Bumper Stickers and Masters: Homily for the Solemnity of Christ the King – Year B

The other day I was driving home from work,
coming up Freya hill,
and I noticed a bumper sticker
on the car in front of me.
People put bumper stickers on their cars
for all kinds of reasons,
but mostly because they have something to say to the world.
“Vote for this or that candidate.”
“Work for world peace.”
“Support my kid’s school.”
Well, this particular driver had a different message.
It was a big, red rectangular sticker,
and in white letters it read,
“No Gods. No Masters.”

I suppose that’s how a lot of people today view life,
especially here in America.
In America we’re pretty proud of the fact
that we broke away from England,
we cast off the monarchy.

That idea has permeated our culture so much
that it’s become part of the intellectual air we breathe.
We do take pride in the fact that we can forge our own fate,
that no one is our master.
Like that line from the poem “Invictus,”
“I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul.”

Our TV shows and our movies hold up for us as heroes
people who take charge of their own lives
who reject being mastered by anyone,
being controlled by anyone,
who “stick it to the man.”
We’re suspicious and resentful of anyone in authority.
We Americans are fiercely proud of our independence,
even celebrating an Independence Day.

No kings for us, we rule ourselves.
No gods. No masters.

So with ideas like this permeating our culture,
today’s Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ King of the Universe
could be very difficult for us to relate to.
The responsorial psalm tell us “The Lord is king.”
The reading from Daniel says,
“all peoples, nations, and languages serve him.”
The book of Revelation tells us,
“Jesus Christ is the…ruler of the kings of earth.”

On this last Sunday of the Church year,
we gather around the altar to celebrate the fact
that someone has kingship over us.
Someone else besides me is the Lord of my life.

We say that,
we talk about Jesus being our king,
but are we really willing to allow him to lead us?

It’s so contrary to the message that we hear in our culture,
where we’re used to hearing,
“Don’t let anybody tell you what you can or can’t do,
you forge your own future.”
“No gods. No masters.”

But ultimately Jesus Christ is the King of the Universe.
We cannot believe that away
It is a fact.
It is a cold hard fact.
We can say “no gods, no masters” all we want
but the truth is there is a God and it’s not us.

So what do we do with that?
What do we, who aspire to so much independence,
who aspire to be the controllers of our own destinies,
what are we to do with this fact that we are not the lord of our lives?

Do we simply pay it lip service
for this one day of the Church year?
Is it something that we grudgingly believe,
that we just grit our teeth and tolerate,
and try not to think about too often?

Or is it something that we can embrace?
Is there some way that we can look at this truth
and embrace it,
even if it means acknowledging our limitations
acknowledging that we’re not all that?

Yes, there is a way for us to embrace it,
as long as we understand and believe two important truths.

And the first truth is this:
Jesus is not a king like other kings.

Our experience with human kings
is that they grab power and keep it
through force, through intimidation, through fear.
Our experience with human leaders
is that no matter how good they are
there’s always a flaw in the way they govern.
How many kings and queens and leaders throughout history
have simply used their power for their own selfish gain?
Lord Acton hit the nail right on the head when he said
“Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”
That’s why breaking away from England was so important to us.
We felt justified because we were breaking away from a tyrant,
and that’s a good legitimate exercise of our free will.

And think of the people under Hitler’s leadership in Germany.
He ruled through fear, he ruled through force.
There have been tyrants throughout all ages and all countries.
Even U.S. presidents and church leaders have misused their power
for their own selfish gain.

It’s no wonder we have have a hard time
accepting kings, queens, and other leaders.

So it is very important of us to understand and believe this truth:
that Jesus Christ as King of the universe
is not like human leaders.

Human leaders rule through fear;
human leaders tell lies or deny the truth,
or create their own truth,
in order to protect their power,
in order to remain in authority.

They have to do that, otherwise they risk losing their power.
But Jesus Christ can never lose his power.
He doesn’t have to use fear,
he doesn’t have to tell lies to remain in authority.
Jesus Christ is in authority, Jesus Christ is our king,
and nothing we can think,
nothing we can do,
can change that.
Jesus doesn’t need to protect his power,
he has it by his own nature as the Son of God,
the second person of Holy Trinity.
So the first truth is Jesus is a king unlike human kings.

And the second truth is that Jesus uses his power
in a way that is utterly different from the way human kings use power.

Jesus is a king, and kings issue commands.
What does Jesus command us to do?
He could command us to hand everything we possess over to him.
But he doesn’t command us to do that.
He could command us to attack his enemies,
but he doesn’t command us to do that.
So what is his command?
We heard it clearly several weeks ago,
but really we hear it in every gospel story.
Of all the things that the King of the Universe could command,
the greatest commandment is this:
Love God with all your heart, with all your soul,
with all your mind, with of all your strength,
and love your neighbor as yourself.
That’s the greatest commandment

This is the command of our king.
This is the command of our King:
Love.
To love God, to love our neighbor.
And why does Jesus command this?
Not for any selfish motive.
Jesus, the son of God, needs nothing from us.

Jesus commands us to love,
because the more we love God and neighbor,
the better we become,
the more deeply happy,
the more deeply fulfilled.

The more we love God, the more we love neighbor,
the closer we come to achieving our life’s purpose
of living a complete, happy life in eternity.

So on this day we celebrate with joy
the kingship, the lordship of Jesus over us,
the absolute power Jesus has over us.
We celebrate that!
Why?
Because that is what allows us to live a full life.
We have a king whose interest is in us,
not in himself.
In fact, he has such an interest in us,
that he became one of us and sacrificed himself on the cross for us.
There is our king, with his crown not of gold or silver, but of thorns.

He has such an interest in us,
that he makes us one with him through baptism.
That means we all share in Jesus’s kingship.
When we were baptized we were baptized priest, prophet, and king.
Not the kingship of authority,
not the kingship of fear or intimidation,
but the kingship of truth, sacrifice and love.
That is true kingship.

We can embrace the lordship of Jesus over our lives
because of these two truths:
Jesus is a king far better than any human king;
and Jesus uses his power far better than any human king.

And so that bumper sticker was right after all,
just in a different way than the driver intended.
No gods. No masters.
That’s right.

One God. One Master.
Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe.

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