Although it's the end of the church year as we know it this Sunday, all around it sounds like the end of the world as we know it. Hyperbolic language is bombarding us from the right and from the left in regard to current events. The premise that is so uncritically accepted is that there has to be sides: winners and losers, right and wrong, good and evil. Everyone wants to be on the winning team.
The thing is, we all lose when we accept these terms as the way things have to be. We are a community of faith that is lead by a crucified Lord. We look to the Christ of the Cross as the victorious Lord of all. So, if the way of selflessness, suffering, sacrifice, and the cross was Christ's way of loving the world, are we too called to take up these things as our way of life as well? I believe we are.
Mercy, love, grace, acceptance, and hospitality -- these are not optional equipment for the journey we are called to make as brothers and sisters in Christ.
When we confess Christ as King, what are the implications for the way in which we live our lives. What difference does it make that Christ is King when we are confronted with the tragic, the terror, and the tedium of our times? How easy it is to be swept up in the call to arms, violence, retaliation, hatred and fear!
Christ the King is also the Prince of Peace. He calls us to lift up our hearts and set our minds not on things that are on earth, but on things that are above. This isn't easy. It's not convenient. And it sure isn't popular. Yet, I can find no faithful alternative. Can we reconcile the cognitive dissidence in the popular premise that asserts itself at the center of our current state of affairs here below?
Christ the King Sunday
November 22, 2015
Prayer of the Day
Almighty and ever-living God, you anointed your beloved Son to be priest and sovereign forever. Grant that all the people of the earth, now divided by the power of sin, may be united by the glorious and gentle rule of Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
Readings
The one coming with the clouds rules over all
Ever since the world began, your throne has been established. (Ps. 93:2)
Glory to the one who made us a kingdom
The kingdom of Christ
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