Thoughts going in, Sunday Nov 20th

Eph 1:19 That power is the same as the mighty strength 20 he [God] exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, 21 far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that can be invoked, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. 22 And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, 23 which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.

This Sunday marks the end of the Church year, and does so with another ‘thematic’ approach: “Christ the King.” The best write-up I’ve ever encountered on this feast comes from the Roman Catholic “Days of the Lord” series. This very thorough treatment is a bit long to quote here, so instead I’ll quote the statement found in the 2002 Year A Sundays/Seasons book:

“Christ the King” is a johnny-come-lately to the schedule of festivals and observances on the church calendar. It has neither the biblical warrant of Easter nor the antiquity of the forty days of Lent. Christ the King Sunday I the invention of a 20^th century Pope, Pius XI. Yet Christ the King Sunday is on the calendars of all of the Protestant churches that keep a church calendar. No doubt the appeal of the day is rooted in the need Pius XI saw in 1925. Europe was still reeling from World War I, and economic uncertainty abounded. People were bending the knee and doing obeisance to human saviors and political parties that promised to rescue them. Religion was increasingly relegated to the private sphere. In response to this, Pius XI called for an annual Sunday feast day to assert the kingship of our Savior. The observance of Christ the King proclaimed that no earthly ruler or power is LORD. The day proclaimed Jesus is king not only of our hearts and our private moments and personal salvation, but of all time and space.

With this in mind, even though the gospel reading of the day is the JUDGMENT scene of the separation of the sheep & goats, I like these verses from the day’s second reading in Ephesians as the basis for our meditation.

One of the things that really stands out to me in this passage is the tense of the verbs. Everything that St. Paul is talking about has ALREADY HAPPENED. Very often we as Christians tend to think of ourselves as “left behind” and alone in the enemy territory of the world. Jesus **WILL come again to judge the living & the dead, but right now it’s a free-for-all & it’s all just spinning out of control. This passage from Ephesians begs to differ. Jesus is already reigning: (a) by the power of God, vs 19; and (b) over every possible earthly rule, power or authority, vs 20.

The problem right now is that Jesus’ reign does not represent the ONLY power in the world. And this brings us to a profound irony: one would think that if the Christians simply banded together and DEFEATED all of the other powers in a military pre-emptive strike…and forcibly Christianized the entire world, that this would somehow make the reign of Christ more visible, real, and good. It wouldn’t. Every example of ‘ChristenDOM’ history has ever known has been a corrupt perversion of the reign of Christ. Clearly the thing to do is LET HIM REIGN HIS WAY.

How is that? Well, we need to remember what he said: “My kingdom is not of this world.” He’s not the type of king, and his kingdom isn’t the type of kingdom that uses the world’s regular tools. His kingdom isn’t based on the power of the sword, but rather on the power of the Gospel. If the church has a call to mission in furthering Christ’s kingdom, it is NOT to pick up the sword and conquer the earthly powers in his name, it is rather to pick up the GOSPEL and conquer the world with the LOVE of Christ. American Christianity in particular seems to have largely forgotten this.

The other thing that stands out to me from this text is the use of the word POWER. As the biblical exegetes frequently note, in the Greek the word is ‘dunamis’…it’s the word we get our “dynamite” from. Paul says that it’s this dynamite power of God that raised Jesus from the dead that has seated him at God’s right hand and declared him ruler of all. But it’s also the same power that has worked in our lives via baptism; and empowers us to live godly lives. In short, the POWER that raised Christ & made him King over all is the same POWER that drives the Gospel and will ultimately ensure its victory.

cheers,

TM