Text: John 18:33B–38 Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe, Cycle B 22 November 2015 © Rev

Text: John 18:33b–38 Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe, Cycle B 22 November 2015 © Rev. Paul R Pluth, JCL Two nights ago, in the middle of the night, drifting between wakefulness and sleep, I heard someone say, “Paul”—my name. Still lying down, I lifted up my head to look over at the bedroom door. No light under the door, so my roommate wasn’t up. I must be imagining it, I thought. I went back to sleep. Sometime later, I heard a distinct voice call out, “Hello?” This time, I did sit up in bed. I looked over at the dog lying beside the bed, who’d lifted up his head to look at me, and I asked him: “Did you say something?” The dog put his head down and went back to sleep. I too lay down again, but I didn’t go back to sleep right away. I was thinking of the young boy Samuel of the Old Testament, sleeping in the Temple in Jerusalem, who kept waking up as he heard a voice calling him in the night, which turned out to be the voice of the Lord. I, too, think that what I heard in the night, speaking either through a dream or out loud, was the voice of the Lord. When the voice came, I’d been dreaming of a church and what it had done to survive. Not surprising, because I’d gone to bed, wondering—and worrying—if our church, St Augustine, would survive the changes of the next twenty-five years and still be here. I think the Lord was reminding me, through his voice in the night, that this is not mine to worry about. These things are not in my hands, but in the hands of Christ the King. The Lord Jesus is King, the firstborn of the dead and ruler of the kings of the earth, the Book of Revelation says. Today’s feast, the Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe, was begun to affirm the worth and dignity of men and women, under the protection of Christ the King, in the face of totalitarian governments that were trying to do away with the value of the individual by making the government supreme, by turning the government into God, under the lie of seeking the common good. And we still need that message today, in the face of what the world is experiencing today, whether in the territories under the control of ISIS or subject to its terrorist attacks, or in Russia, or in the United States. But the feast has grown beyond that message to include the promise that beyond all our worries and anxieties and fears, there is One who has an everlasting dominion, who holds the whole world in his hands, the one who was and is and is to come—the almighty Jesus Christ the King. In today’s Gospel, Jesus is brought before Pontius Pilate, the Roman Governor of Judea, to be put on trial. Pontius Pilate sits on the judge’s seat, backed by the full might and authority and power of the Roman Empire, the supposed rulers of the known world, with his soldiers around him and outside the door. Pilate thinks that he is the judge, and Jesus is the one on trial. But, in truth, it’s Pontius Pilate who is on trial, and with Pilate all the governments and political movements and moral movements of every time and place who oppose God’s love and authority—represented by Pontius Pilate—all these are on trial before King Jesus, for the ways they debase humanity and violate God’s will and plan. With Jesus’ self-assurance, and his repeated statements that his kingdom is beyond the empty powers of this world, that his kingdom is a kingdom of truth—God’s truth—Jesus judges all the Pontius Pilates of this world and shows how weak and lacking they are. At the end, when King Jesus tells Pontius Pilate, “Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice,” Pilate asks, “What is truth?” Most likely, Pontius Pilate asks that sarcastically, mockingly: the Roman bureaucrats were practical men, not much given to philosophy, and—like every government official—willing to laugh at everyone who opposes them. But perhaps there is a trace of yearning, a tracing of actually wanting to know, when Pilate asks Jesus, “What is truth?”—in which case, there is hope for Pontius Pilate. I have an ancient coin with the name of Pontius Pilate on it, a coin minted in Palestine under Pilate’s authority during the time he was Governor of Judea. That’s all that remains of Pontius Pilate: old coins, ancient artifacts. Meanwhile, the Church, the Body of Christ, the ongoing presence of Jesus Christ in this world, is a living, breathing reality, enduring through history to the end of time, to whom Pontius Pilate owes the preservation of his memory since we mention his name every Sunday in the Creed. This morning our Youth Choir sang the hymn, This Is My Father’s World. It is the final verse of that hymn that expresses the truth of today’s Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe, the verse that says: This is my Father’s world, oh, let me not forget, that though the wrong seems oft so strong, God is the ruler yet. This is my Father’s world, why should my heart be sad? The Lord is King, let the heavens ring! God reigns, let earth be glad. .

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