Sermon for November 22, 2009

                            Scripture:       John 18:33-37

               “Reign of Christ”     Rev. Christopher Fazel

            This Sunday is designated “Reign of Christ” Sunday.  It is also Thanksgiving Sunday.  Now, I’m pretty sure we all understanding Thanksgiving Sunday.  That’s the Sunday right before Thanksgiving.  Duh!  But what is this “Reign of Christ” Sunday?  Well, I did a little research.  “Reign of Christ” Sunday was born out of a Papal decree in 1925.  It was moved to this last Sunday before the season of Advent by another Pope in 1960.  So within the life of the Christian church, this is recent history.  Nevertheless, it is the Sunday that Christians proclaim their faith that the Spirit of Christ will one day reign supreme over the earth.  And yes, most mainline Protestant Christian churches do observe this special day. 

            Now, there’s a way to interpret this proclamation that I can embrace, and there’s a way to interpret it that I cannot embrace.  But before we get to that, let’s look at one of the logos of the United Church of Christ.  It’s on an insert in your bulletin.  You see there a circle topped with a cross.  As this logo was interpreted to me in seminary, it is itself an expression of this same proclamation.  The Christ reigns sovereign over all the earth.  You’ll notice that above the cross is a crown. 

            Now, one way to interpret this proclamation that one day Christ will reign supreme over all the earth is to see the Spirit of Christ as uniquely embodied within the Christian religion.  That would mean that the victory of Christ was the same as the victory of the Christian religion – “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of he Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit…” Mathew 28:19. 

            Several years ago, I happened into a Christian mission fair.  There were many booths with people behind them.  And some booths were feeding the hungry; others were teaching agriculture or digging wells.  I started to visit with one woman behind a booth and I said, “What kind of mission work is your group doing?”  And she said with great intensity, “Well, in a few years, when people start dying, it’ll be very clear what good we’ve done.”  And to clarify, I asked, “Do you mean you’ve been saving souls for Christ?”  And she said, “Exactly!”  You see, it was the fervent belief of her group and her, that if a person didn’t become a Christian, then at death, the soul of that person would be condemned to hell for all eternity.  So it was the most urgent matter of all that each and every human must be saved from that terrible fate by converting to Christianity.  This way of interpreting the reign of Christ has many adherents in our world today.  But it is my fervent belief that such an interpretation of the gospel of Christ is a violent distortion, and is furthermore an extraordinarily dangerous and destructive idea in our world.

            As evidenced by Jesus, Paul and all the New Testament writers, the victory of Christ is not a victory of any particular religion, but the victory of the Christ Spirit in us!!  The essential promise of the Christian gospel is that we shall all one day be like Christ.  That victory is symbolized by the crown.  All the New Testament writers use the crown as a symbol of the great victory in oneself of the Spirit of love, faith and compassion over the forces of fear, arrogance, greed and other forms of selfishness.  How is this crown won?  Jesus showed the way:  selfishness must be offered up on the cross of love, service and devotion to the good that transcends selfish interest.  Why did Jesus take the cross?  He took it for you and me – a complete offering of self for another.  That’s the pattern of victory.  Self must be conquered to win the crown of life.  James 1:12, Blessed is the one who endures trial, because once proved worthy, that one receives the crown of life promised to all who love the Source of Good.  That is my understanding of this UCC symbol, of this Reign of Christ Sunday, and of the Christian gospel in general. 

            But one must ask, in what way did Jesus understand the victory that he promised – the victory of a particular religious group or idea, or the victory of the good wherever it appears, and in whatever name?  Remember, in our reading today, Jesus says, “For this reason I came into the earth; to testify to the truth.”  And Pilate asks, “What is truth?”  But Pilate doesn’t wait for an answer.  But everything that Jesus did and said is the answer that he offers to the world.  Hear now one of his parables.

            Once upon time, a man was beset by muggers – beaten and robbed and left on the road injured and helpless.  And shortly a right wing conservative minister drove by and saw the man, but he was late for the right to life rally at which he was a speaker, and he just didn’t have time to help the man.  Later, a left wing liberal minister drove by, but he was so busy composing a sermon on individual liberties and abstract theology that he just didn’t see the man, and drove right by.  But then a young Muslim man named Kashif, or Tamim, or Muhammad drove by and he saw the man and stopped and applied emergency bandages and put him in his own car – bloody bandages and all.  And he drove him to the hospital and got him admitted and put it on his own card and told the staff, this should cover it at first, but I’ll be back tomorrow to check on him.”  And Jesus asks us, “Which of these carried the Christ into the world, and we have to say, “The one who showed kindness to his brother.”  And Jesus says to us, “Go thou and do likewise.” 

            Thanks be to God.  Let us pray.

Church Office is open to
receive telephone calls:
763-421-3375
Monday-Thursday, 9 a.m.-3 p.m.

The office is closed Fridays and national holidays.

E-mail:1stcongo@pro-ns.net

Fax: 763-421-3093