This Sunday is Christ the King Sunday. Some people are calling it the Reign of Christ Sunday, because of revolutionary or other associations which render the title of king less than desirable in their imaginations. Imagination is key when it comes to our relationship with God; we cannot (or we can rarely, in the case of the mystics) directly perceive God, so imagination, metaphor, imagery, wordplay, art and music rule when it comes to describing our Creator and Sustainer in the world.

Describe, not define; “King” might be a useful label in offering an attribute to God, and to Jesus Christ God’s Son, our Lord, but it is offered as a detail, not a definition. This might help free the title from some of its constraints in certain social and cultural situations – or not.

Anyway, I wanted to get some help with the way that the name, title or attribute (job?) or king is perceived and how that perception might colour this Sunday’s celebration, so I invite you, if you would, to take the following poll to help me add nuance to the children’s storybook image of the bearded man with the golden crown, or the revolutionary tyrant, or the singer in spandex which dominate the genre: