Geoff Lyon ALM’s Sermon:Open eyes to see him…servant hearts to aid him…bowed knees to honour and obey him.

With the rise of fascism, communism and atheism in the 1920s the Pope introduced ‘Christ the King’ Sunday, and we have it today in our Common Worship Lectionary. But some of us still think of today as ‘Stir up’ Sunday, from the appointed Prayer Book collect asking God to ‘stir up our hearts that we may plenteously bring forth the fruit of good works’, which reminded us that it was time to get stirring the Christmas pudding. Ah, licking the bowl and wrapping a tanner in foil! If you don’t know what a tanner was, ask someone with wrinkles. But enough nostalgia. Let’s look at today’s Gospel.

Did you notice how Jesus switches from ‘When the Son of Man comes in his glory” to “Then the Kingwill say to those on his right…” Unlike us, the original Jewish hearers would not have been puzzled by this switch. They would have got the scriptural reference straight away. Jesus took for himself the title ‘Son of Man’ from the Book of Daniel Chapter 7, where the prophet says “In my vision… there before me was one like a son of man,… He was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all men… worshipped him. His… kingdom is one that will never be destroyed.”

Jesus claims to be the Son of Man and the King of an everlasting kingdom. The reading is about recognition. On the one hand, Jesus, the king, the Son of Man, will recognise who are in his flock and who are not. Incidentally, before the agricultural revolution in the 1700s sheep were much leggier and skinnier than modern sheep and a shepherd really would have to look closely to sort the goats from the very similar looking sheep. Whether Jesus the King recognises us as belonging on His right, or on his left, will depend on whether we recognise Him – and what we do about it. Do we have ears to hear Jesus’ cry for help? Do we have eyes to see, when he comes to us in need of food or drink or clothing or shelter or company?

This is my first point – may the King find that we do have ‘open eyes’ to see him in others.

But not just to see him, but to serve him meekly. As Paul wrote to the Philippians,

Have this mind among you, which is yours in Christ Jesus, ^‘ who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant’.

King Jesus was by no means always mild, but he was always meek. Kings might expect to be served, but King Jesus meekly served. He was great, but made himself nothing and our attitude should be the same. One commentator wrote that the Greek word that is usually translated as ‘meek’ is the hardest word to translate in the whole Bible. ‘Meekness’ does not mean false modesty or even modesty. Perhaps it is best expressed as ‘being servant-hearted rather than self-centred’ – ‘servant-hearted’.

 Remember when the disciples were arguing about which of them was greatest?

Jesus said to them, “The kings of the Gentiles lord it over them… But you are not to be like that. Instead, the greatest among you should be like the youngest, and the one who rules like the one who serves.” 

And what he said with words, he showed with actions. As an example, he washed his disciples’ feet at the Last Supper. He is indeed the Servant King, always ‘servant-hearted’ rather than self-centred. So let us be like him, meek… servant hearted.

So – open-eyed to see Jesus in others and servant-hearted to act for others.

And there is a chance that we will be like that if Jesus really is our king, our lord and ruler and God, the one whose authority we accept, the one to whom we bow our knee. But can we honestly say to Jesus, like Thomas, ‘My Lord and my God’?

Who and what is really my Lord? That is, who or what is my ultimate, my controlling authority, the one that wins out when I have to choose between Jesus and all those other, lesser kings and gods?

Is my ultimate ruler really Mammon (my wealth)? Or perhaps Venus (my libido)? “I tell you the truth”, said Jesus, “the tax collectors and prostitutes are entering the kingdom of heaven before you, because you did not believe John and follow the way of righteousness, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes did believe him and repented.”

Is my ultimate loyalty to my race or my age-group or my nationality or my ‘orientation’ or my political party or my social media ‘friends’ or even my football team? To whom do I really ultimately bow the knee? To whom do you really bow the knee?

Back to that passage from Philippians –

“Jesus humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

May our knees be bowed before him. May he be our real, our ultimate lord and king.

May we each, daily, offer these to Jesus, the humble king, the servant king, the everlasting king of glory. Amen.