Let's start by examining the context for the establishment of the feast day of Christ the King. It is not one of the ancient celebrations of the church. Pope Pius XI instituted it in 1925. One stated reason for the feast was to celebrate the 16th centenary of the Council of Nicaea. But Pope Pius XI had other reasons. There were competing kingdoms in Italy in 1925. The church had a strong voice but Nationalism and Fascism were on the rise and Benito Mussolini was consolidating power and crushing opponents. Pope Pius wanted to make a statement about the primacy of Christ. The feast of Christ the King was instituted by the Pope to proclaim that, ultimately, Christ the King was sovereign, not Mussolini the Dictator.

There are times when things get so out of hand that it is necessary to clarify who is in charge and what is actually important. Italy in 1925 was one of those times and so was Judea, in the beginning of the first century.

As Pilate went in and out of his headquarters, he shuttled between two worlds. Outside of Pilate's headquarters was a restless group of Jewish elders who wanted Jesus out of the picture. They were trying various ways to frame their request for Jesus' death so that Pilate would see it as an offer he couldn't refuse. They spoke of the religious laws that Jesus had broken. Pilate wasn't Jewish - why should he care? But the volume of the crowd was rising, as was their agitation - a riot would destabilize the whole area… that wouldn't do. Pilate went back inside. Here all the force and power of Roman law stood next to Pilate like a lion on a short leash. "Are you the King of the Jews?" Pilate asked Jesus. "Did you ask this on your own, or did others tell you about me?" Jesus shot back. He was not letting Pilate off the hook.

Pilate was the voice of the emperor, in that time and place, - unless he said the wrong thing- then he was a dead man. Pilate had tons of power but not an ounce of certainty. There were a number of ways he could look at this…what was the most politic way forward? Pilate's attention snapped back to the courtyard as Jesus finished a sentence,"…Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice." "What is truth?" Pilate managed to sneer in response.

It's a good question. There is no such thing as objective truth, is there? - certainly not in our modern age. Isn't truth dependent on one's personal point of view- or the time in which one lives? Shouldn't the culture or the country in which one lives condition the truth? "What is truth," Pilate asked. He has a point. Shall we join him in his relativism?

I recently watched the movie, "Thank You for Smoking." Nick Naylor is the main character of the film. Naylor is a lobbyist for The Tobacco Studies Institute, a captive research organization that has worked for years to avoid proving what everybody already knows- that cigarettes are not good for you.

In a telling scene between Nick and his son, Joey, Nick explains what it is like to be a lobbyist. "You have to have a lot moral flexibility," Nick says, as though this were a desirable attribute like being able to write with both hands. Nick goes on to tell Joey that you don't have to actually be right to win. "All you have to do is show that the other guy is wrong, and then you must be right."

Nick Naylor is charming. He is full of playful enthusiasm and can shake off criticism and personal attacks like a Labrador retriever shaking off dirty water after a good swim in a water treatment lagoon. But like a retriever that has rolled in something foul and then rubbed against everybody's legs, nobody smells very good after making contact with Nick Naylor.

Nick has a way of rearranging the intellectual furniture that makes evil seem benign and morality seem irrelevant. Nick plays on other people's personal weaknesses and exploits their confusion and uncertainty. He doesn't necessarily lie, but it gets harder and harder to know what truth is if you let Old Nick in the room with you. Doesn't it add an interesting twist to the movie's storyline to realize that "Old Nick" is a colloquial name for the devil?

Pilate and the Jewish temple authorities were both listening to Old Nick. The ways they framed the questions and the spin they put on the answers buried the truth. Jesus got stuck in the middle - no, Jesus stood in the middle and called all of them to make a choice. The choice was important enough that Jesus was willing to die for it. In the Kingdom of Christ love is the key. There is no place for violence, domination or pretension in Christ's kingdom. Jesus will not trick us into salvation. But other kingdoms that vie for our allegiance will attempt to mislead, tempt and confuse us. We have to make a conscious choice for Christ. Jesus does not coerce anyone, and the other two options before us in the gospel do not seem very fruitful. We cannot just sit on the fence like Pilate and we certainly don't want to ask to have Jesus put away, do we?

Maybe we do. Actually following Jesus is pretty challenging. If we made a movie about being a disciple we'd have to call it "A Really, Really, Really Inconvenient Truth". The citizens of Jesus' kingdom spend their time, attention and money differently than those who do not see Jesus as the King of Truth. Those who take Jesus seriously start to look more than a little odd. They do strange things like give money away and spend time with people who can't do them any favors in return or advance their social standing.

What if we we'd like to be Christian but the work sounds a little more strenuous that we would prefer. Isn't there a "standing room only" line- or an economy class ticket- some option that isn't so costly.

Well, the simple answer is, "no".

Some things sound good. They may appeal to our sensibilities. But they are simply not true. There is even spin being proffered in our spiritual lives. I recently saw an advertisement for a book called "Grace on The Go, 101 Quick Ways to Pray." The blurb begins by speaking of the author's frustration with the fact that everyone rushes through the day at breakneck speed taking little time for prayer. I've noticed this malady- I am prone to it myself. The author was off to a good start, and I hoped for inspiration, but then she capitulated to busyness by simply blessing the brokenness and offering "ways to turn a single minute-from drive time to lunch time-into a prayerful encounter with God."

Would you buy a book that promised to teach you "Nutrition on the Go: How to eat a Gourmet meal in under 30 seconds?" Even if you could learn to eat that fast, why would you want to? What about a book that promised "Have a Great Marriage in one minute a Month"? If you love someone wouldn't you want to spend more time with them? The Kingdom of God is all about right relationship- with God and one another. And relationship takes time and commitment, that is the truth into which Christ is inviting us.

The culture around us is constant presenting things in a Nick Naylor kind of way. But there is no way to loose weight while you sleep. No investment offers guaranteed above market returns and no risk. So called "Quality Time" is an illusion used by guilty parent to make excuses for spending too little time with their children. Coffee is not a substitute for sleep, and sex is not a substitute for love. Jesus' kingdom does not belong to this world because it rejects all the pretensions that mask truth.

As John Donahue writes:

To celebrate Christ as king is to enter into the deepest mysteries of faith. Jesus, bound and seemingly powerless before Pilate, the symbol of a powerful empire that holds the scales of life and death, is the true king who possesses the power to grant a life that never ends.

And our right response to that gift is to offer ourselves to God and to call others to do the same. That is in fact the mission of the church- to restore all people to unity with God and each other in Christ- Christ the King…AMEN