November 29, 2000
© 2000 Grant M. Gallup
Daniel 7:9-14 As I watched, the beast was put to death
Psalm 93 Dominus regnavit
Revelation 1:1-8 Jesus Christ, Ruler of the Kings of the earth
John 18:33-37 My Kingdom is not from HERE
or Mark 11:1-11 What are you doing, untying the colt?
Pius XI introduced the feast of Christ the King into the calendar of the church back in 1925. For a long time, party churchmen chose up sides on the last Sunday in October: Lutherans and protestants celebrated the Reformation, commemorating Luther's tacking up his 95 theses on the church door in Wittenberg on October 31, 1517. Roman Catholics and Anglo Catholics who disappoved of the Reformation (except their own stingy counter-reformations) celebrated instead the feast of Christ's Kingship. The popes had lost most of their real estate in Italy, and Pius XI retreated to the calendar to claim new territory, in fantasy if not in Italy. On earth, Pius XI was left with with what Benito Mussolini let him have. But the Pope saw Bolshevism coming to Eastern Europe, Emperor worship rising in Japan, Nazism popular in Germany, fascism making Italy eager once again for Empire, and so signed a pact with Hitler, denounced the modern age, and declared that Jesus Christ was the true Ruler of the World, and to Christ, through the Popes, the world should bow and kiss the papal slipper.
Did the Pope thereby hope to reassert the old prerogative of crowning earthly kings and rulers? The old swindle of the Donation of Constantine could not be convincingly revived, so it never happened. Anti-clerical and secular governments around the world took away the church's exclusive control of education, Queen Victoria had already written to the Pope diminishing him to "Reverend and dear Sir:" England, whose Henry VIII was given the title "Defender of the Faith" by an earlier Pope, decided that in defense of the faith it would do without Popes, and retains the title to defend the Reformed faith. In the 20th century, increasisngly anti-Christian governments have gone further to delimit papal "authority" and although the Vatican still asserts itself as the only legitimate government of the Reign of Christ in earth, Pentecostal preachers wives in Oklahoma have higher bee hive hairdos now than the Pope's beehive tiara, which was quietly put away in the attic in its hat box by Paul VI. John XXIII had looked comical in it. Now, a tame and chastened English monarch, dutiful and matronly Elizabeth II, goes off in dowdy dignity to Jay Two Pee Two for a visit in their old age; he'll wear the longer gown, but she has worn hers as well, and spoken as well as he, in the defense of old millenery.
In all the propers of the western churches (whether proper churches or as Ted Mellor says, pur improper one--as Rat Zinger has denominated Ecclesia Anglicana) the feast of Christ the King is drafted to serve for the last Sunday of the liturgical year. The image of Christ as King--Cristo Rey--is one of the most popular images today in Roman Catholic, Anglican, and Protestant church buildings. Other times and other cultures have had their own favorite ikons of the Lord. Each serves a propaganda purpose, sometimes realized by the gullible. Christ as a King became popular just as kingship was going out of style. It became especially popular in Mexico amongst counter-revolutionaries trying to restore church control of education after the Mexican revolution.
Christ the King comes, appropriate for its sociopolitical uses, within the celebratory octave of our national Thanksgiving. We dine on the bosom of the great bird of peace while we praise the bird of prey. The breasts of turkeys have been hormoned so extravagantly that the poor things can no longer mate naturally but must have it done for them by artificial insemination. The eagle, rapacious bird of prey, is a parable of what we've become as a republic, but the turkey with a snood, wattle, and caruncles, even with all the flag-waving of his feathered behind, is what we might have become as a peaceable kingdom.
Every nation has its totem. Nicaragua has the beautiful and exotic guardabaranca, glorious bird with a flashy crest and tail, an emblem of elegance rarely seen. But they sing about it, as they do about everything. the Russians have the bear, which they train to dance and do tricks, but they do not eat him at harvest home. The Brits till have the lion, once a symbol of Empire, but now snaggle toothed and retired, like Margaret Thatcher. The Book of Daniel had the lion with eagle wings as a symbol of Babylon, and the empire of the Medes was the bear, with tusks. Cyrus the Persian was a Leopard with wings, and the most horrid of all the beasts--with iron teeth and ten horns, was Alexander the Great and successors. In Daniel's vision, that empire is coming apart. The little horn of it, Antiochus Epiphanes, the Syrian Ruler, appears in Daniel's vision and in John the Seer's revelation as well.
