PROPERS: LAST SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST, YEAR B
TEXT: JOHN 18:33-37
PREACHED AT ST. PAUL’S, MOBILE, ON SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 2024.
ONE SENTENCE: Scripture and experience teach us that the Kingdom is not of this world.
Good morning.
I want to begin this morning with a couple of points of personal privilege.
First, our two grandsons, Wilt and Harris, are present in the congregation today. They love to see it when their grandfather – they call me Bosco – is “on the stage”, as they refer to the pulpit. Welcome, Wilt and Harris.
Second, nearly 37 years ago I was ordained priest. I served parishes in various communities for most of those years. But during the last 16 years of active ministry, I served as Canon to the Ordinary in the Episcopal Diocese of Mississippi. I loved it – but to be honest, I was a bit of a bean-counter, and frequently an unwelcome extension of the bishop’s office. It was what I was called to do.
I want you to know what I have discovered – discovered right here at St. Paul’s, Mobile. I have rediscovered the joy that originally prompted me to enter seminary. It is wonderful to sit with you and hear your stories… to connect with you. Even if I can’t remember everyone’s name.
I want to express my thanks to Jody for calling me to this ministry, and to Brad for his friendship. Just between you and me, Jody probably thought he would be helping himself. Actually, he has helped this eight-year retired priest find joy in ministry again.
My thanks to him, and to you.
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Just a couple of weeks ago, we celebrated Veteran’s Day. It was originally called Armistice Day – commemorating the 11th hour of the 11th day of 11th month in 1918 when the guns of the Great War fell silent.
The years which preceded that momentous event began the demise of a powerful theological movement – Theological Liberalism. But not the liberalism you think.
It was like this. Ever since the enlightenment, optimism was on the rise. The march of human progress was seen as inevitable. Industry was prospering. Scientific insights were ubiquitous. The standard of living was on the improving. Some theologians even believed that we might find perfection – the Kingdom of God – in the present day. That was a heady time.
The Great War – also known as World War I – brought a cold dose of reality. Theological liberalism ended in a crash. The trench warfare, the fox holes, the chemical weapons, and 40 million dead pricked that balloon.
Two decades later, World War II and all its horrors, including the Holocaust, would follow.
The world then and today is broken.
It is utter hubris to think that we can usher in the Kingdom of God. The flaws of our many cultures testify to that. Think of Ukraine. Think of Gaza. Think of the divisions within this culture.
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As Jody reminded us in his sermon last week, it was Pope Pius XI who marked the end of that naivete in 1925 when he instituted Christ the King Sunday – the last Sunday after Pentecost and before Advent.
But what does it mean?
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Jesus stood before the Roman Governor, Pilate, in Jerusalem’s Praetorium.
Pilate challenged him. “Are you the King of the Jews?”
Jesus’ response is succinct: “My kingdom is not of this world.”
A kingdom not of this world…
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Tim Alberta, son of an evangelical pastor, has written a book, The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory.
You probably recognize those words from the Lord’s Prayer. But he writes that the way it is being practiced is a modern-day heresy. He writes of the large portion of modern-day Christianity which has brought back the aspiration that the Kingdom of God can be forced into being. If we have enough power, we can bring it about.
His perspective is that many have traded the eternal rewards we cherish for the earthly treasures, which Jesus tells us turn to dust. Throughout his book, Tim Alberta recounts his winding travels around the country, visiting with pastors of megachurches who see the promises this world is making to them.
My point to you today is theological and not political. We are not tempted. We worship a Lord and look for a Kingdom that we celebrate today – a Kingdom not of this world.
Let’s be honest. The many good works we do here do not build the Kingdom of God. Nurturing children, reaching out to others in a meaningful ways, touching lives, caring for others – these build Christian community, where we and others may be formed in the image of Christ.
The King we worship transcends our limited view and knowledge of time and space. God’s Kingdom is over, under, around, and through all that we encounter. In our best, most sacred moments we know it’s reality here and there, now and again, like a wisp of wind.
But it is real, and as we have learned through ashes and bitter experience, it continues to resist our efforts to force it into our world. We, too, are here but for the twinkling of an eye, but the King and his reign continue forever.
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