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The political question is  “Who is in charge, in this world?”

            I looked carefully through the pages of the paper yesterday to see if they would give me, or any other enquirer, some clue, or some indication of who is in charge – and it doesn’t appear that God is anywhere in charge.   In fact God is not mentioned or even acknowledged!    Michael Jackson is charged with child abuse. John Mitchell appears to have been dumped. Sydney is on terror alert for the Cup final.  God is not even mentioned on the inside pages, either!    There seems to be no reference to anything that God may or may not be doing.      So who is in charge?   It doesn’t look as though God is, does it?

            Yet over against that, when we read the Bible, we find it speaks constantly about God who rules and reigns over all the kingdoms of the earth.  A God who is Sovereign!  And in both the Old and New Testaments we find ordinary mortals like Daniel and John trying to describe visions they have had in which they see this Sovereign God sitting on a throne with all the kingdoms of the world before Him.  And in this picture, in both the Old and New Testaments, we see another figure – unknown but described as “ what looked like a human being”  or  “one like the Son of Man” – - but identified in John’s vision as none other than Jesus Christ - who approaches the One who sits on this glorious throne, and is given all authority, honour and royal power. And his authority would last for ever and ever.

            When Pontius Pilate, at the height of his political power as Governor, examined Jesus, as the crowds in the street shouted for his execution – Pilate asked Jesus “Are you a King?”  

What a question to ask a poor, tied-up, spat-upon Jewish carpenter’s son?  And after having him beaten and whipped, Pilate , in a final act of mockery, has nailed to the cross the humiliating words “King of the Jews”.

            So who is King? That’s Pilate’s question!    Pilate’s question is surely our question today. Or - another way of putting it is  - Who is in charge? 

            When we think about political power we see that Jesus’ kingdom appears marginalised, small and insignificant.  We might have a few large church buildings in our city, but mostly the largest buildings are those built and run by the government, whether central or local body government-  by the friends of Pilate, not the friends of Jesus.      So how can we speak of the “reign of Christ” in a world that seems so solidly in the hands of those who have no allegiance to him or his kingdom?  - a  “king” who is beaten and crucified, whose only “throne” is a cross, whose followers are no more than the poor and the wretched of the earth?  

I think the difference is that Christ’s reign and rule is of a totally different kind than Pilate’s!    Jesus said – “My kingdom does not belong to this world.”   The reign we are talking about here is of a totally different nature. Here is a different kind of rule.    Here is a king who rules through suffering love. He specialises his work not at the capital city, the seats of power and prestige, the top floor of the Beehive,  but in little non-descript, out of the way places like Bethlehem and Nazareth.   It seems he prefers to work, not with those who we think are powerful and commanding, but rather with those whom this world most often regards as little and insignificant, people – ordinary people like you and me- people who have our ups and downs – people who worry about our families – people who sometimes find life difficult.

            Jesus led from a cross – our following will be at the same location- in the places of suffering and sacrifice and self-giving. That’s where we find Christ reigning.

Here is a very different definition of king, rule, reign and power isn’t it?  - very different because it is tied to the true and Living/ loving  God and His ways, rather than to our false gods and their ways of power and prestige, personal gain and private advancement..

We may not see God’s rule and reign mentioned in the papers, but we sense it when we feel a longing in our hearts to know God better; when we realise that we need God’s help to change our old ways and habits.  We see God’s reign at work when we find ourselves becoming that little bit more considerate – or at least thinking about it; - being more thoughtful, less critical, and more forgiving.

I see the reign of God at work when a lonely man from one of our rest homes, unloved by his family, shuffles down the path to the Vicarage and wants to know how he can get in touch with the higher Power which AA says will help keep him sober.   I talk simply with him about God’s unconditional love for him, and he asks me if it ok for him to cry.  He hadn’t heard that before.  His own father was hard man who hated the church and who told him nothing about God.  He tells me how on Friday our Pastoral Care team had taken Communion to him at the Rest Home and how that had meant so much to him – and he felt a desire to find God. And now he just wants to get to know God better.    I think that’s the kind of way that Jesus exercises his reign in people’s lives – that gentle drawing us towards him with love and compassion. 

So we need to gather, on a regular basis, (at least once a week), to do politics, as it were. To debate with ourselves the political question – “Who’s in charge in our life?”  So Sunday by Sunday we open up the scriptures, we tell the stories, we meditate upon their meaning for us – and we view and review our lives in the world in the light of this vision of who is King in our lives -  We face the inescapable question for ourselves  “Who’s in charge?”    Do we submit freely to the love and grace of God, and respond willingly to His grace ?   Is Jesus in charge?   Or do we follow our own agenda?