I don’t know what you plan on doing when you turn 95 years old. Have you given it much thought? I think I’ll be glad to get out of bed and eat a nice meal and spend some time with people I love. I don’t think I’ll need an alarm clock or a daily schedule to keep up with all my activities. I’m pretty sure I won’t be as busy as Queen Elizabeth II. Her Royal Highness attends over 400 events each year, including meetings, ceremonies, presentations, receptions and charity events. That’s more than one official event each day, 365 days each year. I get tired just thinking about it. And Queen Elizabeth is 95 years old. So it makes perfect sense that her majesty has an official stand-in to help her out.
Ella Slack is a British woman who was chosen in the 1980s to serve as Queen Elizabeth’s stand-in for royal dress rehearsals. Official receptions and ceremonies require a lot of planning and practice to ensure that every detail of the event is perfect. Queen Elizabeth is too busy to spend all day at dress rehearsals, so Ms. Slack serves as her stand-in for these practice runs.
How did she get such an exclusive job? Ella Slack was working for the British Broadcasting Corporation when they were preparing to film a national memorial service. Queen Elizabeth was undergoing the dress rehearsal for that day’s ceremony and the sun kept getting in her eyes. The members of the stage crew offered to help, but they were all men around 6 feet tall. A BBC producer spotted Ms. Slack, who is only 5 feet tall, two inches shorter than the Queen. Ms. Slack was more than happy to serve as the Queen’s stand-in for the rehearsal and has served in that role ever since.
She doesn’t receive any pay for her service, but she doesn’t mind. It’s an honor to serve the Queen. And one of the fringe benefits of her job is the opportunity to meet members of the royal family and ride in the Queen’s carriage. However, she is not allowed to sit on the throne. (1)
Can you imagine serving as a stand-in for royalty? Ella Slack doesn’t get to participate in the exciting parts of the events. She only gets to stand in place, walk from spot to spot, smile and occasionally wave to crowds. It’s her job to ensure that when the Queen arrives for the official event, everything is well-organized and running smoothly.
As Christians we could claim to be official “stand-ins” for royalty too, couldn’t we? We are representatives of the King of kings, Jesus Christ, in this world. However, we need to do a lot more than stand in one place, smile and wave in order to represent him. What does it mean to represent the King of kings and Lord of lords in our world today? That’s what we want to explore this morning.
Today we celebrate Christ the King Sunday, the last Sunday of the Christian year, sometimes called the Reign of Christ. The Christian year begins with a baby born in the little town of Bethlehem and ends with the King of kings and Lord of lords sitting on the throne of the universe. Whoever would have thought that a baby born in a stable in a little out-of-the-way town would one day become heralded as the King of kings?
Even today we struggle with Jesus’ identity. It’s unbelievable that the Almighty God would give up His Heavenly Throne to take on human flesh and human weakness and human struggles. There is a thought-provoking piece titled “They Missed Him!” that could easily apply to us today. Here are just a few quotes from it:
“They were looking for a Lion, He came as a Lamb, and they missed Him.
They were looking for a Warrior, He came as a Peacemaker, and they missed Him.
They were looking for a King, He came as a Servant, and they missed Him.
They were looking for Liberation from Rome, He submitted to the Roman cross, and they missed Him.
They were looking for a fit to their mold, He was the mold maker, and they missed Him.
What are you looking for?
Lion? Warrior? King? Liberator?
. . . He came as a Lamb to be sacrificed for your sin. Will you miss Him?
He came to make peace between God and man. Will you miss Him?
He came to model servanthood for all mankind. Will you miss Him? . . .
He came that we might have true Liberty. Will you miss Him?
He came to give you eternal life. Will you miss Him?
When we submit to the Lamb, we will meet the Lion.
Join with the Peacemaker and we will meet the Warrior.
Work with the Servant and we will meet the King . . .” (2)
And that’s what I hope for us today, that we meet the King, Jesus Christ. Throughout history there were people who met Jesus face-to-face, yet they still dismissed or rejected him. They saw his love. They heard his message of truth. And they refused to believe in him because he was not what they were expecting. How sad is that? To stand in the presence of the Way, the Truth and the Life, and to miss him.
