The Sunday of Christ the King

This is the Sunday that we celebrate "Christ the king." Each of the lections in its own way contributes to that celebration. In Second Samuel we have David's own evaluation of his kingship, and David of course is the prototype king by which others, including Christ, were judged. Psalm 132 contains the Lord's oath to David and his house: "If your sons keep my covenant, their sons will sit upon this throne forever." The reading in Revelation sets forth the reign of Christ in magnificent images. The passage in John's Gospel, Jesus before Pilate, explores the meaning of kingship as Jesus understood it.

Yet we have to ask, Is this political image of Christ as king an outmoded one for our day? Kings have largely disappeared from the face of our political systems. As the 1900's opened, large and competing empires circled the face of the globe. As the 1900's closed, not a single king bore real political power over his country, let alone his empire. Kings as political figures have disappeared, so quickly and so completely that one would have to say that God had a hand in their disappearance.

So what are we left with as we celebrate the day of "Christ the king" in our churches? I think we have a choice: Either we resuscitate the biblical and theological meaning of kingship, or we seek other models and images that will carry the same power. Trying to be true to the lectionary, I have undertaken to do the first in these studies: brush up the meaning of kingship in its biblical and theological terms. I do this recognizing that in the 21^st century we may have to follow down the implications of the second, that we need to discover new images of the meaning of Christ that speak more powerfully to the people of the new day than does the old image that evokes a way of life now, thankfully, passed away.

Second Samuel 23:1-7: These purport to be the final words of David to his people and to God. They contain his assessment of his rule and the vision he has for the future of his kingdom.

Verse one gives his assessment of himself. He describes himself as a son of Jesse, as a man who was raised from obscurity to the highest place in the kingdom, as the anointed of the God of Jacob, as the sweet psalmist of Israel. Whether he wrote these words himself, or whether they were penned by one of his followers, we will never know.

Verses 2 through 4, the heart of this prophetic utterance, sets the single standard by which David's rule, and any rule, ought to be judged. Does one rule with justice over the people, and do this in the fear of God? Every ruler, from the ward councilperson to the president of the nation, needs to work for justice. They need to do so "in the fear of the Lord," that is, with full knowledge that God is working for justice among the people. The "ruler" must know that his or her every action is judged by whether or not he or she is fearful of not fulfilling the purposes of God. To bring justice, says the poem, is like the sun shining forth on a cloudless morning, or the rain that makes the grass sprout upon the face of the earth. To fail to bring justice is to be like the thorns that are thrown away, and they are utterly consumed with fire.

In the midst of this, David declares, "Has not my house done this?" Well, of course they had not. David's kingdom had ended in tragedy, with the rebellion of Absalom, the death of Adonijah,

the near civil war that accompanied the coronation of Solomon, and the split of the kingdom after Solomon's death. Too often David had failed justice, and his house had to pay for it. But when David was at his best, when he was in command of his powers, he did give justice to the people. It is for that that he is honored in Israel.

David projected his vision into the future: "God has made with me an everlasting covenant; God will cause to prosper all my help and my desire." It took war and desolation to bring this about, destruction of Jerusalem and exile. It took return to Jerusalem and fracturing hopes about rebuilding the temple. It took finally the birth of Jesus Christ, a king born in David's own town of Bethlehem, and it took his death in the Jerusalem of contradictory hope before God's covenant with us could be renewed and we could be invited into it anew.

That is why this text closes the old Christian year and points to Advent and the new year. It was in the kingship of Jesus Christ that the kingdom of David was finally fulfilled.

Psalm 132:1-12, 13-18: This is the longest of the so-called "Songs of Ascent," songs sung by pilgrims on the way to worship in the Temple at Jerusalem. It is also the most ambiguous of those songs. It does divide itself nicely into two parts. Verses 1-5 are David's vow to God, while verses 11-12 are God's vow to David. It is the relationship between these two vows that create the ambiguity of the psalm.

The first part recalls the struggles David had to build a house for the Lord. He had vowed to do it, but he was not able to fulfil his vow. At his death Yahweh had no temple in Jerusalem, no dwelling place for the Mighty One of Jacob.

