Christ the King Year A

Eucharist – 23.xi.2008

(Ezekiel 34.11-16, 20-24; Ephesians 1.15-23; Matthew 25.31-46)

Christ is King of earth and heaven!

Let his subjects all proclaim,
in the splendour of his temple,
honour to his holy name.

Christ is King! No soul created

can refuse to bend the knee
to the God made man who reigneth
as „twas promised, from the tree.

From today‟s hymns - and this is one to sing later in the service during
Communion - you can‟t fail to recognise that we‟re celebrating the Feast
of Christ the King. “Crown him with many crowns,” “Hail Redeemer,
King Divine,” “Christ triumphant, ever-reigning, Saviour, Master,
King…” It‟s a good opportunity to air a few rousing hymns - and you
can‟t miss the note of triumph in them. This is Christ who is victorious
over the forces of death and darkness, who reigns as King - and no one
will be able to ignore his power and dominion. The one who was put to
death on a cross, whose only earthly crown was made of thorns, is now
seen to be Lord of all - no one can ignore him.

But perhaps we should sound a note of caution. “Triumph” is not to be

confused with “triumphalism.” The victory won by Christ is what we
long to see as a reality in our world. His is a triumph won after coming
into this world in gentleness, in sharing our humanity, in knowing our
weakness, in suffering and in sharing our mortality as he dies upon the

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Cross. The way of Christ shows us that despite all the forces ranged
against him there is finally Resurrection, new life, and the hope of a
world transformed. That‟s something to celebrate - but not in such a way
that we ignore the world as it is. The triumph of Christ is that which we
seek to see made real. But if meanwhile we‟re triumphalist in our attitude
- if we think we‟ve got all the answers, and that faith is a matter of having
everything wrapped up - then we can find ourselves practising a pretty
hollow religion.

I love the fact that with Christians of other Churches we can celebrate
today‟s Feast of Christ the King. We need to be able to celebrate our
faith, and to be able to shout and sing about it. It‟s the last Sunday of the
Church‟s Year and a reminder of how everything is to be fulfilled in
Christ - this is where we‟re going… he is where we‟re going! But there‟s
a sort of moral ambiguity in the origins of the Feast. It‟s been celebrated
only since 1925 when Pope Pius XI ordered its observance in the Roman
Catholic Church. This was at a time when he felt his Church was under
siege. The Papacy had lost control of all the lands it had ruled in Central
Italy and the Pope had withdrawn to a self-imposed captivity in the
Vatican. He was embattled and defensive. All the worldly power had
gone. There was no agreement even for the Vatican‟s recognition as a
City State. So the inauguration of the Feast of Christ the King was a
statement that there was something more ultimate than the rule of earthly
kings, presidents and their governments. Christ is the one to whom all
allegiance is due. But we need to ensure that we say that because it‟s true
and not for reasons of one-upmanship or the desire simply to bask in his
reflected glory.

In fact our own church - here at St. Cuthbert‟s - found a way of

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celebrating “Christ the King” long before the Pope inaugurated the Feast
on a particular Sunday of the year. Because we have a “Christ the King”
window which - I‟m afraid - it‟s easy to miss, because you‟re all facing
the wrong way... It‟s the very top window in the west wall of our church,
and if you turn and crane your necks to see it you‟ll see Christ, robed in
the garments of a king, wearing a golden crown, and holding in his hand
an orb. An orb is a symbol of royal authority, given to the monarch at the
coronation. The orb given to the Queen was first made for the coronation
of Charles II in 1661, and cost £1,150 to create - in modern values
hundreds of thousands of pounds. The point of it is in the shape - a globus
cruciger - literally, a globe (or sphere) wearing
a cross. It‟s the declaration that all authority
can be exercised finally only by recognising
the ultimate dominion of Christ. This world is
Christ‟s, and we do well to remember it: Pope
Pius XI with his triple tiara yearning for his
lost lands; the Queen in her robes of state; and
every would-be ruler who thinks that he can
get his way by means of force, prestige or
wealth…

It‟s a pity that we don‟t use Psalm 72 today. The Psalmist puts it like this:

All kings shall fall down before him;

all nations shall do him service.

And he prays:

Give the king your judgements, O God,

and your righteousness to the son of a king.
Then shall he judge your people righteously

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 and your poor with justice.

When you look at that portrayal of Christ the King holding the golden
orb, you understand where the words of the chorus come from: “He‟s got
the whole world in his hand.” But those words need the corrective of the
Psalm. We long for justice, we want the cries of the poor to be heard, the
needy to be helped and the sick to be healed. But experience tells us that
our longings are still far from finding their fulfilment. Sing, “He‟s got the
whole world in his hand,” and you‟re saying how you would like it to be.
Sing it without praying that it may be so, and you‟re ignoring your calling
as a Christian. The danger if we simply exalt Christ as king and “lift him
up” with praise and singing is that we ignore what his Kingship truly
entails. Ours is a world which manifestly has not been won for Christ,
where his words are not heard or acted upon, where people do not wish
for his salvation. That‟s why the responses of those who come to Baptism
and Confirmation are so critical:

Do you turn to Christ as Saviour?

I turn to Christ.
Do you submit to Christ as Lord?
I submit to Christ.
Do you come to Christ, the way, the truth and the life?
I come to Christ.
As Christians we are called to recognise Christ as King - and then to work
with him for the establishment of his kingdom. We have to want Christ to
be seen as King and Lord of all.

Today‟s Gospel reading tells of the coming of the Son of Man, sitting on
a throne in glory - like a King in other words. And it‟s a picture set in a
story about Judgement. This - it seems - is how people are going to be
sorted out: the sheep on one side who will “inherit the kingdom”; the

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goats on the other side who will “go away into eternal punishment.” I
always thought this was rather harsh on goats. So I take comfort from
what our Bishop, Tom Wright, has to say about sheep and goats in the
Middle East: “It‟s often quite difficult to tell them apart. They can be
similar in colour, but one main difference is that the sheep‟s tail hangs
down and the goat‟s sticks up.” As for separating them, this is something
that the shepherd has to do at night “so that the goats, being less hardy,
can be kept warm.” This leaves us with a difficult question. Is Jesus in the
end like a king judging who is to be condemned and who is to be saved?
Or is he like a good shepherd who knows the needs of his flock, divides
them up accordingly and runs after the wayward?

Or can he be both? If Jesus is truly the King of all, then we‟re not written
off because we‟re rich or poor, black or white, clever or ignorant, sheep
or goats - because all are called to his kingdom. What we can’t ignore is
that the world we live in is far from perfect. We know what we want - and
that is Christ‟s kingdom where “the blind receive their sight, the lame
walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised … and the
poor have good news brought to them.” But still that‟s not how it is. The
length of the list of people for whom we pray in this church tells us that.
When we pray that people may be made well and they‟re not, it tells us
that. I can‟t avoid that - and when as a priest I sit with people who have
lost a loved one, when I‟ve seen people suffer pain and disability not just
for days and weeks but for months and years I haven‟t any answers as to
just why. Except that I see others who are alongside them - also without
solutions but being there for them.

And this is perhaps how we ought to understand Christ and his Kingdom.
He calls us to know what should be. And already he is alongside us

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knowing our frustrations in what is not. As a shepherd he knows the
needs of sheep and goats together. As one who leads them he calls us to
work for his kingdom. “When did we see you?” people will ask him at
the Judgment - and the answer is not a religious one. The answer is that
we need to look at the realities of this world and to be there with Christ‟s
people in the midst of them:

for 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.

And recognising the King is not simply to praise the one “who has the
whole world in his hand.” It‟s to serve Christ, who has the whole world in
his heart.