Jesus’ Inaugural Address

25 November 2013 | Christ the King | Luke 23:33-43; Colossians 1:11-20

50 years ago last Friday, November 22, at 12:30 in the afternoon, President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dealey Plaza in Dallas, Texas.  Barely 34 months before, on January 20, 1961, he had delivered his first and only Inaugural Address.  I am going to read some of this powerful address to you tonight.

Yesterday was the Sunday known as Christ the King Sunday.   It is the last Sunday before Advent.  The title is somewhat redundant.  Christ means King in ancient Judaism. In this festival we celebrate the Kingship of Jesus.

Simply and directly stated, Jesus is my king.  He is your king.  If it were America, he would be President.  He is the ruler of the kingdom of heaven, which is here on earth, and of which we are citizens.

Our king was killed around 33 A.D. –It will have been 2,000 years in just 20 more years.  But we believe the killing of our king did not end his kingship.  In many ways it empowered it, because it enabled him to function non-geographically.

Jesus’ Inaugural Address is presented by Luke in his description of Jesus’ inaugural sermon at Nazareth, where he grew up.  You are familiar with these powerful words:

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.  Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” (Luke 4:18-19, 21b)

If Jesus had been in America, he would have been a shadow President.  He would not have been elected, nor would he have been chosen to represent any major political party.  He would not have claimed the Presidency for himself.  He would simply have gone about doing what the President said he wanted to do, through the power of the Holy Spirit.

John F. Kennedy was remarkable because he articulated the dreams and desires of the nation, and of many citizens throughout the world.  He had a sense that he was carrying on an ancient and universal tradition.  As he said in his Inaugural Address, “I have sworn before you and Almighty God the same solemn oath our forbears prescribed.”  He could have been a king of Ancient Israel, or Moses, or David – speaking the best he could for the divine ideals of righteousness, equality, and justice.

He could have been a king of Israel in his personal life as well – in his philandering, in his personal wealth, in his lovely children and First Lady, and finally in his murder at the hands of parties still, perhaps, unknown.

John Kennedy’s spirit is with us with the other saints, but he is not our forever President.  Jesus is.  Nonetheless, Kennedy’s words did for this nation and for many around the world what David’s words, and the words of the Hebrew prophets, did for the ancient Hebrew nation.  The spirit that was in President Kennedy’s Inaugural Address was the spirit that the early Christians attributed to Jesus when they called him the President, the Messiah:

“Fellow citizens: We observe today not a victory of party but a celebration of freedom–symbolizing an end as well as a beginning–signifying renewal as well as change. For I have sworn before you and Almighty God the same solemn oath our forebears prescribed nearly a century and three quarters ago.

“The world is very different now. For man holds in his mortal hands the power to abolish all forms of human poverty and all forms of human life. And yet the same revolutionary beliefs for which our forebears fought are still at issue around the globe-the belief that the rights of man come not from the generosity of the state but from the hand of God.

“We dare not forget today that we are the heirs of that first revolution. Let the word go forth from this time and place, to friend and foe alike, that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans–born in this century, tempered by war, disciplined by a hard and bitter peace, proud of our ancient heritage–and unwilling to witness or permit the slow undoing of those human rights to which this nation has always been committed, and to which we are committed today at home and around the world.

“Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty.

“This much we pledge–and more.”

 President Kennedy went on to discuss the issues of poverty, and the emergence of new nations from colonialism:

“To those peoples in the huts and villages of half the globe struggling to break the bonds of mass misery, we pledge our best efforts to help them help themselves, for whatever period is required–not because the communists may be doing it, not because we seek their votes, but because it is right. If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich.”

Finally, after talking about the Cold War and his desire for constructive work with the Soviet Union, the President concluded with these words:

“In your hands, my fellow citizens, more than mine, will rest the final success or failure of our course. Since this country was founded, each generation of Americans has been summoned to give testimony to its national loyalty. The graves of young Americans who answered the call to service surround the globe.

“Now the trumpet summons us again-not as a call to bear arms, though arms we need–not as a call to battle, though embattled we are–but a call to bear the burden of a long twilight struggle, year in and year out, “rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation”–a struggle against the common enemies of man: tyranny, poverty, disease and war itself.

“Can we forge against these enemies a grand and global alliance, North and South, East and West, that can assure a more fruitful life for all mankind? Will you join in that historic effort?

“In the long history of the world, only a few generations have been granted the role of defending freedom in its hour of maximum danger. I do not shrink from this responsibility–I welcome it. I do not believe that any of us would exchange places with any other people or any other generation. The energy, the faith, the devotion which we bring to this endeavor will light our country and all who serve it–and the glow from that fire can truly light the world.

“And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you–ask what you can do for your country.

“My fellow citizens of the world: ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man.

“Finally, whether you are citizens of America or citizens of the world, ask of us here the same high standards of strength and sacrifice which we ask of you. With a good conscience our only sure reward, with history the final judge of our deeds, let us go forth to lead the land we love, asking His blessing and His help, but knowing that here on earth God’s work must truly be our own.”

 There’s not a whole lot wrong with what John Kennedy said in this Inaugural Address.  He articulated well and faithfully the ideals, and many of the ideas, of our Lord Jesus.

There’s a lot not said, of course.  Nothing about the nature of evil.  Nothing about the fact that justice ultimately demands an equalization of things.  Nothing about the need for repentance and the dishonesty of our own history.  Nothing about the original sins of racism or cultural imperialism.  Nothing about the need to be guided by the Holy Spirit of God.

John F. Kennedy is dead, a member of the communion of saints on the other side.  Although our Lord Jesus Christ is dead on earth, he is alive in the Spirit, and we are a part of his holy fellowship.

We must follow him rather than other authorities — whether those authorities are financial, or religious, or political, or come from some other sector of the economy or society.

He is our King, our President, and we did not elect him.  He elected us.

This is the way Jesus says it:

I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father. You did not elect me but I elected you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name. (John 15:15-16)

So here’s the point: In the democracy of Jesus, in the place where Christ is King, in the kingdom of heaven in which we live, the whole thing is reversed.  Instead of there being millions of voters and one President, there are millions – maybe billions – of Presidents — and one voter.

And here in Richmond, the torch has been passed to a new generation. We have been elected to serve by none other than the King of the whole enterprise.

• We shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty.
• If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich.
• And so, my fellow Richmonders, ask not what your government can do for you – ask what you can do for this metropolitan city.
• With a good conscience our only sure reward, with history the final judge of our deeds, let us go forth to lead the city we love, asking God’s blessing and God’s help, but knowing that here on earth God’s work must truly be our own.

“You did not elect me but I elected you.  And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name.  I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another.” (John 15:16-17)

AMEN.

The Rev. B. P. Campbell