But the Lord swore to David a sure oath. "I will set one of your sons upon the throne. If they keep my covenant, their sons forever will sit upon your throne."

Well, "forever" proved to be a long time. The sons of David did not keep the covenant of God as well even as David did. A few of them tried mightily to deliver justice to the people; Hezekiah and Josiah would be among these. Many of these kings were content to live in the comfort of the capital and let the people suffer as they may. Some added to the sufferings of the people. Some even tried to change the terms of the covenant. They did not see themselves bound to uphold Yahweh's justice. They saw Yahweh as bound to uphold their perverted view of kingship. As I said in the above, death, destruction, and exile resulted from their pathetic attempts to rule.

But the "forever" does include the time of Jesus Christ. In the fulness of God's time, as Paul was to write, God sent forth his Son, born of a woman, born under law, that he might redeem those under the law. And God sent forth the spirit of his son into our hearts that we might enjoy the freedom of God's house which comes with being a son and a daughter within that house.

The most frequent conclusion is that the first term refers to the environs of Bethlehem, David's home, and that the second is a poetic designation of Kiriath-jearim, where the ark is located in 1 Sam 6:19-7:2.

Revelation 1:4-8: John the Seer announces that he is writing to the seven churches in Asia. This superscription to the letter identifies both the writer of the letter and the churches to whom it is addressed.

John the Seer has to be differentiated from John the son of Zebedee, Jesus' Galilean disciple, and John the Evangelist, the Hellenist Christian from Jerusalem whose record of Jesus' ministry in both Judea and Galilee form the foundation for the Gospel of John. John the Seer lived a generation after the other two. His home was Ephesus on the Aegean Sea. He was a "prophet," which means that he moved from one church to another to bring his message of Jesus Christ. His circle of churches included Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea. He had been arrested by Roman officials for not making the required sacrifice to the god Roma. He had been sent as a slave to the island of Patmos, down the Aegean Sea south of Ephesus. There he worked the granite mines whose stones were building the temples and shopping malls of the Roman Empire. There he had the visions that constitute the substance of his Revelation.

The verses before us, 1:4-8, are a liturgy of the church. The speaking parts in the liturgy are assigned to John, to God, and to the people of the congregation.

John speaks, echoing the words of Paul: "Grace to you and peace." Grace is the Greek word "charis." It was a characteristic word of greeting in Greek society. When applied to God, it meant "God treats us better than we deserve to be treated." "Peace" was the Hebrew word of greeting, "shalom." It referred to the well-being that surrounds the people whom God favors. "Grace and peace" indicate that the congregations to which this vision was addressed consisted of both Greek and Hebrew converts to the Christian faith.

John continues: "Him who was and who is and who is to come" is a description of God. This description was found in the Hebrew Bible. It describes the God of our past and our present and our future. Similar descriptions of God were found in other parts of Mediterranean civilization. The oracle at Dodona addressed Zeus as "Zeus was, Zeus is, Zeus shall be." Of Minerva it was said, "I am all that has been and is and shall be." Persians spoke of Ormazd as a god whose times were and are and ever will be. John may have had all these references in mind as he addressed those in the congregations who had previously been worshipers of Zeus or Ormazd but were now worshiping the God of Jesus Christ.

"The seven spirits who were before God's throne" may have been the spirit-representation of each of the congregations to which the letter was addressed. The congregations were pictured as seven spirits who continually praised God. This tells us something important about the place of worship in Christian experience. They may also have been seven favored spirits of God who were said to surround the throne of God and spend their eternity in praising God.

John goes on to say that the "grace and peace" comes not only from God but also through Jesus Christ. He gives three descriptions of Jesus in this superscription of his letter.

"He is the faithful witness." Everything Jesus did bore witness to God. Everything Jesus did was faithful to his God. Jesus was faithful even to death, the most gruesome of deaths, death on a cross.

"He is the first-born of the dead." He was crucified indeed, dead and buried, but God raised him from the dead. As such he is the "first-born of the dead." Those who are born of the spirit of God and Christ will also be raised from the dead.