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 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 20th 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 and goats, I like these
verses from the day’s second reading in Ephesians as the basis for our
meditation. Not only that, the verses in Ephesians fit nicely into the series
of "ends" that we have been looking at. For Christ the King Sunday,
I'd say that "the end" being celebrated is the "end of the
world's system of power and authority."
One thing 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 and the dead, but right now it’s a free-for-all and it’s all just
spinning out of control, and sorta up for grabs. Who will win, Jesus or someone
else? 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 and made him King over all is the
same POWER that drives the Gospel and will ultimately ensure its victory.
The reign of Christ on the throne through the Gospel is a
death knell to the world's system of power and authority. The world's system is
driven by greed, winner-take-all, force, power, wealth, materialism, pride, and
the ability to hold people in the spell of its grip. But every time a person is
touched by the Gospel, every time a baptized believer makes the Gospel of
Christ the driving factor in their life, the spell is broken.... and it's the
beginning of the end for the world's system.
cheers,
TM
No comments:
Post a Comment