The Scripture readings this week are:
- 2 King 24:8, 11-17
- Psalm 47
- Matthew 27:11-14, 27-37
The Sermon title is Destruction, Death, Majesty?
Early Thoughts: Reign of Christ, Christ the King, Majesty of Christ. What images do those terms evoke?
Now, how does the destruction and looting of a city, thousands being dragged off in exile, or a beaten peasant hanging on a cross fit in with those images?
I am going to guess there might be a bit of a discrepancy.
To follow Christ means we have to embrace a series of paradoxes. I think that the last Sunday of the liturgical year really highlights that. We refer to this Sunday using titles like I listed up above. They are titles that tend to evoke power. Words like Reign, or King, or Majesty draw our minds to grand ballrooms, Buckingham Palace, pomp and pageantry, horse drawn carriages, people bowing in respect and fealty.
And yet Christ is a King on a cross. Christ's majesty is shown through death and and empty tomb. No pomp. No gilded carriage. No grand palace. Over the centuries that have followed you will find the people bowing in respect and fealty but certainly not in this story of trial and execution.
Christ has a different form of majesty, Christ is a different type of king with a very different type of reign. The Majesty of God's Kingdom is seen in death and resurrection. The Majesty of Christ is seen in a specific approach to life and love, not in pomp and pageantry.
Sometimes we need to see how destruction and tragedy might (not always but might) lead to something new. In the moment it will not feel like it. In the moment it feels like defeat and disaster. But sometimes God can lead us to new hope and possibility, maybe even majesty?
--Gord
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