Lord, we come to worship the savior you sent us...
And we marvel at the manner of the sending.
In the midst of political upheaval, we hoped for a king.
In the midst of wars and rumors of wars, we hoped for a
general.
In the midst of religious tumult and controversy, we
hoped for a high priest.
But you send us a baby.
[pause for bewildered reflection]
Interesting choice, God.
-Lawrence Lee
O King of our desire whom we despise,
King of the nations never on the throne,
Unfound foundation, cast-off cornerstone,
Rejected joiner, making many one,
You have no form or beauty for our eyes,
A King who comes to give away his crown,
A King within our rags of flesh and bone.
We pierce the flesh that pierces our disguise,
For we ourselves are found in you alone.
Come to us now and find in us your throne,
O King within the child within the clay,
O hidden King who shapes us in the play
Of all creation. Shape us for the day
Your coming Kingdom comes into its own.
Malcolm
Guite
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It echoes from pulpits
Praise bands sing it out, loud
Across the world in churches large and small
People raise their hands and voices and proclaim
The King is Born
The King has come
The King rules
Unto you this day is born
Let’s hear it for the King!
But Christendom
We have a problem
The King so many expect
The King so many want
The King so many have created, and now present to the
world
Is not the King who came
Jesus came to be a ruler.
Of that there is no doubt
This is why, in Matthew, after the child is born
King Herod is no longer king
He is only Herod
But how Jesus rules is a mystery
May we all find ourselves in the mystery
May we all lose ourselves in the mystery
May we understand that Christ the King
Will not be found by those seeking to dominate
To win
To control
To subdue and punish
This King will not be found hanging out in the White
House
In the halls of congress
At the Supreme Court
This King will not rule through military might
Or a “well regulated militia” with guns
Or through coercive and controlling laws that benefit
some and harm others
Through legislation that seek to control and sometimes
eradicate
This King does not oppress, minimize, or marginalize
This King is weird
We should have picked that up at his birth
A baby, lying in straw, the child of common parents
Born on the bottom floor of a common home
Surrounded by common people
In a small rural town
We should have gotten the clue from the way he lived
From that life of compassion, welcome, and kindness
From the fact that he invited people to follow, but never
demanded
From the sketchy crew who followed him
And from the type of people, the rich and the powerful,
who rejected him
We should have understood from his refusal, from the very
beginning
to the very end, to be a king like other kings
“Jesus laying down his life out of love rather than using
all cosmic and political power to force the world to obey him is the eternal
critique of any kind of Christianity that seeks to secure power in order to
force others to conform to its will.” (Ben Cremer)
This King can only be found
in the one sleeping in a doorway on the street
in the hungry child
in the addict who has no hope
in the immigrant, denied entrance
in the person demonized because of where they are on the
gender spectrum
in the older person, wondering how long they can stay in
their home
how long their money will last
This king can only be found in the rubble of Gaza
In a bombed-out refugee center
Scaling the wall on America’s southern border
In homeless shelters
and in the poorest of neighborhoods
where empty store fronts echo with the sound of violence
This king is weird
But this King, if we let him touch our hearts with love
and fill our souls with love
can change our lives
can bend the world toward justice and equity
through us
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