Sermon preached by
The Venerable Peter De Laney

The feast of Christ the King, November 2009

“I am the Alpha and the Omega, says the Lord God.”       (Rev 1. vs. 8)

“You are king then? said Pilate. Jesus replied, “King is your word, my task is to bear witness to the truth”                           (John 18. vs. 37)

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St John on the Island of Patmos shares with us a vision of Mediterranean sun and glory, the kind of vision that can only come out of an island surrounded by sea. And he wants us to feel inspired by a glimpse of heaven in which something of the unknowable is made known. It is the majesty of Almighty God he reveals in the language of apocalyptic symbolism. It is meant to lift the veil between heaven and earth, and the figure on the throne shown in the conventional hierarchic description of a king on a throne, is bursting in the eyes of a poet and painter and communicator of visual excitement. It is the holiness of God we see in the vision of the Book of Revelation.

Some of you may read the fictional books of Dan Brown, The Da Vinci Code, Angels and Demons and now The Lost Symbol. I mention this last book because it is obsessed with a story about Masonic secrecy and apocalypse; we have just heard from the Book of Revelation a direct message about the revealing of God – Apocalypse, much more exciting than Dan Brown, but are we inspired by it? Do the People of St Peter ad Vincula have to keep the press back because their book is best selling, does the story make them champions of the new age, what do you think? Holiness is transforming people are changed by it.  

It is to the same holiness in Revelation that Jesus Christ points to in his dialogue with Pontius Pilate on the eve of his death in Jerusalem. The truth which Jesus refers to is the found in the Kingship he has been called to fulfil; but this is a different kingship and misunderstood be his disciples and Pilate. It is a kingship which will express itself in a different kind of symbolism, not of the vision of heaven but of the vision of hell as seen in the cross of Calvary. Rather than the figure surrounded by precious stones and colours and rainbows; it is  blood and the hard wood of the cross which surround this king. The triumph of this king is in suffering and service.

How can we see triumph in the bleeding figure of Jesus Christ on a cross by a city wall in a remote part of the Middle East? If that is triumph I don’t want any of it. My idea of triumph is very different; end of tension, end of conflict, overcoming evil and pain – that’s my triumph. Well it certainly wasn’t Jesus Christ’s idea of triumph!

By staying in control of his faculties, by continuing to trust his Father, Jesus triumphed on the cross. He was healed by death. And in accepting the will of his Father he once and for all triumphed over death. Look at the events of the Passion, for the Passion is the coronation of this king. This is what you see: a rigged trial, the worst alliance of all – church & state compliant over the destruction of a trouble maker.

Jesus the scapegoat for the zealots, the whipping post for the High Priest, and the religious establishment; a convenient political prisoner for Pilate the Roman Governor. This strong alliance between the religious and secular leaders looked foolproof. No trouble, no crowd riots, no insurrection, sacrifice this rebel and well get through another political crisis. We need to be in control of the situation; sacrifice this upstart Jew from the north.

But in fact it was Jesus who proved to be in control, not the temple priests, not Rome in all its glory, not terrorists, or anarchists. It was Jesus who chose to get on the donkey and rode into the city, it was Jesus who appeared openly in the Temple, it was Jesus who washed his disciples feet, it was Jesus who went to the garden at night knowing exactly what would happen.

It was this same Jesus who showed his enemies where he could be found, and finally it was Jesus who stretched out his hands and feet out onto a wooded cross in order to allow iron nails to be smashed into his bones and flesh. This is not a victim this is a victor.

And look carefully at the Passion and trial; it was Jesus who judged Pilate in the silence of the judgement hall. It was Jesus who offered his body for crucifixion, it was Jesus who decided exactly when “It was finished” and when to breathe his last breath. He who appears to be victim is in fact in control of the whole situation.

And in those profound final words of exchange between Pilate & Jesus in the place of trial Jesus tries Pilate with his question about truth. Then ultimately on the cross, Jesus utters the final words of hope for humanity, “It is finished”, it is accomplished. Jesus closes that part of the chapter. By this Jesus receives the final healing of body, mind and spirit as he hands over to his Father all that he has left in one great ‘Act of Faith’. This is true kingship.

The meaning of the death of Jesus is to be found in Jesus embracing the suffering and the isolation of every desperate situation. Jesus shows us that it is God who is in control of every conflict, of every illness, of every attempt to love and to heal.

