Friday, December 23, 2011

O Antiphon: O King of Nations


O King of Nations
Zechariah 9:9-10; 1 Peter 2:4-6
December 22

O King of nations, the ruler they long for, the cornerstone uniting all people:  Come and save us all, whom you formed out of clay.

Jesus is both King and Cornerstone.  As King he governs by His gracious reign of forgiveness and peace as King of kings.  As Cornerstone He sets all the angles square and unites His church together as one.

He is the potter, we are the clay.  He is the King, we are His subjects.  He is the Cornerstone, we are living stones built into a temple for His Name.  We want this, and then again, we don¹t want it.  The sinful nature resents the potter, refuses the king, resists the cornerstone.  Sin is the overthrow of God¹s reign, the attempt to be a god in place of God.  It is the rebellion of the clay against the potter who shaped it.  It is our attempt to determine the lines of our future and destiny, to be our own cornerstone.

The outcome is chaos and death.  A kingdom in which everyone is king is not a kingdom at all.  It is anarchy.  A building in which every stone is the cornerstone is a pile of rock.  Individualism ends in isolation.  It is death to family, to community.  It was not good that man was alone.  God put us into community.  Sin erects walls, both visible and invisible, barriers to community.  We define the boundaries of our own little kingdoms and vow to defend them to the death.

Christ has come as King and Cornerstone.  His coming was without the trappings of royalty.  A virgin mother.  A manger crib.  He rode atop a donkey to his death.  He wore the purple robes of royalty only as He was mocked.  His crown was made of thorns.  His throne was a cross.  He is a beggar king in a kingdom of beggars.

The crucified King is the King of kings.  The rejected stone is the cornerstone.

No comments:

Post a Comment