Keep in touch.
Life in the vineyard
  • Blog
  • Sermons
  • About

Christ the King...?

11/23/2014

0 Comments

 
Picture
Today, as the season of Pentecost draws to a close, we celebrate the feast of Christ the King. A relatively new fixture on the Church's calendar, this feast is fairly controversial. On the one hand, it seeks to remind us of Jesus Christ - the cosmic King who will come to be our judge; and to gather us up for eternity. On the other, there are many (and I'm not unconvinced by this argument) who find the paradigm of king and kingdom completely unhelpful in the context of who Jesus really is.

Kings - and Queens for that matter - have not traditionally been loving, kind, fair folk. More often than not, we learn that they have benefitted richly while others have suffered. More often than not, we learn that they were (or are) wholly unable to be good, just rulers. More often than not we can refer back to "absolute power corrupts absolutely," or to some Orwellian image of power. So for us as Anglicans, for whom that third leg of the stool - reason or experience - is very important, that paradigm of king and kingdom just doesn't seem like Jesus.

Because it's not.

When we think about Jesus, if we're honest with ourselves, we're thinking about someone who was nothing like these kings and queens of the past. Instead, Jesus is someone who touched and healed lepers; who ate with tax collectors and prostitutes; who healed the sick; fed the hungry; and generally broke all kinds of rules about what was socially acceptable. This is someone who, in Matthew's Gospel, refers to "the least of these" as either his "brothers" or "members of my family," depending on your translations (brother is more accurate). This is someone who doesn't put distance between himself and the poor, the outcast, or the oppressed, but instead goes out to meet them and welcome them in.

If we are to be his sheep, part of his flock, members of his kingdom, then it's reasonable to expect that this is what we ought to do, too. That we ought to disregard social practice as much as he did. It's reasonable to expect that in this kingdom - where Christ is king - that life looks different. It's reasonable to expect that it is a place where everyone is fed, where everyone is loved, and where everyone has what they need.

I don't love the paradigm of king and kingdom. But I do love Jesus - who rules over us with a love that constantly calls us out. Out of our comfort zones; out of the doors of the church; out of our patterns of life - and into the presence and the lives of other people - so that we might seek and serve Christ in each one of them. So that we can help to build the kingdom now. A place that is a little more just - and peaceful - and loving each day - because we, ourselves, are working to be just a little more just, peaceful, and loving each day in our own words and actions.

This is not a King who came to sit on a distant throne - but one who comes near to us; who touches us, waits with us, and dies for us. 

                                      Take my heart, it is thine own, it shall be thy royal throne.


0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Author

    The Rev. Marissa S. Rohrbach is an Episcopal priest, writer, and spiritual wanderer. She is blessed to serve as Rector and partner-in-ministry to God's beloved at
    St. Matthew's Episcopal Church in Wilton, CT. 
    The views expressed here are her own and do not represent the views of any other body or insititution. 

    Archives

    July 2020
    March 2020
    December 2018
    August 2018
    February 2018
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    June 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    September 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014

    Categories

    All
    Beloved
    Calendar
    Christmas
    Inheritance
    Jesus
    Learn
    Magic
    Ministry
    Mountain
    Perfect
    Perspective
    Planning
    Retreat
    Season
    Silence
    Transfiguration
    Vineyard

    Want to follow along?
    Click below to get updates!

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly