Kings

There are a lot of Kings in this world. The Sacramento Kings, the LA Kings, The Lion, the mascot of Franklin County High School is known as the King of the jungle…which is ironic because most of them live in the African Savannah. King Lear, King Tut, King Kong, Don King, Burger King, and Nissan even had a King cab truck that my dad used to own, and it was my sister’s first car.

A King is a ruler. The one in charge of everything. In History of the World Part I, Mel Brooks is playing Louie XIV, and his famous line is…”its good to be the King.” He says it because as king, he can do whatever he wants. Of course the real Louie XIV ended up doing “whatever he wants” a little too much because the people of France eventually had a revolution.

The South was built on King Cotton, and now, it seems, oil is king. Our state is named after King George. And I would be remiss if I didn’t mention, “The King.” Elvis Pressley.

Yes, there are a lot of Kings in our world. And today, on the last Sunday of our Christian year, we celebrate Christ as our King. Even as we prepare to welcome Christ as a vulnerable child during the season of advent, we still acknowledge him to be King of Kings.

In talking to the Community at Collossae, Paul needs to remind them that, yes, Christ is King. Because to many people in that congregation, he didn’t really seem like a king.

To the people of Collossae, Kings were the ones who lived in palaces and made war. Not the ones who ate with the poor and sinners. Jesus preached peace and reconciliation. And, he was crucified on a cross, hailed as the King of the Jews.

I’ll be honest, I’ve never met a King. I’ve met a princess, which was neat. I went to college with her. Mary Ebunegwe was an African princess. But I never met her father, so I’ve never met a king…unless you count college football.

I say it in humor, but there is a ring of truth to it. When we talk about Kings we are talking about authority. We give authority away all the time, to things that will give us security in this insecure world, or to help us forget our lives. When we make kings of something, that means that we serve it.

We make kings out of things all the time. College football is a big one. We pay homage to it, we allow it to dictate our lives. But there are other things we make into kings. Schedules is a big one.

We have Thanksgiving coming up, and in mine and Meredith’s first year of marriage we discovered that holidays are rough. You see, my family all lives in Georgia, and Meredith’s family all lives in Georgia. And my dad’s family, my mom’s family, meredith’s dad’s family, her mom’s family, and our immediate families all wanted to get together for Thanksgiving. It was too much. We spent a majority of Thanksgiving in the car…hardly any of it giving thanks.

We have a schedule now…and it is King. It is above all of the directions being pulled.

But we make our schedules into these rulers of our lives. Calendars and watches that dictate where we go and who we are going to be.

Or we make our children king. That whatever they say goes, when really, we need to be parents, and let them know who is the true king.

In our churches we let numbers be king. How many people are coming, how many people are giving, how many members do we have. And numbers become King and tell us how successful we are as a church.

Medical emergencies become king. Fear becomes King. Anger becomes King.
We all are kingmakers in our own way. We allow things to rule and dictate our lives, hoping for some sort of security given to us by our very own King. Hoping one day to be Kings ourselves.

But as we come here on Christ the King Sunday, we get a different story. That is what Paul is telling the Christians here by reciting an old hymn to them. Christ brings peace. All of your earthly kings bring war, but Christ brings peace.

I have a tremendous amount of respect for Quakers because they are peacemakers…at all costs. I believe in peace. I believe it can be attained, and I believe it can be attained in my lifetime.

Our planet has 6 billion people on it. And that number is growing. The world is straining under that load as we consume more and throw away more. As we are moving in closer and closer together, and as the world is shrinking through new technology and communication, Christians should be known in the world as bringers of peace. But I’m afraid that we don’t. I feel that the perception of Christians in the world is that we are combative, and I can understand where that comes from as we have started to base our churches on a market model, and if you have ever seen the trade floor on wall street that IS the market model, its combative. But we are called to peace. That is Christ the King. Christ is redefining what a King is, and redefining the kingdom.

And this peace, came as a result of Christ’s suffering and death on behalf of us all. So anyone who tells you that you choose to be saved, I believe is wrong. Christ saves us, because Christ is King, and we can acknowledge it, or we don’t.

When Christ is King, all powers of darkness are overthrown. Not only overthrown, but reconciled to the creator. They are no longer powers of darkness but forces for light when Christ is King. When Christ is King, he is the head of the church, with all churches following him as his disciples. When Christ is King, in every meeting, in every small group discussion, in every program we should stop and ask…does this put Christ first? Because Christ is King.

I think we are grasping at straws when we make other things King. And we do all the time. We make our school king, we make our team king, we make our political ideology king. But when we make Christ King of our lives, we are humbled. Knowing that when Christ is king, suddenly we are called to serve as Christ would have us to serve.

This may mean a new building, it may mean a new program, it may mean more bible study in small groups…it may mean a lot of things, but what it definitely means is that all these other things that we have made kings will be overthrown.

Peter Berger, who is a famous theologian and writer asks this question in one of his books. When a child cries at night, what does a mother do? She wakes up, puts on her robe and goes into the room, cradles the child in her arms and says, “Its all right. Everything is all right.”

When Georgia was really little and cried in the middle of the night I used to sing the song “three little birds” to her by the wonderful Bob Marley. It goes, don’t worry, about a thing, because every little thing, is going to be alright.”

Are we lying? Is the mother in the story lying? Did I lie to my little girl by singing that song? Don’t we know that there is a war in Afghanistan, don’t we know that we are in the middle of the biggest economic recession in history, don’t we know that unemployment in Georgia is at 10%, don’t we know that people can’t pay for their medicines and are dying?

No, Berger says, we aren’t lying, we are confessing our faith. Just like we do every Sunday morning with the Apostles Creed. We are confessing that we are floating on a sea of providence, and that Christ is King. It’s going to be alright.

I watch the show “the office,” its one of my absolute favorites, and there has recently been an episode where they go to church to baptize the baby of two of the characters on the show named Pam and Jim. All of their office coworkers show up, and they make fun of church. Calling the people who are there naïve, and stupid. And the boss Michael, asks them; what’s so wrong with being friendly? What’s so wrong with acting as if there is a purpose in the world? What is so wrong with doing good?

Michael is starting to understand who the King is. Its not Tut, Don, and its not even Elvis. Christ is King. That is our faith, and that is our hope, and that is our peace.