Category Archives: Christ the King

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Thoughts on Sunday’s Lessons for Nov. 24, 2024 (Christ the King B/Proper 29)

Ecce Homo (Behold the Man), Christ before Pilate

Ecce Homo (Behold the Man), Christ before Pilate (c. 1860-c. 1880), oil painting by Antonio Ciseri (1821-1891). Museo Cantonale d’Arte, Lugano, Switzerland. (Click image to enlarge.)

First Reading (Track One): 2 Samuel 23:1-7

The six-month-long string of Sundays after Pentecost concludes this Sunday with the feast of Christ the King – sometimes called the “Reign of Christ” to set a less patriarchal tone. This reading from the Second Book of Samuel offers a poetic passage called “The Last Words of David.” A hymn of praise, likely written in David’s memory long after his death, declares that David was God’s favorite: a just ruler, the one through whom the God of Israel speaks. God has made an everlasting covenant with David, its verses declare. It is a covenant that will bring prosperity to the king’s reign and success to all the king’s descendants.

First Reading (Track Two): Daniel 7:9-10, 13-14

It might seem a little awkward for us as Americans, remembering our nation-founding revolution against the British king, to depict our God as a monarch and Jesus as a warrior king. Yet we do just that on Christ the King Sunday as we look to the culmination of history with Christ as our king. This reading from the Book of Daniel portrays a mighty God on a fiery throne. As modern Christians, we might prefer to visualize a transcendent Creator whose very nature lies beyond our ability to imagine. For early Christians living in a time of empire, though, it must have been reassuring to imagine an all-powerful God giving dominion over all nations and peoples to “one like a human being,” who they would identify as Christ.

Psalm (Track One): Psalm 132:1-13 (14-19)

Sunday’s Psalm continues in the spirit of this week’s first reading about David and God’s covenant to bless and bring prosperity to him and to his descendants. Remembering the hardships that David endured in keeping his oath to God, the Psalmist vows not to rest until Israel builds a temple on Mount Zion, a dwelling place on earth where God can rest. If Israel’s children keep the covenant that their kingly ancestor made with God, then Israel will sit on David’s throne forever.

Psalm (Track Two): Psalm 93

God is king! God is majestic! God is powerful! How this mighty hymn must have thundered through the ancient temple, celebrating the power and the kingship of God in metaphors of sound and fury: Roaring floods and massive ocean waves thundering, calling out the glory of God our king. Unlike earthly kings, the Psalmist sings, God’s world is certain, immovable and mighty. God’s kingdom will endure, sure and holy, for ever and evermore.

Second Reading: Revelation 1:4b-8

This greeting from the first page of Revelation gives away the simple secret of this mysterious book: It is not a strange and frightening prediction of the End Times, nor does it conceal coded information about our times, or any other time or place. It was a subversive sermon for persecuted Christians in Asia Minor, carrying this simple message: God our King, who was with us at the beginning and will be with us at the end, loves us and frees us from our sins through Christ. In words that echo the Daniel reading, we hear that Jesus our Savior, God, ruler of all the kings of the earth, will come back with the clouds to deliver justice.

Gospel: John 18:33-37

Finally, in John’s Gospel, Jesus makes his kingship clear as he stands before Pilate. Or does he? Accused of declaring himself king of the Jews, an act of treason against the powerful Roman Empire, Jesus answers, clearly and firmly, “My kingdom is not of this world.” Pilate remains puzzled. Jesus stakes his claim to a kingdom and claims his kingship, but it’s “not from here,” adding that he came into the world to testify to the truth. Is he a king? “You say so,” Jesus replies to Pilate. But when and how will this kingdom come? Will it come in the future with trumpet blasts and fire and brimstone? Or do we build it every day when we act as Christ’s hands in the world?

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Thoughts on Sunday’s Lessons for Nov. 26, 2023 (Christ the King A)

The Last Judgment

The Last Judgment (1617), altarpiece, oil painting on canvas by Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640). Alte Pinakothek, Munich, Germany. (Click image to enlarge.)

