psalm 97: is god king? december 27

Today we read Psalm 97.  The same psalm was read on Christmas day at dawn mass.  In fact the 3 psalms read on Christmas were psalms 96, 97 and 98 and they are called enthronement psalms for they focus on God's eternal kingship.  Psalm 97, our psalm today, begins with the call, "the Lord reigns, the Lord is king let the earth rejoice."  When the magi too came to Herod they told him the purpose of their coming saying, "we have come to worship the king."

So, is God king?  Did Israel understand what kind of a king is God?  In our day, do we understand what kind of a king is Jesus?

I do not know if you are a fan of the movie the Lord of the Rings?  It is a novel by JRR Tolkien.  Tolkien is a Christian writer who wrote his novels using Christian metaphors.  The Lord of the Rings if you remember was a quest not to possess the ring but to destroy it.  It was a ring of power and dominion, a ring that can put peoples in subjugation.   Many evil and even well-meaning men wanted the ring so badly.  But even in the hands of Hobbits, those little powerless people, it was a great temptation to be had.  They can be great, people will no longer look down on them, they can overcome and even conquer and subjugate more powerful kingdoms.  But in the end the Hobbits discarded the ring, they turned their backs on what could have given them power and dominion.

When you have in mind the Lord of the Rings story and you read the Christmas story then it becomes clear what kind of kingship the Lord God took upon himself in Jesus.  God came as a powerless baby who could not even find a proper place to be born in, laying in a manger instead of a palace.  His parents had to flee Herod's wrath and had to contend riding on a donkey instead of a powerful horse. 

What is power?  What is the Dominion of God in Jesus?  Healing the sick, touching the lepers, forgiving sinners, surrounding himself with fishermen, associating with the ostracized and marginalized, teaching love and forgiveness.  What is power, what is dominion?  For God in Jesus it means hanging on the cross, dying in shame, forgiving those who did him wrong, promising paradise to a repentant thief.  Like the Hobbits in Tolkien's story he discarded the ring of power and dominion through force of arms and hatred and wars and executions and fear.  Instead he reigned in truth, he ruled through humble service, he exercised absolute power through forgiveness, he governed through love.

The Lord is king, let the earth rejoice, psalm 97 says.  This is the kingship of Jesus, the kingship that we can find represented in our humble belens; the kingship we can find symbolized and glorified in the crucifix we hung prominently in our homes.  In his kingship Jesus teaches us how to exercise authority over others.  In his kingship Jesus teaches us the power of humble service.  In his governance Jesus teaches us the primacy of love. 

Today we celebrate the feast of the Apostle of Love, St John, the Evangelist, for in the gospel he wrote and in his letters God is called love.  "Let us love one another," he wrote, "because love is of God; everyone who loves is begotten by God and knows God. Whoever is without love does not know God, for God is love."