christ the king

Somehow I always tend to forget about Christ the King being the Sunday before Advent and it catches me by surprise when I look through the calendar. I am not sure why this is - all I can assume is that growing up, it was either not mentioned very much or it was celebrated on its old date in October and then not mentioned all that much - or I suppose it might have been missed out all together.

I always find, however, the contrast between the glory and reign of Christ and the austerity of Advent quite a hard one. I understand the principle of finishing the Christian year with a bang but my mind is always wandering towards the purple (or blue and don't get me started on that) looming next week.

However, pondering Jesus particular kingship is a good thing. Being a monarch implies being in charge - but this is not theoretical figurehead, nor is it a reign which needs to be constantly asserted by political positioning or military might. Jesus reign just is, of right and very different in character to those of human kings and queens.

This can make the language confusing - after all talking about a king conjures up images of crowns and thrones and places; armies and wars and whispering plots. We tend to want to turn Jesus into a swashbuckling hero - but his authority is usually a lot quieter, as real authority tends to be. The only assertion He makes is constant - that we are loved and invited into the kingdom.

I remember the line from the old movie The Mission where one of the Jesuit brothers tries to engage the superior in a debate,
"we are not members of a democracy, father," the senior priest replies. I don't think the kingdom of heaven is terribly democratic - God is in charge - but the freedom of proclaiming Christ as King is so much more than our political sway and swagger.