It was a minor official in the Roman Empire, Pontius Pilate, who first asked Jesus, “Are you the King of the Jews?”
Jesus obviously convinced him that he was. We often see engraved on crosses the letters INRI. They stand for IESUS NAZARENUS REX IUDAEORUM, Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews. These were the words that Pilate ordered written at the top of Jesus’ cross. Pilate could have ordered these words in sarcasm. We don’t know what was in his heart. We do know what was in the hearts of the disciples though. There was no sarcasm. Peter would write later in his epistle, “We actually saw his majesty with our own eyes” (II Peter 1:16ff). That word majesty means “superbness, magnificence, glory, splendor or mighty power.” Wow! You can feel Peter’s excitement leap off the page when you read those words. And yet Pilate stood in Jesus’ presence and . . . missed it.
Let’s not forget that our response to Jesus does not change the truth of who he is. Peter and the disciples stood in awe of his majesty. Pilate stood in contempt of his message. And whether we accept him or reject him today, neither response changes the truth that Jesus is who he says he is—the King of the world.
What does it mean to say that Christ is King of this world? Doesn’t it say, first of all, that this is an unfinished world? This world is certainly not the kind of world Christ desires. If truly he is King, there is some unfinished business.
So what kind of world does Christ desire? What would his finished world look like? We can see the answer in his actions and teachings while he walked on this earth.
A pastor from Gaithersburg, Maryland writes that he gained a new understanding of what Jesus wanted for this world from his seminary professor, Drew Dyson. Professor Dyson said that whenever Jesus talked about the kingdom of God, what he meant was, “Imagine a world . . .”
“Imagine a world where a rich man throws a party and invites the outcasts of society to come and enjoy his bounty
Imagine a world where a Samaritan goes out of his way to help the man who held him in contempt
Imagine a world where a son, who walks away from his family and curses his father’s name, is welcomed back with open arms . . .” (3)
That’s what the kingdom of God looks like. That’s what Jesus the King came to establish.
This world is an unfinished world. But why did Jesus leave it unfinished? If Christ is King, there is still some unfinished business. Why is it unfinished? It is because the world is made up of people, and people are unfinished. If I were to ask you to whistle a few bars of the song “Sittin’ On The Dock of the Bay” by Otis Redding, could you do it? Even though the song came out in 1968, it’s still popular today.
If you know the song, then you know the last few seconds of the song just feature Redding whistling the tune until the song fades away. Did you know that Redding never intended to finish the song that way? He had planned to record some final lyrics to end the song. Sadly, he died in a plane crash in December 1967 and never had the chance to record the final lyrics. His record company, Stax Records, released the unfinished song in January 1968. It won two Grammys and ranks at #21 on the list of top songs of the 20th century as chosen by the National Endowment for the Arts and the Recording Industry Association of America. (4)
Ordinarily, unfinished work is unintentional. But we are an unfinished people, and that was Jesus’ plan all along. It wasn’t a mistake. He didn’t run out of time. Jesus returned to the Father, but he left behind the Holy Spirit to work in us to conform us to the image of God. And as we do the work that Jesus left us here to do, the work of bringing the kingdom of God on earth, we will grow in our love for God, and people will see the image of God in our actions. But God promises all throughout the Old and New Testaments that He is doing something new in His people. He is making us into a new creation (II Corinthians 5: 17). And the clincher is found in this promise from Philippians 1: 6: “And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.”
This is an unfinished world, and we are unfinished people. Even at our best we are not all that Christ intends for us to be. But listen: Into this unfinished world has come the King of kings.
In 1928, a small ship called the Helen B. Sterling was caught in a tremendous storm a few hundred miles off the coast of Oregon. The captain broadcast a desperate call for help. The storm continued to batter their ship, so he sent out a second call. Suddenly he heard another voice on the line. The captain of the Melbourne, an Australian battleship, radioed back that he was changing course and coming to rescue the sailors of the Helen B. Sterling.
