Power—its nature, uses, abuses and redemption—is a recurring theme in the lectionary readings and the church’s celebrations during the period between Reign of Christ Sunday (November 23) and Epiphany (January 6).
Reign of Christ/Christ the King Sunday came into being 100 years ago, amid the rise of totalitarian and fascist movements, as a reminder to Christians that their allegiance is ultimately to Christ.
The Sunday after Reign of Christ is the last Sunday before the season of Advent, that time of preparation for the birth of the Prince of Peace, who will usher in a new reign. At Christmas, we hear how the incarnation of God as a baby so frightened the powers of the Empire that King Herod sought to rid himself of any threat to his authority. On December 28, the church recalls how the holy family became political refugees and fled to Egypt for safety. On January 6, we celebrate the arrival of the Magi (“kings”) who, after identifying and worshipping a seemingly powerless youth as “king of the Jews,” subvert the will of Herod by refusing to bend the knee to him and report back.
These events and celebrations call us to consider worldly power, civil authority, and what it means to say with the psalmist, “The LORD reigns,” and to pray, “Thy kingdom come.” We are summoned to consider what Christ means when he says his “kingdom is not of this world,” and to envision how his parables about God’s reign subvert the dynamics of worldly power.
Currently, dramatic political trends around the world reveal the threats of power used not to protect people but to harm them. And troublingly, the church has become increasingly tolerant, if not complicit, either in its silence or in its open affirmation of this trend towards what is defined as Christian Nationalism.
Christian Nationalism is an ideology that privileges specific Christians and expressions of Christianity in law and practice to dominate political and cultural spheres. Christian Nationalism distorts the gospel message by connecting itself with militarism, rampant capitalism, oppression, exclusion, cruelty, and intolerance in the name of God. It is often expressed through racist, sexist, and colonialist narratives and actions. Christian Nationalism aligns with wealth, power, and exclusion, contrasting with the teachings and actions of Jesus, who proclaimed, “good news to the poor,” “liberty to the captives,” “sight to the blind,” and “freedom to the oppressed.”
Christian Nationalism frequently appropriates scripture to bolster its authority. Its adherents, through ignorance or ambition, fail to recognize that the teachings of Jesus, and indeed, much of the biblical writings, are voiced by those who are enslaved or who lived under the rule and authority of a foreign and occupying power. So, challenges or condemnations from those writings come from the ranks of the powerless, those without standing, and those who are not able to dominate others. We observe that Jesus’ disciples were eager to compel him to assume the mantle of authority so that he might challenge the powerful who oppressed them. But Mark’s gospel shows Jesus’ resistance to that notion and exercise of raw power.
The church is called to seek first the Kingdom or the Commonwealth of God, not to make the power and politics of the kingdoms and nations of the world into gods. The reign of God that Jesus preaches is a very different kind of society from the world envisioned by Christian Nationalists. In The Blue Mountains of China, Rudy Wiebe writes:
Jesus says in his society there is a new way for [people] to live: you show wisdom, by trusting people; you handle leadership, by serving; you handle offenders, by forgiving; you handle enemies, by loving; and you handle violence by suffering. In fact, you have a new attitude towards everything, towards everybody. Towards nature, toward the state in which you happen to live, toward women, towards slaves, towards all and every single thing.
There are times when the church is moved to contradict the principalities and powers of the world and, as the church affirms in Living Faith, to strive to protect people, reject discrimination, change customs and practices that oppress others, and oppose everything that destroys human dignity.
Jesus rejected the human tendency towards the appropriation of power. His disciples’ desire for a king who would put them in power was summarily dismissed. Peter’s adverse reaction to Jesus’ prediction that he would suffer and die at the hands of the powerful evoked Jesus’ stinging reply, “Get behind me, Satan.” As 21st-century Christians in North America, we find ourselves in a radically different socio-political position than Jesus and his followers did. Our beliefs do not put our lives at risk. Our voices are part of the mainstream, if not dominant in some spheres of North American culture. We must not become so enamoured with our potency—or afraid of our increasingly cultural irrelevance—that we convince ourselves that other voices should be silenced. That is where Christian Nationalism leads, and it is antithetical to the voices from the margins that we revere in the scriptures.
There are times when the church must examine itself and stand up to and speak out against certain expressions of the Christian faith and use of scripture that are marked by sin, especially when those expressions inspire violence, hatred and cruelty. Dr Allyson Carr, of the Life and Mission Agency, wrote that “In these difficult times…Christians have choices about whom and what to support, and we will be judged by the fruit we produce. As disciples, it is not political and cultural power or authority that we should be seeking, but rather that service Jesus showed in his ministry.” (Presbyterian Connection, Issue 33, Spring 2025). The cross of Jesus Christ and the flags and patriotic symbols of nations often go in different directions. When they do, the church and its people are called to decide which they will follow.