Eternal God, the refuge and help of all your children, we praise you for all you have given us, for all you have done for us, for all that you are to us. In our weakness, you are strength, in our darkness, you are light, in our sorrow, you are comfort and peace. We cannot number your blessings, we cannot declare your love: For all your blessings we bless you. May we live as in your presence, and love the things that you love, and serve you in our daily lives; through Jesus Christ our Lord and King. Amen. ~ written by St. Boniface (ca. 672-754)
Today is Christ the King Sunday. The last Sunday of our Church Year before we once again contemplate the mystery of Christmas through the Season of Advent. We end the year considering Jesus as our King.
But our Gospel reading from Luke presents us with a paradox: Christ our exalted King dies on a cross as a common criminal. Jesus is not your typical King.
· He refuses worldly power.
· He refuses (angelic) assistance.
· He refuses to be self-serving.
On the cross Jesus said, "Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing."
He doesn’t seek vengeance or revenge for what has happened. He offers forgiveness.
Even as people stood by and watched the crucifixion; some scoffed at him, “let him save himself if he is the Messiah of God." Some mocked him, "If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself!" One of the criminals kept deriding him, "Are you not the Messiah? Save yourself and us!"
I wonder if Jesus felt all alone as he hung on the cross; I wonder if he was tempted to save himself.
But the other criminal rebuked the first criminal, saying, "Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed have been condemned justly, for we are getting what we deserve for our deeds, but this man has done nothing wrong."
Then he said, "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom."
To which, Jesus replied, "Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise."
And on the cross, after all he has suffered, at the worst of moments, Jesus gives mercy to another. What king do we follow?
We follow Jesus, whose instinct was always to act out of love. Even when the world came crashing down, he still offered forgiveness and mercy.
Maybe that should be part of our lives too.
Julian Fellowes, the creator of Downton Abbey and writer of the film’s screenplay, explains that the premise for the feature film is based on an actual visit of King George V and Queen Mary to Yorkshire in England in 1912. King George revived the custom of the “traveling monarch,” trips intended to bring the royal family in direct touch with the British people. The last “traveling monarch” was Queen Elizabeth I, who reigned more than 300 years before. At parades, tours of farms and mines, dinners and other public events, the people of England got to see and hear their king and queen. King George wanted his people to feel a sense of “ownership of the crown,” to make the monarchy more than just a concept or impersonal institution but for them to see their monarchs as real flesh-and-blood human beings.
The trip that inspired the Downton Abbey film was overshadowed by an explosion at the nearby Cadeby Main Colliery coal mine that killed 91 people on the second day of the royal couple’s visit. King George and Queen Mary after learning of the disaster, went to comfort the injured at the site. That evening, the queen and king arrived at the mine and — much to the amazement of onlookers — they shook the dirty hands of miners who had been recovering bodies all day and night.
The town was so grateful that they flocked that evening to Wentworth Woodhouse, where the royal couple was staying. A crowd estimated at some 25,000, including 600 miners, waved torches as a choir sang patriotic songs. The crowd came to absolute quiet as King George began to speak. He thanked them for their presence and their wonderful visit to Yorkshire and paid tribute again to those killed at Cadeby and their families. The crowd cheered mightily in response.
That day is said to have changed the protocol for royal visits ever since. [The New York Times, September 22, 2019; Vanity Fair, July 23, 2019.]
For the people of England, the monarchy is not a relic of a distant past or quaint institution of former times: the king and queen represent the ideal of who they seek to be as a people; the royal family (to various degrees of success) embody the wisdom and strength, the compassion and faith their subjects seek to live.
We Americans look to the Declaration of Independence and our Constitution to define us as a nation and people — but to the British, the character of their nation is vested in their monarch. It is that understanding of “kingship” that is at the heart of today’s Christ the King Sunday.
Our baptism into the life of Christ was and continues to be our proclamation to the world: that the Jesus of the Gospel is Lord of our lives, that we share his vision of the world and seek to fulfill the hope of his kingdom. To claim Christ as King means to make his vision of compassion and justice the measure of our integrity and the compass for our journey through this life to the life of the world to come.
May our lives follow his example, that through love, forgiveness and mercy, we may proclaim Jesus as Lord & King to the world. Amen.
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