In the gospel lesson for today, indeed in all three lections, we are in a court room. It is a place of trial, but it is so because originally it is the throne room of a King, or his garden. A space in which the monarch sat to hear disputes, to consider accusations, to assign remedies for crimes or torts. In English courts, trials are named as "The King's (or Queen's) Majesty versus so-and-so." In our republic, the ultimate authority is supposed to be the people and so the one who sits in judgment represents the People, and the trials are so named, "The People versus Tricky Dick Nixon" or "The People versus Slick Willy". It is the people we stand up for when the Judge enters, for he or she is supposed to represent us, and stand up for us.
Look again then at Daniel's vision. The Ancient of Days is seated in the midst of the thrones, in a court room. "The court sat in judgment," Daniel says, "and the books were opened." Great beasts, the totems of the nations, come into the court-room to be judged. The great beast that has terrified the world is slaughtered like a turkey for the barbecue grill, given over to be burned with fire. And all the other beasts--the lion of Babylon, the bear of Medea, the Leopard of Persia, the totems of all the arrogant nations--the bear of Russia, the eagle of Los Estados Unidos, the lion of Britain, the dragon of old China, their dominion is taken away but their lives prolonged for a season and a time.
Then something remarkable happens. Something new comes into the court room of the Almighty: "I saw in the night visions, and here comes the People! One like--it looks like--a human being--a child of humanity--a son of humankind-comes before the Ancient of Days and is represented at the throne! And what is this? To him, to her, to humanity is given dominion and glory and kingdom, so that all peoples, nations, and languages should be in the service of HUMANITY, of the human community, and not in the service of the totems, not in the service of beastly imperialism, or the rapacity and gluttony of beasts and raptors. The dominion of humankind, of the Son of Man, of the Human Project, is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and the kind of queendom/kingdom that shall never be destroyed.
As Daniel and Carlos Marx prophesied, the nation-state will give way to the People. Daniels' vision is that of a human future, conquering and being designated forever by God to succeed the totemistic past of beasts competing for a victim humanity, of snarling nationalisms pillaging the planet.
Pilate is oblivious of this when he enters the Praetorium and takes his seat in the court-room. Representing Caesar, far away in Rome. Dominion is the issue in this court-room, as it is in every court-room. That is, Who Has the Power? Not always the ones in uniform. It was said that in Poland Lech Walesa and Solidarity had the power, but no legitimacy, and that General Jaruzelski and the government had legitimacy, but no power. In Palestine today, the Palestinian people have the legitimate claim to their land, but no power; the Zionist occupier has power, but no legitimacy.
"King of the Jews" is a title of political significance. Pilate, representing the powerful totem of Empire, asks Jesus, "Are you really a King?" Are you really the person in charge here? Jesus, according to John, cross-examines at once: "Does the question come from you, or is this hearsay? Have others prompted this line of questioning?" Pilate's riposte is that he is impartial. Curling his lip, disdainfully, "Do I look like a Jew?" This is a local controvrsey! Your own nation's authorities have brought this action. What have you done?" Jesus, as sharp as Melvin Belli or William Kunstler, declares a change of venue. This court room has no jurisidction, he says, because the facts about my BASILEA, my power and authority, cannot come up in such a court room. "My government is not from here--from Judea, from this world, it is not derived from the Caesars, as yours is, it's not FROM HERE." This explains why my servants do not fight, that is engage in military violence, on behalf of my kingdom. We're in the wrong courtroom, Jesus is saying. But we'll get there.
Well, unless Pilate can establish that Jesus has seditiously claimed to be the legitimate government of the Jews, there really will be no probable cause, no sufficient evidence, to bring the matter to trial. Jesus declares that his BASILEA, his supremacy, has to do with WITNESSING. Jesus is the Judge who is a Witness. And in every court, in every venue, in every country, Jesus is always there both as Judge of Truth and Witness to the Truth.
