Reconciling the Powers

Reconciling the Powers

When we celebrate this Last Sunday after Pentecost, the end of our liturgical year, we recall that “at the end of all things,” Christ is King: But not a king in the same way as human beings have elevated, and sometimes brought down the kings and queens of this world. In truth He is the King, not of an empire with uneasy borders by means of intimidation and destruction, but of all powers and things and hearts.

In the ancient world, chieftains, monarchs, and emperors ruled through fear and awe, fear of their power of life and death over their subjects, and awe at the seemingly divine reach of their power. The powers of Earth were seen as reflections of the powers in heaven. And when imperial decisions dominoed their way thousands of miles through the empire, people whose lives were upended saw their lives as under the sway of spiritual powers beyond their control.

Those were the kind of “powers” that Paul wrote about to the Colossians. Even if some of those powers were more down-to-earth than people realized, their fear and awe of powers beyond their control was “spiritual” in how those powers controlled not just their bodies but their minds as well. Even in our own time, “corporate cultures” that frustrate individual efforts to reform those institutions speak to the power of non-material, that is emotional interactions to control our lives. And collective ideas such as the myths of inevitable progress, or eternal blood and soil, can enthrall minds and hearts to such an extent that they become the kind of spiritual “power” that Paul wrote about. *

So how does Jesus reign as a king in and through all these powers? “God wanted all fullness to be found in him and through him to reconcile all things to him, everything in heaven and everything on earth, by making peace through the blood of his cross.” Jesus does not destroy the powers that threaten us. Instead he endured their worst rage, and shall continue to endure until they have exhausted their rage, and accept the reconciliation he offers.

And on this Sunday of Christ the King, or the Reign of Christ, we see him nailed to wood with the sign above him, “This is the King of the Jews.” And perhaps we are at the “opportune moment” that Luke mentioned back at Jesus’s temptation. Perhaps now is the opportune moment for the Accusing Angel we call the Devil to tempt Jesus to use his messianic power to save himself, or curse those who are destroying him. And yet he responds, “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.”

Note that the fully human Son of God does not himself forgive those who are destroying him. Even the best that he could do at that moment was to ask God the Father to forgive. If that was good enough for Jesus, then it seems to me that an open and honest heart is enough for our God.

Perhaps in this age of globalized finance and globalized information, the powers acting upon us might seem even more remote than in Paul’s time, and sifting through all the online rumors might make them all the more mystifying. But perhaps if we carefully pull the threads, not just taking as fact the most attractive meme on our screens, but looking for the sources of the factual claims that almost seem to assault us, then we might unmask some of those “powers” whose decisions have dominoed down to us.

We might also remember that all the forces and powers, visible and invisible, that are bouncing off of each other have Christ Jesus as their head, and that He is bouncing with them and off of them, saying, “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.”

* This understanding of the New Testament “powers” draws on the commentary of Walter Wink. Of his many books on this subject, The Powers That Be (Theology for a New Millennium) is an excellent summary.

The Last Sunday after Pentecost

Proper 29, Christ the King

November 23rd, 2025

The Rev. David Kendrick