Christ the King Sunday

Today's Saying

A man can no more diminish God's glory by refusing to worship Him than a lunatic can put out the sun by scribbling the word, 'darkness' on the walls of his cell. ~C.S. Lewis

With the Sunday we end the Liturgical year. It the Sunday of Christ the King. Next Sunday we start a new year and will move from the year B lectionary texts to the year C texts. We will move from Gospels for the most part out of Mark to those out of Luke.
If you attend a liturgical church you might not even notice that it’s the end of the Church year. There will be no special year end ceremonies , no horns blaring, no firecrackers. There will be a proclamation that Jesus is Lord. But it is an important proclamation.
The Gospel text is John 18:33-37.
Here Jesus face Pilate and Pilate asks him straight out “ Are you the King of the Jews?”
Pilate is having a hard time with Jesus. He can’t really find anything wrong with him but if he claims kingship then he can be perceived as a threat .
Jesus answer is not what Pilate expects.
Jesus says his Kingdom is not of this world. He has no earthly armies. He calls forth no battles. His is a new Kingdom breaking in to the world.
For those of us who live in this new Kingdom now, at least in part, this is good news.
Jesus is the King. He has come, as promised to deliver us. He has opened for us a new world filled with new possibilities.
He has given us the power to forgive. The power to rise above our hateful nature.
He has granted us the power to reach out in love.
He has changed our lives forever.
Christ is King and this is the Sunday that we are reminded that we have heard his voice and responded to his truth.
We stand partially in the coming Kingdom and partially in the old.
But for us Jesus is King and this is Christ the King Sunday.
A wonderful way for the Church year to end.
Jesus is Lord. Jesus is Lord indeed.

Pastor Joan is preparing what she prays will be her last sermon before returning to 2009. Here is part of that sermon.
Today the Church year ends and perhaps we will begin the next one back in 2009. But if we do or if we don’t one thing will remain true. Jesus Christ is King.
He is our King.
He is our Savior.
He is our God.
He is there in the good times and the bad.
He never abandons us.
But we owe Him our allegiance.
Sometimes we forget that.
We are so happy that Christ is there for us that we forget we are called to follow Him.
Sometimes we get so caught up in how He serves us we forget we are called to serve Him in the world by serving others.
Christ the King Sunday reminds us that Jesus is Lord.
He is more than some nice old God who pulls us out of the ditches of life.
He expects us to be his Body the Church in this world.
That is quiet an expectation.
It is hard to live the way Jesus wants us too. It is hard to give ourselves in the serving of others.
But we are His people. This is what we are called to do.
It is Christ the King Sunday and Jesus is Lord.