"You say that I am a King," Jesus says to Pilate. "King is your word. It's a political term that you use to give legitimacy to your use of power." "But" Jesus says, "I prefer the title Witness to Truth." In every court, in the trial of all the facts that ever come before a judge, it is truth that is on trial, and it is the Truth that is the Judge, finally. Jesus is the Truly Human One who is always there, on that side.
Jesus is the graceful alternative to the lies, the bestial history which we have had in Caesars, Tsars, Kaisers (all the same word), Presidents and Emperors and Little Tin Horns.
The Feast of Christ the King always occurs close to the Feast of America the Turkey. Our national pretensions of being "the last best hope of earth" are as puffed up as a turkey bosom. It is Jesus who is after all the First and the Last, the Alpha and the Omega, the A and the Z, who was, and is, and who is to come. He is the one like to a Child of Humanity who has come into the presence of the Ancient of Days.
It's interesting that when the monarchy was restored in England after the death of Oliver Cromwell, one of the imortant arguments for bringing back Charles II was that the monarchy was better for commrce and trade than the Puritan republic had been. Nowadays, what the British monarchy does for a living is to hype trade in and with the commonwealth. Businessmen now hanker after the status of nobility, a niche below movie stars.
One day in 1985 I attended the institution of a young Black priest as the rector of a black middle class prish in the States. The church was full, a bus load of former parishioners came from the rector's old parish in Detroit, and the soul choir of another parish sang "Lead me, Lord, lead me!" Standing room only. Then the preacher presented the rector-elect: "He's from a distinguished old town in the East, he comes from the gentry there," said the presenter. "Your new rector is from the upper crust. You are getting the best."
I could hardly believe my ears. The only thing that the preacher could say about the young man was to commend him on the basis of class and caste. Nothing about character, reputation, education, rule of life, charisms or skills. And to compound the wickedness the preacher declared that the new minister had learned all he needed to know in seminary and didn't come to this parish to be taught by the people. To think that the people have nothing to teach their priest, and then to preach it, was perhaps the most egregious of errors.
But it is what I heard that day which made me blush in the presence of ecumenical guests. No need to educate your pastor!
In Christ's kingdom, we are all a royal priesthood, a holy nation, and there can be no dommendation of anyone of us on any basis except upon the kind of service we render to one another in love. "To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood and made us a kingdom, priests to God and Father, to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.
"Jesus came into Jerusalem on a borrowed vehicle, not in a State limousine with flags aflutter. Jesus' kingdom, if we will learn from him and from the scriptures, is a regimen unlike the governments of this world. Its value system is at odds with our system that esteems titles, patriarchal status, inherited wealth. Instead, Jesus' kingdom is an underground revolutionary movement in which people recognize each other's commitment to Jesus Christ as what in fact they have in common, 'though they may not even know each other or come from the same backgrounds. The country boys and girls who came along with Jesus were told to go into the suburban village and borrow a colt and to do so on the basis of the owner's having allegiance to the same master as themselves. "What are you doing, untying the colt?" Just say, "the Lord needs it."
And their own contribution was their own clothing: "They brought the colt, and threw their garments on it, and spread garments on the road." And they gave their revolutionary songs that day as well. We each of us brings what we have to the rebellion, and all of us in the redeemed human commuity are called to be royal persons, and a holy priesthood. None is greater, none lesser, and if there is a hierarchy (which means "rule of priests") it is one in which we compete with each other in priesthood for one another, and not for honors and titles. When Jesus first came to Jerusalem, he went first into the Temple. Let judgment always begin with the House of God. we must clean up the church's act before we can clean up the world's mess.
When Jesus went to the Temple, Mark tells us he "looked around at everything, as it was already late." What did he see there? It was a long time since he was twelve years old and had made his mark that day, and created a legend. Had he been thinking all those yars about what he'd seen there? Did he remember the tax tables, the money changers, the den of thieves? Did he remember the class and caste system which excluded women and foreigners and eunuchs? Which slaughtered beasts and splashed blood about and called it religion? Did he hear talk of "gentry" and "best family?" and "upper crust" and "the best"?
When did these phrase first occur to him, "My kingdom is not from this world." Or, "My house shall be a house of prayer for all people."
GRANT GALLUP
CASA AVE MARIA
APARTADO RP-10
MANAGUA, NICARAGUA. C.A.
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