Christ the King, a Sermon

Yesterday I attended Evening Prayer with the Holy Communion in the Old Catholic Cathedral (which is also an Anglican parish church ) in Haarlem. The preacher was Rev. Dr. Mattijs Ploeger who studied theology in Leiden (NL), Utrecht (NL) and Cambridge (UK) and currently serves as Principal and Lecturer in Systematic Theology at the Old Catholic Seminary at Utrecht University and as parish priest of the Old Catholic Cathedral in Haarlem (NL). Mattijs was kind enough to give us permission to reproduce his sermon on our blog.  You can find the readings here (Colossians 1,11-20) and here (Luke 23,33-43).

1. The Feast of Christ the King

Rev. Dr. Ploeger preaching

Let me start with some remarks about the feast we celebrate today. The feast of Christ the King is a rather recent invention. Traditionally, the liturgy does not know about such a majestic ‘final chord’ of the Church Year. And, to be honest, the structure of the liturgical year doesn’t need such a final chord, because thematically the Church Year doesn’t have a definite ‘ending’. The prayer book has to start somewhere – and therefore it starts with Advent. But the Church Year has an internal logic, and the logic of the ‘end’ of the year is not very different from the logic of its ‘beginning’. The themes of the final weeks of the liturgical year are the same as the themes of the first weeks of Advent. Looking for the coming of the Kingdom, looking for the realisation of God’s presence in this world. November and december alike are months of expectation, hope, longing.

The feast of Christ the King is – in that respect, if I may say so – an unwelcome interruption of an ongoing flow. We are not closing the year now, and re-opening it next week. From next week on, in Advent, we just continue our readings, prayers and hymns about hope, about expectation, about the future of our Lord.

2. The first reading: Christ, the King of the universe

But, having said that, let us turn to the actual liturgical texts and discover that this feast is not such a majestic final chord as we might have expected from its title – ‘Christ the King’. Of course, Christ is the King of the universe – and that is what the first reading underlines (Colossians 1,11-20). The letters to the Colossians and to the Ephesians are letters in which Jesus Christ is depicted as the head of his body. Not just the body of the Church in the limited sense as we see it now. Christ is also the head of the body of the whole world, all creation.

In that respect, this feast is triumphant: it presents before us Christ as the Lord and God of the universe. And that is true. There is no part of our existence, no part of this created world, that has not in some respect a connection to the Lord Jesus Christ. How can that be? Because ‘a connection to Jesus Christ’ is not just a matter of ‘thinking of him’ or ‘believing in him’. A connection to Jesus Christ is already there, because Christ – as the Nicene Creed says – is the one ‘through whom all things were made’. Our first reading states the same: ‘for in him all things in heaven and on earth were created’.

3. Christ, the prototype of all humanity

Probably we are used to think of God the Father as the Creator, and of Jesus Christ as only coming after a long while. But the essence of the trinitarian faith of the Christian Church is that we can never see an act of one person of God isolated from the other persons. When God the Father creates heaven and earth, he does so ‘in’ or ‘by’ the Son. This means: there is no part of creation that has not been created with the person of the Son in mind. Creation is created – so to speak – for Christ, towards Christ. Not because there is only one important person, Jesus, but because Jesus Christ is the prototype of all humanity.

If we confess that everything has been created in Christ and towards Christ, we confess that the norm, the normativity, of everything that exists, is Christ. We ourselves are created towards this norm, this type, of Jesus Christ. The bible calls this our continuous call towards Christ-likeness. We all derive the importance of our personality, we all derive the dignity of our human being, from the icon or type of humanity: Jesus Christ. The first Adam is called to grow into the likeness of the second Adam. That is why Christ is the King of the universe: because all is created according to his type, towards his likeness.

4. The gospel: Christ, the King who rules from the cross

But the feast of Christ the King has yet another reading, the gospel (Luke 23,33-43), which puts the majestic part of this feast back into its proper place. I find it rather strong, quite a confrontation, that the Church – on the feast of Christ the King – reads for its gospel a part from the crucifixion narrative. It is quite something, to celebrate Christ as King and being at the same time put at the foot of the cross, on Calvary. There we stand at the foot of the cross and hear the people mocking him – if you are a King, show yourself a ruler now!

The Cathedral in Haarlem

The kind of kingship and the kind of kingdom Jesus proclaims, is so totally different from what we still expect from kings and rulers and mighty ones. We are still not very different from Judas, as some interpret him – as an honest follower of Jesus, but disappointed about the lack of power, the lack of success, which Jesus displayed. We still – don’t we? – cry to heaven when things are not going into the direction we would prefer. We still mock Christ for not showing himself powerful in the ways we want him to show his power.

Is it enough to say that the way Jesus shows his power is the way of serving, seeking reconciliation, building trust? Is it enough for our life, to have a King who shows himself rather powerless? Of course, this is an enormously important part of the Christian message. If all the Church and all the world would first have understood this – that our King rules from the cross, that power shows itself in mercy and service…

5. The longing for the breakthrough of God’s kingdom

But is it enough for us as human beings, as devoted believers? Do we not, in the end, long for the breakthrough of God’s power in tangible ways, not just in love, service and mercy, but visible and convicing?! Yes, this longing for a radical breakthrough of God’s power does have a place in the Christian faith. It is our longing for the kingdom of God. Your kingdom come, your will be done, not just in your heaven, but also on this earth. Your name will be hallowed, respected and followed.

In these last weeks of the Church Year, and also in the next Advent weeks, our thoughts and prayers are particularly focussed on the coming of the kingdom. Do we believe in the real breakthrough of the kingdom of God on earth? That’s an important question. But there is one question more important: Do we believe our lives have to be re-directed towards this coming of God’s kingdom? Questions like ‘will it ever happen’ put God’s kingdom outside ourselves. The real question is: Am I awake? Am I prepared? For the entering of God into my life is at hand.

The hymn Be Still for the Presence of the Lord (below performed by one of the best Dutch boys choirs in the English style, Roder Jongenskoor) was also sung at yesterday’s service.