November 2015 – Proper 29

The theme of this week revolves around the idea of kingship. What does it really mean to be a king? If we look deep into history we would be led to believe it means ruling over large groups of people with an iron fist and taking the bulk of the money and resources for yourself, all while making unilateral decisions based upon personal interest. This lopsided notion of what it means to rule or reign is unacceptable from a process lens and it completely misses the mark of a truly enlightened ruler, wise king or philosopher king. A true king should help to manage the proper balance within the ecosystem or territory he or she is responsible for. It is about promoting harmony and balance. A wise king rules through love. Christ is the paradigmatic example of ruling through love in the fullest sense of the term. Jesus incorporates unconditional love (agape), family love (storge), friendship love (philia), and even intimate love (eros), which can lead to contemplation of the Good itself. If God is love and God is king, then God must be the shining example of the full scope of what it means to love and to lead. As a process thinker, this is likely what matters most when one hears about kingship in the Bible.

2 Samuel 23:1-7

The primary theme in 2 Samuel is an in depth and theological look at kingship. Samuel, Saul, and David are all given as examples that the truly worthy in the eyes of God are meant to suffer great hardship and that they should maintain righteousness through the inevitable vicissitudes of time. We can take solace in the fact that God is the fellow sufferer who understands, a point that is highlighted through the persecution and passion of Jesus many years after the events in 2 Samuel. If God, takes away our fortunes that may not be a punishment, but on the larger scale, it is a gift and a release from a burden. We cannot serve both God and money and we should store up our treasures in heaven rather than on earth. What we can learn from 2 Samuel 23:1-7 for our time is that God creates covenants with those who are just and those who persevere through hardships. Hardship leads to kingship!

Psalm 132:1-12, (13-18)

Psalm 132:1 opens up again with this imperative of enduring hardship in order to be deemed worthy in the eyes of God. God further swears an oath that one of the sons of your body I will set on your throne.” This obvious allusion to Jesus is taken up by two of the Gospel writers—Matthew and Luke—who explicitly trace Jesus’ genealogy back to David to establish his right to rule. However, we must see once again that Jesus as a true king understands that suffering and enduring hardships are to be expected and welcomed as signs of God’s favor, rather than abandonment by God.

Alternative First Reading

Daniel 7:9-10, 13-14

Daniel’s vision here explains the Ancient of Days and the coming of a human like figure on a cloud who is exalted as king and given dominion over the world. The most pertinent aspect comes in 7:14. “To him was given dominion and glory and kingship, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion…” The question becomes, what does it mean to serve? Well, Jesus claims that he has come to call all people to metanoia, often translated as repentance. However, a better understanding of the Greek would be a transformation of one’s heart or whole being. This mission is shared with John the Baptist and so the way to serve is to expand one’s care. From a process perspective this would entail positively prehending (feeling and incorporating) more and more from the living world around you and thus, to grow in wisdom and righteousness.

Psalm 93

In this Psalm the theme from Daniel 7:14 above can also be found. The lord is robed in majesty and this girds him in strength. God is as close as anything to you and is always there providing protection and strength. Faith, works, the law, and following religious role models serve to fuel our will power and also gird us in strength…they enrobe us in divine mystery and majesty, as one might say. The truly devout man or woman is always robed in glory and majesty, but few have the eyes to see it, although many can feel a presence or radiance when they are near especially well cultivated individuals.

Second Reading

Revelation 1:4b-8

Of all the readings for this week, Revelation 1:8 stands out as the most interesting from a process-relational standpoint. Process theologians believe that each moment begins with what is called an initial aim from God; this aim is a lure, which we can freely choose to accept or ignore. The initial aim is the best possible choice at that moment to maximize love, joy, and importance for that moment. We can freely choose to align our will with God’s nature as a whole (his primordial and consequent nature) in each moment or we can choose to turn away from this initial aim and pursue more limited and narrow goals and desires. Regardless of what we choose, our choice is brought back up into God via the Consequent Nature of God and it is stored permanently as a record to be accessed by other people and creatures living within the world. So, in a very literal sense, God is the Alpha and the Omega of every second! “Christ” or we could say the Paraclete promised by Jesus in the Gospel of John is a sort of Alpha and Omega or advocate, comforter or encourager in each moment persuading us to become the best that we can be at that instant in time. Christ truly is Emmanuel on this understanding.

 

John 18:33-37

In John 18:33-37 we find Jesus delivered by the Sanhedrin to Pontius Pilate on charges of sedition and blasphemy. Pilate questions Jesus specifically on the grounds of kingship. Of course there is only one rightful king and that is the emperor of Rome. Jesus expertly avoids actually stating that he is a king; instead, he proclaims, “My kingdom is not from this world.”

The word king applied to the Kingdom of God or Kingdom of Heaven has a completely different meaning than the word king applied to earth. Jesus knows that Pilate will not understand what he is talking about no matter how he words it. Jesus came to testify to the truth and we should do no less. Think about all the kings you can name throughout history. Who was king of France in 1450? Who was the king of Denmark in 1780? I bet virtually nobody can answer those questions without looking it up. However, if I ask you, who is the founder of Christianity, Buddhism, or who is a famous Hebrew prophet, nearly everyone could answer this. Why? The reason is that these people were witnesses to truth and authenticity rather than hypocrisy, cruelty, and ignorance.

The most famous people in the history of the world were all philosophers or lovers of wisdom. We still read about these people today, we are inspired to live as they lived and to follow the model of virtue that they have shown. If Christ is king and we are meant to follow his lead, then what should we do? Imitatio Dei or Imitatio Christi. Well, when we do this we can rest assured that we will endure hardship. In fact, we can be certain that the hardships endured will be because of the laws given by the kings/powers that be of this world. However, it is this suffering which leads to wisdom; a fact that the Greeks had expressed since at least 458 BCE as pathei mathos or learning through suffering and adversity. If we persevere, we will grow tremendously in spirit and will be viewed as worthy in the eyes of God.

Process Lens Summary: Jesus understood that all people (women, slaves, and the sick etc.) as well as all creatures have intrinsic value and that we are all a part of an interrelated web of social interactions and personal feelings. This notion of all creatures having some degree of feelings and experience even if not conscious, is known as panpsychism or as process thinkers after David Griffin would say, panexperientialism.

God as uniquely incarnated in Jesus allows for the divine to truly be as Whitehead says, “the fellow sufferer who understands.” Jesus’ scope of inclusion of other people’s feelings was apparently infinite and thus, he positively prehended or “felt” the emotions of others. He knew them in their heart, and their pain became his pain. Jesus shows us that the true king puts himself last and his servants first.

Finally, the alpha and omega points can remind us that God is constantly with us as a good king ought to be and is doing his best to provide us with the best possible choices for our lives. It is up to us to choose wisely!