Christ the King reflections

This Sunday, the last Sunday of the Church's liturgical year, the last Sunday before the start of Advent, is known traditionally as the Sunday of Christ the King.  I don't know about you, but I've always had a hard time wrapping my head around this Sunday in the Church's life.  It's probably due to the fact that I'm a citizen of the United States, and we fought a long and hard war partly because we were no longer going to have a King rule us!

The language of our Revolutionary War fervor (you know, that war that some in England at the time called "the Presbyterian Rebellion?") was passionate and filled with convictions about knowing we no longer wanted or needed or would put up with a monarch.  Even the language at that time, however, sometimes paled in comparison to the language of our Scots ancestors centuries ago.  In the 1980's, I served as the pastor of an ethnic Scots congregation in northern Illinois (the nearest towns were named Argyle and Caledonia, if that gives you a hint of the heritage of that part of the state!).  When the Pastor Nominating Committee invited me to visit there during our penultimate interview time, they walked me into the sanctuary to show me around.  It was beautiful - simple, as Scots would have it, but beautiful and well cared for.  There was a traditional "Rose window" in the back of the sanctuary, and the focal point of the window was St. Andrews Cross - which is the basis of one of the national flags of Scotland - and words that read "For Christ's Crown and Covenant."  I was struck by that, and so I asked them where those words came from.  No one had any idea, nor did I.

I served that congregation for nine years, and a few years after I left I was reading a book that gave backgrounds of each of the historical documents in our Book of Confessions.  In reading about the Scots Confession (adopted in 1560), I got a bit of a flavor for John Knox, the ecclesiastical father of the Presbyterian Church.  As his passion was increasing for the branch of the Protestant Reformation as it was developing in Scotland, Knox began to upset folks in England in general, and in London in particular.  In fact, at one point he was summoned to appear before the King's Privy Council, where he was told, in blunt terms, that his mind "lay contrary to the common order."  As only a Scot might respond in such a situation to English folks, he said, "I am more sorry that the common order is contrary to the institution of Jesus Christ!"  So there!  As tensions continued to build between the English and the Scots, England decided to send an army north to force submission to the King's rule.  The Scots defiantly said that they would meet the English with force, and that they would be fighting "for Christ's crown and covenant," not submitting to any English crown!  All of this is to say that we have a long, and some (including myself) would say "proud," history of rejecting rule by kings.  And then comes this Sunday, every year:  Sunday of "Christ the King."

It helps that this Sunday more recently has also been referred to as the Sunday of the Reign of Christ.  That helps this old Scottish/American a bit... but, more importantly, it emphasizes the true purpose of this day.  This Sunday in the life of the Church is meant to remind us, as we prepare to begin a new liturgical year by entering into Advent, that the Christ Child who we will prepare our hearts to welcome at Christmas is not simply "baby Jesus, meek and mild."  Jesus is, indeed, the One whom we both worship and serve... the One who, in the Apostle's words:

"...is the image of the invisible God, the  firstborn of all creation; for in  him all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and  invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or powers-all things have been  created through him and for him.  He himself is before all things, and in him all things hold together. He is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he  might come to have first place in everything.  (Colossians 1:15-18)

"For Christ's Crown and Covenant."  Jesus is our ruler, our sovereign, our Lord.  And, I can sure live with and by that!