First Reading (both tracks): Ezekiel 34:11-16, 20-24

Now we celebrate the last Sunday of Pentecost. We join other Christian denominations in celebrating the feast of Christ the King, or the Reign of Christ, this day; but it’s an unofficial celebration, not included in the Book of Common Prayer’s calendar. This aversion may trace back to the American Episcopal church having forsworn earthly kings when our ancestors separated from the Church of England after the Revolutionary War. Sunday’s readings, however, show Jesus Christ is a different kind of king: not a traditional patriarch but a loving shepherd. Both Lectionary tracks combine to present Ezekiel’s prophecy to Israel in exile, praying for a new King David in a new Jerusalem. This new shepherd will bring home and strengthen the sheep who have suffered, while destroying the fat and strong sheep that bullied and scattered them.

Psalm (Track One): Psalm 100

Both Lectionary tracks for Christ the King sing out joy and praise for God, our maker and protector, in verses that are also provided for use in Morning Prayer. Track One is the Jubilate, a call for God’s people and all God’s lands to serve the Lord our God with gladness and song. We are the protected sheep of God’s pasture, joyously singing thanksgiving and praise for God’s everlasting mercy that endures from age to age.

Psalm (Track Two): Psalm 95:1-7a

This hymn will surely sound familiar, too. We recite it or chant it often as the Venite in Morning Prayer. These verses sing out unalloyed worship and praise for the creator and protector of all things, and, in harmony with today’s readings, both king of kings above all gods and loving shepherd who cares for us, the protected sheep of God’s hand.

Second Reading: Ephesians 1:15-23

For the last Sunday in Pentecost, we turn from our recent readings in First Thessalonians, which was perhaps the earliest of Paul’s letters, to Ephesians, a much later epistle that was probably written in Paul’s name a generation after his death. In 1 Thessalonians Paul offered hope that Christ would return soon, while many in the church were still alive. This later letter provides a glimpse of the early church’s evolving understanding of Christ, a vision that we will also see in the Gospel for this day: The resurrected Jesus is placed at God’s right hand and given authority over all things in heaven and in the church, Christ’s body on earth.

Gospel: Matthew 25:31-46

Matthew’s long series of parables about the kingdom of heaven now ends with this familiar Gospel. It isn’t always easy to see Jesus in the face of a hungry, thirsty, homeless person, sick and naked and oppressed. But Matthew tells us clearly that this is the way that we make God’s kingdom happen. Then, echoing our first reading, Matthew paints a disturbing picture of the fate that awaits those who fail to find Christ in the hungry and the weak: They earn eternal punishment, a place in the outer darkness that also awaited the slave who buried the single talent, the foolish bridesmaids who ran out of oil for their lamps, and the man who wore no wedding garment. This parable may warn that we ignore Jesus’ call to serve only at our peril. But we know in our hearts, too, that the mighty king who judges us is also the loving shepherd who calls us to love one another.

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Illuminations on the Lectionary readings for Nov. 20, 2022 (Christ the King C)

First Reading (Both Lectionary Tracks): Jeremiah 23:1-6

On this, the last Sunday after Pentecost, we mark the feast of Christ the King, a concept borrowed from modern Roman Catholic practice in the spirit of ecumenism that followed Vatican II in the 1970s.

Christ and the Good Thief

Christ and the Good Thief (c.1566), oil painting on canvas by Tiziano Vecellio, known as Titian (c.1490-1576). Pinacoteca Nazionale di Bologna, Italy. (Click image to enlarge.)

It takes note of Christ’s messianic kingship and sovereign rule over all creation. Both Lectionary tracks join in the first reading, in which the prophet Jeremiah speaks fierce truth to the leaders of Babylon who held the people in exile. God will soon round up the remnant of his scattered flock and bring them home like a shepherd, the prophet foretells, warning the oppressors that they will be punished for their evil. Soon God will raise up a a mighty new king in David’s tradition, restoring the glory of the lost kingdoms Israel and Judah.

