Reverend Ref +

YEAR C - PENTECOST 25 - PROPER 29 - CHRIST THE KING

Today is the last Sunday of the church year. Next week we begin anew. We begin with Advent. We begin by looking forward to the coming of Jesus. We begin by looking forward to God being manifest in human form.

A lot can happen in a year. This time last year I was more than halfway through the first term of my senior year. I was trying to get answers from my COM. I was looking for Children’s Chapel replacements. What were you doing last year?

The church year begins with Advent, the time of looking forward to the coming of the Messiah. We move to Epiphany, when God’s manifestation in Jesus is made know to the Gentiles, symbolized by the wise men. From there it’s Lent. God has come down to walk among us, and we recognize our own shortcoming through penitence and forgiveness. After those days of self-examination and denial, we celebrate a new beginning with Easter. The old has passed away and we are made new.

Pentecost follows. The time when our new life is infused with the Holy Spirit. We spend the rest of the year living out our faith, proclaiming the good news and inviting others to join us.

All of this culminates in today, the last Sunday of the year. All of our preparation and celebration and study and worship leads us to proclaim, "Christ is King!" We are like the disciples who said, "We have forsaken all to follow you. To whom else can we go?" Today all of our differences are cast aside as we shout, "Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!"

But Jesus is no ordinary king. He rides into town on an unbroken colt. He will tell Pilate that his kingdom is not of this world. He will be reviled by all and he will die on a cross.

When we think about kings, what comes to mind? A royal dynasty? A conqueror? Someone whose every wish becomes your command? But that’s not Jesus, is it? Well, maybe with the exception of the royal lineage as found over in Matthew.

Jesus as conqueror? Not really. He had the power to defeat Rome, but he used it to heal instead. He had a following who would have gladly become freedom fighters. They would have gladly laid down their own lives for . . . oh, shall we say "jihad." But rather than attack the enemy, he asked his followers to love them. The only thing Jesus conquered was death.

What about the wish/command thing? As standard understanding goes, this isn’t the case. Visions of the Queen of Hearts, "Off with her head!" or the extravagances of Louis XIV, or the power mad George III come to mind. What also comes to mind is the plight of their subjects. Very few people chose to be subject to the king. That was the way it was, or you were conquered.

But not our king. Jesus asks us to follow him. He asks us to be his subjects. He asks us to forsake all. And in that subjection, in that following, in that bondage, as Paul says, we are given perfect freedom. In that freedom, we recognize that Jesus doesn’t take, he gives. We recognize that without him we’d be lost. We recognize that death is no more, and we have been given life – and given life abundantly.

It is through this newfound abundance in God that allows and encourages us to give to the food bank, to donate our time to the church, to tithe to the best of our ability, and to help reconcile the world with God.

Kings of the world are normally bad news. But our king isn’t of this world. Our king offers hope and freedom. Our king bases his rule on love. Our king allows us to choose. We should be excited about that. We should be willing to say, "Christ is my king.’ And, like the crowd in Jerusalem, we should be willing to shout, "Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!"

It’s the end of the year. How did this one change you? How will you proclaim Christ as your King in the next one?