Today, in the churches that follow the liturgical calendar, is the final Sunday of the Church the Year, now called Christ the King Sunday. This is the most recent of the feasts and special days in the calendar. It’s history is illustrative, because it links to very current issues.
Pope Pius XI instituted The Feast of Christ the King in 1925 for the universal church in his encyclical Quas Primas. He connected the denial of Christ as king to the rise of secularism. At the time of Quas Primas, and many Christians (including Catholics) began to doubt Christ’s authority and existence, as well as the Church’s power to continue Christ’s authority. Pius XI, and the rest of the Christian world, witnessed the rise of non-Christian dictatorships in Europe, and saw Catholics being taken in by these earthly leaders. Just as the Feast of Corpus Christi was instituted when devotion to the Eucharist was at a low point, the Feast of Christ the King was instituted during a time when respect for Christ and the Church was waning, when the feast was most needed. In fact, it is still needed today, as these problems have not vanished, but instead have worsened.
Pius hoped the institution of the feast would have various effects. They were:
1. That nations would see that the Church has the right to freedom, and immunity from the state (Quas Primas, 32).
2. That leaders and nations would see that they are bound to give respect to Christ (Quas Primas, 31).
3. That the faithful would gain strength and courage from the celebration of the feast, as we are reminded that Christ must reign in our hearts, minds, wills, and bodies (Quas Primas, 33).Today, the same distrust of authority exists, although the problem has gotten worse. Individualism has been embraced to such an extreme, that for many, the only authority is the individual self. The idea of Christ as ruler is rejected in such a strongly individualistic system. Also, many balk at the idea of kings and queens, believing them to be oppressive. Some even reject the titles of “lord” and “king” for Christ because they believe that such titles are borrowed from oppressive systems of government. However true these statements might be (some kings have been oppressive), these individuals miss the point: Christ’s kingship is one of humility and service. Jesus said:
You know that those who are recognized as rulers over the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones make their authority over them felt. But it shall not be so among you. Rather, whoever wishes to become great among you will be your servant; whoever wishes to be first among you will be the slave of all. For the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many (Mark 10:42-45, NAB).
and
Pilate said to Jesus, “Are you the King of the Jews?”… Jesus answered, “My kingdom does not belong to this world. If my kingdom did belong to this world, my attendants would be fighting to keep me from being handed over to the Jews. But as it is, my kingdom is not here.” So Pilate said to him, “Then you are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say I am a king. For this I was born and for this I came into the world,to testify to the truth (John 18:33b, 36-37).
Thus, Jesus knew the oppressive nature of secular kings, and in contrast to them, he connected his role as king to humble service, and commanded his followers to be servants as well. In other passages of Scripture, his kingdom is tied to his suffering and death. While Christ is coming to judge the nations, his teachings spell out a kingdom of justice and judgment balanced with radical love, mercy, peace, and forgiveness. When we celebrate Christ as King, we are not celebrating an oppressive ruler, but one willing to die for humanity and whose “loving-kindness endures forever.” Christ is the king that gives us true freedom, freedom in Him. Thus we must never forget that Christ radically redefined and transformed the concept of kingship.
Now, this festival has moved out of the Catholic Church into the mainline denominations including my branch of Presbyterianism. There has always been a very strong iconoclastic streak in the reformed movement that rejects all special days and times — including at times Christmas.
I have sympathy for this. However, my church community is liturgical, and (since I choose to be part of that congregation and no church is perfect) we have adopted this festival, because it is useful. For it reminds us that our kings, our queens, our presidents, and even the ideologies that we espouse are but temporary. This includes the current ideology of the elite, which is probably best seen as a Post-Gramscian version of feminism.
One way or another, things balance out. What will happen is that women will eventually pay for what they asked for, as in they will reap the “benefits” of wrecking the family. We must remember that most women – most people, actually – are not all that sophisticated, and others take advantage of them all the time. The average young woman is not currently benefiting from feminism — she’s working a crappy, low-wage job and living a mediocre life as a single parent. Unless she’s both pretty and bright, which is only about one out of twenty or so women (if that), her value is significantly lower than it was a generation in the past.
I’ve pointed it out before several times, but it bears repeating:
When a given society’s men prosper, the women are happy and healthy. When the men are poor and powerless, the women live much harder lives. The reverse is not true, because women do not share wealth. Just look at the average lifespan in counties and neighborhoods where women make more money than men in the US. It’s abysmal. Pine Ridge is probably the most blatant example of this.
When people tell me sincerely that we’re headed straight for some Orwellian dystopia, I’m tempted to tell them to go ahead and write a book or screenplay, because it’s fiction. I don’t think everything is going to be OK, but the idea that feminists and the state are so competent that they can permanently enslave 90% of the male population is pretty ludicrous. When things get really bad, authority starts to break down. It doesn’t make it easier to run a society when you have to control and monitor every aspect of people’s lives, which is what it would take to truly subordinate men to women.