Psalm (Track One): Luke 1:68-79 (Canticle 16)

This week in place of a psalm we sing Canticle 16, Luke’s Song of Zechariah. Zechariah – whose wife, Elizabeth, was the cousin of Jesus’ mother, Mary – was a priest at the Temple. When he refused to believe that his elderly wife had become pregnant after an angelic visitation, he lost the power of speech. Now his voice returns as he holds the infant and names him John. The child, he declares, will be a prophet in the tradition of Abraham and Sarah – who also were blessed with a child in their old age through God’s action. The child, Zechariah proclaims, will be the prophet who will go before Jesus, the Messiah and king, to declare his way.

Psalm (Track Two): Psalm 46

This Psalm of praise may not explicitly speak of kings, but it reassures us that whenever terrible things happen, even when Earthly kingdoms and nations are shaken by frightening events, when mountains rock and the oceans roar and foam, God remains with us. God doesn’t promise us a world where horrors can’t happen and no one ever suffers. But even in the worst of times, God abides, inviting us to take refuge in God’s strength. ​Our Prayer for Quiet Confidence (BCP p.832), ​draws from ​Psalm ​46 ​​as it ​reminds us, “Be still, and know that I am God.”

Second Reading: Colossians 1:11-20

The Christian community of Colossae in what is now Western Turkey may have felt something like Jeremiah’s remnant of Israel in exile. They lived under the constant threat of Roman persecution, fearing that they might lose their homes and even their lives for their faith. The author of this letter urges them to endure their difficulties with patience and the strength that comes from God’s glorious power expressed through Jesus. Jesus, through his incarnation as God in human flesh and the first of all creation, rescues us from the power of darkness and transfers us into the kingdom of Christ.

Gospel: Luke 23:33-43

And now at the end of Pentecost season we reach the end of Jesus’s long road to Jerusalem as told by Luke. This Gospel reading mirrors the Good Friday Gospel, reminding us of our hope for Easter and the resurrection. Jesus is crucified in the company of criminals: a horrible death reserved for Rome’s most despised evildoers, . The inscription over Jesus’ head reads “This is the King of the Jews,” not as a literal statement but an act of public shaming by Pontius Pilate. Soldiers mock him and a crowd makes fun of him. This is surely no traditional king. Meanwhile, Jesus gently invites the repentant criminal at his side into a different kind of kingdom, one for all humanity and for all time.

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Thoughts on Sunday’s Lessons for Nov. 21, 2021

First Reading (Track One): 2 Samuel 23:1-7

After six months, the long season of Sundays after Pentecost, with the focus of its Gospels on Jesus and his life and works, comes to its end with the feast of Christ the King, a feast also sometimes less patriarchally called “The Reign of Christ.”

Christ Before Pilate Again

Christ Before Pilate Again (1308-1311), detail of tempera painting on wood by Duccio di Buoninsegna (1255-1319). Museo dell’Opera Metropolitana del Duomo, Siena, Italy. (Click image to enlarge.)

Sunday’s readings appropriately focus on kings and kingdoms. Our Track One first reading, which may have been written in David’s memory long after his death, declares David God’s favorite: a just ruler through whom the God of Israel speaks. God has made an everlasting covenant with David, we hear, a covenant that will bring prosperity to his reign and success to all David’s descendants.

First Reading (Track Two): Daniel 7:9-10, 13-14

Sunday’s readings all shine a light on ideas of God as King, from the mighty celestial ruler imagined in the Track Two first reading from Daniel to John’s Gospel vision of the Jesus on trial, king of a very different realm. Daniel portrays an Ancient One, hair and gown in snowy white, seated on a fiery throne and served by thousands, judging all humanity. This transcendent figure sends out a human messiah to rule as king over all the nations, holding everlasting dominion that shall never be destroyed.

Psalm (Track One): Psalm 132:1-13 (14-19)

Sunday’s Track One Psalm echoes the spirit of the first reading about God’s covenant to bless King David and to bring prosperity to him and to his descendants. Remembering the hardships that David endured in keeping his oath to God, the Psalmist vows not to rest until Israel builds a temple on Mount Zion, a dwelling place on earth where God can rest. If Israel’s children keep the covenant that their kingly ancestor made with God, the psalm goes on, then Israel will sit on David’s throne forever.

