Christ the King-Epiphany Wilbraham

The Reign of Christ Sunday

John 18:33-37

The Rev. Michael Hamilton

November 24, 2024

Please pray that the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts, may be pleasing and acceptable to God. Amen. (pbs)

Happy Feast Day Church! Today is the last Sunday of the church calendar, it is the 29th week after Pentecost and is known as, Christ the King Sunday. Initially I was thinking that we here at CTK-E have two different name days; one for today, and another on the Feast of the Epiphany when we celebrate the arrival of the 3 Kings who recognized the birth of a newborn king. Many Christian communities celebrate Epiphany on January 6th each year. It is fine if we would like to have two Feast Days (afterall, if you ask any kid, it would be great to have 2 birthdays instead of one), but the definition of the word ‘epiphany’ is a moment of sudden clarity and the Greek origin is meant 'to manifest' or 'show’. With that in mind, we can say that those of us that worship, attend, or belong to this church are declaring that we are aware and that we are witnesses to the truth that we belong to Christ, the King.

Being New Englanders, and a hearty stock of independent thinkers, it’s difficult to accustom ourselves to the thought of being ruled by a king, or living in an active kingdom as the world defines it. People are not autonomous with free will and they are ‘subject to’ the king or queen and the laws that they see fit to enact. No congress, no parliament, or any other body of representation, just the edicts of the autocrat in power. From history, we have seen abuses of power when one person is allowed to rule over others, and we also have examples of poorly managed fiefdoms destroying whole communities over an emotional response to a personal affront. As mere human beings it seems dangerous for any one person to wield that much power.

Pilate might not have had unlimited power but there was enough authority for him to question Jesus about His kingdom and Jesus stated that His kingdom was not of this world but that He was born into this world to testify to the truth and that everyone who belongs to the truth, listens to His voice. How do we, as the very people that belong to Christ the King listen to Jesus’ voice? What do we hear?

I suppose what we hear depends upon what image of Christ as King that we look toward the most. We have one image of the king arriving through the gates of Jerusalem, seated on a donkey. Do we hear a message of humility and simplicity with a call to love others as the mandate of a king?

We have the image of Christ the King written by John in the Book of Revelations where he retells a vision,

‘Look, He is coming in the clouds;

every eye shall see Him,

even those who pierced Him;

and on His account all the tribes of the earth will wail.

So it is to be. Amen.

Are we hearing a King of wrath coming for retribution to those who pierced, or sinned against Him, so that all the earth will wail? Is our King one of vengeance and retribution upon anyone that disobeyed, injured, or ignored

Him? Some people do hear, and expect, a chastising and punitive God to reign in the Kingdom. I have difficulty in hearing that voice as I see that Jesus spent all of His ministry pointing to the non-punitive, loving, faithful, and benevolent God that has adopted each of us as heirs to the kingdom and it is this truth and witness that convinces me that the vindictive voice of the King is inconsistent with all of the other portrayals of the coming King that we have. I pray that those that hear judgement, damnation, and punishment are willing to reconsider all the evidence that Jesus presents of who God is and what the message of the King is.

Another King image that we are presented with is found in the Gospel of Matthew, Chapter 25, vs 31-46. I might be accused of cherry picking here as there is a judgement and separation between those that did the will of God and those that overlooked their neighbors in plight but there is a clear path, all based on compassion of our neighbor, as to the intention of how we are to live in the world as instructed by the very King themself.

“Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 35 For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36 I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’ From my observation, this is the predominate voice that is heard here at Christ the King-Epiphany and I have witnessed the work that the community has

performed in meeting the needs of our neighbors with today’s distribution of Star-Bucks, feeding our siblings at the Cathedral of the Night, contributing food to the blessing box, pantry items for the Survival Center, preparing and serving meals at Loaves and Fishes, the victory and pollinator gardens, backpacks for people in foster care, stewardship pledges to support the church and community ministries, Church to Go, Creation Care, the knitting, crocheting, or sewing of prayer shawls, hats, mittens, scarves, and more… that is the voice that I see and hear that completes the call that we are all summoned to and the one that demarcates my understanding of the call of a deacon. Following the adage of St Francis of Assisi when he instructed the community to “Preach the Gospel at all times and use words only when necessary”.

I pray we all continue to listen to the voice of the King that bids us to find the weak, the lost, and the lonely. Bids us to treat each other with love and respect. The very One voice, the very voice of Christ the King, that will whisper in our ear, “Thank you for all that you do for Me, you are my beloved in whom I am well pleased.”