Prayer in Preparation for Christ the King Sunday

Next Sunday (November 24, 2019) is Christ the King Sunday for those following the liturgical calendar. It is something of a seam in the rhythm of the year – culminating one year’s passage and engendering the longings of Advent. The reading from the Hebrew Scriptures this year is Jeremiah 23:1-6. I am just starting to soak in this passage, but verse 6 struck a chord in my heart. I know this came as a word of encouragement in the context of Judah’s distress in Exile. I know that the righteous branch of David carries Messianic significance. Either way, this does not refer specifically to any transitory political or government leader of the US or any other country. Nevertheless, speaking for myself as one who aspires to follow Jesus, I feel a deep longing in my soul to be led by those who deal wisely and execute justice and righteousness. And when I got to oratio in my lectio divina this morning, my prayer became an enormous lament for how far away my own country is from wisdom, justice, and righteousness.  Please don’t diminish that to any of the current lightening rod political issues of the moment, nor dismiss it by relegating it to what is impossible until Jesus returns. Juxtaposed with the Gospel for Christ the King Sunday in Luke 23:33-43 that connects Jesus’ crucifixion with his identity as “King of the Jews,” (certainly posted on his cross as Roman mockery not just of Jesus but the Jewish people), I expect my lament to grow increasingly profound as the week progresses. By the time Advent comes, I expect I will already be crying “Come, O Come, Emmanuel!”

Majestic Ride for Truth and Right

Psalm 45 celebrates the marriage of an archetypical ancient Hebrew king. The imagery goes well beyond David or Solomon. It is addressed in the second person (you) to the king, and the language interweaves the king and God seamlessly. Seen through New Testament eyes, it takes on Messianic significance, and may be construed as pointing to the ecstatic love between Christ and the Church as the bride at the Wedding Supper of the Lamb.

Now, I am not interested in sorting out all of the possibilities and pitfalls of interpreting this Psalm, but as I let it prompt my prayers this morning against the backdrop of the current proceedings in Washington, a couple of lines caught my attention. First, verse 7 asserts that this king’s “royal scepter is a scepter of equity” in the hand of one who “loves righteousness and hates wickedness.” I am certainly do not expect, nor do I think it would be healthy, that people in the US government be my brand (or any) of Christian. But as I prayed this morning, this line prompted me to pray that people in positions of public leadership would have integrity, authenticity, transparency as they advocate for all people (especially the weak, poor, struggling, and marginalized) to receive justice, peace, prosperity, and compassion. Regardless of political philosophy, I also pray for those who serve in government (elected, appointed, or hired staff) to be competent. As I discussed this with God this morning, I found my prayer becoming a lament.

With the daily details emerging from the proceedings in Washington, I was originally drawn to verse 4. “In your majesty ride on victoriously for the cause of truth and to defend the right.” I do not believe this Psalm celebrates anything and everything done by anyone in a position similar to an ancient Hebrew king. Rather, clear promotion and protection of truth and right are what can legitimately be celebrated. So this morning I told God (I know that sounds presumptuous) that regardless of political posturing, I want to see truth and right emerge from the current proceedings in Washington.

Still praying my lament, I moved on to Psalm 75 and was jolted by verses 7-8. I conclude by letting them stand on their own. “It is God who executes judgment, putting down one and lifting up another. For in the hand of the Lord there is a cup with foaming wine, well mixed; he will pour a draught from it, and all the wicked of the earth shall drain it down to the dregs.”

To God All of Them are Alive

As I have begun my lectio divina on Jesus’ answer to the Sadducees about the resurrection in Luke 20:27-39, I have noticed contrasts with the versions in Matthew 22:23-33 and Mark 12:18-27 that have prompted my contemplation of the deep mystery of God’s self-revelation and the hope of resurrection. Other things in Haggai 2:1-9 and 2 Thessalonians 2:1-12 are also stirring in my soul. This looks to be a week of rich, if unsettling, pondering.

Luke recorded only Jesus’ answer to the Sadducees and omitted his rebuke. Matthew wrote, “You are wrong, because you know neither the scriptures nor the power of God.” (v. 29) Mark recorded it this way, “Is not this the reason you are wrong, that you know neither the scriptures nor the power of God? … You are quite wrong.” (vv. 24,27) Matthew framed it as a statement; Mark as a question; and Luke omitted it. I am not interested in attempting to harmonize an apparent discrepancy nor reconstruct Jesus’ actual words (not English; they were almost certainly spoken in Aramaic and translated into Greek by Matthew, Mark, and Luke. Rather, I am searching my own soul for how well I know the scriptures and power of God. I am not talking about knowing the content of scripture and its proper interpretation (such as the Spanish word saber) but of intimate knowledge (such as the use of “know” to mean sexual intercourse in the Hebrew Scriptures or the Spanish word conocer).

After reflecting on this, I came to my prayer from the New Testament Epistles for today in Ephesians 1:15-23 with its prayer to know the immeasurable greatness of God’s power put to work by raising Christ from the dead. (vv. 19-20). My prayer took the form of opening up to God my growing relinquishment of specific literalistic images of the widely varied metaphors in scripture for the resurrection on the last day and what to expect in the transition from this life to the next.

That brought me back to Luke’s unique rendition of Jesus’ conclusion of his answer to the Sadducees. Matthew (v. 32) and Mark (v. 27) use the familiar, God “is not God of the dead, but of the living.” But Luke’s version (v. 38) prompted me to reflect even more deeply on what it may mean for those who have gone before us, as we will all go, to be alive to God. “Now he is God not of the dead, but of the living; for to him all of them are alive.” This took me to the line from the funeral liturgy prayer of confession. “We forget that all life comes from you and that to you all life returns.” Does this imply something outside of the familiar boundaries of time, not just an endless extension of time? Does this imply our/my existence is intrinsic to God's being in much more than a perfunctory "of course?” Oh the limitations of human language!

I have long been and continue to be one who affirms “the resurrection to eternal life” rather than the pagan, dualistic denial of the goodness of God’s material creation implied in “the immortality of the soul.” We are not bodies who have souls, nor are we souls who are trapped in bodies. The hope of the resurrection affirms our human wholeness (body and soul if you will, though that language betrays dualism more akin to Greek philosophy than biblical witness).

With the highly individualistic culture in the West, perhaps most virulent in the US, we crave individual, personal awareness in the life to come. Though they are few, some such as Jesus’ answer here that cites Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, suggest our personal identity persists and we are not simply absorbed into the cosmos. (The conjuring of Samuel in 1 Samuel 28:12-20 and the story of Lazarus in Luke 16:22-31 would seem to hint at this.) Yet the images of the last day are not individually welcoming embraces from Jesus, as popular as current art and song imagine, but as vast multitudes gathered for the marriage supper of the Lamb from every tribe and tongue and nation in communal praise. I am not expecting this week’s lectio divina to sort out into some definitive resolution of the literal expectation for the resurrection on the last day. More and more I am convinced pursuing that leads us astray from a proper perspective on the resurrection. Rather I am hoping my meditations will enrich probing the profundity of this mystery. I confess some discomfort and perplexity. At the same time, I am praying to know the immeasurable greatness of God’s power put to work by raising Christ from the dead.

Another interesting contrast in the three versions of Jesus' answer to the Sadducees about the resurrection is the reaction to Jesus. Matthew 22:33 reports that the crowds were astounded. Luke 20:39-40 reports that some of the scribes said that Jesus had "spoken well". I expect those were those who disagreed with the Sadducees about the resurrection already, but then Luke added that "they no longer dared to ask him another question." So Matthew reported the crowd; Luke reported the scribes; and Mark reported no reaction.