Psalm (Track Two): Psalm 93

Written in an age when earthly kings held real and ultimate power over their people, this mighty hymn of praise portrays God as a king among kings from time before time: God is king! God is majestic! God is powerful! Unlike earthly kings, the Psalmist sings, God’s world is certain, immovable and mighty. God’s kingdom will endure, sure and holy, forever and evermore.

Second Reading: Revelation 1:4b-8

This, the first page of Revelation, reveals the secret of this mysterious book: It is not a strange and frightening prediction of the End Times. It does not conceal coded information about our times, or any other time or place. Nope! It was a subversive sermon intended for persecuted Christians in the seven cities in Asia Minor (now Western Turkey). It carried this simple message: God our King, who was with us at the beginning and will be with us at the end, loves us and frees us from our sins through Jesus Christ. In words that echo the Daniel reading, we hear that Jesus our Savior, God, ruler of all the kings of the earth, will come back with the clouds to deliver justice.

Gospel: John 18:33-37

Jesus, facing the final hours before his death by crucifixion, has been handed over to Pilate, the Roman governor. Soon Jesus will wear a mocking, painful king’s crown made of thorns. But Pilate’s concern is political: Has this rabbi declared himself king? That would be an act of treason against Rome’s all-powerful emperor: a capital offense. When Jesus finally answers, clearly and firmly, “My kingdom is not of this world,” Pilate remains puzzled. Jesus stakes his claim to a kingdom and claims his kingship, but “not from here,” adding that he came into the world to testify to the truth. In following verses, Pilate will wash his hands of this troubling matter, but the crowds will have their way.

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Thoughts on Sunday’s Lessons for Nov. 22, 2020

First Reading (Track One): Ezekiel 34:11-16, 20-24

The long Pentecost season and the year of Matthew’s Gospel come to an end on Sunday with both Lectionary tracks combined in one reading. Next week we begin Advent and a year with the Gospel according to Mark.

Weltgericht (Last Judgement

Weltgericht (Last Judgement, c.1435), centerpiece of a tempera on oak polyptych by Master Stefan Lochner (c.1410 -1451). Wallraf-Richartz-Museum, Cologne, Germany. (Click image to enlarge.)

This Lectionary year concludes with a festival day (a relatively recent addition to the calendar) known as Christ the King or the Reign of Christ. For many of us, the idea of kingship and royalty may sound like an echo of older times well left behind. But Sunday’s readings show us Jesus Christ as a different kind of king: not a traditional patriarch but a loving shepherd. The first reading joins both Lectionary tracks as we hear the prophet Ezekiel speak to Israel in exile. Using the metaphor of a kingly shepherd feeding and caring for the sheep, the prophet writes that God will judge the fat sheep and the lean, protecting the lost and weak sheep while destroying the powerful sheep who ravaged them.

Psalm (Track One): Psalm 100

Our Track One Psalm, a joyous hymn, is a traditional call to worship: It urges all the people to come to God with gladness and song, grateful for God’s mercy and kindness. The Psalm is likely familiar to Episcopalians who know it as the Jubilate in Morning Prayer, a reading that portrays the people as the protected sheep of God’s pasture, joyously singing thanksgiving and praise.

Psalm (Track Two): Psalm 95:1-7a

The words of Sunday’s Track Two Psalm likely sound familiar too: This joyous hymn is read or chanted as the Venite in Morning Prayer. These verses sing out unalloyed worship and praise to the creator and protector of all things. In harmony with today’s other readings, it celebrates God as both king of kings above all gods and loving shepherd who cares for us, the protected sheep of God’s hand.

Second Reading: Ephesians 1:15-23

After spending a few weeks with 1 Thessalonians, perhaps the earliest of Paul’s letters, we now conclude the season with a passage from the Letter to the Ephesians. This later epistle was most likely written by a first century Christian a generation after Paul’s death. It may reflect the early church’s growing understanding of Christ and its recognition that Jesus might not return as soon as early Christians had hoped: The author declares that God the creator has placed the resurrected Jesus at God’s right hand and given him authority over all things in heaven and in the church, his body on earth.

