St John's, Redhill

We are just coming to the end of the church’s season of Trinity, a season of physical growth in nature, and spiritual growth, too. As Trinity comes to an end, we look ahead to the Kingdom Season which runs from All Saints Day to Advent Sunday, culminating with the Feast of Christ the King on the Sunday before Advent and leading us naturally into Advent. The Kingdom Season is a time for reflecting on the Kingdom of God and the Kingship of Christ in our lives and includes our remembrance of the saints on All Saint Sunday and our commemoration of the faithful departed at All Souls later that evening and of course, those fallen in war.

Christ’s Kingship in the lives of believers sounds a bit anachronistic at first thought, in our time most sovereigns are ceremonial and titular providing a focus for their nations to rally around, but the Kingship of Christ is fundamentally different. Of course, the language and metaphor of kingship is culture bound, so we need to unpack what that language is trying to convey. The Revelation of John describes Jesus as ‘King of kings and Lord of lords’ . In Luke’s account of the annunciation the angel Gabriel tells Mary ‘the Lord God will give to him the throne of his ancestor David . . . and of his kingdom there will be no end. ’ Matthew, Mark and John all record the crown of thorns and the soldiers ironically mocking Jesus’ kingship.

When I was in my final year at theological college, there was quite a buzz of excitement among all of us ordinands who were getting ready to leave. We were all slightly awkwardly aware that a favourable final report would be essential if we were to be ordained as we all hoped. Some of us worried more than others about that and our sense of the reality of impending ordination in the near future was somewhat heightened when the various clerical outfitters visited the college to measure us all up for cassocks and other ”tat” as we called it. A big thing for all of us was deciding what kind of stoles we would have. Many of us wanted the design to say something about our own personal spirituality, but without eclipsing Christ. That’s the purpose of vestments – they should point us beyond the individual wearing them to God. So, people had lots of ideas.

There was quite a lot of debate about how wide they should be to look characteristically Anglican – too wide and they might look too Catholic for some of us. Some people opted for expensive hand painted stoles, incurring the disapproval of others. One person talked about a Star Trek theme, which most of us thought rather too tenuous. Whatever the design though, they all displayed different forms of the cross of Christ prominently. Some had Latin crosses, some had Greek crosses, some copied a cross carved into the wall of the college as a continuing reminder of our formation there. I had absolutely no idea what I wanted my own preferred theological motif to be on my own stoles. I managed to turn up to see the outfitters just as they were about to leave, still with absolutely no idea. They showed me various designs, none of which seemed right. Then with a slightly weary feeling they showed me material that featured a repeating pattern of a crown. As soon as I saw it, I knew it was the right one, it would be a reminder every time I wore it that priesthood is all about Christ, about God and his people. Deep down I knew that I would need that reminder throughout my life.

For Christian people, Christ is the very embodiment of every good and true king and he comes to reign in our lives, meeting the deepest longings of his people. Our ultimate loyalty is to Christ, and we need to remember that, “dethroning the self” from the centre of our lives and installing Christ there, in his rightful place at the very heart of our being. With every good wish and my prayers as we enter the Kingdom season,

Revd. John Kronenberg

St John's, Redhill

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