In the church’s year the season of the Reign of Christ starts on November 1 with All Saints and ends today on the Sunday traditionally called Christ the King. In our liturgy we have changed the name of the season from Christ the King to the Reign of Christ. We did that to avoid the problems associated with patriarchy (the domination of the male). Yet, in staying with the idea of reigning we have not avoided another difficulty: what Fiorenza calls kyriarchy (a domination system of any kind). We would face this problem if the one reigning were a queen.
Pause and think about the idea of reigning, of the domination of the one over the many. It is a strange idea when in our culture we so laud the idea of democracy. Rule of the people by the people (even in its not so pure form of representative and hierarchical democracy we practice in the West). Dictators (even benevolent dictators) are frowned upon. As I write in Pakistan President Musharraf has declared a state of emergency and has taken even more power to the executive. It seems many of the Pakistani people are clamoring for democracy. The Commonwealth of Nations (53 sovereign nations, two billion people, formerly the British Commonwealth, but still with the Queen of England as representative head) has suspended Pakistan. Dictators are no longer welcome at the table. Even friendly ones in the “war on terror.”
Yet we still have this metaphor of “Christ the King.” The ultimate dictator? As benevolent as could be, but still a dictator?
Marcus Borg in his book “Jesus” (I recommend it as the best single book about Jesus available today) is very helpful in looking at domination systems. He says about domination systems that they are the “political and economic domination of the many by the few and the use of religious claims to legitimate it (Jesus, p. 85). Jesus was born into such a system that had the added feature of being an imperial domination system. The domination was by Rome, one of the world’s great imperial powers. As people in Pakistan are clamoring for democratic change and the end of dictatorship, many in Palestine in the first century wanted to see the end of Roman imperial domination. Some tried noncooperation, some collaborated, some sought political violence as the means (we call it terrorism today), some turned inward on the spiritual quest.
In the middle of this ferment Jesus taught a subversive message of the end of domination systems in the realm of God. It is clear that in sayings such as those gathered in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus radically undermined domination. The message of Jesus was radical love. Love does not dominate. Domination and love are antithetical. If I love you I cannot exploit you. Love is opposed to violence. Wherever there is violence is a failure to love. Domination systems thrive on violence. They grow stronger when flexing muscles against futile violent resistance by the weak. Domination systems are birthed in violence in the great social upheavals of war.
The message of love has always been subversive. At a conference a few years ago, in a hallway after a session, a participant shook his first in my face protesting, “The trouble with you pacifists is, you are dangerous. Think what would happen to the world if everyone was like you, if everyone refused to fight!”
I have thought.
It is puzzling why on this Sunday the gospel reading is from the crucifixion story (Luke 23:33-43). I think it must be because in the story there is a sign affixed to the cross that said, ”This is the King of the Jews.” There were rumors. Some said that this Jesus was the coming messiah who would overthrow the hated Romans. Some political extremists (the Zealots) joined his group. It may have been because of that kind of expectation. On more than one occasion, the crowds who listened to him wanted to make him king. Jesus always refused. On a day when there was an imperial procession displaying all the might and power of triumphant Rome, Jesus staged an alternative procession. He went into Jerusalem by the back route on a donkey. His message and his actions were subversive. He was executed as a subversive criminal. The sign “King of the Jews” mocked him, gave his followers a very clear message not to mess with the domination system.
Today is the Sunday of “Christ the King [sic].” I think we can still use the idea if we remove the ideas of patriarchy. If we rethink the idea of “king” or “ruler” in such radical ways that the concept is robbed of any kind of domination. If we remember that Jesus taught us to love and love does not dominate others, not even the love of God.
Pause and think about the idea of reigning, of the domination of the one over the many. It is a strange idea when in our culture we so laud the idea of democracy. Rule of the people by the people (even in its not so pure form of representative and hierarchical democracy we practice in the West). Dictators (even benevolent dictators) are frowned upon. As I write in Pakistan President Musharraf has declared a state of emergency and has taken even more power to the executive. It seems many of the Pakistani people are clamoring for democracy. The Commonwealth of Nations (53 sovereign nations, two billion people, formerly the British Commonwealth, but still with the Queen of England as representative head) has suspended Pakistan. Dictators are no longer welcome at the table. Even friendly ones in the “war on terror.”
Yet we still have this metaphor of “Christ the King.” The ultimate dictator? As benevolent as could be, but still a dictator?
Marcus Borg in his book “Jesus” (I recommend it as the best single book about Jesus available today) is very helpful in looking at domination systems. He says about domination systems that they are the “political and economic domination of the many by the few and the use of religious claims to legitimate it (Jesus, p. 85). Jesus was born into such a system that had the added feature of being an imperial domination system. The domination was by Rome, one of the world’s great imperial powers. As people in Pakistan are clamoring for democratic change and the end of dictatorship, many in Palestine in the first century wanted to see the end of Roman imperial domination. Some tried noncooperation, some collaborated, some sought political violence as the means (we call it terrorism today), some turned inward on the spiritual quest.
In the middle of this ferment Jesus taught a subversive message of the end of domination systems in the realm of God. It is clear that in sayings such as those gathered in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus radically undermined domination. The message of Jesus was radical love. Love does not dominate. Domination and love are antithetical. If I love you I cannot exploit you. Love is opposed to violence. Wherever there is violence is a failure to love. Domination systems thrive on violence. They grow stronger when flexing muscles against futile violent resistance by the weak. Domination systems are birthed in violence in the great social upheavals of war.
The message of love has always been subversive. At a conference a few years ago, in a hallway after a session, a participant shook his first in my face protesting, “The trouble with you pacifists is, you are dangerous. Think what would happen to the world if everyone was like you, if everyone refused to fight!”
I have thought.
It is puzzling why on this Sunday the gospel reading is from the crucifixion story (Luke 23:33-43). I think it must be because in the story there is a sign affixed to the cross that said, ”This is the King of the Jews.” There were rumors. Some said that this Jesus was the coming messiah who would overthrow the hated Romans. Some political extremists (the Zealots) joined his group. It may have been because of that kind of expectation. On more than one occasion, the crowds who listened to him wanted to make him king. Jesus always refused. On a day when there was an imperial procession displaying all the might and power of triumphant Rome, Jesus staged an alternative procession. He went into Jerusalem by the back route on a donkey. His message and his actions were subversive. He was executed as a subversive criminal. The sign “King of the Jews” mocked him, gave his followers a very clear message not to mess with the domination system.
Today is the Sunday of “Christ the King [sic].” I think we can still use the idea if we remove the ideas of patriarchy. If we rethink the idea of “king” or “ruler” in such radical ways that the concept is robbed of any kind of domination. If we remember that Jesus taught us to love and love does not dominate others, not even the love of God.