Gospel: Matthew 25:31-46

This familiar reading, beloved by Christians who advocate for the social gospel and a theology of liberation for the poor, concludes Matthew’s series of parables on the kingdom of heaven. The next page of Matthew’s Gospel turns directly to the Last Supper and the Passion. In this reading Matthew tells us that recognizing the face of Jesus in the face of a hungry, thirsty, homeless person, sick and naked and oppressed, is the way to make God’s Kingdom happen, even if it is difficult. Then Matthew warns that those who fail to see Jesus in their hungry neighbor will earn a place in the outer darkness that also awaited the slave with the single talent and the foolish bridesmaids. This is a hard teaching, telling us that we ignore Jesus’ call to serve only at our peril. But remember, too, that the mighty king who judges us is also the loving shepherd who shows us how to love one another.

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Thoughts on Sunday’s Lessons for Nov. 24, 2019

First Reading (both Lectionary tracks): Jeremiah 23:1-6

The Lectionary year of Luke comes to an end on Sunday, and Jesus’ long journey from Galilee to Jerusalem culminates with Christ on the cross.

Jesus Crucified Between Two Thieves

Jesus Crucified Between Two Thieves (c.1430), painting on softwood by Hans von Tübingen (1380-1462). Österreichische Galerie Belvedere, Vienna. (Click image to enlarge.)

Hanging under a sign that sneeringly declares him “King of the Jews,” Jesus is flanked by two criminals and mocked by Roman soldiers. Before we reach this Gospel, though, we hear readings that envision the reign of God through King David and Christ as supreme Messiah. In our first reading, The prophet Jeremiah speaks fierce words of woe to the kings of Judah, whose poor leadership and moral guidance brought Jerusalem and its leaders into exile. A mighty Messiah, a stronger shepherd, will come and reign in glory for Israel and Judah, the prophet foretells.

Psalm (Track One): Canticle 16 (Luke 1:68-79)

Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist, was a priest in the Temple whom God had struck mute for refusing to believe that his elderly wife, Elizabeth, had become pregnant after an angelic visitation. In this canticle (replacing the usual Psalm), we look on as his voice returns while he holds and names the infant John. The child, he declares, will be a prophet in the tradition of Abraham and Sarah, who also were blessed with a child through God’s action in their old age. The child, Zecheriah proclaims, will be the prophet who will go before Jesus, the Messiah and king, to declare his way.

Psalm (Track Two): Psalm 46

Even when terrible things happen, God is with us, promises this psalm of simple hope and praise. When terrible things happen, even when earthly kingdoms and nations are shaken by frightening events, when mountains rock and the oceans roar and foam, God remains with us. God doesn’t promise us a world where horrors can’t happen and no one ever suffers. But even in the worst of times, the Psalmist reminds us, God abides, inviting us to take refuge in God’s strength. ​Our Prayer for Quiet Confidence (BCP p.832), ​draws from ​Psalm ​46 ​​as it ​reminds us, “Be still, and know that I am God.”

Second Reading: Colossians 1:11-20

The author of the letter to the Colossians, too, speaks to a people facing trouble and fear, the persecuted Christian community of Colossae in what is now Western Turkey, across the Aegean from Greece. These verses urge the Colossians to endure their difficulties with patience and the strength that comes from God’s glorious power. Jesus, through his incarnation as God in human flesh, rescues us from the power of darkness and transfers us into the kingdom of Christ. Christ is the first of all creation and the head of the body of the church.

Gospel: Luke 23:33-43

It may seem surprising to hear a Gospel about Christ on the cross at this time of year. But this passage shows us Christ as a completely different kind of king! Jesus is crucified, a horrible form of execution reserved for Rome’s most despised evildoers. He hangs bleeding and in unimaginable pain, while above him is placed a sign meant to mock him by declaring him King of the Jews. Soldiers and a criminal on a nearby cross torment him as a Messiah who can’t save himself. Yet while all this is going on, Jesus shows his love and his true power, quietly inviting a repentant criminal on another cross into a different kind of kingdom, one given for all humanity and for all time.

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Thoughts on Sunday’s Lessons for Nov. 25, 2018

Ecce Homo (Behold the Man), Christ before Pilate

Ecce Homo (Behold the Man), Christ before Pilate (c. 1860-c. 1880), oil painting by Antonio Ciseri (1821-1891). Museo Cantonale d’Arte, Lugano, Switzerland. (Click image to enlarge.)

