Christ the King 2021

 

Christ the King 2021

Lectionary readings: Daniel 7:9-10, 13, 14 and Revelation 1:4b-8 and John 18:33-37

Today is the Feast of Christ the King, the culmination of the Church year. Next Sunday, Advent Sunday, marks the new year, the beginning of a new cycle through the story of Jesus and his people in season and out of season, feasting and fasting, and in the ordinariness of our days. To proclaim that Christ is King is to acknowledge that he has been appointed by God as both Lord of the Church and Judge of the Nations. In our Gospel reading today we are reminded that Jesus’ kingdom is not of this world, but it is in this world, at work, according to a different value-system and despite appearances. The Bible ends with Revelation, which is not a forecasting of a far-distant future but (like parts of Daniel) an apocalypse, a pulling back the veil to reveal what is really going on beneath the surface in the present, as John writes his coded message to encourage a Christian community heavily persecuted towards the end of the reign of the Roman emperor Domitian. But what does it mean, for us, to declare that Christ is King? What difference does it make, and how do we see that reality worked out in the world?

We are part of Durham Diocese, a family of around 300 Anglican churches in this part of the northeast, between the Tyne and the Tees, the Dales, and the Sea. Our mission, together, is to ‘bless our communities in Jesus’ name for the transformation of us all.’ And we listen together, to one another, to discern what it is that Jesus is calling us to do, through which his kingship is manifest. Together we have discerned our common priorities, as Durham Diocese, for 2021-26. Together, and in partnership with others, we will challenge poverty, energise growth, care for God’s creation, and engage with children, youth and 18-25s. We will seek to do this by rising awareness, responding practically, and working together to reform the wider context of each of our four priorities.

We are committed to challenging poverty by working together to address child and youth poverty; responding to isolation, particularly among the elderly; and reaching out and responding to the needs and gifts of asylum seekers and refugees.

We are committed to energizing growth by growing in reach and influence, transforming our communities through the transformation of our churches; growing in depth, strengthening discipleship, serving Jesus by using our gifts in his mission in every part of life; and growing in breadth and number, growing the number of people identifying as Christian.

We are committed to caring for God’s creation by cultivating a shared Christian vision for God’s creation and our call to steward, nurture, protect it, in Jesus’ name, for the good of everyone, everywhere; promoting responsible consumption, choices and behaviour as individuals and churches; and working together to challenge wider environmental indifference and injustice.

We are committed to engaging with children, youth and 18-25s by: developing pathways for more children to become lifelong disciples of Jesus; resourcing youth for mission (and extending our engagement with them); and extending the engagement of 18-25s.

Clearly, what that looks like will vary from local church to local church, depending on context, opportunity, and resources. The kingship of Christ is not a monoculture, where every community looks the same, but an ecosystem within which unity is expressed in diversity flourishing in mutual harmony. So, all our local churches are called to challenging poverty, energizing growth, caring for God’s creation, and engaging with children, youth and 18-25s, recognizing that this will look different from place to place, and that for any given local church one or other of those four priorities may take the lead. For example, Sunderland Minster has a well-established ministry of reaching out and responding to the needs and gifts of asylum seekers and refugees; whereas St Nicholas’ is well-placed to respond to isolation, particularly among the elderly.

These four priorities are not about driving us to do more but helping us clarify what we do and focus on what Christ the King is doing in and through us, and so to set aside distraction. And so, having looked at what it means in practice to proclaim that Christ is King in our context, let us draw on what John wrote to the churches at the turn of the first century. He writes:

‘Grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come’ [that is, Jesus] ‘who loves us and freed us from our sins by his blood, and made us to be a kingdom, priests serving his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.’

Christ is King, and we are his kingdom, a kingdom began, continued, and brought to completion in Jesus’ acts of loving us, freeing us from all that holds us back from that love, and making us into something we were not, previously. “God loves you” is a key part of the Gospel, but it is not the whole Gospel: God loves you, brings freedom to you, and makes you into something new. He makes us all priests for the world—to bless our communities in Jesus’ name, for the transformation of us all, as we say in Durham Diocese—and within that royal priesthood we believe, in keeping with many but by no means all Christians, he calls some to be priests for the church. But we are all loved and freed and made to serve God as priests, proclaiming blessing in word and service.

And we do so as those who know both grace and peace. Grace, the gift given us by Jesus; the gift we are, given to others, to the church and the world. And peace, that centering wholeness that guards over our hearts and minds, that keeps our will aligned with Jesus’ will (which is perfectly aligned with his Father’s will) and enables us to see as he sees and hear what he hears. As we work out what it looks like in this local context to challenge poverty, energise growth, care for God’s creation, and engage with children, youth and 18-25s, the knowledge of grace and peace—or of a growing distance from them when we lose focus—will keep us rooted in Christ the King.

Today is the Feast of Christ the King. We end the Church year reminding one another that, despite all appearances to the contrary, whether disunity within the Church or rising tides of secularism and nationalism in the world around us, God is at work through Christ in and through us. Reminding one another that there is much to celebrate, and the need to be strengthened in word and sacrament for the much more yet to come. Reminding ourselves that he who began a good work in us will bring it to completion. And next Sunday we turn once again to Advent and preparing our hearts to be ready for his coming again in glory.

Today is the Feast of Christ the King. The table is set. Come, all who are hungry. Come, you who are thirsty. Come, and be satisfied. Christ is the host, in every sense. So, come.