Loading...You might be surprised to learn that Christ the King or The Reign of Christ Sunday isn’t a centuries-old holy day. Today marks its first century. In other words, this Christ the King Sunday is the 100th anniversary of its inception. You may also be surprised when you learn it was created by the Pope as a response to current world events.
According to an article in The Catholic Telegraph, ‘The feast was introduced in the Western liturgical calendar in 1925 by Pope Pius XI, via the encyclical “Quas Primas.” Pope Pius XI was about to close the Jubilee year of 1925 in the context of the growing secularist nationalism that followed the fall of European kingdoms after World War I, and decided to establish the solemnity to point to a king “of whose kingdom there shall be no end.”’[1]
To help Catholic priests explain this addition to the liturgical calendar, Pope Pius XI wrote: “This kingdom (of Christ) is spiritual and is concerned with spiritual things ….The gospels present this kingdom as one which men prepare to enter by penance, and cannot actually enter except by faith and by baptism, which, though an external rite, signifies and produces an interior regeneration. This kingdom is opposed to none other than to that of Satan and to the power of darkness. It demands of its subjects a spirit of detachment from riches and earthly things, and a spirit of gentleness. They must hunger and thirst after justice, and more than this, they must deny themselves and carry the cross.”[1]
The Pope was responding to Mussolini’s fascist regime because he was witnessing that ideology spreading quickly and broadly across Europe after World War I.
His goal was to remind Catholics that their only “king” is Jesus.
Soon after, Anglicans, Episcopalians, Methodists, Lutherans, and Presbyterians adopted Christ the King Sunday into their liturgical calendar.
According to a 2017 article in the newsletter from All Saint’s Episcopal Church in Pasadena, “Jesus “kingship” does not involve domination or triumphalism — but the radical, all-powerful compassion and love of Jesus seeking justice for all.” [2]
I especially appreciate how the Language and Liturgy group at All Saint’s interpreted the meaning of this holy day on our liturgical calendar.
Let me say it again: “Jesus “kingship” does not involve domination or triumphalism — but the radical, all-powerful compassion and love of Jesus seeking justice for all.”
In my lifetime, and especially since the beginning of the former Presiding Bishop Michael Curry’s term, it seems to me The Episcopal Church has been moving to strongly embrace the life-giving, liberating, love of God in much of our messaging. Even here, at St. James’, we focus on Loving and Serving in the name of Jesus Christ. We are consistently reminded of how we respond “we will with God’s help” each time we renew our baptismal covenant. (And we’ll get another chance to do that next week when we have a baptism.)
We strive to remember that our focus should be on living in the ways Jesus taught us. And to live the best we can and always with God’s help.
As we prepare to shift into the season of Advent next week, we take this day, to recognize the unique life of Jesus, recognizing that his way of being a king is counter-cultural and turns our understanding of power upside down.
I find today’s Gospel an interesting choice. We normally hear a version of this story on Good Friday. Most of us know this story well. We see Jesus on the cross, his body suffocating and broken, yet still expressing the forgiving, redemptive, loving power of God to those around him.
When I was thinking about it, this placement, at the end of our liturgical year C, is poignant, it is meaningful. We conclude our year with the human end of Jesus’s life, just as we prepare for the beginning of his human life. Sometimes knowing how the story so brutally, yet hopefully ends, is the perfect way to get ready to hear how the story so humbly yet glorified and dangerously begins.
The stage is set, and each year we experience a plethora of emotions surrounding the birth and death of Jesus. For much of the year we learn from Jesus how to be hopeful, peaceful, joyful, and loving—all the things we will explore throughout the season of Advent. We hear stories of forgiveness, of healing, of celebration, and friendship between the celebrations of his birth and ultimately his death, resurrection and ascension.
But as we leave one liturgical year to enter the next, we are reminded of the human life, the temporal, physical life of a king who didn’t act like most kings yet was a king from birth and continues to be our strength and our redeemer, our teacher and guide, our KING—the ruler of our hearts, minds, and souls, after his death.
We don’t get to the Easter story today. We only get to the last words he spoke, words of redemption, and the recognition by those who didn’t know before that this man was more than a man. That he was truly the King of the Jews.
As we enter this liminal space between today and next Sunday’s start of Advent, I invite you to consider what makes Jesus your King. For some, this is not the way they envision Jesus, perhaps because he doesn’t wear a gold crown or a ring that must be kissed or sit on a jewel encrusted throne. His humble human presence on this earth makes him different than what we read in historical recollections of kings and queens, presidents, and prime ministers.
Jesus had no delusions of grandeur. He walked with the broken, the sinners, the hungry, the sick, the immigrants, the widows, the children, and all those who society had pushed aside, or even banished from communities. He spoke out for the lonely and the lost, including those in positions of power who were forgetting that dignity belongs to all humans, that all those reasons people were shunned and ridiculed could be anyone at any time.
His human life began in a barn and ended on a cross.
Today we remember that cross. Next week we will begin a four-week journey to the barn. What happened between the barn and the cross teaches us what true kingship, what true royalty, what true leadership looks like.
Let us pray. May we choose Jesus as our king. Let us learn from his life and live in ways that imitate him. Give us courage to proclaim our fidelity to Jesus as we commit to being Jesus Followers as members of the Episcopal Branch of the Jesus Movement. Be with this community as we continue to grow in faith, trusting God’s reign on earth to bring hope, peace, joy, and love to all the earth. We pray in Jesus, the King of Kings and Lord of Lord’s name. Amen.
[1] https://www.thecatholictelegraph.com/heres-the-story-of-how-the-feast-of-christ-the-king-came-about/78273
[2] IBID
[3] https://allsaints-pas.org/fun-facts-to-know-and-tell-about-christ-the-king-sunday/
