Christ the King

I wanted to think a bit today about what it means to call Jesus king. For those of us who observe the liturgical year, tomorrow is Christ the King Sunday, the last Sunday of the church year.   The gospel reading for Christ the King Sunday this year is John 18: 33-37.   

 ”King” is a difficult word for Christians in the US. We have a historical and cultural bias against kings. We don’t talk much about kings, at least not in a “nice” way. But once a year the liturgical calendar causes us to consider the “king” word. It is fortunate that Christ the King Sunday comes right before Advent when many of us begin singing carols to the “newborn king”. It is good for us to spend some time thinking about this king and  this king’s kingdom.

  We often get ourselves in trouble one of a couple of ways when we think about kings and kingdoms. We either overly spiritualizing Jesus’ kingdom or we assume that Jesus will rule as typical human kings rule with crushing power and might.

The passage in the Gospel According to John can be read in more than one way. Sometimes, depending on the translation, Jesus’ reply to Pilates question is “My kingdom is not of this world”.  People can interpret, “not of this world” to mean a sort of dualism. Jesus’ kingdom is spiritual and not part of the material world. Jesus doesn’t, and by extension Christians ought not to, concern himself overly with the things of this world. This earth is not where the kingdom is found or located.

The NRSV translates Jesus reply as “My kingdom is not from this world”. The “from” points us toward thinking about origins. We ask people, “Where are you from?” It’s not an idle question. The answer can tell us some important things. “I am from here” can suggest that you and I have some things in common- a shared local culture, perhaps a shared worldview, perhaps a shared history.  To answer ” I am not from here”, might serve to highlight distinctions. I might be defining myself  as different in some way. Where I am from can tell you some important things about me.

In Greek, the word in question here is “ek”  ( I have to apologize, I don’t know how to get Greek letters into WordPress.) It means “out of” or “by” and is used with the genitive case which describes or defines. Ek can have to do with place, with origin, source, or cause, or with time. ( My  Greek Lexicon has 3 pages of fairly small print concerning how the word “ek” is used, so my discussion here is not exhaustive. ) According to my lexicon, in John 18:36 the meaning has to do with origins. My kingdom is not of earthly origin.

I would like to suggest that Jesus is not talking about the present and/or future location of his kingdom but rather where his kingdom originates and therefor where his kingdom gets its values. Jesus goes on to clarify this  by telling Pilate that if his kingdom were like other kingdoms of the world, Jesus’ followers would be fighting for Jesus freedom. But behavior in Jesus’ kingdom is not typical kingdom behavior.

Jesus’ followers are not fighting because this world doesn’t matter. They are not fighting because they are living in this world by completely different rules. Where Jesus is from shapes the actions of Jesus and his followers.  Certainly the actions of Jesus’ life tell us that Jesus and his followers are living by another set of values.

Pilate has never encountered a king and a kingdom like this. The disciples have lived with this king and by these new values and they still find if difficult. Modern followers of Jesus have seen glimpses of this kingdom but it is so easy for us to get confused. We start thinking Jesus will be a king like any other great king, crushing opponents, ruling from a position of power, rewarding the faithful.  On the other hand, if we try hard to visualize what Jesus’ kingdom looks like,we have such difficulty that we can’t imagine how it can work in this world and we shift the kingdom into a spiritual realm.

But the reality is somewhere else. The kingdom is here, in this world operating with a completely different set of values. It’s tough to hold on to. It’s tough to see. It’s tough to live. It’s good to have “Christ the King” Sunday to remind us.

I’d like to know,what do you think?

The Sad Story of Oreo the Dog

Perhaps you saw this story about Oreo. It’s a sad story and there are lots of things we could say about it. All I know about Oreo’s situation is what I could read on-line and based on that, it appears the ASPCA did the responsible thing.

These sorts of situations, where an animal has been abused, evoke strong emotions and rightly so. Animal abuse is a terrible thing and should not be tolerated. It does seem to me, based on the on-line comments, there are a few things we need to think about a little more carefully.

I was really quite amazed at the commentors who were willing to second guess the animal behavior experts. This is a widespread phenomena in our society and I wonder why we are unwilling to acknowledge the expertise of specialists. I will however, not speculate here about that, but leave the analysis of this to the experts in human behavior.

Many commentors thought Oreo should be sent to a “no kill” shelter. In an ideal world, that would be nice. In the real world “no kill” shelters run out of room and resources. They simply cannot take every animal. For example, read the Best Friends Animal Society’s admissions policy carefully. I’m not being critical of Best Friends, not at all. I do want to point out that the need is enormous and the resources are limited.  By the way, New York City appears to have made commendable progress in reducing the number of animals euthanized.

Other commentors thought the ASPCA didn’t try hard enough to rehabilitate Oreo. I wasn’t there, I cannot know. As the result of all my years as a veterinarian I can say that there are mean dogs, and there are aggressive dogs, and then there are truly dangerous dogs. While there are not many, truly dangerous dogs they do exist and we cannot underestimate or ignore the injury they are capable of causing.

Where ever Oreo went, someone would have to care for Oreo and that someone would be in physical danger- unless of course there was essentially no human contact. But dogs are social animals and the a life time of solitary confinement strikes me as inhumane.

 In an ideal world we would be able to heal every animal. In the real world there are limits to what we can do.  We cannot cure every medical condition and we cannot cure every mental condition. Treating animal behavioral and emotional problems is extremely difficult. We know more than we used to, but there is still much to learn.

Let me tell you about a real situation. When I was in practice, a family brought in their dog who was suffering from separation anxiety. This is a fairly common problem in dogs and it can be successfully treated. We tried the standard treatments without success. The family worked with a local animal behavior specialist without success. We tried various medications without success. They consulted with  nationally recognized veterinary behavior specialists. This family did everything that was recommended. They tried hard,very hard for years. Nothing worked. This poor dog was miserable. Actually worse than miserable. This dog was terrified to be alone for even short periods of time. Eventually the family reluctantly decided to euthanize the dog. Not because they didn’t love the dog but because no one could ease the suffering of this dog. Believe me, we all cried that day. Writing about it many years later still brings tears to my eyes.

Friends this is a broken,fallen world and there are some things no amount of human love can fix. For our animal companions there are some things worse than dying- a life of fear, or unmanageable pain, or isolation. The people who work and volunteer at shelters and humane societies do their best. It can be tough work, both physically and emotionally.

It was a sad day, a tragic day for Oreo and for the folks at the ASPCA. Euthanasia is never the first choice. Sometimes there are not good options and it is the least bad choice. But far too many animals are euthanized every day all across the country because of the lack of resources to treat and care for them.  All of us who care about animals, whether we work in the field, advocate for animal issues, or provide loving homes for our pets, all of us hope for the day when:

 The wolf shall live with the lamb,

the leopard shall lie down with the kid,

the calf and the lion and the fatling together,

and a little child shall lead them.

The cow and the bear shall graze,

their young shall lie down together;

and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.

The nursing child shall play over the hole of the asp,

and the weaned child shall put its hand on the adder’s den.

They will not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain;

for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.    (Isaiah 11:6-9)