The Beatitude King

Proper 29B; John 18:33-37; St. Paul’s Smithfield, NC 11/22/2015

Jim Melnyk: “The Beatitude King”

Once again we’ve made it to the end of a liturgical year – our liturgical New Year’s Eve of sorts.  We have changed the color of our hangings to white from the five plus months of Ordinary Time green.  Next Sunday the hangings will be the quiet blue of Advent.  But for today, the hangings are white – as we celebrate what has become known to many in the Episcopal Church as Christ the King Sunday.  

This feast day came to be in 1925 as a response to the horrors of World War One, brought to us through the Roman Catholic Church.  It found its place on the Last Sunday after Pentecost in 1961.  And so when we recognize that Christ the King Sunday is less than 100 years old as part of a two thousand year-old faith tradition, we realize it is still in its infancy, and that we are still wrestling with all the theology that surrounds this special day. This is especially true for us because our primary paradigms of kingship or monarchy in general are based on old movies and histories of feudal kings – on The Lord of the Rings or The Game of Thrones – or the mostly ceremonial aspects of places like England. 

Jesus does not come among us as the next Herod, the next Charlemagne, or the next Charles or William of England for that matter.  He doesn’t even come among us as the next David – though he’s David’s heir.  He’s not a raging monarch who rules with an iron fist and steals a nation’s resources for his palace.  He’s not a king who sends out armies of soldiers and missionaries to conquer lands and drag them into his empire.  Nor did Jesus come among us to be a figure head king with a parliament working alongside or above to rule the kingdom.

Last Sunday I mentioned a quote by Michaela Bruzzese who wrote, “Christ’s kingdom is the beatitude kingdom, the upside-down kingdom where the last are first, where those who suffer for justice and righteousness will be comforted.  It is a place where the community considers ‘how to provoke one another to love and good deeds’ (Hebrews 10:24).  That would make Jesus the Beatitude King – the King Almighty from Daniel and Revelation – the Alpha and the Omega – is the Beatitude King who stands in all humility before Pilate who is robed in all the splendor of Rome.  Humility, justice, compassion, and love over and against the war machine that is Rome – over and against the power of the Emperor – over and against societies that judge people by their worth – or their threat – to the kingdom rather than their worth as human beings created in the Divine image.  Jesus – our Beatitude King – enters into Jerusalem only to find there is no room for him in the city – no room for him in the hearts and minds of those who surround Pilate’s headquarters and cheer his arrest – no room for him in the Roman world where authority comes from military might rather than a heart of grace – no room for him except on the hard wood of a Roman cross. 

But something more than Jesus stands on trial before Pilate this day.  The Good News of God in Christ Jesus stands on trial.  Love for God, love for neighbor, love for the stranger – the one we too often label “the Other” – stand on trial this day.  “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God” stands on trial before Pilate. “Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you will be filled” stands on trial.  “Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh” faces judgment.  “Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy” stands challenged.   “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God” stands on trial before Pilate this day.  Royal power is the prosecuting attorney with fear sitting in the second chair.  And I don’t think it’s much different today.  We still live in a world where might makes right – a world where power and status wield influence and the meek too often get swept away rather than inherit anything, let alone the earth.

The King we worship this day and every day as Christians is the King who says, “Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls” (Matt. 11:28-29).  The King we follow is the King who says, “Do not judge, so that you may not be judged” (Matt. 7:1) – who says, “In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places” (Jn. 14:2a) - who gently washes the feet of his disciples, including Judas – who says, “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another” (Jn. 13:34).

The King we worship this day and every day as Christians is a King whose family was turned away from the best B&B in Bethlehem, and who began his life as a refugee, fleeing King Herod’s wrath before he was two years old – a King who in the end gave his life as a ransom for many – a ransom for all – that the whole world might come within his saving embrace.  The King we worship this day as Christians is One whom death could not contain – is the One who lives to shake our lives like thunder and challenge us to lives of love.

What wonderfully Good News we have to share as followers of the One we call Christ!  The Beatitude King stands before Pilate this day and opens for all the gate of heaven!  And we don’t have to prove a blessed thing to be included in that great gift of love – which is Good News precisely because it seems so hard to be faithful all the time – or even some of the time.

Mother Teresa offered a way for how we might model the Beatitude King in our lives.  “People are unreasonable, illogical and self-centered; LOVE THEM ANYWAY. If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish ulterior motives; DO GOOD ANYWAY.  If you are successful you win false friends and true enemies; SUCCEED ANYWAY.  The good you do will be forgotten tomorrow; DO GOOD ANYWAY.  What you spent years building may be destroyed overnight;

BUILD ANYWAY.  People really need help but attack you if you help them; HELP PEOPLE ANYWAY…” (Synthesis Today, 11/19/2015).

In a short while we will move from the Liturgy of the Word to the Liturgy of the Table.  As we begin the Great Thanksgiving we will be using a Proper Preface for Christ the King Sunday from Common Worship, a supplemental book of liturgies used by the Church of England.  It reads: “It is indeed right, our duty and our joy, that we should always sing of your glory, holy Father, almighty and eternal God, through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord. For you are the hope of the nations, the builder of the city that is to come. Your love made visible in Jesus Christ brings home the lost, restores the sinner and gives dignity to the despised.  In his face your light shines out, flooding lives with goodness and truth, gathering into one in your kingdom a divided and broken humanity” (Common Worship, P. 545).

This morning, as we find ourselves living in a world faced with turmoil and pain – a world where we are constantly told to be afraid – we cannot lose sight of the reality that we follow Jesus, whom we believe to be the Son of God who became enfleshed and lived among us, and yet One who, according to his own testimony through St. Matthew, had no place to rest his head (Matt. 8:20).  As followers of this Jesus, we are challenged to hear the cries of fellow human beings who have no home – challenged to hear the cries of those who find themselves despised by all – and make room in the Inn.

Jesus did not come to us as the next Herod – or the next Charlemagne – or even the next Charles or William of England.  Jesus comes to us as the Beatitude King – the king who turns the terrors of this world upside-down – the One who lives to shake our lives like thunder, and challenge us to lives of love.