“Every knee shall bow, every tongue confess, Jesus is Lord,” the apostle Kanye.
So, I never thought I’d be referencing Kanye West in a sermon but… Kanye has a song called “Jesus is Lord” on his album, “Jesus is King.” In this song, Kanye sings that “every knee shall bow, every tongue confess, Jesus is Lord.” Though his general theology leaves much to be desired, Kanye gets one thing right here – we Christians should all be humbled when we hear, and all be moved to declare, that Jesus is Lord, or, said otherwise, that Christ is King. Today, this is our declaration. On this last Sunday before Advent, we celebrate Christ the King Sunday – the celebration of Christ as lord over all creation, rule, authority, dominion, and name.[1] The celebration that Christ was, is, and will be king. Now, to declare Christ was king is easy – we have the benefit of hindsight. To declare Christ will be king is also easy – we have the privilege of Easter hope. But to declare Christ is king? In the present? Now this, this is hard. Declaring Christ is king today, and every day we make this declaration, puts us on the hook. As people who should be making this claim daily, this declaration deserves some exploration so we can have intention behind our bowed knees and confessing tongues. But to explore our responsibility as people who profess Christ’s reign, we must first ask – what are the qualities of the ruler we affirm when we declare that Christ is King? Only then we can explore what that declaration requires of us. Thankfully, scripture gives us a pretty clear picture of the qualities that Christ embodies. We profess a king who is an advocate,[2] beloved,[3] steady,[4] caring,[5] a servant,[6] present,[7] peaceful,[8] light,[9] fierce,[10] truthful,[11] wise,[12] radical,[13] humble,[14] love…[15] Who knows the song? Starts with, “you are holy…you are mighty…you are worthy…” then continues later in the chorus with “you are lord or lords, you are king of kings, you are mighty God, lord of everything. You’re Emmanuel, you’re the Great I Am…” and then it continues – living God, saving grace, reign forever, ancient of days… The song “You are Worthy” lists the qualities of Jesus through his various titles. This dynamic ruler is Christ the King. And then we get to our Gospel for today and we’re met with a hard word about Christ the king. We see Jesus separating the “righteous” from everyone else based on how they – we – treated the vulnerable here on earth.[16] Yet, this distinction doesn’t just come from how we treated the vulnerable. Rather, Jesus teaches that we must also see Christ in the vulnerable, which is to see vulnerability as sacred. He says to the “righteous,” “I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.”[17] The righteous, confused, then look at Jesus and say, “When did we do any of that? You were never any of those things, lord…” And Jesus says, “Just as you did or didn’t do to one of the least of these, you either did it to me or neglected me.”[18] You see, in this move, Jesus places himself with the vulnerable while also being in a position of complete authority as arbitrator of eternal life. This is Christ our king. A king who is simultaneously both all-powerful and willingly vulnerable all for our sake. Now this may be confusing for us because, today, we’re most often met with examples of people who believe that to be all-powerful means that one cannot be vulnerable, and that to be vulnerable, means to not have power. Yet, in triumphing over death by suffering on the cross, Christ destroys this binary – and toxic – view of leadership. He holds vulnerability and power in a beautiful tension, allowing his vulnerability to inform his reign. So, if this is who we declare Christ the king to be, then who – or what – is he not? If Christ is vulnerable, then he is not toxic masculinity. If Christ is all-powerful, then he cannot be reduced to Christian nationalism. If Christ is love, then he is not White Supremacy. If Christ is caring, then he is not racism, homophobia, sexism, xenophobia, classicism, ableism – or any other form of bigotry our human minds might invent. If Christ is an advocate, then he does not sit silently complicit in oppression. If Christ is Truth, then he is not afraid to speak Truth to the powers of this world. And if Christ is king, our king, lord over all creation, then this is the reign that we as Christ followers must strive to make a reality on earth – today and every day that we declare that Christ is king. This is the immediate work required of us based on what we affirm who Christ is. To announce that nothing in our current reality actually matters because Christ was, is, and will be king is to turn a blind eye to the hungry, thirsty, poor, naked, sick, and imprisoned. To say, “all shall be well in Christ” and then ignore the suffering around – and within – us, is to ignore Christ. And while we know that, ultimately, all shall indeed be well in Christ, we play a role as co-creators with God in making heaven on earth a reality today. Yes, Christ was king. Yes, Christ will be king. And yes, Christ is king. Thus, celebrating Christ the King Sunday as if Christ’s reign is only some future hope, rather than a current imperative, is an abandoning of our responsibility. So, this Christ the King Sunday, let yourself be humbled and let yourself declare that Jesus is Lord. Then, we have a choice to make. We can keep living our lives imagining Christ’s reign in the abstract; or, we can look to our Gospel and live every moment as if the king is already among us, assessing the health of his kingdom. Amen [1] Ephesians 1:22-23. [2] 1 John 2:1. [3] Matthew 3:17. [4] Ps. 118:22, 1 Corinthians 10:4. [5] John 10:11. [6] Acts 4:29-30. [7] Isaiah 7:14. [8] John 1:29. [9] John 8:12. [10] Rev. 5:5. [11] John 8:32. [12] Eph. 1:19-20. [13] Mark 11:15-18. [14] Phil. 2:4-11. [15] 1 John 4:10. [16] Matt. 25:37. [17] Matthew 25:35-36. [18] Matthew 25:40, 45. |