2021.11.21 A Kingdom Not of This World

“A Kingdom Not of this World”

The Rev. Dr. Arlene K. Nehring
Eden United Church of Christ, Hayward, California
Reign of Christ Sunday
Nov. 21,2021
John 18:33-37 (NRSV)

Today we join Christians around the world in celebrating Christ the King Sunday. This observance was established by Pope Pius XI in the aftermath of World War I to proclaim an alternative vision for the world that was based on justice and peace. Pope Pius XI’s idea was not a new one. It is reflective of today’s gospel lesson, in which John compares Jesus with two earthly leaders, Caiaphas, and Pilate.  

Caiaphas was the High Priest, the leader of the Jerusalem Temple and the leader of the Sanhedrin, the Jewish law court. According to John, Caiaphas wanted something done about Jesus, because he contradicted the teachings and practices of the Jewish priests, but neither the priests nor the Sanhedrin had the authority to do away with Jesus. So Caiaphas turned Jesus over to Pilate.

According to John, Pilate saw Jesus as more of a religious heretic than a political threat, so he was reluctant to condemn Jesus to death. He knew that dabbling in religious matters could be tricky. Instead of making a definite decision about his fate, Pilate placed Jesus’ fate in the hands of the mob, who ultimately called for his crucifixion. 

Jesus, by contrast, was not a religious or political official. He was a spiritual and moral leader. He was the one who Christians later call “messiah,” but Jesus was not the type of messiah that most Jews had imagined and hoped for. Jesus did not sit on an earthly throne, like David, or become a standard bearer for Judaism, like Caiaphas. Jesus, by contrast, embodied the spirit of the law rather than the letter of the law, and he promoted allegiance to God rather than to earthly rulers.  

II

The Johannine community, out of which the fourth gospel arose, understood themselves to be accountable to Christ, and they identified as citizens of his kingdom—a kingdom not of this world—even though they did so at great risk to their personal safety and social position. 

Some biblical scholars consider the story of Jesus’ trial to be an obscure embellishment of his earthly life. My view is that regardless of the historicity of the narrative, the story offers a window into the type of defining moments that we all face in life--moments when we must decide who we will follow, what vision of the world we seek, and what values we will act upon.

Think about your own life for a moment and ask yourself: what have been the defining moments in my life? To whom did I grant my allegiance? What values did I embrace, and how did I act on them?

Families, schools, faith communities, businesses, governments, and other social entities, like individuals, come to certain crossroads in their histories when key decisions must be made. Those decisions aren’t random. They’re tied to the vision and the values that we subscribe to. Whether we are self-conscious about these decisions or not, the world we seek and the way we act conflate to create the world as it is and as it becomes. 

III

This is one of the reasons why the verdict that was announced about Kyle Rittenhouse’s trial this past Friday was (and is) so disturbing. It not only indicts the choices of a 17-year-old white male who illegally acquired a military style weapon, drove across state lines, joined a white militia to “protect” the City of Kenosha, and shot and killed two men and injured a third, during a racial justice protest on August 23, 2021. 

The protest was organized in response to the shooting of Jacob Blake, a black man, by a white police officer. The shooting left Blake permanently paralyzed from the waist down.

According to a NYT article published on Nov 16, Rittenhouse testified in court last week that he acted in self-defense on August 23, while prosecutors argued that he provoked the violence that resulted in the death of 36-year-old Joseph Rosenbaum, of Kenosha, and 26-year-old Anthony Huber, of Silver Lake, Wisconsin.

Gaige Grosskreutz, 27, a protester from West Allis, was wounded by Rittenhouse. 

Rittenhouse faced five charges in court this past month. Two additional charges were thrown out by the judge. As we heard, the defendant was acquitted on all five charges. The court's decision didn’t sit well with most people who subscribe to logic, or who know the racially biased history of our judicial system. 

In a statement to the press on Friday afternoon, the Rev. Jesse Jackson stated the obvious: “The verdict throws into doubt the safety of people who protest in support of Black Americans…[And] it seems to me that it’s open season on human rights demonstrators.” 

I agree wholeheartedly with the Rev. Jackson’s assessment of the verdict, and I mourn the continual assault on the principles of Judeo-Christian justice that it represents. 

I abhor the white supremecist world view that this verdict reflects, and the racist,  militaristic, Wild-West behavior that it will, sadly, fuel. I pray that you will join me in redoubling your commitment to the vision of peace with justice that the prophets and apostles embraced, and that Jesus exemplified in his lifetime. I pray that you will join me in continuing to dismantle the structural inequities and the insidious racism that is evidenced in our social systems.  And, that you will join me in overturning the root causes of violence in our nation and world.

One way to do so is to get involved in the Alameda County Board of Supervisors’ review of the Sheriff’s Office, and the operation of the Santa Rita Jail. Another step is to commit yourself to learning about the candidates who are running for Alameda County Sheriff. They do not all hold the same vision for our county, much less our world. And they are not all pitching the same approaches to policing, incarceration, or parole. 

If you think that Behavioral Health and Mental Health systems offer better preventions and therapies to crime that’s spurred by addictions or mental illness, pay attention to who’s running for office, and who supports building back better schools and healthy school communities. 

If you think that early childhood education, smaller classrooms, and early interventions for special needs students is more cost effective than building bigger jails and issuing longer prison sentences, pay attention to what the candidates are saying about the state and federal budgets. 

If you think that gang violence is terrible in the Northern Triangle, and in certain states and municipalities in Mexico, and you don’t want it here, then invest your time and energy in understanding how America’s addiction to drugs feeds that system of violence and how our broke-down immigration system boxes newcomers into unlawful ways of pursuing a more abundant life in our nation. 

To be sure, none of this political engagement work is easy. None of it will result in quick fixes. But if we stay the course, it is possible to create a more just and equitable world, which is marked by peace and prosperity for all--not just for some.  

My prayer is that we would choose to worship God rather than guns. That we will invest in high quality public education and affordable healthcare systems, instead of the industrial military complex. That we will keep our sleeves rolled up and keep dismantling the white supremecist culture that we have inherited. And that we pledge allegiance to the kin-dom of God, rather than the kingdoms of this world. Amen.