Category Archives: Christ the King

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Thoughts on Today’s Lessons for Nov. 23, 2014

Mosaic of the Last Judgment

Mosaic of the Last Judgment from Ravenna, Italy c. 520CE

First Reading: Ezekiel 34:11-16, 20-24


The long Pentecost season ends today, a festival day long known as Christ the King. For many of us, the idea of kingship may seem an echo of old times. But today’s readings suggest that Jesus Christ is a different kind of king, not a traditional patriarch but a loving shepherd. Ezekiel’s prophecy spoke to Israel in exile, praying for a new King David in a new Jerusalem where those who have suffered will be restored. For Christians, it’s hard not to look back and see Jesus reflected in these ancient verses, understanding Jesus as the perfect image of God in human form.

Psalm: Psalm 100

This joyous hymn, which Episcopalians may recognize as the Jubilate in Morning Prayer, carries out the image of God’s people as the protected sheep of God’s pasture, joyously singing thanksgiving and praise.

Psalm (Track 2): Psalm 95:1-7a

This joyous hymn, which Episcopalians may recognize as the Venite in Morning Prayer, carries out the image of God as king and shepherd. We are the protected sheep of God’s hand, joyously singing thanksgiving and praise.

Second Reading: Ephesians 1:15-23

After spending a few weeks with 1 Thessalonians, perhaps the earliest of Paul’s letters, we now turn to Ephesians, a later epistle most likely written by a first century Christian a generation after Paul’s death. Perhaps working out the early church’s growing understanding of Christ, 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

Matthew now concludes his series of parables on the kingdom of heaven with this familiar reading. Recognizing the face of Jesus in the face of a hungry, thirsty, homeless person, sick and naked and oppressed, isn’t always easy, but Matthew leaves us in no doubt that this is the way to make God’s kingdom happen. Then Matthew turns from loving our hungry neighbor to warning that those who fail to do so will earn eternal punishment. This is a hard teaching. Do you think that Matthew is saying that, once we know what Jesus asks of us, we ignore his call at our peril? But remember, too, that the one who judges us is the one who loves us the most.

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Thoughts on Today’s Lessons for Sunday, Nov. 24, 2013.

Christ in Judgment

Christ in Judgment

First Reading: Jeremiah 23:1-6
The prophet Jeremiah spoke these fierce words of woe to the leaders of Babylon, who were holding Jerusalem and its leaders in exile. He foresaw a mighty new King David restoring the glory of Israel and Judah, the lost kingdoms of the chosen people. It is important for us to understand these ringing verses in their original intent. But it can be reassuring for Christians, too, to see reflected in these words another promise: our hope in Jesus as both good shepherd and mighty king and savior, who reigns over all with justice and righteousness

Psalm: Psalm 46
Even when terrible things happen, God is with us. This assurance offers simple hope, and yet it can be hard to hear. When Typhoon Haiyan hit the Philippines, surely the mountains shook in the heart of the sea as its waters roared and foamed. God does not promise us a world where horrors can’t happen and no one suffers. But even in the worst of times, God is there, inviting us to take refuge in God’s strength. Today’s verse reflects the beauty of our Prayer for Quiet Confidence (BCP p.832): “Be still, and know that I am God.”

Psalm (Track 2): Luke 1:68-79 (Canticle 16, BCP)
Zechariah, a temple priest who God had struck mute for refusing to believe that his elderly wife, Elizabeth, had become pregnant after an angelic visitation, gets his voice back 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 had been blessed with a child through God’s action in their old age. We know that John, the Baptist, will proclaim the fulfillment of God’s covenant in Jesus, who will set us free as our mighty savior.

Second Reading: Colossians 1:11-20
Like Jeremiah and the Psalmist, the author of the letter to the Colossians, too, speaks to a people in trouble, the persecuted Christian community of Colossae in what is now Western Turkey. These verses urge them to endure their difficulties with patience and the strength that comes from God’s glorious power through Jesus, 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
And so we come to the end of Pentecost season and Jesus’s long road to Jerusalem with a Gospel reading that recalls Good Friday … and our hope for Easter and the resurrection! Jesus is crucified, a horrible death reserved for Rome’s most despised evildoers, in the company of criminals. The soldiers and one criminal taunt him as a failed king, while Jesus quietly invites the repentant criminal into a different kind of kingdom, for all humanity and for all time.

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Thoughts on Today’s Lessons for Sunday, Nov. 25, 2012.

Christ the KingFirst Reading: Daniel 7:9-10, 13-14
It might seem a little strange to us as Americans, remembering our 1776 revolution against the British king, to view our God as monarch and Jesus as warrior king. Yet we do so today as we look to the culmination of history and Christ as king. Daniel portrays a mighty God of flame on a fiery throne. Many modern Christians 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 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. When we chant this psalm today, sing out in a mighty chorus!

Second Reading: Revelation 1:4b-8
There has been a lot of talk about End Times lately, including the popular “Left Behind” stories, and pop-culture talk of the Mayan Calendar wrapping things up for us all next month. The book of Revelation, originally written as a subversive sermon against ancient Rome and its pagan emperors, actually carries a hint of more rational hope amid the kingly metaphors: 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.

Gospel: John 18:33-37
Finally, in John’s Gospel, Jesus makes his kingship clear. Or does he? Accused of declaring himself king of the Jews, an act of treason against the powerful Roman Empire, Jesus tells Pilate that his kingdom is not of this world. Is he a king? “You say so,” Jesus replies. But is his kingdom of this world or the next? That’s not so clear. Will God’s kingdom 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?