Resistance, Sedition and Treason, anyone?
Luke 23:33-43
The practice of saying the Lord’s Prayer and the Nicene Creed has fallen out of custom in some churches. Indeed, when I came here nine years ago, the custom of saying the creed each Sunday had lapsed. I heard of a speaker recently who visited an Anglican school who launched into the Lord’s prayer and expected at least some people to join in, and had to do an unexpected solo.
Now, I am obligated to order worship in such a way that saying the Lord’s Prayer and the Nicene Creed is included in all or most Sunday liturgies. I made an oath. But that’s not the primary reason we do it. It’s not out of some slavish adherence to rules and requirements. We say the Lord’s Prayer and the Creed because they are manifestos for resistance to the rulers and kingdoms of this world. We say them because they are a beacon pointing us towards a world made whole and a vision of a communities and creation restored. They are political statements, made by people of faith in opposition to the vacuous, self-serving political and commercial statements of the world.
Of course, the Lord’s Prayer and the Nicene Creed arose in specific political contexts. To pray that God’s kingdom comes in a world where the Emperor is supreme ruler has real-world implications. To pray for bread in a community where the poor are starving is not sentimental, but deeply practical and defiant. To pray for the forgiveness of debt in a culture where people are crippled by debt is not merely about spiritual transactions, but monetary transactions too. The Nicene Creed is likewise a radical manifesto for those with ears to hear. The Council of Nicea which did the first draft in 325CE was convened by the Roman Emperor Constantine, yet when the creed was revised in 381CE in Constantinople the only human named in it is a Roman governor who was responsible for the death of the only begotten son of God, begotten of his Father before all worlds. And the Council of Constantinople didn’t stop there! Jesus’ kingdom will have no end. He will come with glory to judge the living and dead, and we look for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come.
There could be no clearer denial of worldly power and no stronger affirmation of the sovereignty of God over the whole of creation. And if the manifesto is true, if in fact the kings and queens and Presidents and Prime Ministers and CEOs of the world are not truly powerful, then this place becomes an embassy of the Kingdom of God in hostile territory and this community becomes a resistance movement, but one which fights only with the weapons of compassion and justice and peace. We may want the church to be a place that helps us feel good about ourselves and safe in the world. But the Lord’s Prayer and the Creed, and the scriptures and the hymns and the Eucharist continue to disturb our settled lives and call us to be light in the midst of darkness.
This week saw the massive fall from grace of a man who was once a breath away from being our king. Prince Andrew’s media interview about Jeffrey Epstein was catastrophic, not least because he failed to convince anyone watching that he cared even slightly about the many people who had been abused. He came across as defensive, defiant and dismissive. Whether he is guilty of a crime or not, his bearing and language gave the impression that he is above criticism, and bears no obligation to lesser mortals like you and me, his subjects. It was a shocking display of hubris and privilege, but we need to remember that his behaviour is normal for kings and princes. The pomp and fancy dress, the jewellery and protocol conceal the reality that kings (real kings, not the denuded version that rules the UK and Australia in name only) rule because they are ruthless and aggressive and ambitious - hungry for power at any cost. There are hardly any kings of that kind left in the world. The Kings of Sweden and Belgium are basically glorified versions of the people who greet you at Bunnings. The Emperor of Japan and the King of Tonga are revered by their people, but have no real authority beyond their palaces. You have to go to Oman and Swaziland to find real, autocratic kings these days, but of course the really powerful rulers are not called King at all. Xi Jinping is called ‘General Secretary’ as though he takes dictation, rather than ruling a billion people with an iron first. He wields dictatorial power like an ancient chieftain, and so does his rival Putin in Russia. There are plenty of others who wield absolute power of empires, national or otherwise. One need only look to Rupert Murdoch at NewsCorp or Jeff Bezos at Amazon to see how a vast, rich global regime can exist without the added inconvenience of a nation state.
If we accept that there are kings in the world (whatever terminology we use for them) and then we declare the kingship of Christ, and then claim citizenship in the Kingdom of God, and then say ‘Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as in heaven’ – do you not see how that constitutes sedition? If we accept that there are kings in the world, then to say we look for the life of the world to come, a world to which Jesus has returned to judge both the living and the dead – do you not see that this is an act of treason? And when we say ‘the kingdom, the power and the glory are yours, now and forever’ does it not follow, that we are saying that kingdoms, power and glory do not belong to the kings of this world.
If you’ve ever wondered why so many early Christians suffered persecution and death – this is why. They constituted an existential threat to kings, because their allegiance was to another. We don’t go seeking persecution and we don’t seek to become martyrs. God would much rather we live for the faith than die for it. But we can anticipate that when we gather for this weekly meeting of the resistance, when we are sent out into the world to bear witness to an alternative way in our homes and workplaces and on the streets, when we cling to God’s Dream for the world instead of the world’s corruption, we will meet opposition. Which is why we are comforted and reassured that way things are is not the way things are. Christ is King, and we look for the day when he rules over a world restored with self-emptying love for all.
The Lord Be With You