The King of Irony

Sermon-Christ the King Sunday-Proper 29- -Nov. 21, 2010
The Cloud of Unknowing, "O God, our great companion, lead us ever more deeply into the mystery of your life and ours, that we may be faithful interpreters of that Life to each other, through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.”
General Motors began selling stock last week after coming out of bankruptcy. President Obama introduced the START nuclear reduction treaty to the senate and went to Lisbon, Portugal to talk to NATO countries about Afghanistan. Unemployment fell in Michigan to a 2 year low. Ireland is on the verge of bankruptcy. There’s a new experimental drug out that may do wonders with cholesterol. And do you know what was the most dominant story in the news last week? Katie and William got engaged.
Friday night my wife MADE me watch an NBC special, “The Man Who Will Be King” about Prince Charles. The Prince, of ENGLAND. He’s not even Our prince. He’s England’s prince. So why do people care? Who cares who is the prince, or the king, of another country? We thought so little of royalty that we fought a war to get rid of them in our lives 235 years ago. And yet, here we are watching programs and spending time wondering when William and Katie will get married.
Today is Christ the King Sunday. It is the last Sunday of the church year. Every year you hear me preach about Jesus as a king. It is a fairly recent celebration as far as the church goes. In 1925 Pope Pius XI in response to the rise of dictatorships in Europe leading to World War I, saw people being manipulated and misled by these earthly leaders. He instituted this festival, Christ as our king, to try to get people to follow someone other than human kings and despots. Pius hoped the institution of the feast would have various effects. His goals were:
1. That nations would see that the Church has the right to freedom, and immunity from the state (Quas Primas, 32).
2. That leaders and nations would see that they are bound to give respect to Christ (Quas Primas, 31).
3. That the faithful would gain strength and courage from the celebration of the feast, as we are reminded that Christ must reign in our hearts, minds, wills, and bodies (Quas Primas, 33).
It wasn’t 100% effective. 14 years after the Pope called for this special day to acknowledge Jesus as ruler of all, the world was plunged into a second and even more terrible world war-led by new dictators and even worse despots. So much for papal encyclicals. So much for the power of the church to redirect peoples’ hearts.
Every year for the last umpteen years, on Christ the King Sunday, we here at Trinity do something “different”. Actually we do this on the Sunday closest to Thanksgiving but for this sermon’s sake I’ll make a stretch and say it’s on Christ the King Sunday (which it usually is)-we gather clothes for children who are cold and can’t afford to be warm. We’ve been doing this at Trinity for-how many years Teresa? _____. It is an odd way to honor a king. To clothe children who are cold but can’t afford new clothes. If you watched the news at the end of the week, William and Kate were trying to find just the right church for their wedding-it had to be huge, ostentatious, impressive-able to hold several thousand guests. That’s what we do for kings-and princes. And yet we have decided to gather clothes for children. Think about it-it’s a little strange, isn’t it? One of the big issues when Queen Elizabeth came to America a few years ago was whether our first couple (George and Laura) would bow and curtsey when they met her. Kings (and queens)are about money and power and authority. Roaylty are about manners and protocol.
And we celebrate Christ our king by helping the least in our world. It is supposed to strike us as odd. It is supposed to get us to open our eyes, and get our attention.
The gospel reading chosen today for Christ the King Sunday is Jesus on the cross. He is about to die and another person who is dying beside him, begins mocking him. Not very kinglike is it? Everything about Christ the King Sunday is supposed to make us squirm with irony. There is no power in this story, no wealth, no authority. It’s all about sacrifice, humility, and love. Three qualities we never ever associate with royalty.
The pope deciding to call the last Sunday of the church year, Christ the King Sunday, did not stop the worst thing the world has ever seen. It did not change nation’s actions, nor did it make the church more just and caring. It was interesting and curious calling the last Sunday of the church year Christ as our King, but not very effective.
So we do something else to show our allegiance to a king who suffers and dies-we give clothes to children.
Next week I am going to propose that we do something else, too. Beginning next week, the first Sunday of the season of Advent, I’m going to ask everyone to be more aware of the kindness in the world. The story of Jesus that we hear today is a man dying in a humiliating way on a cross. Next week we begin the story of a babe who couldn’t even find a house to be born in. So I am going to ask you to prepare your heart this Advent for kindness. In the parish hall starting next Sunday we will have newsprint everywhere. I want to see if we can fill them up with 1000 acts of kindness this Advent. Whether it’s a kindness that is done to you, or an act of kindness done by you, I’d like to see if you would write them on these papers. I want us to walk in each of the 4 Sundays in Advent-and feel surrounded by kindness. My hope is that we will record at least 1000 acts of kindness, that we will read each other’s stories and feel moved and inspired; that we will see these short snippets up on the walls and think- “maybe there is room in this world for the birth of kindness.” I would like to encircle all who enter this building with acts of compassion. Oh, And one more thing, we won’t be putting our names or initials on them. They will be anonymous. It will be as if all of these actions that surround us in the hall could have been done by us-or to us. We start doing this next Sunday, starting the new church year.
But this is a carryover from this week. This week we see a dying king on a cross extend his kingdom to anyone who calls to him. Even a thief who is dying, also. Next week we’ll see if we can make room in the inn of our hearts , so that God’s child can be born in us. It is all very ironic, very odd. It makes little sense. Kings are honored with gold and beauty and servants. Today we tell the story about a king who is honored by the clothing of children. Begin watching for kindness this week. Today we do something very odd, we turn kingship upside down, we take a man on a cross and ask if we can be in his kingdom.