Sunday Sermon - 24 November
As most of you know, I work as Chaplain and Associate Director of School Life at Lakefield College School, I’m there every Thursday. One of my favourite things to do when I’m at the school is to pop into my good friend Rory’s history class to visit with him and his students. I love doing this because they are always engaged in some interesting conversation -not just about history but how it relates to what is going on today, in today’s current political context. I love talking about history and politics. I’m an avid CNN watcher and I also enjoy flipping the channel to Fox, MSNBC, and other stations to ensure that I am getting all sides of the American and global political perspective. I do the same with Canadian politics and news, though things are relatively quiet here in Canada at the moment.
Because of my interest in news and politics, I was recently asked how I was addressing current events in my sermons, you know, things like what is going on in Israel, Gaza, Lebanon and Iran. The recent election where the Republicans won with a landslide. And our own Ontario and Canadian issues, like building a tunnel highway under the 401, TikTok battles with China and our ever-more fracturing relationship with India. My response was quite straightforward, I simply said: “Are you kidding me?! I am brand new to this parish. I have been totally avoiding those contentious and divisive issues.” They were a little surprised actually, because they know me and know how interested, aware, and engaged I am in the current geo-political scene.
The reason I bring this up is because today’s Gospel just smacked me right in the kisser! It is almost impossible for us not to look at how this Gospel is relevant to today’s current events. In fact, I could probably preach for well over an hour on a couple of the key elements of this passage, like Pilate and Jesus’ conversation about the Jews, the difference between how Pilate defines a king (like a dictator) and how Jesus defines a king (as a servant leader) and of course, what is truth.
Now I promise that I won’t speak for hours. If you know me, that’s not how I preach, but I can no longer avoid that which sometimes needs to be said by a priest from a pulpit, especially on this feast of the Reign of Christ and Faithworks Sunday.
It is easy for some, if they wish, to corrupt and use this passage in an anti-semitic way, denigrating Jews as manipulators of Pilate and ultimately the real ones who are responsible for the crucifixion of Jesus. In fact, this has become such a sensitive issue that many churches change the language in passages like these from just “the Jews” to “Jewish leaders” since that is who John is really talking about - the Jewish leaders of Jesus’ day who see Jesus as a threat to their power and control over the institution, their religious and societal order. “The Jews” in this context is more of a political than religious reference and Jesus’ and Pilate's conversation is really a political one - well for Pilate it is, anyway.
Jesus is arrested and turned over to Pilate by the Jewish authorities because he is a threat to them and their leadership. They’ve told Pilate that Jesus is being referred to as “King of the Jews” which is also blatant treason against the authority of Rome, a crime punishable by death. But Pilate wants to hear it for himself, so he questions Jesus. However, Jesus answers his questions with a question and then Pilate responds to Jesus’ question with another question.
This persistent questioning points to the misunderstanding and their differing definitions of the meaning of king. Jesus eventually makes it clear that he is not a King of this world, his kingship is not politically grounded or authoritarian, He is no real threat to Roman authority. Jesus’ Kingdom, the kingdom of God is a spiritual, heavenly kingdom. But Pilate doesn’t get it - he isn’t able to grasp the spiritual realm of which Jesus speaks - he’s still grounded in the profane world of political authority which is why he states, “So you are a King?” Jesus doesn’t refute him, He knows his fate is sealed, He is to die on a cross as a treasonous criminal to some and a martyred King for us.
This week the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Benjamin Netanyahu for war crimes and crimes against humanity. Arrest warrants were also issued for the Hamas leader Ibrahim al-Masri also for war crimes. People of a nation are not defined by those who lead them. Netanyahu and his war cabinet are not “all Jews”.
al-Masri, Hamas and Hezbollah are not ‘all Palestinians, all Arabs or all Muslims’ for that matter.
The Jewish leaders who handed over Jesus to Pilate are not ‘all Jews’.
In fact, Pilate and the Roman occupiers of Jesus’ day are not ‘all Romans’.
It is wrong for us or anyone to make these generalizations. In the Bible, when it says “the Jews,” first we must contextualize these words in their rightful place in history and understand that the words only refer to those Jews who have the authority to make political decisions. In fact, Jesus was able to organize, energize, and actualize his message because the Jewish people were feeling oppressed, powerless, and ostracized by their leaders of the day. Jewish leaders knew Jesus was gaining a following, they didn’t see him as a Messiah but as a revolutionary and for this they needed him out of the way. They saw him as a threat and wanted him dead and wanted Pilate to do the deed.
Jesus’ spiritual revolution was grounded in his challenge of the legalism imposed by the interpretation of Judaism of the day. Jesus didn’t challenge political authority, he was challenging religious, spiritual authority. Jesus sought to bring the spirit of love back into the Jewish relationship with God and even invited others, non-Jews and societal outcasts, into this divine relationship. This was the truth, this was his challenge to Judaism and this is what he spoke of in the final verse. “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.”
Truth - I don’t know about you, but I think I used to know what truth was until these last few years. There is so much misinformation, disinformation, deceit, and misrepresentation of facts that truth is now allowed to be subjective. Heck, even the lines “alternative facts” or “this is my truth” are part of our regular vernacular. Didn’t it used to be political self-destruction if a politician was caught lying or cheating? Of course, politicians have always kind of lied, but nothing as blatantly as we are witnessing today, and never without some measure of recourse and accountability.
In this profane world that allows meanness, crassness, vulgarity, harassment, and selfishness in our highest offices. In this profane world that allows leaders to invade other nations without any reason but their own selfish greed, killing and dispossessing innocents. In this world that has leaders that we can’t follow. We have our touchstone, our true King. When we find ourselves frustrated, even angry, at the state of affairs in our world today, thank God we have a trusted leader to turn to - Christ is our King.
For me, when I get bogged down and feel that the world is in a hopeless, downward spiral, I look to the words of my real leader, of my true King. I do as Jesus tells me to do - I quiet myself and listen to his voice and in his voice I find the only truth I know. And that truth is Love.
On this Faithworks Sunday, and every day, let us remember that Jesus is our King.
Our King is the one who ate and drank with outcasts and sinners. He loved them.
Our King is the one who healed the sick and stood up for those who were downtrodden, outcast and considered “less than.” He loved them.
There is but one Ultimate Truth and it is this - Jesus, our King, loves us and shows us how to love one another. When our leadership fails us, in their selfish, arrogant, cruel, vulgar and profane ways, it is more important than ever for us to follow our King, to step up and be the leaders our world needs. It is up to us to reflect the model that Christ our King sets for us - for he is our touchstone, we are his people, and he is our truth.
Amen.