A Great King (Really?)

By: Rev. Talitha Arnold

For the Lord, the Most High, is awesome, a great king over all the earth. - Psalm 47:2 (NRSV) 

 

Perhaps like you, I have difficulty with the Bible’s “kingly” language, whether for God or Jesus Christ. It’s even more problematic as Christian nationalists use “Christ is King” to exclude Jews, Muslims, and people of other faiths, from God’s grace and the body politic.  

 

So, I was tempted to forego today’s psalm with all its kings, thrones, trumpets, and princes. Then I remembered a long-ago conversation with one of the saints of the United Church of Christ, the Rev. Dr. Reuben Sheares.  

 

At the time, Reuben was the Executive Director for the Office for Church Life and Leadership (OCLL) in the UCC national offices. I was a young clergywoman and the youngest member of the OCLL board. I was also trying to figure out why I’d chosen a profession that meant being in relationship with this Mystery (be it God, Jesus, or both) that some people called “King.” Reuben was one of those people. 

 

So, one day over lunch, I asked him. “I don’t understand,” I said, “what ‘Jesus is King’ means. Even more, I can’t understand how you as a strong, smart, wise Black man can worship this white guy Jesus.”  

 

“First of all, Daughter,” Reuben said, “Jesus wasn’t white. Second, as a young Black man growing up in Jim Crow Charleston, professing that ‘Jesus is King’ meant that Lester Maddox, George Wallace, and all the rest weren’t. Not even the Grand Wizard of the Klan was king.” 

 

“The only One worth worshipping, worth bending your knee for,” Reuben continued, “was the One who lived his life for others, the One who gave his life for others. The One who assured me—and my family and my community—that we were people of worth and value, no matter what the world we lived in told us.”  

 

“So, Daughter,” he concluded, “that’s what I mean when I say ‘Jesus is King.’ Now finish your sandwich. I need to get back to work.”

  

Prayer

By whatever name we know you, thank you. Amen.