Friday, September 18, 2015

Which King?

This past Sunday we witnessed a teachable moment gone awry.  The pastor called the children to the front of the church to pray with them before dismissing them to “King’s Kids” (Sunday School) classes.  Before he prayed he asked them what they were learning about in King’s Kids. 

One little guy piped up, "The king!”  Clearly thinking this was a teachable moment the pastor responded, “Which king?”  To which the little guy responded, “Burger King!”

Gales of laughter ensued from the congregation and pastors.  A prayer was said and the kids were sent off to their classes.  I leaned over and whispered to my husband, “There’s got to be a blog post in there somewhere.”  So here we are.

It’s been at least 15 years, possibly more, since I ingested a fast food burger!  Generally they wreak havoc with my digestive system.  However, in the interests of blog research, further investigation was required.  I had to google “Burger King” to find out where they were located in Edmonton, and ended up hitting on $2.49 Whopper Wednesday; a whopper, fries, and a bottle of water for only $5.25.  Who knew!

I remember the Burger King “king” as a fairly cheesy (no pun intended for those who like their Whopper with cheese) branding character.  Apparently their marketing people felt the same because there is no hint of the “king” anywhere in the restaurant.  The closest I could find related to kingship was a crown on the wall and one on their paper cups.

So apparently the burger “king” no longer exists as a character but the legacy of Burger King lives on in $2.49 Whopper Wednesdays and in the mind of a child on Sunday morning!

Where am I going with this?  Well, aside from actually enjoying my grossly unhealthy lunch, I got to thinking about kings. 

In that little guy’s life the king of choice at that particular moment was Burger King.  Maybe he’d been promised Burger King for lunch.  I’m fairly sure the answer the pastor was hoping to extract from this little guy was Jesus.  (After all isn’t that the answer to any Sunday School question?)

As Christians, Jesus is our Lord and King.  What’s sad is how often we put things ahead of Jesus.  Soon He becomes downgraded from King to commoner.

We end up treating Jesus no better than a fast food order window.  We absent-mindedly toss up prayers, expecting short order answers in five minutes or less.  Then we wonder why we feel disconnected and dissatisfied in our Christian walk. 

How much better would it be if we spent time getting to know Jesus, who He is, and what He did to save us from our messed up lives; giving us eternal life with our Father in Heaven?  How close a relationship would we have with Him if we spent daily time in prayer and bible study?  Start today and renew your relationship with our King.

Things To Think About
Have you downgraded Jesus’ status from Lord and King to something else?  Are you in the habit of making “fast food prayer requests”?  What steps can you take today to re-establish Jesus’ kingship in your life?

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