No Kings and the New Testament

This week I would like to talk about the “No Kings” movement — not a political slogan, but a spiritual one. No kings on thrones, no bosses of our souls, no gatekeepers between us and God. Just the divine spark in each one of us, equally sacred, equally radiant, equally responsible for remembering who we are.

Now, before anyone gets nervous, this isn’t a call for anarchy — we’re not about to replace the choir with drum circles… although, come to think of it, that might be fun.

1. Jesus and the End of Kingship

Let’s start with the New Testament. The people of Jesus’s time were longing for a king — a real one, with an army, a crown, maybe a good tax policy.

And then comes Jesus — the carpenter’s son, riding a donkey, saying: “The kingdom of God is within you.” (Luke 17:21)

You can almost hear the crowd say, “Wait, within us? We were hoping for a kingdom with better roads!”

But Jesus was clear: the reign of God is not about rulers over others — it’s about Spirit ruling through all. It’s a shift from outer authority to inner awareness. From “obey the king” to “awaken the Christ in you.”

That’s the original No Kings movement — and it’s not rebellion; it’s revelation.

2. The Apostles’ Slow Realization

The disciples had a hard time with this. They kept asking, “So… when will you take the throne?”

And Jesus must have sighed, “Guys… the throne is in your heart. Please try to keep up.”

He even washed their feet — the ultimate “no kings” gesture. The teacher becomes the servant. The leader kneels before his students. If this were today, we’d call it Servant Leadership and write a LinkedIn post about it.

But the message is timeless:

When we serve, we reign.

When we love, we lead.

When we see divinity in everyone, there are no kings left — only kin.

3. Paul’s Upgrade

Even Paul, the great theologian, eventually caught on. He wrote:

“There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” (Galatians 3:28)

That’s radical equality. If Paul were writing today, he might add: “There is neither Democrat nor Republican, Prius nor pickup, gluten-free nor double pepperoni…”

All one. No kings. No categories. No “holier-than-thou.” Just a circle of divine beings learning how to love.

4. The Unity Perspective

In Unity, we say “God is not a distant monarch — God is the life within us.”

Charles Fillmore might put it this way: “There’s no need for a throne when the Infinite has already moved in.”

We are not peasants in a spiritual kingdom; we are co-creators in a divine partnership. Each time we affirm the Christ within, we’re saying, “No kings — not even the one in my own ego.”

Because sometimes the loudest king of all is that little voice saying, “I’m right and everyone else needs to get with the program.”

That’s not divine authority — that’s just our inner drama queen demanding a crown.

5. Practical Takeaway

So how do we live “no kings” today?

1. In relationships: Practice listening as if the other person might be the voice of Spirit — because they are.

2. In community: Drop the hierarchies of who’s “advanced” and who’s “new.” The Light doesn’t rank itself.

3. In self-talk: Stop bowing to fear, guilt, or shame. They’re the false kings of the mind. Let them retire.

When we release outer and inner kings, we make room for Christ consciousness — humble, radiant, inclusive.

6. A Tempest in a teapot

There’s an old story about a monk who told his students: “The Buddha is within you.”

So one of them asked, “Then who’s making the tea?”

The monk replied, “The Buddha who likes caffeine.”

That’s the point — Spirit expresses through you, through your humor, your kindness, your Monday morning grumpiness, even your to-do list.

So let’s live as though the kingdom has already come — because it’s not coming to us, it’s coming through us.

Closing Affirmation

Let’s affirm together:

“There are no kings, only kin —

No thrones, only hearts —

No distance, only God within.”

Amen — and maybe a little “awomen,” too.

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SPOILER ALERT: The above was written by ChatGPT and NOT by me. I made a few minor edits, but all of the rest of the above came from an artificial intelligence program.

A dear friend of mine tends to use ChatGPT as his artificial intelligence program. I tend to use another artificial intelligence program called Perplexity.

My friend gave ChatGPT the following instructions: “Write a sermon for a Unity church. The topic is "No Kings" movement and lessons from the New Testament. Include humor.

After ChatGPT sent us the above sermon, it asked us if we wanted to see it revised with suggested pause markings, and where we could expect congregational reactions such as laughter. It also asked us if instead of a spoken sermon, we would like it put in the form of something that could be used in a Sunday bulletin/newsletter. I should point out that it only took a few seconds for ChatGPT to write the above sermon.

I’m curious about what you think of ChatGPT‘s sermon in terms of the quality of the writing, etc. When ChatGPT first came out, my daughter Rachel and I asked the first early version of the program to write a sermon for a Unitarian church. I forget what topic we gave the early AI program. But the product of the early ChatGPT was not very good.

Now we are several versions down the road from the initial ChatGPT program, and I was amazed by the improvement in the quality of what was produced. 

Quite frankly, the initial ChatGPT program produced something that was of pretty low level quality. But the sermon the new advanced AI program wrote is not bad, I think. You could take it and make just a few edits and additions and voilà…You would have something you could use on a Sunday. 

Again, I was amazed by the level of improvement in AI sermon writing in just two short years. Maybe we will soon be able to replace flesh and blood preachers with audio-animatrons powered by advanced AI programs.

It is a Brave New World. I can see many positive things produced by AI besides sermons. For example, I could picture new medicines created by AI programs. 

Currently, we often have more or less one type of pill for X. But with AI it could be cost-effective to engineer a certain pill based on your genetic background and family history. Instead of “one-size-fits-all,” AI would allow us to have “different strokes for different folks” (to borrow from Sly and the Family Stone).

But all of this will involve significant costs, and it will have a major disruptive impact on our economy and society. This could be the first major technological innovation that destroys more jobs than it creates. 

Many have thought that true consciousness and intelligence requires a sentient being that is based on organic chemistry with carbon based molecules. But what if consciousness and intelligence can be based on silicon, electricity, and software programming which boils down to binary codes?

Maybe I should ask the AI program to put in the suggested speaking pause markings and predicted congregational responses?

Many blessings,

Rev Rick