First Reading (Track One): 2 Samuel 23:1-7

We conclude the long string of Sundays after Pentecost with the feast of Christ the King – sometimes called the less patriarchal “Reign of Christ” – with a poetic passage called “The Last Words of David.” This hymn of praise, likely written in David’s memory long after his death, declares David as God’s favorite, a just ruler, the one through whom the God of Israel speaks. God has made an everlasting covenant with David, one that will bring prosperity to his reign and success to all his descendants.

First Reading (Track Two): Daniel 7:9-10, 13-14

It might seem awkward for Americans, who tossed out the British king in 1776 in favor of a Republic governed by its people, to declare God a traditional monarch and Jesus a warrior king. But Christ as King or Lord stands in opposition to earthly kings. In contrast with the emperor of Rome, Christ was a new, different kind of king, bringing a new and just kind of kingdom where all receive their daily bread. Our first reading from Daniel imagines an Ancient One, a mighty God of flame, coming in clouds on a fiery throne, an all-powerful God giving dominion over all peoples, nations, and languages.

Psalm (Track One): Psalm 132:1-13 (14-19)

Sunday’s Psalm continues in the spirit of this week’s first reading about David and God’s covenant to bless and bring prosperity to him and to his descendants. Remembering the hardships that David endured in keeping his oath to God, the Psalmist vows not to rest until Israel builds a temple on Mount Zion, a dwelling place on earth where God can rest. If Israel’s children keep the covenant that their kingly ancestor made with God, then Israel will sit on David’s throne forever.

Psalm (Track Two): Psalm 93

God is king! God is majestic! God is powerful! How this mighty hymn must have thundered through the ancient temple, celebrating the power and the kingship of God in metaphors of sound and fury: Roaring floods and massive ocean waves thundering, calling out the glory of God our king. Unlike earthly kings, the Psalmist sings, God’s world is certain, immovable and mighty. God’s kingdom will endure, sure and holy, for ever and evermore.

Second Reading: Revelation 1:4b-8

This greeting from the first page of Revelation gives away the simple secret of this mysterious book: It is not a strange and frightening prediction of the End Times, nor does it conceal coded information about our times, or any other time or place. It was a subversive sermon for persecuted Christians in Asia Minor, carrying this simple message: God our King, who was with us at the beginning and will be with us at the end, loves us and frees us from our sins through Christ. In words that echo the Daniel reading, we hear that Jesus our Savior, God, ruler of all the kings of the earth, will come back with the clouds to deliver justice.

Gospel: John 18:33-37

Finally, in John’s Gospel, Jesus makes his kingship clear as he stands before Pilate. Or does he? Accused of declaring himself king of the Jews, an act of treason against the powerful Roman Empire, Jesus answers, clearly and firmly, “My kingdom is not of this world.” Pilate remains puzzled. Jesus stakes his claim to a kingdom and claims his kingship, but it’s “not from here,” adding that he came into the world to testify to the truth. Is he a king? “You say so,” Jesus replies to Pilate. But when and how will this kingdom come? Will it come in the future with trumpet blasts and fire and brimstone? Or do we build it every day when we act as Christ’s hands in the world?

What are “Track 1” and “Track 2”?
During the long green season after Pentecost, there are two tracks (or strands) each week for Old Testament readings. Within each track, there is a Psalm chosen to accompany the particular lesson.
The Revised Common Lectionary allows us to make use of either of these tracks, but once a track has been selected, it should be followed through to the end of the Pentecost season, rather than jumping back and forth between the two strands.
For more information from LectionaryPage.net, click here.

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Thoughts on Sunday’s Lessons for Nov. 26, 2017

The Last Judgment

The Last Judgment (1536-1541), fresco by Michelangelo Buonarotti (1475-1564). Sistine Chapel, Rome. (Click image to enlarge.)

