November 21, 2021
Hope Lutheran Church
John 18:33-37
Thy Kingdom Come
Friends, may grace and peace be yours in abundance in the knowledge of God and Christ Jesus our Lord.
This Sunday begins the final week of the church year calendar. It’s also the final Sunday in the very long season of Pentecost. Next Sunday we’ll begin a new church year. Our paraments will turn to Advent Blue and we’ll light the first candle on our Advent Wreath.
We conclude our church year by looking to Christ our King. He doesn’t reign from an earthly throne. No, Christ rules in our heart and soul and mind.
This morning we hear a snippet of dialogue between Jesus and Pilate. The conversation takes place on Jesus’ final day, the day he will be crucified. Pilate has heard the charges made by the Jewish leadership council against Jesus. Now he stands before Jesus and want to hear what Jesus has to say about himself. “Are you King of the Jews?” he asks. Pilate wants to know what Jesus has done to make the council so mad that they want him dead.
Jesus tells Pilate that his kingdom is not of this world. But Pilate can’t wrap his head around what Jesus is saying. “Oh, so you ARE a king!” Pilate just doesn’t get it. He can’t see beyond earthly realms. Pilate lives in the here and now. His world revolves around positioning and dominance and leverage and power. It’s about keeping score and watching your back. For Pilate, truth isn’t an incorruptible constant; it’s not a North Star. In Pilate’s view, truth is whatever narrative the dominant voice creates. Truth is what he claims it to be. When Jesus speaks about truth, Pilate just doesn’t get it.
But Jesus speaks truth. And his kingdom is not of this world.
When I’m writing a sermon, I have a little game I like to play with myself. Where would I place the sermon within Luther’s Small Catechism? Every sermon is located somewhere inside of it. Some weeks the sermon falls under one of the articles of the Apostles’ Creed. Other sermons are better suited under Baptism.
Looking for where a sermon fits under the structure of the Small Catechism helps me to make sense of what the text at hand is trying to convey. This week’s text and theme presented themselves easily. They’re under the Lord’s Prayer, the Second Petition: Thy kingdom come.
In his explanation, Luther said, “God’s kingdom comes indeed without our praying for it. But we ask in this prayer that it may come also to us.”
God’s kingdom comes whether we ask for it or not. It’s a force greater than ourselves. It’s stronger than any earthly government or dominion. God’s kingdom comes and will continue to come within our midst. We can’t stop the world from spinning, we can’t stop the sun from rising in the east, and we can’t stop God’s kingdom from springing up in our midst.
God’s kingdom is about to spring up before Pilate, and there’s nothing he can do to stop it. When Jesus is lifted on his cross, God’s kingdom will be unleashed in all its supreme grace.
“God’s kingdom comes indeed without our praying for it. But we ask in this prayer that it may come also to us.”
God’s kingdom intersects with our earthly realm. It enters our midst and dwells among us. Its will, its grace and truth, they expand into our reality and bear fruit.
Just what this looks like may lead us to be confused like Pilate. We may be tempted to institutionalize it. But God’s kingdom coming among us doesn’t necessitate turning our nation into a religious state. Having “in God we trust” embossed on our currency doesn’t cause anyone to rely on God. Uttering “one nation under God” in our Pledge of Allegiance doesn’t convert a single agnostic or atheist to believe in God, it doesn’t eradicate corruption in our government or injustice in our laws. These things don’t make our nation godlier.
God’s kingdom refuses to be bound under human establishments. God’s authority and truth transcend all earthly powers and realms. The divine Spirit moves freely among us. God will not be tethered by earthly authorities. “My kingdom is not of this world.”
We’re blessed by the witness of the Amish in our area. They stand as a stark and stubborn reminder of God’s otherness. They live among us as if they are from another realm.
• Their unique dress communicates that they are in this world but not of it.
• They reject electricity and modern machinery, so different than us. We’re totally wired and can’t wait to get our hands on the latest gizmo.
• In this era when our vulnerable earth pleads for our attention, the Amish live close to the land. They turn their fields with a single plow and a horse.
• And as Americans are more heatedly divided into warring camps, the Amish come together in unity. They work cooperatively to raise their barns and gather in their crops.
They live among us and yet separately. Through their quiet witness, they remind us that God’s kingdom is definitely in this world, but not of it.
On this Christ the King Day, we are called to turn our gaze towards Christ as our authority. Christ’s kingdom dwells among us. But he comes as a king whose crown is fashioned from twisted thorns. His royal robe is traded with a pair of dice.
It’s a kingdom not like our earthly realms. But it comes indeed, without our praying for it. It comes in grace and truth. It comes bringing the life that is truly life, liberated and abundant. Your kingdom come, O Lord. May your throne dwell in our hearts and minds. May our lives be directed by your glorious and gentle rule.
