Thought for the Week – 16^th November 2020

The last Sunday before Advent has been known for many years as the feast of Christ the King. This is not an ancient festival – it was first promulgated by Pope Pius XI in 1925 and then quickly adopted by most other western Christian churches. It is now firmly part of the Church calendar. It comes at the end of the brief season of All Saints tide, which starts on 1^st November, during which the lives and example of the saints of the Church, past and present, are particularly remembered and celebrated. It can be quite a sombre time as we remember loved ones who have died and those who gave their lives in wars and conflicts. At St. Albright’s we were able to do both, despite the new lockdown, at our Light a Candle for a Loved One service for All Souls on 4^th November, and on Remembrance Sunday a few days later. However, it is also a time of great joy and optimism, beginning as it does with festival of All Saints and finishing with Christ the King.

It might seem that this month-long season is a sort of progression – starting with ordinary people like you and me, recalling certain individuals, and then ending up with God in Jesus: a kind of hierarchy from the lowest to the highest. The very phrase “Christ the King” suggests the might and majesty of God because kings are traditionally powerful and authoritative – very much the boss. But that is not what the season or the day is about, and that is not the full picture of God that we get from scripture. True, he is almighty, all powerful and all-knowing – the great Father, creator and sustainer of the universe to whom praise and worship is given, but there is much more to him than that. As Christians we believe that God became human as Jesus Christ and lived for a time as one of us. That is what our God is like – he has brought himself down to our level, to be like us, to be close to us. And not only was he born and lived in the humblest and most modest of ways, he allowed himself to be rejected and executed as a common criminal. The inscription on his cross “The King of the Jews” was intended as an insult, but there is a fantastic irony in that statement because he really is a king: not one of glory, or wealth or power but one of utter self sacrifice. A God who gave his very self for us.

So, when we talk of Christ the King we are not in the realms of conventional kingship or authority. Jesus said that his kingdom was “Not of this world” (John 18.36), by which he meant that it had nothing to do with secular or political power. The kingdom which Jesus proclaims is one of love – generous, sacrificial love. A love which passes understanding because it is so self- giving and yet comes from one who is so powerful. This is our God – the God of the stinking stable, the God of the dusty road, the God of the cross.

If we take this seriously then it cannot but affect our lives profoundly. If God himself did this for me, then what should my attitude and approach to life be as a result? How should I behave, how should I act? What should my thoughts and words be? God challenges us by his very presence and identity as Jesus. He challenges us to follow him, to be like him. Not necessarily in all that he did (who could do that save God himself?) but to have his mind and purpose. To be a Christian in this world is to try to be like Christ.

This is not easy, and we could not do it without the help and guidance of the Holy Spirit – God who is with us all the time. He is our comforter and counsellor, the one who gives us the strength to live the kingdom which Jesus announced and in which we are bidden to participate. How we do it depends very much on who we are and where we are, but do it we must.

God the Father, help us to hear the call of Christ the King and to follow in his way of love and service, whose kingdom has no end; for he reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, one glory.

(Shorter Collect for Christ the King)