Sermon for November 24, 2024: “Your Words, Not Mine” by Sarah Mills, MID

John 18:33-37

Then Pilate entered the headquarters again, summoned Jesus, and asked him, ‘Are you the King of the Jews?’ Jesus answered, ‘Do you ask this on your own, or did others tell you about me?’ Pilate replied, ‘I am not a Jew, am I? Your own nation and the chief priests have handed you over to me. What have you done?’ Jesus answered, ‘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.’ Pilate asked him, ‘So you are a king?’ Jesus answered, ‘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 belongs to the truth listens to my voice.’

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     Friends, I want to thank you for welcoming me back to your congregation again. It makes a bit of a change from my usual Sunday after Easter, but I have to say, we are gathered together at a similarly important point in our liturgical year. You see, Advent starts next Sunday. We are on the cusp of beginning our journey towards the manger and towards welcoming the birth of Christ. Advent marks the beginning of the church calendar, so next Sunday you can all say “Happy New Year” to one another! This closeness to Advent being the case, you may wonder why the gospel reading for this week, which is in the Revised Common Lectionary, is one that is typically a part of the Passion narrative leading up to Easter. Why spend time reflecting on Jesus’ trial before Pilate when we’re just about getting ready to celebrate God’s incarnation in the form of the small, vulnerable infant Jesus?

     Well, I have to say that when I read this morning’s scripture, I couldn’t help but read it in light of where we find ourselves, not only in the liturgical calendar, but in our nation’s calendar. We are getting ready for a time of change and an uncertain future. Now I know that this may have been a theme that Pastor Chrissy has been reflecting on with you all over the last few weeks, but you have to forgive me for continuing to see so many parallels between the gospels and how we are called to live as Christians today, specifically Christians in this country.

     One name for this particular Sunday in some church calendars is “Christ the King Sunday” and sometimes in more modern calendars as “Reign of Christ Sunday”. We are invited to reflect on what the kingdom of Christ is all about and how we might live as faithful stewards to that kingdom. I think the first thing that’s important in that consideration is understanding what the kingdom is not.

     Number one: The kingdom of Christ is not, as Jesus says, “of this world”. To quote the lead into the song “Somewhere Over the Rainbow”, “It’s not a place you can get to by a boat or a train far, far away.” But it is also within all of us, just waiting for our eyes, ears, and hearts to open to its reality. Perhaps this was comforting for Pilate to hear. Someone who says that their kingdom is not of this world is markedly less of a threat to the stability of the Roman Empire than someone who is flagrantly declaring themselves the king of some new nation.

     Number one b: It’s increasingly important to stress the fact that this is not some temporary inconvenience that Christ is not the literal king of a literal nation on the Earth. It’s not some goal that Jesus has for the future of his ministry that one day he will create an enclave, or perhaps even conquer the world with his teachings. As much as it may dismay some Christian nationalists, particularly in this country, Jesus is remarkably clear in this section that an empire on earth is not the goal. The kingdom of God is at hand, but it is in our hands. Hands we can use to work for justice and peace. It is incredibly human and divine and all of the messy things in between and that’s what makes it so great. That’s what gives it its strength. The kingdom that Jesus is proclaiming is one that testifies to a way of life that sees beyond the need for some global superpower that can impose its specific way of life onto other people.

     Number two (and I think you’ll see how these continue to add on each other): The kingdom is not one that incorporates violence. We hear Jesus say that if his kingdom was of this world, surely his followers would be doing everything they could to fight for him to be released from his captivity. “Let’s storm the Praetorium!” It’s important to remember that this portion of the Passion narrative comes after Jesus has just scolded one of his disciples for pulling a sword on a guard and cutting off the guard’s ear as they tried to arrest Jesus. Jesus then heals the man’s ear. It is patently obvious to me that the kingdom that Jesus is trying to testify to is not one that incorporates violence towards other people at all. It is a kingdom that calls us to beat our swords into plowshares and to work together for the betterment of all people. It is a kingdom in which weapons of war have no place in the hands of those seeking to follow in Christ’s footsteps. John’s gospel as a whole is pointed in how it tells us that the real power of this kingdom is found in the way that divine love enters into our human story in a way unlike anything people had ever seen. Perhaps we can begin to see why this reading actually makes perfect sense to lead us into Advent. Into the story of love entering the world in the person of the infant Christ.

