The Last Sunday after Pentecost-Christ the King Sunday-The Rev Melanie Lemburg
Last Sunday after Pentecost—Christ the King Sunday[i]
Today
I would like to tell you two tales of two very different bunnies.
The
first bunny is named Barrington Bunny. Barrington
is the only bunny in the whole wide forest, and he is sad and lonely because he
cannot go to the other animals’ Christmas parties--he cannot climb trees like a
squirrel or swim like a beaver. And he
doesn't have a bunny family of his own. Barrington
is crying alone in the snow on Christmas Eve when the wise wolf whose eyes are
like fire appears before him. The wolf tells Barrington that all of the animals
of the forest are his family, and that he, as a bunny, has his own special
gifts. He can hop, and he is furry and
warm.
As
Barrington is hopping home filled with hope and a plan to help the members of
his family (all the different animals of the forest), a blizzard wind begins to
blow, and he comes across a young field mouse who is lost from his family. Barrington tells the mouse to not be afraid,
that he will stay with him, and because he is a bunny, he can help keep him
warm. In the morning, when the young mouse's parents find him, Barrington has
died in the night keeping the little mouse warm. And the wolf comes and keeps watch over
Barrington's body all Christmas Day.[ii]
The
second bunny is named Foo Foo. You see, Little Bunny Foo Foo was hopping
through the forest. And out of nowhere
he inexplicably scoops up a field mouse and bops him on the head. Then, down comes the good fairy, and she says,
“Little Bunny Foo Foo, I don’t want to see you scooping up the field mice and
bopping them on the head. I’ll give you
three chances. And if you do, I’m gonna
turn you into a goon!” Well, we all know
what happens. Whatever inexplicable
forces that are at work in Little Bunny Foo Foo’s soul to make him want to bop
the innocent field mice on the head do not abate, in spite of the good fairy’s
warning, and he burns through his three chances, getting turned into a goon in
the end.
These two stories of two different bunnies are actually two
different pictures of kingship that we need to consider on this Last Sunday
after Pentecost which is also known as Christ the King Sunday.
The Foo Foo way of kingship is a way of might and
violence. Foo Foo is bigger and stronger
than the field mice and he exercises his power over them until someone stronger
than him comes along and punishes him with more violence.
The Barrington way of kingship is a way that knows and
experiences suffering and loneliness, a way that reaches out to others out of
that shared pain and offers a comforting presence even to the point of
sacrificial death.
We all know suffering, loneliness, tribulation. And most of the time, we are like the
communities who John's gospel and Revelation are being written to. We want a strong, Foo Foo like King who will
come in and bop all our enemies on the head and rescue us from our
suffering. That is the world's way.
But Jesus is not a Foo Foo like King. "My kingdom is not of this world,"
he says. “The way of using might to
bring about victory, the way of violence, the way of ‘bopping the little ones
on the head’ (or even turning the bullies into goons) is not my way,” he tells
us in that one simple phrase. His is
the way of Barrington Bunny: the way of
staying beside those who are suffering, the way of sacrifice, the way of peace
and a love that eventually conquers everything-even death. If we are to be his followers, the citizens
of his kingdom, then that must be our way too.
Which kind of bunny will you be?
Whose
way do you follow?
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