麻豆社

Introduction 鈥� Rev Canon Carl Turner
Welcome to Saint Thomas Church Fifth Avenue, New York.听 As you can hear, I am standing on Fifth Avenue 鈥� one of the busiest and most famous shopping streets in New York.听 Here you can buy everything and anything鈥�and just three blocks away is Trump Tower; Donald Trump has been elected as the 47th President of the United States and will be sworn in on January 20, 2025.听 However, the recent election proved how polarized the nation currently is, and the mission and ministry of our church to bring healing, reconciliation, and unity is more important than ever.

Here, in the very middle of Manhattan, stands what is arguably the most beautiful gothic church in North America - an oasis of prayer and stillness in the heart of the city that never sleeps and open every day of the year. It is also the home of the only remaining Choir School where the choristers make up the student body.

And round the corner is Radio City Music Hall with its annual Christmas Spectacular in full swing and, yet, New York is a place of dramatic contrasts; last Christmas, 30,000 children spent the night in municipal shelters.听 Saint Thomas, with our partner churches, employs two social workers to work with those whose home is the street on which I am standing.听 As we keep the Feast of Christ the King, we recognize the inequalities hidden by the glitz and excesses of Fifth Avenue; so, our worship begins, appropriately, after a beautiful introit by William Byrd, with a reflective sonnet written by Malcolm Guite:

Choir Introit: Tollite portas 鈥� Byrd

Reading:听Sonnet for Christ the King 鈥� Malcolm Guite

Responses: Tomkins

Choir: Psalm 29

First Lesson: Daniel 7:9-10, 13-14

Hymn: King of Glory, King of peace (Tune: General Seminary)

Second lesson: John 18: 33-37

Canticle: Jubilate Deo 鈥� Weelkes

Sermon

鈥淢y Kingship,鈥� says Jesus, 鈥渋s not of this world.鈥�

Beloved in Christ, this is very good news.
I mean, you can turn on the TV,
You can turn on the news,
Any channel most any channel,
You can pick up your phone
Look at your newsfeed, your social media,
Spend a good chunk of the day doomscrolling
You can do all that
And you can see the things of this world, the news from this 飞辞谤濒诲:听
A recent contentious and divisive election here at home with international consequence
Wars and rumors of wars, threats of nuclear devastation, escalations of already catastrophic violence
A global rise in xenophobia, racism,
The worldwide proliferation of demagoguery and nationalist authoritarianism
Mass shootings, and fires and floods, communities, families, people, in pain, an epidemic of loneliness鈥�
And you can see for yourself how dire the news from this world is.听
How terrified and terrifying.听 How death-infected.听
And how Good the Good News is:听
Jesus鈥� Kingship is not of this world.听
It has no part in all of that terror or violence or fear-funded scarcity or death.听

