How Kingship Really Feels

From "Everyday liturgy"

My wife and I were driving to go get some ice cream last night when we saw a bumper sticker that started a conversation about Christ’s role in our lives. The bumper sticker read: “Elect Christ as King of Your Life.” “How do you elect a king?” my wife asked….

The Hold Steady have a final song on one of their albums called “How A Resurrection Really Feels” about an in-breaking of spiritual resurrection during an Easter service when a strung out prostitute seeking forgiveness. She asks the priest if she can tell the congregation “How a resurrection really feels.” I think someone needs to start going around like this lady and telling congregations how kingship really feels, because it certainly doesn’t feel like an election.

That bumper sticker is a pithy statement for how we all too often think about Christ’s role in our lives, in our churches, in the world. Much of American Christianity bombards us with the idea that we need to choose Christ, like its an election. Hate to break it to you all but this isn’t and never will be an election. We don’t choose Christ like we choose a president. Quite frankly, we don’t have that option. With elections come term limits, impeachments, and voting out incumbents. You can’t elect a king. A king, like a diamond, is forever. We don’t make the choice. We’re stuck with it.

And we’re supposed to be stuck with it. We’re supposed to be stuck with a king. When Paul writes about Christ’s lordship over us it is not something you put on and off. He never talks about taking off the armor of Christ after you’ve put it on. We can’t undo Christ’s presence in our life like a disgruntled electorate during midterm elections, stamping on the incumbent so we can get some fresh blood we can turn on later into the senate chambers. This is not a kingship! A king is unable to be cast off. We cannot elect a king. We can only become citizens of his kingdom. It’s an in or out type of thing. There are no passports out of the kingdom of heaven. No ways to find a new king, for a king is replaced only when they die. And though we all may doubt it sometimes, our king lives forever. He has conquered death and sin. We cannot elect him to that role. He was chosen, and we must follow and obey as subjects. Because that’s how a kingship really feels.