In the traditional church calendar, this Sunday – the Sunday before the start of Advent – is “Christ the King Sunday,” or, if you want to be formal (and I know you all do, just as much as I do), it is “The Feast of the Solemnity of our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe.”

Now, usually this is also the Sunday closest to Thanksgiving, so our worship is usually focused on the good and worthy themes of gratitude and generosity. But I also wanted to give “Christ the King” its due.

If you search on the internet for “The Feast of the Solemnity of our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe,” you’ll get lots of images of a white guy with a scepter and a crown on a throne.

Is that the image of Jesus you get when you actually just listen to what Jesus actually had to say?

What kind of king says we should sell our possessions and give the money to the poor?

What kind of king says you can’t serve both God and wealth?

What kind of king says not to worry about our status or our image or our prosperity or even our security, and instead live with utter simplicity and utter trust that God will provide us what we need?

What kind of king suggests that having enough is enough, thank God, we need not and should not take more than we need, that a true appreciation of God of life means we experience a contentment so complete we can’t get hooked by the marketers of lack and anxiety into buying things we don’t need with money we don’t have?

What kind of king suggests that kings themselves are foolish for piling onto themselves the splendors of wealth and greatness and glory, when the truth is we can simply revel in our natural beauty like fabulous wildflowers?

What kind of king is this?

I’m not the first to say it: This sounds less like a king and more like some kind of dirty hippy, or an old-school gutter punk. Right?

That’s the point.

Jesus systematically subverted the expectations of authority that people projected onto him. “The last shall be first.” “Those who lead must serve.” “The proud shall be humbled and the humble uplifted.”

Jesus never called himself a king. He didn’t even let people call him “good.” He never put himself on a throne. Rather, he kneeled to wash people’s dirty feet.

When he was brought to trial before the authorities, the Roman Governor, Pontus Pilot, said he was accused of claiming to be the king of his people, thereby subverting the Roman authority to declare and depose kings.

“What do you have to say to these charges?” Pilot asked.

“My Kingdom is not of this world,” Jesus replied. “That’s why my followers aren’t busy beating people up, like yours are.” (I’m paraphrasing).

“So, you admit you think you’re a king?”

“You’re the one calling me a king,” Jesus replied to Pilot. “The purpose of my life is to tell the truth.”

“Yeah, whatever,” Pilot basically says, “What’s ‘truth’ anyway?”

But the truth will out, right?

As the Apostle Paul wrote: “God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world… so that no one might boast before God” (from 1 Cor 1:27-29).

So how on earth did it come to be that Jesus became somehow a threat the powerful could use to lord over the less powerful? Or that the rich use to somehow justify exploiting the poor and taking more and more? Or that the privileged use to somehow protect their status? How on earth did it come to be that Jesus could be used as a cover for violence and abuse, meanness and cynicism?

All those images of “The Feast of the Solemnity of our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe,” where Jesus is a king with a crown and a scepter and a throne, were all painted and sculpted under monarchies, and more than that, theocracies. Along with the monarchs the church was large and in charge too, blessing the king and the queen and the noble bloodlines as chosen by God for their might, and condemning to death the heretics that would dare dispute any of it.

This kind of theology still has tremendous traction.

We must not underestimate the power of human sin, and its sneakiness and savviness and adaptability in twisting into its service even the counter-cultural spiritual genius of our dear Jesus.

But despite all the insanity and depravity that has been done in Jesus’ name, the truth of his counter-cultural spiritual genius is still true. “Consider the lilies.” “Do unto others as you’d have them do unto do.” “Blessed are the peacemakers.” “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for right-relations.” “Those who would lead must serve.” “The last shall be first and the first last.” “Love God with your whole self and love others as yourself.”

It is our task to be true to that truth, flawed though we are. It is our task to be accountable to that truth. It is our task to be sincere in striving to follow the Way of Jesus and the truth he showed that sets people free, humbly being shaped for lives of service and courage for the wellbeing of all people on behalf of the God’s Universal Love Supreme.

For the early communities of Jesus followers, who were in fact the heretics of their day, to claim Jesus as one’s “Lord” or “Sovereign” or “King” was in fact to subvert the earthly authorities who claimed those titles. It declares oneself to be answerable to a higher and holier Power than the powers of one’s present social order, a higher ethical standard than the morals and mores of one’s society.

This was counter-cultural in Jesus’ time. It’s counter-cultural in our time as well.

Each of us can have their part to play, by saying “yes” to a higher and truer moral and spiritual authority than the powers of this world, and sincerely letting it shape us to be a little more loving and courageous and compassionate and just.

Thanks be to God.

Delivered Sunday, November 24, 2024, by Rev. Nathaniel Mahlberg, at the United Church of Christ at Valley Forge

You can view video of this sermon here.