Sunday Reflection with Canon Robin Gibbons - 26 November 2023

Christ Pantocrator 6th C Sinai Orthodox Icon

Feast of Christ the King

Whilst we, as followers of Christ are all meant to be equal with each other, having no distinction between us in the Kingdom, the inescapable truth is that we can never be equal to the Holy One. Jesus the Christ as the person of Word made Flesh in the wonder of the Triune God, is certainly a friend and brother as that wonderful prayer of St Richard of Chichester puts it, yet never can be our equal. In his teaching, Jesus is at great pains to upend our human grandiosity, to put down the mighty in ways that teach them a new vision of humility, to draw attention and give dignity to the poor and needy, and to esteem and honour the life of other creatures, like his favourite sparrows .

Christ's leadership is as far removed from the style and substance of all autocrats that a have been and are still around us today. Not for him is power a drug, a possession, a tool to keep others down. Not for Christ is the exclusion of others something to engage with except to break down, he does not condemn nor differentiate because of race, religion or status, because our Christ identifies with the very least, those an ex president has recently described as 'vermin', for this Christ too, is an immigrant beyond all immigrants, and an asylum seeker like no other. Paul reminds us in Philippians 2:7 that he emptied himself completely, handing over that Divine state to identify with the very least of all in human life, going to the depths of our existence, even to its end :" Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death- even death on a cross. Therefore God also highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name...'(Phil 2:6-7).

Can we really take this on board? I find it difficult because the immensity of God is just too much for me to comprehend, yet in Christ the glimpse of God amongst us shines, and that gives me, as I hope it gives you, the courage to carry on being his disciple and to challenge the false structures of our world. If anything this feast of Christ as King should shake our complacency and turn to Him again for help, we cannot and must not let the unjust structures of this present world overcome other people and we must certainly resist, with all that we have in our power, ( forgive that word) to challenge those who seek to oppress, ridicule, and condemn others for being different. It does not matter where you live, but it matters that you become a force of good, a light to enlighten those who have need of the goodness and love of God. This is how e are to live our lives, and it is what we have to challenge others with too:

'Come, you who are blessed by my Father. Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, a stranger and you welcomed me, naked and you clothed me, ill and you cared for me, in prison and you visited me.'(M k 15:34-36) If we fail to do this, we fail in being messengers and bringers of the Gospel in its fullness, we cannot and should not be bystanders in life, nor must we become conspirators in any form of unjust rule or way of life. Christ is not the King of a country, President of a State, Governor of a colony, for his Kingdom has no end ,and in this Kingdom, which exists amongst us now, the righteous will be astonished that in caring for the needs of the sufferers and least, they were ministering to the Lord himself, that is everyone of these 'least brothers or sisters of mine'. ( Mt 10:42.)

Lectio

First They Came - Pastor Martin Niemoller

First they came for the Communists

And I did not speak out

Because I was not a Communist

Then they came for the Socialists

And I did not speak out

Because I was not a Socialist

Then they came for the trade unionists

And I did not speak out

Because I was not a trade unionist

Then they came for the Jews

And I did not speak out

Because I was not a Jew

Then they came for me

And there was no one left to speak out for me.

Love - Thomas Merton

"Corrupt forms of love wait for the neighbour to 'become a worthy object of love' before actually loving them. This is not the way of Christ. Since Christ Himself loved us when we were by no means worthy of love and still loves us with all our unworthiness, our job is to love others without stopping to inquire whether or not they are worthy. …

"What we are asked to do is to love; and this love itself will render both ourselves and our neighbour worthy if anything can. Indeed, that is one of the most significant things about the power of love. There is no way under the sun to make anybody worthy of love except by loving them. As soon as they realise themself loved-if they arenot so weak that they can no longer bear to be loved-they will feel themselves instantly becoming worthy of love. They will respond by drawing a mysterious spiritual value out of their own depths, a new identity called into being by the love that is addressed to them."