(Homily for Gayton Road Christian Church's Worship on November 26, 2017, Christ the King Sunday)
A King in the Making
Have you heard about the royal
reshuffle in Saudi Arabia? A young
prince there, Mohammed bin Salman, is on track to become Saudi Arabia’s next
king. And he has big plans in
store for his kingdom. Whereas in
the past Saudi Arabia has thrived off its oil trade and has promoted the
conservative traditions of the region, the young prince envisions a kingdom booming
with small businesses and a growing entertainment industry. Mohammed has a personal taste for
entertainment itself, it seems.
Reports are that he indulged himself recently with the purchase of a
yacht for more than $500 million.
In addition to his economic overhaul, the prince also plans for significant
social liberation. Most notable
among his plans is the increased participation of women in the workforce and in
public society. Already he has
secured a momentous change: beginning next June, women will be able to drive.
As you can imagine, this young visionary has met with
resistance from influential religious and social leaders. Not to be deterred, the prince has
responded with a heavy hand.
Already he has detained dozens of conservative clerics and
intellectuals. He has also
arrested a number of the country’s wealthiest princes under the cover of an
anti-corruption campaign.
Political experts suggest these arrests are strategic. Not only is he eliminating future
threats to his regime, he’s also sending a message. As one pundit put it: “He’s in the driver’s seat. And everybody else better get on with
bending the knee.”[1]
A Different Kind of King
What is a king?
If Mohammed bin Salman is any
indication, a king personifies power.
A king employs might and muscle to enforce his interests, whether good
or bad. For the record, I think
Mohammed bin Salman has some good ideas.
But his conduct as a future king demonstrates how he intends to
accomplish good: through the use of force and power against all who stand in
his way.
But on this Sunday, when we
celebrate Christ the King, we hear the prophet Ezekiel dream of a different kind of king. Ezekiel talks about the king using an
ancient metaphor, a metaphor that had long haunted the consciousness of the
ancient Near East, a metaphor that whispered an alternative to the king of
might and muscle. The king, Ezekiel
says, is a shepherd.
In the eyes of the world, the
king is an imposing figure of power and self-interest. In the eyes of God, however, the king
is a caring figure of love and self-sacrifice. Listen to the ways that God describes God’s own kingship: “I
myself will be the shepherd of my sheep….I will seek the lost, and I will bring
back the strayed, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the
weak” (34:15-16).
What King Do You Serve?
To which kind of king would you
pledge your allegiance, your faithfulness? A king of power, or a king of love? Power promises to get its way. It cares only for itself. Love lays down its life for others.
A Different Kind of Shepherd
In the gospel of John, Jesus
reveals that he is the Good Shepherd who lays down his life for the sheep (John
10:11).
What makes Jesus the Good
Shepherd, willing and able to lay down his life for others? According to the gospel of John, long
before Jesus proclaims that he is the Good Shepherd, John the Baptist declares
of Jesus, “Here is the Lamb of God!” (John 1:29, 35).[2]
In other words, Jesus is a different kind of shepherd. He gets lower than any other shepherd,
actually becoming a lamb himself.
In today’s gospel text (Matt 25:31-46), Jesus identifies himself with
the hungry, the stranger, the sick, and the imprisoned. Jesus knows our every weakness and
need. He has shared it all, from
the cradle to the grave. As a
homeless baby born in the feeding trough of animals. As a convict flogged and hung high on a cross.
It is often said that the best
teachers are themselves students of life.
That the best counselors are wounded themselves. In the same way, the Good Shepherd is a
lamb who has walked where we have walked, who knows all of life and death. The best kind of shepherd is a
lamb. So the book of Revelation
declares: “The Lamb…will be their Shepherd, and he will guide them to springs
of the water of life” (Rev 7:17).
A Kenotic King[3]
Paul once proclaimed that Christ emptied himself: he did not grasp onto
God, but instead let go, so that he could take on flesh and blood, and not the
pure flesh and blood of a leader but the bent and dirtied body of a
servant. We see the same
progression in today’s metaphors, where our king keeps emptying himself. First our king empties himself of royal power and becomes a shepherd. Not content with that, our shepherd empties himself of pastoral control and
wears the wool of his sheep.
Perhaps it is best to stop
there. For we will very soon be
entering the season of Advent, when we will be looking for the arrival of God
in our world. The good and
surprising news of today is that God may be coming where we least expect, not
to places of prominence and prestige but to the places in our heart and in our
world that are the emptiest; coming there not with a sword of power but with a
crook of care, coming there not with a pastoral fix but our pains and joys to
share.
Prayer
Christ our King,
Attune our hearts
To the sound of your shepherd’s flute
And your lamb’s cry:
Sidetrack us from our quests for power,
Assuage our fear of danger,
And shepherd us to share life
With the sheep in need,
Where you wear your crown,
Where your kingdom is coming. Amen.
[1] “Saudi
Arabia Arrests 11 Princes,” https://www.npr.org/2017/11/05/562191764/saudi-arabia-arrests-11-princes,
accessed on November 21, 2017.
[2] Cf. Jean
Vanier, Community and Growth (2nd
rev. ed.; New York: Paulist, 1989), 225.
[3] Kenotic
refers to the Greek concept of emptying (kenosis)
that Paul employs in his illustration of Jesus in Phil 2:5-11.
No comments:
Post a Comment