Today marks the close of the Christian year: Christ the King Sunday. For obvious and important reasons, some prefer to use the alternative rendering, Reign of Christ, and I respect this choice. No language is perfect and always in transition, so the use of reign has merit in the quest for authentic inclusivity. Still, for ethical and spiritual reasons, my heart finds more nourishment in wrestling with the ancient archetypal insights infused into the ideal of the king. Like C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, and C.G. Jung, my soul soars when confronted with the poetic, mystical wisdom of honoring Mary as both the Queen of Heaven (Regina Caeli) or Mother of God (theotokos.) These appellations invite introspection. They urge me to live into a liberating, counter-cultural, theological alternative to the locked-down, one size fits all dogma of our bottom line culture. And, they suggest a spirituality of diversity that honors the complexities of living into the grace of God. King, therefore, is for me every bit as creative and challenging as queen - equally engaging when embraced in an upside-down way.Not that this has been the dominant interpretation of Christ the King. It is all too clear that human frailty, fear, brokenness, stupidity, cruelty, lust for power - to say nothing of misogyny and anthropocentric dominion - has long defined the embodied experience of Christ as King for many. It certainly has guided the intellectual contours of the Magisterium's precepts in violent and ugly ways. And yet a minority opinion has always been present within the Body of Christ: it has been a part of the revelations of Mary Magdalene - our tradition's first apostle and protector of Christ's wisdom - along with the Gospel of Thomas and all who practice the ethics of the Cross. St. Paul wrote:
In Romans, the old rabbi insists that a cruciform existence is the wisdom of God revealed in the life, death, resurrection and ascension of Christ: "We are not shy in celebrating our sufferings because we know that suffering (can) produce endurance..."
And endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us because hope is God’s love being poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit... (That is why everyday we) by the mercies of God we present our bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is our spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God—what is good and acceptable and mature. (Romans 5/12)
Two other scriptural insights bring focus to this early primacy of this minority report: the enfleshed sermon of Jesus washing the feet of his disciples before the Passover feast, and, the Lord's words of mercy and forgiveness to the one hanging next to him on the Cross. "Do THIS to remember me" Jesus told his friends: wash one another's feet. That is, live as servants to one another sharing simple acts of tenderness in real time. Somehow, after the tradition become part of empire, the commitment to compassion along with a spirituality of surrender was incrementally lost in favor of hierarchy and grandeur. Corporeal acts of mercy always remained vital, but dogma and doctrine were now elevated to an absurd degree - and the once central truth of tenderness was side-lined yet again. Karoline Lewis, professor of preaching at Luther Seminary in MN, gives shape and form to why Christ's blessing from the Cross to the thief offers both a radical critique of our utilitarian status quo and a revolutionary alternative to the anemic compassion of bourgeois Christianity.
Concentrating on the crucifixion for Christ the King Sunday is a confluence of some rather puzzling and disturbing truths... First of all, in Jesus, we have a king who is crucified. Second, we have a king who forgives the very people who have secured his death. Third, we have a king who, while hanging on his cross, grants salvation to the criminal on the cross next to him (don’t forget this is unique to Luke’s passion narrative). And fourth, we have a king who brings the condemned into Paradise with him rather than bring upon them further condemnation. This is no king that is recognizable in our world today. This is no leader recognizable in our world today. Instead, we acquiesce to leadership that does not reflect biblical principles and does not recognize that how we lead reveals our theological commitments. We forget? pretend? that how we lead is demonstrative of who we think God is. (http://www.workingpreacher.org/craft.aspx?post=4754)
Concentrating on the crucifixion for Christ the King Sunday is a confluence of some rather puzzling and disturbing truths... First of all, in Jesus, we have a king who is crucified. Second, we have a king who forgives the very people who have secured his death. Third, we have a king who, while hanging on his cross, grants salvation to the criminal on the cross next to him (don’t forget this is unique to Luke’s passion narrative). And fourth, we have a king who brings the condemned into Paradise with him rather than bring upon them further condemnation. This is no king that is recognizable in our world today. This is no leader recognizable in our world today. Instead, we acquiesce to leadership that does not reflect biblical principles and does not recognize that how we lead reveals our theological commitments. We forget? pretend? that how we lead is demonstrative of who we think God is. (http://www.workingpreacher.org/craft.aspx?post=4754)
In the mytho-poetic world, the archetype of a healthy king shows us what true order brings to a society. Not only does the king receive the divine blessing of the Lord - which are never private or personal character traits but sacred gifts - and then integrates them into his flesh. With practice, patience and prayer, the king then implements these holy gifts into society so that compassion and true justice ripen. The king brings stability to chaos, establishes limits to "out of control behaviors," encourages the pursuit of wisdom and the practice of sharing. All of this brings calm to a world that might otherwise be ruled by fear.
Consider the grand story of Sir Galahad of King Arthur's court who must search for the chalice shared at the Last Supper but now lost to the king. This loss has pushed Arthur into illness, despair and confusion. Without his connection to the holy, chaos threatens the realm. So the young knight embarks upon a vision quest. The short version is that the puer, Galahad, must be tested and humbled until he either fails or accepts the path of true servanthood (shades of foot washing, yes?) Upon embracing a life in service of the sacred, Galahad not only secures the chalice, but restores health to King Arthur, setting in motion the renewal of creation. Think Aslan in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Or Robin Hood in relationship to King Richard the Lion-Hearted in that story cycle. (For a useful summary, please see "King, Warrior, Magician, Lover: Archetypes of the Mature Masculine @ http://www.masculinity-movies.com/articles/king-warrior-magician-lover)
My belief is the upside-down servant king of the Last Supper's foot washing is crucial if Western Christianity is going to become disentangled from its current idolatry. The servant Jesus is antithetical to most of what shapes contemporary evangelical Christianity in our era. That is one reason I refuse to give up the king. Men need healthy symbols, mentors and archetypes to help us reject both the whining bullies like the current inhabitant of the White House and the mean-spirited tyrant "strong men" of Russian, North Korea, etc. who rule by terror. Our faith tradition needs strong, wise and tender-hearted guides to teach our young men that the journey from selfish, innocent ignorance to compassionate leadership needs the training and time-tested wisdom of the king's ascent. And our religious language must learn to include strength in our poetry even as we search for balance and radical inclusivity. In the minority report which sneaks into view once again on Christ the King Sunday, we have part of the vision of what an authentic servant leader looks like. Let's not lose it.
1) Christ Enthroned @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Christ_Enthroned.jpg
2) Kingship of Christ @ http://www.patrickcomerford.com/2009/11/kingship-of-christ-and-majesty-of.html
3) Sign of Jonah @ http://jyotiartashram.blogspot.com/2007/10/sign-of-jonas.html
4) Ethiopian icon
5) Ethiopian icon
6) Jesus of the Desert (Robert Lentz) @ https://www.trinitystores.com/artwork/christ-desert
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