For This I Was Born

This morning is the last Sunday of the church year, Christ the King Sunday. It is not an ancient festival like Easter or Christmas. In fact, it was first established in 1925 in Europe, in the midst of social and economic chaos. The seeds of Holocaust and World War II were taking root. In response, the church established Christ the King Sunday to proclaim that humanity is not on a slippery slope into despair. Jesus Christ is the king, and God is sovereign from everlasting to everlasting.

Next Sunday, we begin our journey toward Bethlehem and the birth of the Messiah. But, today, we remember that the purpose of the birth is fulfilled, we are moving toward the kingdom of God, even in the midst of a world that has chaos and suffering and evil. The Kingdom of God is coming.

Presbyterian minister, Rev. Frederick Buechner in his book of devotions, “Listening to Your Life” says of the kingdom of God: “It is not a place, of course, but a condition, insofar as here and there, and now and then, God’s kingly will is being done in various odd ways among us even at this moment; the kingdom has come already. Insofar as all the odd ways we do his will at the moment at best half-baked and half-hearted, the kingdom is still a long way off. We have looked for the kingdom in the headlines, but we must find him in our hearts.”

In this exchange between Jesus and Pilate, Pilate is looking in the headlines. The passage from John’s Gospel that we read this morning is the private conversation between Pilate, the Roman governor, and Jesus at the Governor’s residence. The conversation is interesting. Listen to the tension building.

Pilate asks Jesus, “Are you the King of the Jews?”

Jesus answers with a question, “Do you ask this on your own, or did others talk to you about me?”

You see, pilate really doesn’t care, and Jesus knows it. He is the Roman governor. He just wants to get to the bottom of the turmoil and get the city calmed down. It’s Passover, when Jews celebrated God delivering them from oppression…not the best holiday for Rome’s subjects to celebrate. We hear Pilate’s frustration in his response: “I am not a Jew, am I? Your people and your chief priests handed you over to me. What have you done?”

I just imagine Jesus looking off and responding calmly, perhaps wistfully, “My kingdom is not from this world. If my kingdom were from this world, my followers would be fighting to keep me from being handed over to the Jews. But as it is, my kingdom is not from here.”

I can just see the red creeping up Pilate’s neck into his face: ANSWER THE QUESTION!!! Pilate just needs to know if Jesus has committed treason, so he can get the Jews calmed down, so he starts over. He asks again… “So you are a king, then?”

“You say that I am a king. For this I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who is on the side of truth listens to me.” Now it is Pilate’s turn to be wistful, something has touched his inner turmoil with hope: “What is truth?” he asks and walks out.

And Jesus stands there, truth stands right there with his kingdom that is not from this world, but is most assuredly for this world. For this, Jesus was born.

Yet, I watch the news, and I don’t know about you, but I am tempted to throw my hands in the air like Pilate. “I didn’t start this! I don’t really even care about the root issues…Really, what the fuss is all about and let’s make it stop, the quickest, least costly way possible.” Like Pilate, I don’t appreciate the interruption in my life. And, sometimes maybe we wonder what does this kingdom of Jesus’ look like, and when is it coming? Maybe we wonder, can it even come, now? What is truth, anyway?”

And Pilate goes out to find the Jews to try to negotiate, “I find no case against him,” he says. Leaving Truth standing right there in his house. Are we like Pilate in that, too? Do we go out, trying to figure out how to have peace, leaving Truth standing right here ready and waiting to dwell in us?

I was introduced to a poem this weekend by Marge Piercy, titled “To be of use” and it resonated for me with Jesus’ declaration that he was born for this.

The people I love best
Jump into work head first
Without dallying in the shallows
And swim off with sure strokes almost out of sight.
They seem to become natives of that element,
The black sleek heads of seals
Bouncing like half submerged balls.
I love people who harness themselves, an ox to a heavy cart,
Who pull like water buffalo, with massive patience,
Who strain in the mud and the muck to move things forward,
Who do what has to be done, again and again.
I want to be with people who submerge
In the task, who go into the fields to harvest
And work in a row and pass the bags along,
Who are not parlor generals and field deserters
But move in a common rhythm
When the food must come in or the fire be put out.
The work of the world is common as mud.
Botched, it smears the hands, crumbles to dust.
But the thing worth doing well done
Has a shape that satisfies, clean and evident.
Greek amphoras for wine or oil,
Hopi vases that held corn, are put in museums
But you know they were made to be used.
The pitcher cries for water to carry
And a person for work that is real.

What were you born for? Soon we will sing “Let earth receive her king” – will we? Jesus was born to be Truth. Are we, like Pilate, ready to walk away asking “What is truth?” Or will we stand with the Truth as his Kingdom comes..not from this world, but for this world?

In his play, “The Trial of Jesus,” John Mansfield depicts Pilate’s wife standing in the judgement hall. It is empty; everyone else has gone. Finally a soldier who had taken part in the crucifixion comes in, and she asks him, “Is he dead yet?” The soldier shakes his head and says, “No, lady, he is not dead.” She questions him further, “But surely he is dead, he has been hanging there so long now.” And the soldier replies, “No, lady, he is not dead. His love is let loose in the world now, and neither Jew nor Roman can stop him.”

He was born for this. And just as a pitcher cries for water to carry, we cry to carry the truth. The Kingdom of God isn’t the sort that grows in this world; it doesn’t come from here. But it is coming and it is for our world.
“The challenge of the kingdom is for each of us:
To let God be God…in you
To let God be God…in your church
To let God be God…in your neighborhood
To let God be God…in your job, in your family, and
…and in your world.” (Rev. Dr. Wiley Stephens)

The Truth was born for God’s Kingdom to come. And even in the midst of turmoil and chaos, suffering and fear, death and despair, the Kingdom comes as we do the work that we were born for…the work that is real…the work that is common as mud…we were made to be used…servants of the Lord.

Rejoice! The Lord is King!