People are disappearing all the time. In dictatorships they are referred to as a distinctive group – the disappeared. But people have disappeared for other reasons – Colonel Fawcett in Brazil, John Stonehouse and Lord Lucan in this country. Amelia Earhart disappeared over the Pacific in 1937. In 1942 General Douglas Macarthur left Corregidor with the words ‘I will return.’ He did.
The account we have of Jesus’ disappearance is different. ‘A cloud,’ we are told, ‘received him out of their sight.’ I suppose we should expect no less if Jesus was indeed the Son of God incarnate. In his case there was another reminder that his departure was not the end of the matter. His companions were told: ‘This Jesus who has been taken from you up to heaven will come in the same way as you have seen him go.’ Quite what this will mean is something we have to take seriously. On a bookshelf facing me is a book I haven’t opened for years. It is by that forgotten prime minister Anthony Eden. It has a one-word title ‘The Reckoning’ That gives me enough to think about.
But there is more than that in the New Testament. Coupled with the note of his departure is the word of his status. Jesus is king. We should not think this title is surprising since Jesus had so much to say about the Kingdom of God. But it is a curious thing that once he had departed, his disciples hardly ever used that term. It was the essence of his message (Mark 1.15) and in Acts 17.7 we are told that hostile observers said: ‘All of them break the laws of the Roman Emperor by claiming that someone named Jesus is King (Acts 17.7 CEV) It is not unusual these days to find a church named Christ the King. We still sing ’Jesus shall reign…’
We live in a country familiar with the idea of monarchy. The word ‘king’ is not an alien form, even if it has less of an aura than it once had. But the citizens of many other countries have to brace themselves to use a word that seems to belong to a world that has passed away. ’Your king and country need you’ does not cast the spell it once did. But we can say this for monarchy. It enshrines the idea of a loyalty that eclipses all other political terminology. It reminds us that there is a paramount authority (not incompatible with an understanding of democracy). That is the claim implicit in the word when applied to Jesus. There is also the perspective of his return.
NEWARK VACANCY
During a vacancy at St Mary’s, Newark-on-Trent, a church with a strong musical tradition, two curates have been drafted in to serve in the church. Garreth Frank is from St Nicholas’s, Nottingham and Debs Mayo is even more local; she had her marriage reception at Kelham Hall, the former theological college by the River Trent.
CHRIST THE KING
Christ the King church, Kettering, Northants. has overseas interests in Rick and Janette Brown, working for Agapé France, an evangelistic organisation with 80 staff across five cities, and Stewart and Michelle Ayling, working in Tanzania with Mission Aviation Fellowship. The Vicar of CTK is Rob Bewley. The church is planning to extend its modern church building.
ASCENSION CHURCH, HARROWBY
The Ascension parish church, Harrowby, Lincolnshire is an octagonal 1960s church. Elaine de la Hoyde, one of its members, tells in the parish magazine of a gruelling time she and her husband Tim had, fighting Covid 19. She quotes Matthew 7.7-8 as she expresses appreciation of all the help and support they received.
ASCENSION CHURCH, BALHAM
The present congregation is the result of a church plant (or church graft, as they prefer to call it) by St Mark’s Battersea. Fifty Battersea people joined the existing congregation. The Vicar is Marcus Gibbs.
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