I’ve been thinking quite a lot about God’s kingdom lately. Each time we pray the Lord’s Prayer, we pray: your kingdom come, on earth as in heaven. But what does that really mean for us? Martin Luther wrote an explanation in the Small Catechism: “In fact, God’s kingdom comes on its own without our prayer, but we ask in this prayer that it may also come to us….whenever our heavenly Father gives us his Holy Spirit, so that through the Holy Spirit’s grace we believe God’s holy word and live godly lives…” Keep that in mind as you read on.

At the end of November, our congregation, along with millions of other Christians, will celebrate Christ the King Sunday. It’s a 99-year-old holiday, making it both quite new in the history of the Christian Church and older than any of us! 

Christ the King Sunday was created by Pope Pius XI in 1925, in response to his perception of what was going wrong in the world: “seeds of discord sown far and wide; those bitter enmities and rivalries between nations, which still hinder so much the cause of peace; that insatiable greed which is so often hidden under a pretense of public spirit and patriotism, and gives rise to so many private quarrels; a blind and immoderate selfishness, making men seek nothing but their own comfort and advantage, and measure everything by these…”

These problems were particularly evident in the rise of fascism in Europe after World War I. As nations like Germany and Italy reeled from the devastation of the “Great War,” leaders who promised national greatness rose to prominence. These leaders blamed political opponents, immigrants, and minorities for the problems in their nations, most egregiously in the Nazi movement to commit genocide against Jews, Romanis, people with disabilities, political dissidents, and LGBTQ people. Europe was not alone in the suspicion of outsiders; the United States also passed legislation in 1924 (one year before the institution of Christ the King Sunday, remember) that restricted immigration based on the nationality of visa applicants, designed to prevent increased diversity in the American populace.

In the face of this worldwide trend to put up barriers, to be suspicious of outsiders, and even to use extreme measures to prevent demographic change, Pope Pius XI, the head of the Roman Catholic Church, representing about 15% of the world’s population, was troubled. He saw that putting a narrow view of one’s own nation at the center of one’s values was detrimental not only to peace on Earth but also to that person’s relationship with God. If nations made claims to greatness, to perfection, to power over not only life and death but also over right and wrong, Pope Pius XI saw it as usurping the place that only Jesus Christ, King of Kings and Lord of Lords, could rightly occupy. Any other ruler who seeks that place is an idol. If one ethnic group made claims to superiority over another, Christ the King Sunday corrected them to see the citizenship of all people in the kingdom of heaven.

Christ the King, in other words, is a counter-cultural, anti-fascist, anti-nationalist, anti-racist celebration that we belong to God’s Kingdom. No other kingdom on earth can make claims on our allegiance, our praise, or our faithfulness. Responsible citizenship thus belongs in the category of vocation; a calling by which we serve God as we love and serve our neighbors. Even as we live out the vocation of citizenship, Christ the King Sunday reminds us that no earthly leader can save us like Jesus has. And where do we find Jesus our King?

He is the one hanging on the cross. The gospels tell of the crown of thorns, the royal purple robe, the sign: here is the King of the Jews. The entire crucifixion reads like an ancient coronation, with the cross taking the place of a throne.

God’s kingdom has, in fact, already come without our prayer. When we pray “your kingdom come,” we pray to see our King as he is revealed in suffering, pain, and death; he is revealed buying us with his very blood, more precious than gold or silver. God’s power is right there, hanging on a tree. 

In conclusion to his proclamation that established Christ the King Sunday, Pope Pius XI wrote, “If to Christ our Lord is given all power in heaven and on earth; if all people, purchased by his precious blood, are by a new right subjected to his dominion; if this power embraces all people, it must be clear that not one of our faculties is exempt from his empire. He must reign in our minds, which should assent with perfect submission and firm belief to revealed truths and to the doctrines of Christ. He must reign in our wills, which should obey the laws and precepts of God. He must reign in our hearts, which should spurn natural desires and love God above all things, and cleave to him alone. He must reign in our bodies and in our members, which should serve … to use the words of the Apostle Paul, as ‘instruments of justice unto God.’ (Romans 6:13)”

99 years later, this declaration is as timely as ever. If Christ is King, no one else is. If Christ is our hope, no one else is. If Christ is our savior, no one else is. As Paul wrote to the Christian community in Philippi nearly 2000 years ago, “But our citizenship is in heaven, and it is from there that we are expecting a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.” (Philippiand 3:20)

May your kingdom come among us, O God.