Christ the Universal King

Jeremiah 23.1-6
Colossians 1.11-20
St Luke 23.33-43

Today is Christ the King. A young feast in the calendar, it was instituted by Pope Pius XI and quickly adopted by the Church of England, and other denominations too. In the aftermath of WW1 Europe had been torn apart. The old monarchies of Europe had undergone seismic shifts. Fascism was on the rise. The Church felt called in the face of various kinds of kingdoms of this world to assert that Christ, our Servant King, is the universal king. The King of all. A wonderful theological, political, social, anchor: a statement of who we really are, and what true power and greatness look like. And we need that no less today.

And as we look to this kingdom this morning, we are reminded that it is not airy-fairy stuff. This kingdom is not spiritual in a way that implies that it is floaty and unreal. It is earthy and real. As Christians, our way of engaging with the world accords with the Incarnation. God’s salvation in Christ was not achieved by floaty unreal ghostly spirits. God became human in Jesus, shared real life with us, shed real blood for us, and goes, a real human person back to heaven to open the way for us to follow. His kingdom that he promises the penitent thief today, and towards which we live every day of our lives is enfleshed by real acts of love and mercy. The Resurrection life is, as we will say in the Creed, the resurrection of the body. Fleshy, earthy, real.

And this is approach is core to the Christian mystery. We see in the Incarnation, as it undergirds all our theology, that the natural and supernatural are parts of the same whole, not antitheses. One doesn’t trump, or give way to the other, the spiritual and corporeal are parts of the same whole.

So, when we grasp the implications of this we see that politics, acts of love and mercy, prayer, and the hope of heaven - are all mixed in together in the cocktail we call life. The Kingdom. Active service and silent prayer, go together. Angels, yes, and soup kitchens, yes. Heavenly worship, yes, and educating snotty children in Church schools all over the world, yes. All of it.

The Kingdom of Christ that we feast in today is not a castle on a cloud, or a floaty dream. It is here and now; and forever in the highest heaven. Jesus our King meets us in both. All three of the readings given for today reflect and unpack this reality from different angles.

What I’m trying to say is: we don’t put up with this life until we can escape it to heaven. We don’t tolerate being human, or being creatures of flesh and blood, until we can shake off such encumbrances and become smug spirits of senseless floaty inoffensiveness.

We live this life, and are part of this whole created symphony of life, knowing that every tiny part of it, good, bad and indifferent is destined for glory, and possesses a dignity and blessedness and vocation given it by God. That is a Christian way of seeing life the universe and everything. A kingdom way of seeing the world.

And music is a reflection of this too. One of the ways we glimpse Christ’s kingdom is music. Air, squishy lungs full of blood vessels, vibrating snot covered flaps of skin in our necks. Pushing air full of London grime through pipes. Its very fleshy and earthy and messy. And in sacred music, this messiness enfolds us such that we are clutching the hem of heaven.

sacred music is mystery, biology, mathematics, science, art, prayer, worship - all at once. That is to say, it is a gift from God and a reality of the Kingdom.

On 22nd November each year the church keeps the feast of St Cecilia. She is the patron saint of music. There is a legend that she invented the organ. It’s pretty unlikely. But what we can say about St Cecilia is that she lived in Rome in the early 200s AD. Her house is still there, now at subterranean level, in Trastevere, a neighbourhood of Rome alongside the Tiber, just south of the Vatican. The church at street level now above her home is dedicated to her, of course. Taking the stairs down below, having paid a fierce nun at the desk a few euros, you can visit her home, and walk the mosaic tiled floors, see the grain stores in her pantry, and pray in the rooms that the church she ran in her home must have prayed in. She was martyred for her faith in Jesus. An amazing woman.

Today we also give thanks for two more amazing women, who point us towards the kingdom by the reality of their lives. Elizabeth our organist and Penny our soprano.

Elizabeth has done over 15 years with us, and Penny around 20. Years of pushing air through pipes of metal and flesh in ways that have revealed Christ’s kingdom again and again. Elizabeth plays brilliantly, is super-conscientious, totally reliable in every respect, remembers everything, is wonderful to work with, endlessly thoughtful, manages the dozens of practice organ users and organises the children’s Advent Fair concert, and is generally amazing. Penny sings superbly, her warm personality has always ensured social cohesion in the choir, she has served on the PCC for years, organises the Progressive Lunch, welcomes everyone and is an absolute delight to work with. 

Anne, our Director of Music, all the musicians, us clergy and all us today thank God for you, Penny and Elizabeth. We thank God and you for all you have done to lead us in worshipping God, and giving us glimpses of God’s Kingdom towards which we are living together.

And, just to put your minds at rest, they are not retiring! We just wanted to take this opportunity at St Cecilia’s-tide to mark this milestone of 15 and 20-odd years respectively and say thank you.

Your gifts to us have been real and costly in skill and time and energy and love over the years. All those fleshy realities of the Kingdom. And you have helped us be inspired and fed to go from here and live into that Kingdom.

Coming here we feast our eyes, ears, hearts, minds and bodies on heavenly glimpses of scripture, music and sacrament, to learn mercy and love and forgiveness, and self-sacrifice.

That Incarnation cocktail of natural and supernatural, spiritual and corporeal. Both aspects of the Incarnation, heaven and earth, come together here in us.

Christ is King, let heaven and earth rejoice. He shows us what true power and greatness look like. May His Kingdom come.