S E R M O N Christ the King (Evensong) Christ Church St Laurence – 22nd November, 2015
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight: O Lord, our strength and our Redeemer. Amen. “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty. A little over a week ago, I found myself walking through Martin Place. I encountered a number of camera crews packing up their equipment; there were police officers and council workers stacking up steel barricades, no longer required. As I walked through Martin Place, I also encountered many ordinary people carrying minute plastic Australian flags and sporting the very latest fashion in floppy hats and sun visors. What was it all about? The Duke and Duchess of Cornwall had just engaged in an informal ‘meet and greet’ with the common people. The visit of the couple affectionately known as Charles and Camilla has reignited the ongoing republican debate in our nation. In 1999 a referendum was held to decide whether or not Australia should become a republic. The referendum was lost by around 10%. The main reason that most Australian gave for retaining the monarchy, is that there should be head of state or a leader who is above politics. The republican debate has entered a new phase. Australians are not being asked to express their views about the merits of a constitutional monarchy; rather, current surveys are focussing on who should be the next king and/or queen of Australia. As a result, monarchy is becoming just another form of politics, or at least, it is becoming a popularity contest. This feast of Christ the King, that we celebrate today, is undoubtedly the most politically-motivated feast day in the Church’s calendar. The feast of Christ the King was established by Pope Pius XI in 1925. The pope was understandably concerned about the rising tide of secularism that was sweeping the world, and even more concerned about the growing support for Mussolini and Adolf Hitler— both of whom had established themselves as much more than political leaders. Indeed, their propaganda suggested that they were to be more revered than any monarch. Mussolini and Hitler sought to convince their own people to worship them as divine-like emperors—far above both politicians and monarchs. And desperate people were completely swept up by false promises of power and stability. The parallels between that dark period of human history and our own time are frighteningly obvious. Desperate, poverty-stricken and oppressed people make easy targets for those who crave power and dominion. The feast of Christ the King calls us to look beyond the suffering of our present world towards a God who is eternal; a God who is above politics and a God with no interest in popularity contests. “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty. The Revelation of St John The Divine, or The Rook of Relevation is often referred to as the strangest book in The Holy Bible. Beautiful images of the sublime reality of God are contrasted with ridiculous Page | 1
and truly bizarre symbolism. Within the Book of Revelation, we find The letters to 7 churches or early Christian communities. These letters contain messages of great encouragement. Written to suffering and oppressed people, Revelation assures them that the Roman Empire would not last forever. Eventually, forces that seek to dominate through violence and evil, will ultimately selfdestruct. Goodness will prevail and God’s peace and love will last forever. In his book on Revelation, the wonderfully named American theologian Eugene Boring challenges us to go further in our understanding of Christ the King. He writes: For John, “Christ” has not become a name but still connotes the office of God’s anointed Messiah as prophet, priest and king. Christians share in this ministry… as a royal community the church represents and signifies the rule of God already present in the world. This is perhaps the most challenging aspect of the feast of Christ the King. We can hold on to our hope that goodness will ultimately triumph over evil, but in Revelation St John the Divine is challenging the early Christian communities to believe that God’s dominion is eternal—it always was; it will be and it is now in this present age, no matter how prevalent the forces of evil may appear. In recent days, the world has indeed been reminded of the presence and destructive forces. Acts of hatred and violence supposedly carried out in the name of God are hardly new, and many such acts have been brought about by those who claim to be Christian. However, the media and technology of our age might lead us to believe that we are facing violent threats like never before. First century Christians would probably not see it this way; Jews living in the early twentieth century would probably not see it this way. And while the media feeds us more and more violence and hatred, occasionally, stories of human, healing and compassion filter through. These are the stories of goodness struggling to survive. Like tender shoots breaking forth through the earth, we are reminded that God’s loving presence is not absent from our world, it has always been there and it will always be there. Christ the King is the source of all goodness and love—always present in our world, though sometimes not quite as dominant as we might wish. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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