The storm raged on as the captain and crew of the Helen B. Sterling scanned the horizon. All they could see were waves swelling and churning in the darkness. Hours passed, and the captain sent one more message: “Can’t last another hour . . . Sea sweeping right over us. Clearing boats, but impossible to live in this sea. Farewell!”
And in the next moment, he heard the captain of the Melbourne reply, “We are certain to reach you. Keep good heart!”
The Melbourne did reach the Helen B. Sterling just in time. As the small ship was beginning to sink, the battleship pulled alongside them. The captain and all his crew were saved. (5)
God had a plan for this world before it was ever created. He had always planned to return and redeem it. Whenever world events look desperate and hopeless, we remember that the King of kings came into this world once with a message of hope and life, and he will come again to establish his Kingdom someday. He will reach us in time.
And the final thing we can say about this unfinished world is that we are those who have been called to bring it to completion. This is not to say that the kingdom of God will be brought in by our efforts. It is Christ who builds the kingdom, but he builds it through those who are receptive to his word. That is you and me.
Christ needs people who are willing and able. And the ironic thing is that when we subordinate our desires to his desire, when we enlist as privates in his army, when we serve as priests in his temple, which is the world, when we give ourselves in his service, it is then that we are lifted up. In losing ourselves we find ourselves. That is the nature of his kingdom.
In 1947, a man named Bob Pierce went on a preaching tour in China with Youth for Christ. Tena Holkeboer, a missionary who had founded a school for girls on the Chinese island of Amoy, invited Pierce to speak to her students. Several of the girls accepted Jesus as their Savior after hearing Bob Pierce speak.
A few days after his services, he was asked to return to the school. He arrived to find Tena holding a bruised girl in her arms. The girl had become a Christian at the recent youth service where Pierce had preached. When she returned home to tell her family, they had beaten her and kicked her out.
Bob Pierce was shaken. How could this happen to a child? What was he supposed to do?
He asked Tena, “You will take care of her, won’t you?”
Tena said, “I am feeding as many children as I can. The question is, ‘What are you going to do?’”
Bob Pierce dug the last $5 out of his pocket and handed it to Tena with a promise that he would do more.
That moment and that promise led Bob Pierce to return home and start one of the most effective international humanitarian organizations in history, World Vision International. Maybe you have heard of it? Since its founding in 1950, World Vision has provided food, clean drinking water, education, shelter, child protection services and disaster relief to tens of thousands of people around the world. (6)
This is an unfinished world. But into this unfinished world came the King of kings. He made the ultimate sacrifice in our behalf. And now he has commissioned us to be soldiers in his army. Priests in his ministry. We are stand-ins for the King. And his question to us today is, “I did the work I was sent to do. Now what are you going to do?” Until he returns in his glory to finish the work, it is our responsibility to see that this unfinished world becomes the kingdom over which he can reign forever.
1. "Queen Elizabeth II has very own 'body double' in bombshell 30-year Royal Family secret" by Grace Macrae Express.co.uk October 26, 2020, https://www.express.co.uk/news/royal/1352219/queen-elizabeth-II-body-double-melania-trump-royal-family-ella-slack-latest-updates-ont.
2. “They Missed Him!” Author Unknown @Spiritual Uplift.
3. http://www.mttaboretchison.org/sermons/2010-11-07.pdf.
4. “Now I Know!” by Dan Lewis, December 10, 2019. RIAA/NEA Top 365 Songs of the 20th Century March 7, 2012, https://davesmusicdatabase.blogspot.com/2012/03/riaaneas-top-365-songs-of-20th century.html#:~:text=%20The%20RIAA%2FNEA%27s%20Top%20365%20Songs%20of%20the,The%20Grapevine%20%5BOfficial%20Music%20Video%5D.%20If...%20More%20.
5. David E. Owen, http://sermons.pastorlife.com/members/sermon.asp?USERID=&SERMON_ID=3382.
6. “Women who inspired World Vision’s founding father” by Marilee Pierce Dunker WorldVision.org https://www.worldvision.org/christian-faith-news-stories/women-inspired-bob-pierce.