Daniel 7:9-10, 13-14; Revelation 1:4b-8; John 18:33-37
“I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord, God, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.”
Today, we celebrate “Christ the King,” aka, “Reign of Christ” Sunday, the last Sunday of the Church's year of seasons. In secular terms, it's the New Year's Eve of the Christian Church calendar.
Scripture on Reign of Christ Sunday teaches us that Christ was and is and is to be. It's called a tripartite formula. In other words, Jesus was with God in the beginning, and he is with God today, and he will reign with God forevermore. Jesus reigns over all because he was born a king, lived on earth as king—though his kingdom was not of this world—and he reigns as King forevermore, seated at the throne of God: God's formula, God's design. Jesus Christ is the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. Jesus is the Alpha and Omega Point of Truth. Jesus not only reveals truth; he is truth. All others are suspect.
On Friday, I heard a tripartite formula used in secular circumstances. With my mother and my brother, and four others, I spent four hours in the “holding tank” outside a courtroom in the Essex County Family Court Building in Salem, MA. We saw a lot of people coming and going: some arguing, some rejoicing. Lawyers were making corrections to settlements and negotiating terms between clients. There was lots of walking going on all the time—judges, attorneys, court officers, clients. All this was happening outside the courtrooms.
One woman stood out to me. She was trying to hold back her frustration and tears. She wore a black dress, too dressy for her shoes and the windbreaker she put on waiting for the elevator. A well-dressed, older man with briefcase in one hand and an umbrella in the other approached her. Despite the great echo, I heard him say to her, “Are you okay?” Then, he smiled and said, “That went pretty well.”
“No. I'm not okay” She wiped tears angrily from her cheeks, pushing back her stringy long hair. “Don't you see? He wins. I give up. He'll never change. He always was an xxxxx; he is an xxxxx; and always will be an xxxxx.” That is also a tripartite formula. She turned and walked down the grand stairs, weeping, disheveled and worst of all, broken. The smile faded from his face as he turned, stepped onto the elevator and the doors closed.
I had a long time to think that morning. It's a very old courthouse—marble and granite and cast iron railings and window panes on the inside; gargoyles, scrolling stonework and grand columns on the outside. I could not help but think about the history of Salem—church and state; witches and gallows. The former live in a lie, the latter dying in the truth. The irony of it all was as thick as the granite walls.
The long and the short of it was that my brother was on the losing end of a custody battle for his twin daughters. Nothing went his way, and he was told, by his attorney, that he was to say “Yes,” when the judge asked him if he agreed with the “agreement.” The new agreement had removed several of the previous arrangements he had for spending time with his daughters and ultimately gave sole custody to their mother. “You must say, Yes,” the attorney said.
The real travesty or dis-carriage of justice for me was when they were both sworn in. “Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?” I felt the rising of a bewitching cackle in my throat. There was no truth here. The court made my brother lie so that nothing worse would happen to him and the twins. Then the judge asked him if he agreed with the “agreement.” And again, he had to lie. He had such courage, I thought, when I wanted to stand up and shout, “No! It's not the truth; you're making him lie in a court of law!”
And I just cannot get that absurdity out of my head. I feel broken and disillusioned with the court system. I hope it will get better someday. I am grateful for the experience, however, in that I realize now that the courts have power like Pilate had power; it's a power that comes from a fallen world, so it's really no power at all. Jesus, however, has the real power, and his power is the truth.
Think about the interchange between Jesus and Pilate in the 18th chapter of John. Pilate's so uncomfortable, he keeps leaving the courtroom and walking the halls of his palace, time after time coming back to continue the “trial.” Why is he so uncomfortable? What about fear?
Look again at John 18:33. “Then Pilate entered the headquarters again, summoned Jesus, and asked him, “Are you king of the Jews?” Pilate is nervous; definitely nervous. He's got Rome breathing down one side of his neck, and the Jerusalem crowds breathing down the other. It's almost as if Pilate is the one on trial, not Jesus.
In our vernacular, Jesus answered Pilate with a bit of sarcasm. In effect, Jesus said, “Are you personally interested or are you simply repeating gossip?” Jesus had no fear of Pilate; he did not have to tell Pilate only the things he wanted to hear so that everything could be packaged up nicely and sent away. That's the motive of this world.
However, “on Christ the King Sunday, we have to ask how the “not-of-this-world” reign of Jesus Christ relates to the “very-much-of-this-world situation in which we live.” Walter Brueggemann says quite succinctly, “The gospel narrative...makes a claim... that in Jesus of Nazareth the things of the world are settled on God's terms” (Sermon Seeds, UCC.org).
God's truth revealed in Jesus Christ brings me comfort today. I am so thankful for Jesus in my life. I sat on those uncomfortable wooden benches trying to figure out what God's terms are for this situation. I realize today that this truth is not mine to have and to hold right now. What is mine is faith in Jesus the Christ, the one who is truth. When I see him, I will understand the Omega Point of all of this suffering.
For now, let us find consolation in Jesus' words to Pilate. “For this I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice” (John 18:37b).
Long before John, Daniel witnessed to the same vision: “To him was given dominion and glory and kingship, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that shall not pass away, and his kingship is one that shall never be destroyed” (Dan v 7:14).
For this we were born and shall ever be destroyed no matter what happens, my dear friends; for this we were brought into the world, to testify to God's truth, Jesus Christ. To him who loves us and freed us from our sins by his blood, and made us to be a kingdom, priests serving his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever” (Rev 1:5b-6).
This world does not belong to us; any power we have comes from far beyond, in a higher court. We belong to Jesus, whose kingdom is not of this world. Jesus is the one in whom Alpha and Omega meet, and we are in his midst; we can gather around him by the thousands and ten thousands of thousands to worship him and call upon his holy name: O come, O come, Emmanuel; O Come Thou Long-Expected Jesus, O Come, brothers and sisters, let us adore him, Christ our Lord, the one who is and who was and who is to come” (Rev 1:8b). Amen.
November 22, 2009
First Parish Federated Church of S Berwick, ME
The Reverend Donna Lee Muise, Pastor
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