Christ the King November 26,
2017
On December 11, 1925 Pope Pius 11th ordered
the last Sunday in October be kept as a feast of Christ the King. He acted in
response to the political situation in Italy and throughout the world. In 1969 the observance of Christ the King was
moved to the Sunday before Advent.
The Russian Communist revolution of November, 1917,
and the wars that followed it terrorized the world. Many countries chose hyper-nationalist
governments that repressed all forms of dissent. In the United States Attorney
General Mitchell Palmer led a federal government attack on labor unions, and
there were race riots, and new restrictions on immigration.
In Italy on October 28, 1922 Benito Mussolini’s
Fascists seized control of the government. In June, 1924, the Fascists
kidnapped and murdered Giacomo Matteotti, an opposition member of the Italian
parliament. In Germany Adolf Hitler organized a Fascist private army, and in November
1923 Hitler tried to overthrow the government of Bavaria. He was sent to prison
where he wrote Mein Kampf (My Struggle), which was published in
early 1925.
. The Fascists were political gangsters, determined to
maintain order at the expense of justice, Fascism promised social order and opposed
Communist social revolution. Both Fascism and Communism were totalitarian
ideologies, incompatible with Christian faith.
Celebrating the feast of Christ the
King is a political act. Christians proclaim that “Jesus is Lord.” Because
Jesus is Lord the early church refused to burn incense to the Roman Emperor as
a god and bore the consequence of martyrdom. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a German
Lutheran pastor, joined the plot to kill Hitler. Archbishop Oscar Romero of El
Salvador opposed the civil war in that country and was machine-gunned at the
altar. The Rev. Emmanuel Allah Ditta, a priest of the Church of Pakistan, 14
parishioners and the Muslim guard were murdered when a gunman broke in at the
end of the church service and opened fire with an automatic rifle. In Iran,
Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani has been imprisoned for serving as a Christian pastor.
The Iranian courts say, “Once a Muslim, always a Muslim;” Pastor Nadarkhani
says, “Jesus is Lord.”
We are blessed to live in a country
where the power of government comes from the votes of the people, not from the
barrel of a gun. The use of military power in the United States is cotrolled by
the civil government. The stars and stripes represent “one nation under God
indivisible with liberty and justice for all.” Liberty is not absolute. Human
justice at best only approximates God’s perfect justice. But Christ our King
calls us to pray today to the “God of power and might” from whom “we inherit
the riches of his grace” for “the wisdom to know what is right and the strength
to serve.” With God’s wisdom and
strength we have made as a nation some progress toward the Pledge of
Allegiance’s promise of, “liberty and justice for all,” but we still have some
way to go in ordering our common life for our common good.
Our churches historically support the
good work of government. Luther was supported by the Elector of Saxony. Luther
used his time in protective custody to translate the New Testament into German.
The separate identity of the Church of England began in popular and government
opposition to what was seen as unjust and tyrannical rule from Rome. At the
American Revolution some in the Church of England and in the Lutheran churches
in America supported royal authority, while others were Patriots. One Patriot was
Peter Muhlenberg, a son of Pastor Henry Melchior Muhlenberg, the apostle of
American Lutheranism. His great nephew reported that Peter was serving as
pastor in Woodstock in the Shenandoah Valley, in a Church of England parish, on January 21, 1776, preached
from Ecclesiastes chapter 3, “To every thing there is a season . . . a time for
war and a time for peace” and that day enlisted 162 men from the congregation
in the 8th Virginia Regiment of the Continental army. Peter later became
a major general and after the war returned to Pennsylvania where he served in
the first, 3rd and 5th sessions of Congress.
Our Christian call is to engage in the
life of the community. Jesus is Lord; Christ is King, and we demonstrate that Lordship
and that Kingship in our own lives, in the lives of our families, our work
places, and our common political life.
We will all face the final judgment of
God. Today’s readings from Ezekiel and St. Matthew’s Gospel tell of God’s final
judgment. God’s judgment is real; God’s judgment is final, and God’s judgment
is finally just and true.
We all
stand condemned. We have not, as individuals, as church, as nation, adequately
fed the hungry, given drink to the thirsty, welcomed the stranger, clothed the
naked, cared for the sick, nor visited the prisoners. We’ve all done some of
these, but as individuals and as a nation we have not loved God with our whole
hearts; we have not loved our neighbors as ourselves. “We have left undone
those things which we ought to have done, and we have done those things which
we ought not to have done,” and there is no spiritual health in us.
But the
good news, the good news of our salvation is that Jesus our Lord, Christ our
King, was content to die for us, to die to set us free from sin. For us and
from all who will claim his sacrifice he bears the penalty of our sins and his
judgment. By his resurrection he gives us day by day a new opportunity to love
and serve him.
On this
Feast of Christ the King, a feast established in the conflict of Christian
faith and totalitarian values, let us by his grace recommit ourselves to love
and serve Jesus, our Lord and our King, this day and every day that is given to
us. Amen.
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