First Reading (Track One): Ezekiel 34:11-16, 20-24

The six-month-long Pentecost season comes to its end this week in the festival day known as Christ the King or, for those who prefer more inclusive language, The Reign of Christ. These readings reveal Jesus Christ as a different kind of king than earthly rulers; no traditional patriarch but a loving shepherd caring for the flock. In our first reading, Ezekiel prophesies to the people in exile, using the metaphor of a kingly shepherd feeding and caring for the sheep. Then, in verses we will hear echoed in Matthew’s Gospel, the prophet writes that God will judge the fat sheep and the lean, protecting the lost and weak sheep while destroying the powerful sheep who ravaged them.

Psalm (Track One): Psalm 100

Both Lectionary tracks for Christ the King sing out joy and praise for God, our maker and protector, in verses that are also provided for use in Morning Prayer. Track One is the Jubilate, a call for God’s people and all God’s lands to serve the Lord our God with gladness and song. We are the protected sheep of God’s pasture, joyously singing thanksgiving and praise for God’s everlasting mercy that endures from age to age.

Psalm (Track Two): Psalm 95:1-7a

Does this hymn sound familiar? You’ve probably recited or chanted it as the Venite in Morning Prayer. These verses sing out unalloyed worship and praise, creater and protector of all things, and, in harmony with today’s readings, both king of kings above all gods and loving shepherd who cares for us, the protected sheep of God’s hand.

Second Reading: Ephesians 1:15-23

For the last Sunday in Pentecost, we turn from reading in 1 Thessalonians, perhaps the earliest of Paul’s letters, to Ephesians, a much later epistle that was probably written in Paul’s name by a first century Christian a generation after Paul’s death, not long after the Gospel of Matthew was written. In 1 Thessalonians Paul offered hope that Christ would return soon, while many in the church were still alive. This later letter provides a glimpse of the early church’s evolving understanding of Christ, a vision that we will also see in today’s Gospel: The resurrected Jesus is placed at God’s right hand and given authority over all things in heaven and in the church, Christ’s body on earth.

Gospel: Matthew 25:31-46

Matthew’s long series of parables about the kingdom of heaven now ends with this familiar Gospel. It isn’t always easy to see Jesus in the face of a hungry, thirsty, homeless person, sick and naked and oppressed. But Matthew tells us clearly that this is the way that we make God’s kingdom happen. Then, echoing our first reading, Matthew paints a disturbing picture of the fate that awaits those who fail to find Christ in the hungry and the weak: They earn eternal punishment, a place in the outer darkness that also awaited the slave with the single talent and the foolish bridesmaids. This parable may warn that we ignore Jesus’ call to serve only at our peril. But know, too, that the mighty king who judges us is also the loving shepherd who shows us how we are to love one another.

What are “Track 1” and “Track 2”?
During the long green season after Pentecost, there are two tracks (or strands) each week for Old Testament readings. Within each track, there is a Psalm chosen to accompany the particular lesson.
The Revised Common Lectionary allows us to make use of either of these tracks, but once a track has been selected, it should be followed through to the end of the Pentecost season, rather than jumping back and forth between the two strands.
For more information from LectionaryPage.net, click here.

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Thoughts on Today’s Lessons for Nov. 20, 2016

Christ and the Good Thief

Christ and the Good Thief, oil painting by a follower of Titian, c.1566. Pinacoteca Nazionale di Bologna, Italy.

First Reading (Both Lectionary Tracks): Jeremiah 23:1-6

We celebrate the feast of Christ the King today, marking the end of the Pentecost season and turning toward Advent. In this reading we hear the prophet Jeremiah speaking forceful truth to the leaders of Babylon, who were holding Israel and Judah in exile. God will soon round up the remnant of his scattered flock and bring them home like a shepherd, the prophet foretells, warning the oppressors that they will be punished for their evil. Soon God will raise up a a mighty new king in David’s tradition, restoring the glory of the lost kingdoms. As Christians we may see our hope of good shepherd and mighty king reflected in these words, but we must not ignore their original intent as God’s promise to return the people from exile.