     Having spent some time looking at what this kingdom is not, I would like us to shift into thinking about what we have observed in our life as testifying to the capital-T Truth that Jesus mentions in his response to Pilate.  Where have we noticed evidence in our lives of the power of the reign of Christ? I’m going give you a hint, it’s probably not featured on CNN or Fox News or MSNBC. I would like you to take a moment and think about what Truths have been revealed to you on your journey as a follower of Christ or someone seeking to follow Christ. What have you realized is capital-T True in walking that journey?

     I invite us now to take some silence and open our hearts, listening, as Christ says his followers do, for the Truth that is in these words: “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 belongs to the truth, listens to my voice.”

     When you hold space for this truth, what do you find rising to the surface? Is there a word or an image or phrase that emerges in your eye?

     For me, I think the clearest image of the Truth that Jesus says he is here to testify to is the Truth that love is woven into every single one of us by virtue of God’s gracious creation of the Earth. As you no doubt know, there are many “truths” there are facts that are true and then there are underlying Truths that breathe meaning into those facts. It may not be a literal fact that our Earth was created in seven days, but it is True that in that creation God blessed it all and saw that it was good. That is true. It may not be a true fact that the exact words in our scripture reading were said between Pilate and Jesus, but it is True that, through those words, so much love and compassion has been birthed by those who seek this type of kingdom. A kingdom based not on a strong leader with a mighty army, willing to cut down all of his foes, but a meek and humble Messiah, who is put to death by the powers of the earth for challenging those structures.

     This is not an easy truth to just convince somebody of around a Thanksgiving table. In fact, I strongly discourage you from trying to engage someone in this kind of dialogue when you know that their heart is set on a very different sort of kingdom. Instead, I would do what Jesus would do, I would bless them, and I would endeavor to show them the reality of the kingdom that you know exists thanks to Christ. Do so through your actions, through your love, and through the way that you stand up for those who are being oppressed.
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     There are so many people that are convinced that the kingdom of God looks a certain way, worships a certain way, speaks a certain language, and can only exist within the framework of that narrow understanding. Jesus asks Pilate “Do you think I’m the king of the Jews or is that just what someone’s told you?” Do we really think that one denomination or one worship leader could possibly have all of the answers? Do we really think that one group of people has cornered the market on Christ’s Truth? Or is that just what the loudest voices among us say? Those are human words, not divine truth. “Those are your words, not mine,” Jesus would say. So how can we better amplify the words of Christ? How can we fight back against the common understanding that to be Christian in this country means a certain thing?

     Well, my friends, the proof is in the pudding. Let us start by remembering what Saint Francis of Assisi said, “Preach the gospel at all times. Use words if necessary.” We need to be the hands and feet of Christ in the streets of our towns and cities. At the same time, we ought to spend time in community with each other, grappling with the tough questions of how to respond to the world around us in a way that is enriched by the Truth witnessed to us through the person of Jesus. And there are going to be many challenges we will face in the not-to-distant future! This grappling is very hard to do alone, so we should all feel blessed that we have a community of fellow journeyers along with us. We don’t have to, like Pilate in the very next very of this reading, ask ourselves rhetorically “What is truth?” and then sit in the silence that follows. Parenthetically, I always wish Pilate would have engaged Jesus with this question and maybe, together, they could have had a conversation that might have opened Pilate’s eyes, ears, and heart to the capital-T Truth. But alas, that was not the case. However, unlike Pilate, we here can bounce our ideas off one another. We get to see our beliefs and definitions develop and change as we grow in our understanding of our faith and our shared membership in Christ’s kingdom.

     I’m grateful that in times of national insecurity and challenges to a progressive view of the Truth testified to by Christ, that I have those around me that I can reach out to; folks that can help me temper my desire to respond with anger and cruelty. Instead, we can share in our pain and our frustration, and we can do the organizing and advocacy that we saw in the person of Christ and the kingdom that he testified to. And what a blessing that is, what a gift we’ve been given, a what a capital-t Truth we get to live into. Amen.