king?

I raise these questions because today, in addition to being the last Sunday of the church year, is the Sunday that has been known as Christ the King Sunday, the Sunday set aside to recognize the "all-embracing authority of Christ which shall lead all people to seek the 'peace of Christ' in the 'Kingdom of Christ.'" Therefore the gospel passage selected for today comes from the gospel of John, the section where Christ has been brought before Pontius Pilate, the governor of Judea, who has the authority to condemn him, to send him to his execution.

Pilate, who insists on hearing the full case, asks Jesus if he is the King of the Jews. Jesus answers Pilate with a question: do you ask me this on your own, or did others tell you about me? Pilate, surely frustrated by this time with the burden of this trial says, "I am not a Jew, am I? Your own nation and the chief priests have handed you over to me. What have you done?" And then Jesus gives the answer that is also his answer to us and to all people for all time: "My kingdom is not from this world." Pilate asks him again if he is a king. In the only place in the New Testament where Jesus acknowledges his kingship, he says, "You say that I am a king. For this I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice."

You know, I believe that sometimes we are much like Pilate, confusing Jesus' kingship as belonging to this world, rather than remembering that Jesus' kingship is not of this world. When sorrows occur, when tragedy happens, when natural disasters and war persist, we look to Jesus and say, "How could you let this happen? How could you allow this suffering?" We want Christ to step in, to rule in the way we wish, to be the king of this place and this time. "My kingdom is not from here," Jesus told Pilate. Jesus belongs to the Kingdom of God, a phrase we read over and over again in the Bible. In fact, the phrase "Kingdom of God" occurs 122 times in the gospels, 90 of which are spoken by Jesus. What and where IS Jesus' kingdom? If not of this world, the only reality that we know, then of what, or where?

In the Old Testament, in Hebrew thought, God was eternally king in heaven.  But because of the godless people on earth, his kingship was not visibly and outwardly effective on earth, though it would become so at the Day of Final Judgment.

In the New Testament, however, the Kingdom of God, while indicating a future presence, also has a present sense. The prayer that our Lord taught us, the one we call The Lord's Prayer, begins, "Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done" -- looking forward to the coming of the Kingdom when God's will will be accomplished on earth as it already is in heaven. Christ's followers looked toward an imminent coming of the Kingdom. Though the hope of an early return of Christ didn't materialize, some believers steadily continue to believe in a future manifestation of the kingdom of God. Other believers, Albert Schweitzer for one, have tended, on the other hand, to replace the expectation of a sudden future revelation of the Kingdom by the hope of the progressive movement toward better conditions of human life, moral and material, toward an ideal state of human affairs.  This hope for humankind has been identified with the Kingdom of God.

In Christ's teaching the Kingdom of God is also declared to be actually present. We hear this when Christ speaks of the Kingdom as being "at hand" or "within you" or "in the midst of you." Sometimes I look at Christ's works of healing, of his miracles as examples of the kingdom breaking through, manifesting itself, into the present. These wonders continue to occur, perhaps a foretaste of the Kingdom in the here and now.

Jesus' point to Pilate was one that Pilate never could understand. Let's face it -- we have problems with it, too. While we know that Jesus never meant to be a king who sat on a throne, who wore a crown and led soldiers into bloody battle to gain a worldly kingdom, we still want him to control our battles, to be king over our personal world. But Jesus' kingdom is NOT of this world. Our help comes from the Lord, who is not in this world. Our help comes not from this world, but from God's kingdom. Our help IS in the Lord, who made heaven and earth. The kingdom is both within us and awaiting us.  Understanding the Kingdom of God is kind of like understanding the Trinity, isn't it?

Anyway, we pause today at the end of the church year to honor Christ the King. As we do, why don't we make a resolution, as we do frequently at the end of the secular year -- why don't we resolve to honor our King by working toward the realization of his kingdom, by pursuing justice, devotion and peace. In order to carry out this resolve, Jesus must be at the core of our private and public lives, our individual and social lives, our economic and political lives. In other words, Jesus must be at the heart of every thought we have and every action we pursue. We must not be fooled into thinking that our king is of this materialistic world, a king of hamburgers or ice cream cones or even nations across the sea. His kingdom is in us and with us; it is before us and beside us; it is our home and our destination; it is our hope and our reality; it is the Kingdom of God.