Canticle 16, BCP (Luke 1:68-79)

This week we sing Canticle 16, Luke’s Song of Zechariah, instead of a Psalm. Zechariah, whose wife, Elizabeth, was the cousin of Jesus’ mother, Mary, was a priest at the Temple. When he refused to believe that his elderly wife had become pregnant after an angelic visitation, he was struck mute. Now his voice returns when he holds and names the infant John. The child, he declares, will be a prophet in the tradition of Abraham and Sarah – who also were blessed with a child in their old age through God’s action. We know that John, the Baptist, will proclaim the fulfillment of God’s covenant in Jesus, who sets us free.

Psalm (Track Two): Psalm 46

This Psalm of praise may not explicitly speak of kings, but it reassures us that whenever terrible things happen, even when earthly kingdoms and nations are shaken by frightening events, when mountains rock and the oceans roar and foam, God remains with us. God doesn’t promise us a world where horrors can’t happen and no one ever suffers. But even in the worst of times, God abides, inviting us to take refuge in God’s strength. ​Our Prayer for Quiet Confidence (BCP p.832), ​draws from ​Psalm ​46 ​​as it ​reminds us, “Be still, and know that I am God.”

Second Reading: Colossians 1:11-20

The Christian community of Colossae in what is now Western Turkey may have felt something like Jeremiah’s remnant of Israel in exile, as they faced Roman persecution and feared that they might lose their homes and even their lives for their faith. The author of this letter urges them to endure their difficulties with patience and the strength that comes from God’s glorious power expressed through Jesus. We gain redemption and the forgiveness of our sins through Christ, whose incarnation as God in human flesh makes him the first of all creation and the head of the body of the church.

Gospel: Luke 23:33-43

It may seem surprising to hear a passage from Luke’s account of the Crucifixion at this time of year. But this shows Christ as an entirely different kind of king! Jesus is crucified, a horrible death reserved for Rome’s most despised evildoers. He hangs bleeding and in unimaginable pain, while above him is placed a sign meant to mock him by declaring him King of the Jews. Soldiers and a criminal on a nearby cross torment him as a Messiah who can’t save himself. Yet while all this is going on, Jesus shows his love and his true power, quietly inviting a repentant criminal on another cross into a different kind of kingdom, one given for all humanity and for all time.

Christ the King B

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Thoughts on Today’s Lessons for Nov. 22, 2015

Christ as King of Kings.

Christ as King of Kings. Russian icon from Murom (1690)

First Reading: Daniel 7:9-10, 13-14

All of today’s readings show us aspects of God as King, from the mighty celestial ruler imagined in Daniel to John’s vision of the suffering servant Jesus on trial, king of a very different realm. Daniel in these verses portrays God, an Ancient One, hair and gown in snowy white, seated on a fiery throne and served by thousands, judging all humanity and sending out a human messiah to rule as king over all the nations.

Psalm: Psalm 93

Written in an age when earthly kings held real and ultimate power over their people, this mighty hymn of praise portrays God as a king among kings from time before time. Unlike earthly kings, the Psalmist sings, God’s world is certain, immovable and mighty. God’s kingdom will endure, sure and holy, for ever and evermore.

Second Reading: Revelation 1:4b-8

This greeting from the first page of Revelation, that mysterious book that ends the New Testament, gives away its simple secret: This is no strange and frightening prediction of the End Times, nor does it conceal coded information about our times, or any time or place other than seven small churches in what is now Western Turkey, where early Christians suffered under persecution from Rome. The narrative that follows paints a startling image that remains through the ages: Jesus our Savior, God, ruler of all the kings of the earth, coming back with the clouds to deliver justice.

Gospel: John 18:33-37

Jesus, facing the final hours before his death by crucifixion, has been handed over to Pilate, the Roman governor. Soon he will wear a mocking, painful king’s crown made of thorns. But Pilate’s primary concern is political: Has this rabbi declared himself king? This would be an act of treason against Rome’s all-powerful emperor, a capital offense. When Jesus finally answers, clearly and firmly, “My kingdom is not of this world,” Pilate remains puzzled. Jesus stakes his claim to a kingdom and claims his kingship, but “not from here,” adding that he came into the world to testify to the truth.” Here today’s Gospel ends, but we surely remember the next words out of Pilate’s mouth: “What is truth?” Pilate finds no guilt in Jesus, but the crowds will have their way.