Seek First the Kingdom

We all know Rip Van Winkle, who takes a nap in the woods and reemerges to discover he’s been asleep for 20 years. When he returns to town, he notices many uncanny changes, but for the most part, life is much the same. For instance, his favorite pub still features its venerable portrait of George… it’s just that the George being honored is one “President Washington” instead of the King of England! Van Winkle observes the irony that his nameless wife having passed away while he was “out” has much more bearing on his everyday life than the Revolution could. 

Yet Irving also wrote The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, in which Ichabod Crane and his neighbors are haunted by a headless horseman. So, maybe he sees a more sinister and terrible angle on how a “decapitated” community might develop a troubled subconscious about their lack of a crown. Who knows how soon after the Revolution people stopped even noticing our headlessness?  Maybe that’s a reach. What I do know is that it’s a tricky thing to talk at all about Kings and Kingdoms in these United States. 

Now, I’m not complaining. Many of my professors have been subjects of or members of universities that are subject to a Crown. Their difficulty is often in distinguishing the Lordship of Christ from their experience with human kings and queens. Most Americans don’t have the baggage of a people who’ve grown up in a monarchical government. But that also means that when we approach King language in the Bible, we arrive without any luggage at all. We struggle to imagine what exactly Jesus means when he calls himself a King. 

I’d much rather do some extra work in getting there imaginatively than try to re-establish a royal government on this continent. But I think it’s important to acknowledge this position we Americans are in, stirring up proper affection for someone claiming to be a King setting up a Kingdom. Even if it is Jesus, I wonder if we can’t help imagining his Kingdom by default as something of a Democratic Republic with an ideal President. 

Let’s try to imagine it better together this Sunday,