Nicola Sturgeon resigned a few hours ago as I write this. Love her or hate her, she gave widely acclaimed leadership (particularly during Covid), and reinforced direction and identity in Scotland. She was a subversive force against the United Kingdom – a would-be queen of Scotland perhaps (no longer).
Are all of us called to be subversive, at least a bit? ‘Thy Kingdom come,’ we may pray or have prayed (continuing our monthly glance at the Lord’s Prayer). Might saying this actually be subversive?
“My kingdom for a horse!” Richard III famously exclaimed, at least in Shakespeare’s version of events. Where does King Richard end up? Buried under a Leicester carpark. (I highly recommend the quirky 2022 film “The Lost King” on this subject.)
We’re all kings of our own little kingdoms in a way, as 17th Century judge Sir Edward Coke recognised, coining the phrase “An Englishman’s home is his castle.”
Women didn’t come into the 17th Century equation, sadly. They fare better in the medieval world of castles and knights on a chess board: the swift-footed queen is the monarch with power in the course of the game!
We’ll soon be crowning a new king. Even sooner, we’ll be marking Good Friday, a day of dialogue between two kings: Pilate and Jesus. “My kingdom is not from this world,” says Jesus, and Pilate proceeds to pin “The King of the Jews” above Christ’s cross. An act of subversion by one for whom Caesar was the only permitted king?
So “Shhhhh, Jesus! Not so loud!” the Sermon on the Mount crowd may have reacted nervously, as he exhorted them to pray for the advance of a kingdom other than Caesar’s. This was political subversion. But his was indeed a different sort of kingdom – “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” opened that sermon.
“Checkmate!” cried Jesus’ enemies as the nails went in, “Game’s over!” But Jesus was playing a different game, where power is love and death becomes life. A game – a kingdom – that stretches its borders to embrace all in a uniting kingdom in a much-divided world. ‘Your Kingdom come.’ It’s Lent, a time to be bold. In choosing to align ourselves with the pursuit of peace and justice, let us all be subversive this Lent, at least a little bit