This should be a great comfort to us,
But it鈥檚 also a great challenge:
Because it鈥檚 not an escapist comfort.
Particularly on the Feast of Christ the King,
When it鈥檚 easy in all of this talk of Kings and Kingdoms
To imagine Jesus arrayed in rich and dazzling attire,
Gold and precious jewels everywhere
Seated on a great throne,
Surrounded by saints and angels,听
Dazzlingly and supremely powerful,
Almighty, in fact,
Far above, it seems, the turmoil of the 飞辞谤濒诲:听
It鈥檚 easy to imagine all that splendor听
And to put our hope
In it.听
Because it looks so good.听 So amazing.听
We want it!听 We want to live into it!听 What a relief!
Particularly in these troublous times
How nice if the world could look like that.
But鈥�that鈥檚 just a fleeting image, an attempt to speak an unspeakable glory in worldly terms,
And our Lord鈥檚 kingship is not of this world.
Worldly splendor fails.听
The tropes and trappings of worldly glory, death-dealing dreams of dominion, however rich and tasteful:
Shadows, drifting smoke: they fail
And the challenge on this Feast of Christ the King
Is not to be ensnared or enticed by those woefully insufficient
Imaginings of power, of kingship.
Because if we are so enticed, if we take the shadow for the real: we miss the point--
And our King Jesus becomes just another Tyrant, only more richly attired in that Light Inaccessible,
Ready to give the imprimatur to all of our violent delusions of power and empire;
And our Kingdom becomes just another nation,
Only more amenable to our own prejudices and preferences;
And the vision of grace does not confront, provoke, question or transform us
But is twisted to merely comfort or assuage us or confirm us in our wickedness.
We must guard against the Real kingship of Jesus becoming a grotesque fantasy of human power.听
Because, in thrall to this fantasy, it鈥檚 easy to miss the wounds he lovingly bears that we gave him,
The marks on the Hands and Feet and Side of Our King;听
Easy to ignore that the radiant crown on his head
Is a crown of plaited thorns we made for him in scorn, it鈥檚 red jewels not rubies
But drops of his own precious blood;听
His face, the face of our King
The tear-worn, sweat and blood-streaked face of an unhoused migrant executed by the Roman state;
The fullness of his being, poured out, in love, for us, that taking our death, we may have his life.听
It鈥檚 easy to miss all that and make the Kingdom into a sterilized but still poisonous
Escapist fantasy of wealth and worldly power
Losing sight of what it really means for Jesus to say:
鈥淢y Kingship is not of this world鈥�--
To lose sight of the reality of the Cross,
The reality of God鈥檚 Love at the aching center of the world鈥檚 pain, our pain
Sharing in it, suffering with it,
God in Christ opening his heart to it鈥攐ur violence, our sin-sickness鈥攖o exhaust it all in his infinite life,
Undoing death from the inside of our human brokenness
And empowering us, by grace, not merely to witness,
But to be love and bear love to the wounded world, lights of the world in this present darkness,
Meeting the moment with the fierce tenderness of his Kingly glory:
The Glory of self-giving love.
My Kingship, says our Lord, is not of this world.
Not of it.听 But in it.
And the One who Reigns enthroned on the Cross will transform it.
That鈥檚 how love works:
It transforms death into life
Loneliness into community
Division into diversity
Sorrow into joy.
If we want a share in the Kingship of Jesus,
We鈥檇 do well to ignore the shadows of glory: the allure of worldly empire, violence, power and splendor
And learn, at the foot of the Cross, what it means to really love each other
And herald with our very lives the King of Love whose kingship is not of this world.听

Anthem:听Thou art my King, O God 鈥� Tomkins

The Prayers

Into places of conflict
May your kingdom come.

Into the hearts of terrorists
May your kingdom come.

Into the hearts of soldiers
May your kingdom come.

Into the hearts of politicians
May your kingdom come.

Into the hearts of those bereaved by war
May your kingdom come.

Into the hearts of those who are hungry
May your kingdom come.

Into the hearts of those made homeless
May your kingdom come.

Into the hearts of those who despair
May your kingdom come.

Into the hearts of those who are ill
May your kingdom come.

Into the hearts of those who have been abused
May your kingdom come.

Into the hearts of those who are addicted
May your kingdom come.

Into the hearts of those in debt
May your kingdom come.

Into the hearts of those who are lonely
May your kingdom come.

Into the hearts of those who are fearful
May your kingdom come.听

Into the hearts of those who are depressed
May your kingdom come.

Into the hearts of those we name before you in the silence 鈥�
May your kingdom come.

Into the heart of our world.
May your kingdom come.

The Lord鈥檚 Prayer

The Collect

Hymn: King of Glory, King of peace, O praise to thee, for thou, O King Divine

Blessing for Christ the King

Christ our King make you faithful and strong to do his will,
that you may reign with him in glory;
and the blessing听of God almighty, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit be among you
and remain with you always. Amen.

Organ Voluntary: Clarifica me Pater (III) - William Byrd