A Non-Camo King

A Non-Camo King
Jeremiah 23:1-6; Colossians 1:9-20; Luke 23:33-43

A recent cartoon posted on Facebook showed the pilgrims driving off Santa Claus. In another, a Thanksgiving turkey was loudly addressing Santa saying, “November is my month. You just get out of here and wait your turn!”

A lot of us probably feel that way – and have for several weeks. A number of stores plan to open up on Thanksgiving. As someone who avoids like the plague stores on Thanksgiving Friday, why would I even want to shop on the holiday itself? I commend those stores whose management has resisted the urge to open up early.

I like Santa well enough. He’s a right jolly old elf with a nose like a cherry, but I’m with the turkey complaining that Santa is invading her month. And I’ll suggest that Santa has done a good job crowding Christ out of Christmas. Public relations attempts to sanitize Santa’s image by having him present at the manger are not enough to soothe my theological spirit.

All that said, Christmas is coming. In five fast-flying weeks we will be singing the words of the English carol, “What Child Is This?” The haunting refrain is appropriate for this last Lord’s Day of the church year as we think about the reign of Christ: “This, this is Christ the King who shepherds guard and angels sing; haste, haste to bring him laud, the babe, the Son of Mary!” We aren’t ready for the babe part, but we need to sing the king part. The English hymn writer William Chatterton Dix, who wrote the words for “What Child Is This?” is also the author of the words we sang at the top of the service, “Alleluia! sing to Jesus, his the scepter, his the throne.”

Most of us believers spend a great deal of our spiritual time being confused by Jesus: God – man; servant – king; prophet – peon; priest – sacrifice. Those of us who devote not only our private lives but also our public lives to Christ, often live a life similar to Nik Wallenda. Only we don’t walk tightropes over the Niagara Falls gorge or the Grand Canyon. We do it over the pit called heresy. We must walk on a thin thread of theological thinking which keeps the mystery/paradox of Jesus in balance lest we tip too far one way or the other and fall into the abyss.

We call Christ “king.” Yet his “kingdom was not of this world,” or so he told Pilate. He was mocked by the soldiers. He was parodied with a royal robe and a crown of thorns. About fifteen years ago Dave Matthews wrote a song entitled “Christmas Song.” A portion of the lyrics talk this way about Jesus:
“. . . So I’m told, so the story goes
The people he knew were
Less than golden hearted
Gamblers and Robbers
Drinkers and Jokers, all soul searchers
Like you and me . . . .” (1)

This Jesus is a radical king who hangs out with the poor and marginalized and then hung on a cross for the sake of God’s love for the world. Whether we read the words of the gospels or listen to a contemporary songwriter, the result is still the same: Jesus is not the kind of king most people expect. He is not a super hero. He is not an armored champion. He is not a military ruler. You won’t find him wearing combat boots and camouflaged fatigues.

There is a haunting and uncomfortable statue, depicting a darkly shrouded figure lying huddled on a long park bench. From a distance, the figure could be anyone, and only on close examination are the tell-tale “stigmata,” or crucifixion wounds, visible on its exposed feet. The statue, by Timothy Schmalz and entitled “Homeless Jesus,” isn’t your typical depiction of Christ. Its arresting imagery was too much some church leaders. The life-size bronze sculpture was rejected by two high-profile cathedrals, St. Michael’s in Toronto and St. Patrick’s in New York. Schmalz was told the piece “was not an appropriate image.” Like the newborn Jesus for whom there was no guestroom, and the Human One who had no place to lay his head, even though foxes had holes and birds had nests, the statue had no home until it was taken in by the Jesuit theological school, Regis College, in Toronto. (2)

In Jeremiah’s day, the term “shepherd” was used to refer to “king.” The Jeremiah passage which was read earlier was not a work of fiction. He, like any good op-ed columnist, directed his words to the kings he experienced in his lifetime. Jeremiah minced no words. The demise of Israel was directly connected to the poor leadership of the nation’s kings, including their blatant evasion of their responsibility to uphold justice for widows, at-risk children, immigrants, and those being pushed out of the middle class by the widening gap between the 1% and the rest of the population. The greed of a whole series of kings – Jehoahaz, Jehoiakim, and Jehoiachin – was the ultimate cause for the destruction of Israel.

Jeremiah looked hopefully for a righteous king. His faith descendants know that king to be Jesus Christ. Instead of a military leader or Machiavellian statesman who stepped away from the people in an ego-filled elitism, Jesus modeled ultimate leadership by being present with all the people. He reached out to rich and poor, although only the poor responded. He prayed with churched and unchurched people, although only the unchurched understood the conversation. He ate with saints and sinners, although only the sinners experienced the meaning of grace.

Christ’s leadership was not from the top down. It was not hierarchical or vertical. It was horizontal and shared. “If I, your Lord and teacher, have washed your feet, you too must wash each other’s feet. I have given you an example: just as I have done, you also must do” (John 13:14-15). Jesus called all his followers to be servant-kings.

The servant-king is one of the ways in which we are to look at Christ’s ministry, which he gave to us to be our ministry, our engaged living in the world. As leaders we are not called to blindly follow. We are called to look beyond the headlines of political clashes and calamities to find the underlying issues that erupt into the crises that fuel media frenzy and populist pablum. At times we are even called to speak God’s “Yes” into the whirlwind of the world’s “No” in order to empower and validate the least, the last, and the lost with whom Christ identified. It is not by brute force but by caring for those who are oppressed that we can communicate the leadership Christ practiced, and with it the power and love of God for all people.

Christ was not a military king. He did not wear camouflaged fatigues to show his role. He was a non-camo king. We too are called to shun camos. We are called to wear the ordinary attire of the people of our time and place so that, like Christ, we may share our lives with people who are “Less than golden hearted / Gamblers and Robbers / Drinkers and Jokers, all soul searchers / Like you and me.”

Cincinnati Presbyterian pastor Thom Shuman writes the following about the king who is Christ. He calls it “oxymoron”:

King of kings
Lord of lords
Glory Hallelujah!
really?
are these word just
a neat, peppy praise song,
fun to sing
but empty of meaning?
no kings around here
that I know of,
but a lot of politicians
who act as if folks
are agin’ ‘em
if you are not with them;
no lords around here
except those who
think they can
lord it over everyone else,
but debt and worry and fear
control my life;
glory seems to be
in short supply these days,
and hallelujahs
don’t seem to mean much
to most folks;
but you
you are a mystery solved
in the impossibilities of life;
an enigma wrapped
in wonder;
a majesty born
in humility;
a life blossoming
out of death.
and you
you I could follow
forever. (3)

May it be so. Amen.

(1) Dave Matthews, “Christmas Song,” from the album, Live at Luther College, © 1999. http://www.sing365.com/music/lyric.nsf/Christmas-Song-lyrics-Dave-Matthews-Band-and-Dave-Matthews/B1EE5C1D3DA9630148256BD1000CE73E
(2) http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/15/jesus-the-homeless-sculpture-rejected-catholic-churches_n_3085584.html
(3) Thom M. Shuman, © 2013;  http://www.prayersfortoday.blogspot.com/2013/11/oxymoron-reign-of-christchrist-king-c.html

Unless noted otherwise, all scripture references are from The Common English Bible, © 2011 www.commonenglishbible.com 
Copyright 2013 First Presbyterian Church of Waverly, Ohio. Reprinted by permission.