On Christ the King Sunday we have to remember that the rulers — those who set the agenda — sometimes called the cathedral — are ephemeral. We have another king: we have another loyalty, and the qualities of this sovereign make him worthy of honour, which is something you cannot say for any human sitting on any throne, for we are all flawed — and all to often lead people astray, disavowing their role as the magistrate by instead pretending that they can be the true King.
1Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture! says the LORD. 2Therefore thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, concerning the shepherds who shepherd my people: It is you who have scattered my flock, and have driven them away, and you have not attended to them. So I will attend to you for your evil doings, says the LORD. 3Then I myself will gather the remnant of my flock out of all the lands where I have driven them, and I will bring them back to their fold, and they shall be fruitful and multiply. 4I will raise up shepherds over them who will shepherd them, and they shall not fear any longer, or be dismayed, nor shall any be missing, says the LORD.
5The days are surely coming, says the LORD, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. 6In his days Judah will be saved and Israel will live in safety. And this is the name by which he will be called: “The LORD is our righteousness.
19On that day there will be an altar to the LORD in the center of the land of Egypt, and a pillar to the LORD at its border. 20It will be a sign and a witness to the LORD of hosts in the land of Egypt; when they cry to the LORD because of oppressors, he will send them a savior, and will defend and deliver them. 21The LORD will make himself known to the Egyptians; and the Egyptians will know the LORD on that day, and will worship with sacrifice and burnt offering, and they will make vows to the LORD and perform them. 22The LORD will strike Egypt, striking and healing; they will return to the LORD, and he will listen to their supplications and heal them.
23On that day there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria, and the Assyrian will come into Egypt, and the Egyptian into Assyria, and the Egyptians will worship with the Assyrians.
24On that day Israel will be the third with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the earth, 25whom the LORD of hosts has blessed, saying, “Blessed be Egypt my people, and Assyria the work of my hands, and Israel my heritage.”
Christ is in control, and he will preserve his own. Now, at church today, another passage was read, which was the crucifixion, and a thief asking Christ remember him. And Christ saying that he will meet him in paradise. And this led to us considering second chances: the ability to correct things, to change.
Which at times you cannot do. You cannot reconcile with a person who is dead. You cannot go back to the covenant that has been deemed null and void [2]. And at times you will make enemies — the ones you have deliberately confronted and the ones you offend without any intent.
But the second passage should give us hope. For there were two empires that oppressed the nation-state of Israel — the Egyptians from the South, and the Assyrians from the North. Both were multi-ethnic. Both were polyglot. And both were very pagan, very oppressive, and frequently fought the tribes of Israel: and at one point Moses himself was sent to one of these nations to save the tribes, for Egypt had enslaved them. But in the time to come, when Christ the King will reign, the very nations that oppressed Israel will be worshiping with Israel and each other (and both Egypt and Assyria were ancient enemies).
Our God is a God of patience. Of second Chances. of the 490th chance. And when there are options for peace, we should take them So today, we need to pray for our enemies. For the ideologies they have espoused will leave them disillusioned, and in despair. That they will change, they will choose not to worship the ideology that mirrors but a part of truth but has more distortion [3] but instead Jesus, who is truth itself.
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- The text of Calvin’s letter (from wikimedia commons) in medieval french:
“Or au pseaulme present, il est parlé de la noblesse et dignité de l’Eglise, laquelle doibt tellement ravir à soy et grans et petits, que tous les biens et honneurs de la terre ne les retiennent, ny empeschentqu’ils ne prétendent à ce but d’estre enroliez au peuple de Dieu. C’est grand chose d’estre Roy, mesme d’un tel pais; toutefois je ne doubte pas que vous n’estimiez sans comparaison mieux d’estre chrestien. C’est doncq un privilège inestimable que Dieu vous a faict. Sire, que vous soyez Roy chrestien, voire que vous luy serviez de lieutenant, pour ordonner et maintenir le royaulme de Jésus-Christ en Angleterre.”
The translation is
Now in the Psalm before us is set forth the grandeur and dignity of the church, which ought in such wise to draw over to itself both great and small, that all the riches and honours of the world cannot hold them back, nor keep them from aiming at this object, namely, to be enrolled among the people of God. It is a great thing to be a king, especially of such a country; yet I have no doubt but that you esteem it incomparably better to be a Christian. It is therefore an inestimable privilege that God has made you, sire, a Christian king, to the end that you may act as his vicegerent in maintaining the kingdom of Jesus Christ in England.
- The illustration Barry used was that one may have remarried and not be able to then reconcile with one’s former spouse. He was skating on thin ice here, but when the relationship has been killed, and the covenant is broken, the spouse is accounted as dead.
- All ideologies have a kernel of truth. Even the most evil ones. It makes the lies go down far more easily.
