So, Friday I was just cruising up to Hannaford in Clinton to get some fresh okra. I'd left the gym so I drove through Madison, headed toward Oriskany Falls. And there, on the side of the road, by the General Store...was a body. Face down, on the side of the road. In something that looked like a giant leaf bag with its head sticking out.
I only kinda caught it out of the corner of my eye, and I kept on going. But as I got going, I kept thinking, “Did I just see what I think I saw?” I turned around and drove back, and by that time, there was a crowd and the police, lights flashing. So, I turned around once again and headed on to do my chores, thinking, maybe I'm just misreading the situation. Maybe it wasn't a body. Maybe it was anything but what it looked like.
Well, by the time I got done at Hannaford, I was headed back. The scene had emptied out, but there was a state trooper, taking pictures with one of those giant crime-scene cameras. So, I guess it was what it looked like.
Now I still don't know the details, but I guess that doesn't matter for today. What matters for today is that it wasn't until after I got home that I thought about the parable of the Good Samaritan. Not when I was driving by. It never occurred to me to pull over and see if I could help. I didn't want to get involved in the crowd. It was cold. I wanted to get home before dark because I don't like driving in the dark. There were cops there, and no doubt there would be more on the way. Best not to get involved.
And when I thought of the Good Samaritan, I thought, “Well, Steve, you certainly dropped the ball on that one, didn't you?”
Today is the feast day of Christ the King. You know, Christ the King has an interesting origin. It’s one of the newest holidays in the church calendar. It was first celebrated less than a hundred years ago back in 1925. The pope at the time offered it as a way to push against rising nationalism, the growing threat of communism, and what he saw as the inherent abuses of capitalism.
In all three frameworks, some societal structure upheld some thing as the ultimate ruler in place of God. So, Christ the King Sunday was started to remind the world who sits on the throne. Hope in this world, the pope proposed, doesn’t rest in the brutal overthrow of the ruling class seen in the Russian Revolution. It’s not in the nation state as the ultimate good seen worldwide, but especially in the post World War I environment on both the winning and losing sides. And it’s not in the profit-over-people mindset of the American robber barons. Our hope is in the name of the Lord, and everything else is misplaced.
But it isn't just a liturgical way to condemn unjust systems. It's a way for us to correct...ourselves. In the feast of Christ the King, we don’t look at the world and wash our hands of its evils. We look at the world, we correct what WE'VE contributed to its evils, and then we try to fix that, too.
Our consumer culture puts us at the center of the universe. We, each of us, tend to raise ourselves to a sort of kingship. I am the most important thing there is, my needs, my wants, my feelings. And if I'm busy on my way to get okra, surely someone else will look after that body on the side of the road. Surely, someone else can take care of that man hanging on the cross.
Until something happens to me. Maybe I lose my job. Maybe I lose the love of my life. Maybe my lack of self-control leads to addiction. Maybe my body just starts to give out. Maybe one of a thousand things happen that make me realize just how fragile MY kingship really is.
And maybe, only then, do I realize that I am the man hanging next to Jesus...reviled or worse yet, ignored. And maybe only then do I realize what a true king Jesus is becoming at that moment. Giving it all up for those he loves, sacrificing it all for those he calls his own, even those who more often than not only pay him lip service and let others do the heavy lifting.
Friday I learned that the real Christ the King is out there for us all to see every day. First responders running toward an incident. Parents scrimping and saving for their children. Victims of violence who eventually find it in their hearts to say, “Father, forgive them...” Each small moment of sacrifice is a giving up of something personal, so that Christ can enter into our lives and do a little more Kingdom work in this world.
But not only in the heroes of our world. Christ the King is everywhere. In the soul of the homeless man yelling at himself at Byrne Dairy. In the regret of the drug addict that can't stop herself. In the pain of the young teen who is afraid to truly talk to their parents about their lives and life choices. And on the side of the road, in a body bag.
So take this week. Look around you this week. We are about to get swept up in all the reflection that is Advent and all the joy that is Christmas. Let's not forget what this is about. This Christian life. This is about following, pure and simple. Following the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Loving Christ the King and loving our neighbors.
We are not the center of the universe. Christ is.
Self-centeredness is not the driver of the universe. Christ is.
Acts of injustice, acts of meanness, acts of selfishness, and acts of apathy are not the only option in the universe. Christ is.
Christ is. Christ is King.
Thank God.