It is the God of Good Friday who stands sentinel in every intensive care unit, who defends the refugee, who dies in terrorist attacks and is at the heart of the isolated elderly and the lost. What we have to do is discover God in each situation. We will ask, “Lord when was it we saw you hungry, ill, alone, dying and desperate”? And he will answer, “when you give time to one of your fellow human beings – there I am!

So much of our own lives are left unfinished, things we meant to do, kindnesses we forgot. People to forgive and be forgiven by. So much to do. Yet we are in control of our own destinies, as Jesus was his, events will change, we are not robots and God is not a despot in spite of how the church and we sometimes portray him.

There comes a time for each man and each woman to chose between life and death. Don’t put off what you can do today. Act now, for tomorrow has enough problems of its own. Get today right and tomorrow will follow.

We each know when the time is right for change, for healing, for forgiving and for a new start? Jesus on his cross shows us how to get it right. He acknowledged what was happening, he guided the events, changed the momentum and finally decided when it was enough, and when to finish it! He was in control.

There are events we should bring to an end, situations we should bring to a close and episodes in our lives to be brought to a conclusion. To say “it is finished”, is a dynamic act, a positive cry, a resolution, which enables God to act. Our heavenly Father has been through every situation we have been through and more, there are no surprises for him, there is no ‘original sin’, only the same ones over and over again!

We see in the crucified Christ outside the city wall in Jerusalem, the great sign of hope, in fact hope itself. This is how to live, this is how to die, and this is how to complete. In the past year, and more recently there has been real pain, real suffering and real loss. These are sadly facts of life, this is life as it really is, Jesus Christ is to be found at the heart of life as it really is.

What do we do? Claim all life for God, go on living and looking for the new life in him. It takes time, pain needs healing, God is gentle but not indulgent, enough is enough! The evidence for the resurrection needs to be seen, and from the stillness of the tomb which was seen as loss comes the shout of triumph, “he is risen!”

In the darkness of the tomb comes the first flexing of the muscles, the beat of the heart, the moving of the body again. It is new life right at the place where death seemed to triumph. This is the secret of the kingship of Christ, this is the origin of the title of Christ the King, for the triumph of Easter Day is to be found on Good Friday, it is no good looking for the glory of Easter if you can not see the crown of thorns of Good Friday as the coronation of Jesus the King of the world.

The Feast of Christ the King comes just before Advent Sunday when we all need to be pulled up short in our lethargy and unfocussed faith. It is the double image of the Battered body of Jesus Christ on the rough wooden cross of Calvary set against the powerful image of the King in the Book of Revelation shining in the Patmos sunshine. It is in this capacity too of not being able to see the wood for the trees that we view the tragedy of Good Friday with the eyes of Easter.

Unless our vision as a church can see the transformation of our world through the love of God, we shall fall short in our vision of the future. It is through the eyes of faith that we are to look at each other, our world and God. You can wring your hands at the tragedy of our world and what we have made of it, you can moan about the state of the Church of God, you can hide behind doctrines and dogmas from the reality of a vulnerable and suffering God, but in the end you will have to see that it is you who are in control of your own destiny and the future of those around you.

Our King is none other than the babe of Bethlehem, the refugee in exile in Egypt, the teacher by the Sea of Galilee, the mover of hearts and minds to change. This is the Christ who loved so hard that humanity could not take the message, ‘love one another, as I have loved you’. In the end the transparent truth of who he was and what is expected of us ended up in a mock trial, a confrontation with Rome and death on a cross outside a city wall.

We now live in the kingdom, which his cross and grave, gave us membership of, a kingdom firmly rooted here in our present lives, but providing a promise of the vision of a changed world we either believe or deny by the way we live. May St Peter ad Vincula provide the right entry into Christ’s kingdom in which the cross and the grave are seen as authentic signs of membership and love is the bond which unites, if it doesn’t happen here there is not much hope elsewhere?

So who to forgive? Who to learn to love and don’t tell me that this congregation couldn’t do with a new round of making peace, unless you are the only church in Christendom that lives in the kingdom now. We need the powerful love of Christ the King to forgive us, help us to forgive others and to approach Advent and Christmas with a clean slate and new hope. So now a time to ask forgiveness and to begin again.

Lord we ask forgiveness for our arrogance and self centeredness. We ask that you show us how to forgive. Above all we want to see your Son Jesus Christ as he really is, our Saviour, King and friend.                                              Amen.

© Peter Delaney. Peter  has been Archdeacon of London and Rector of All Hallows by the Tower. he is currently  Rector of St Stephen Walbrook a post he has held since 2004.

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