Readings for Sunday, November 26th

When you have a chance come up towards the front of the church and study this beautiful window depicting Christ the King. You’ll see, inscribed, the names of five continents, symbolizing the whole world.  The Americas are viewed as one continent. And the Arctic and Antarctic joined as Oceania. You’ll see 1925, the year this feast was established by Pope Pius XI. 

1925 was just seven years after the end of World War I. All Europe and many other nations had been engulfed in that terrible war. Forty-one million people died.  Pius XI and others could see that the world was headed towards a new war. Its seeds were being planted by Nazism in Germany and Fascism in Italy - and by stressing superiority over others in blood, language, culture and national identity. 

“My blood lines are purer than yours.”

“My culture better than yours.”

And so our feast was established to try to prevent that new war. 

The pope asked: Who or what really rules us? Does Christ rule our hearts or is it politics? Nationalism? The economy? Greed? The pope’s message was that we who truly believe that Christ is King should beware of nationalism, racism and all the “isms.” And follow Christ’s way of loving.

Obviously and sadly, we still see today, all over the world, the thinking that says our side is better than your side or we are better than you.

So, while we’ve been proclaiming Christ as King for 20 centuries, the feast itself is just shy of a century. 

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Some may be uncomfortable with the notion of Christ being portrayed as a king. In the United States we’ve never had one. We became independent when early colonists threw off the rule of King George III.  And there’s a long line of kings in history who make our skin crawl. In ancient Palestine, King Herod killed every male child living near Bethlehem under the age of two, to insure the death of the newborn king, the Christ child.  Centuries later, in Russia, Ivan the Terrible got his nickname by torturing enemies and friends alike for sheer pleasure.  In England, Henry VIII changed the laws to be able to marry six times, murdering two of his wives to clear the way for others.  Montezuma, the king of the Aztecs, waged war solely to obtain thousands of captives for human sacrifice.  Almost every monarch you can think of grew rich at the expense of their subjects.

But there was never another king like Jesus.

He was born in David’s royal city, Bethlehem, but in a dank shelter for animals not a palace.  In adult life he had no place to lay his head. And at the end, was buried in another man’s tomb. His accession to the throne was his entry into Jerusalem riding on a donkey rather than in a state coach. His royal robe was a purple rag, spit on by Roman soldiers. His crown was made of thorns.

He progressed toward royalty while weak and bleeding and carrying a cross through the streets, to the insults of people, certainly not their cheers.  At Calvary he was enthroned on that same cross.

Oh, Christ the King has nothing in common with earthly rulers. 

In his kingdom, there are no masters. Everyone is a servant. And He himself came to serve, not be served.  Those who would be greatest in the kingdom, he said, are those who make themselves humble.  The reward for service was not promotion or financial gain but to be given still more opportunities for service.

The lowest in the kingdom were really the highest. And sinners who had a change of heart and followed him were promised to get into the Kingdom before establishment figures - who took the best seats in synagogues and created heavy burdens for other people to bear without lifting a finger to help them.

Israel had a couple of good earthly kings along the way but mostly bad ones.

An earthly king is supposed to govern in such a way that people would find their ultimate purpose and live with hope. The role of the king was to shepherd the people - care for them.  The role of the king was to lead people to God. But because there were so many bad ones, as we heard in Ezekiel today, God said “I myself will look after and tend my sheep.”

“I will rescue them.”

“I will pasture them.”

“I will seek out the lost and bandage the injured.”

That’s when God sent his Son.  Christ is that king, that shepherd. The one who truly cared for the sheep.  And we see this in today’s Gospel.

Christ, now reigning in heaven, proclaims that on the Last Day we’re going to stand in front of him. We’ll be asked how we treated our neighbor - every “neighbor” - people of every race and culture - fellow citizens and immigrants - men and women - people who agree with us and look like us and the many who don’t.  Everyone!  We’ll be judged on who I fed and visited and welcomed. 

Believing in the Kingship of Christ leads to a loving response to all those people who need us.  We’ve always known this.  We’ve always said this.  It’s a message that’s very old.

And Christ will always call us to help those who are different from us - to feed and clothe and love them.  His is the love that should rule us.  Today, again, we give our hearts to Christ the King.