Every year, as
the Christian calendar winds around, we celebrate “Reign of Christ,” Sunday. This is the final Sunday of the Christian
“year.” Next week, we start a new cycle through the calendar on the first
Sunday of Advent.
This morning, we focus on Jesus as
the “king” of the world, reigning over us as a powerful and protective ruler.
Hear our reading as it comes from Paul’s letter to the Colossians, chapter one
verses eleven through twenty:
Proclamation of the Scripture Colossians 1:11-20
May you be
made strong with all the strength that comes from his glorious power, so that
you may have all endurance and patience, joyfully
giving thanks
to the Father, who has enabled you to share in the inheritance of the
saints in the light.
He has rescued
us from the power of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of his
beloved Son,
in whom we have
redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
He (Christ) is the image of the invisible
God, the firstborn of all creation,
for
in him all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and
invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or powers—all things have
been created through him and for him.
He himself is
before all things, and in him all things hold together.
He is the head
of the body, the church; he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so
that he might come to have first place in everything.
For in him all
the fullness of God was pleased to dwell,
and through
him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in
heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross.
Here ends this reading of the Word of God for the people
of God. Thanks be to God. Amen.
Prayer of illumination
O God Most High! Everlasting Lord, mighty and lifted up! Grant
to us your Holy Spirit, that in these words of Holy Scripture our hearts might
be lifted up and our minds set on heavenly realities, that contemplating the
reign of our ascended Lord we might long to be with him and enter into the joy
of his eternal kingdom. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Message Together
in Christ
When Jesus was on the verge of
his crucifixion, he was taken to Roman ruler Pontius Pilate to be
questioned. Pilate asked Jesus if he was
the king of the Jews. Jesus replied, “My
kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my
arrest by the Jewish leaders. But now my kingdom is from another place….you say
that I am a king. In fact, the reason I was born and came into the world is to
testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.”
God is the creator of the universe.
Everything we have on earth and in the heavens was created and caused by God.
Jesus came to earth to point us towards God, to point us to the truth, to point
out the truth to us. We believe God, in the form of Jesus, came to earth and
lived among us, to teach us the truth.
Before God came to earth as Jesus, God had tried to tell us things
through talking to the prophets and having them relay message to us. But,
relying on the words of men and women was problematic, so God came to earth to
speak to us directly as Jesus.
After Jesus departed the world, and ascended to heaven, he returned
to be with God, and now is the part of God that can most relate to us. Jesus is
the part of God who physically felt pain, who physically suffered, who had the
experience of hugging his mother and eating soup with his friends. Jesus is the
part of God that experienced life as us
and with us on earth. Now, Jesus is reigning with God over the heavens and
the earth.
This all can be a little confusing
for us. We have trouble explaining this
aspect of our theology to children – they struggle to understand how we can
believe God came to earth as Jesus and then went back to being part of God. It
is difficult to understand that Jesus was God and yet he prayed to God when he
was on earth. In twenty-first century human terms, it is like God had a
multiple personality disorder – God split off as Jesus, and as the Holy Spirit,
and then comes back together as God. As
Jesus taught: “What is impossible with man is possible with God.” Jesus was
both a human man and God, and now Jesus is with the God-head again.
As Jesus told Pilate, his kingdom is
not of this world. Today, we focus on the Reign of God over all the earth. When
we pray the end of the Lord’s Prayer, we say: “For thine is the kingdom and the
power and the glory, forever.” God has created and is creating the earth and
all who dwell here. Unlike an earthly king or ruler, God’s power comes from
God’s love for us….God doesn’t need armies…God doesn’t need police…God doesn’t
need to give speeches or to be elected to have power. God’s power comes from
love. When we pray for God’s kingdom and
power and glory to be here forever, we are saying we belong to God, the King of
the world. Our allegiance is to God
first and foremost. Our love for God supersedes our love for our nation, our
love for our friends, our love for our teams, our love for our job, our love
for our group. We belong – body and soul, in life and in death – to our faithful
Savior, Jesus Christ.
Our work as Christians is to work to
make our world more and more of a reflection of God’s teachings for us. Our
work is to make the kingdom of God obvious to others as being here on earth. Jesus
reminded us the most important commandments for us to live out are the command
to love God and the command to love our neighbors as much as we love ourselves.
We must live out the love commandments by caring for one another. When we treat
other people with compassion and love, we are building the kingdom of God. When
we strive for justice for all people, we are standing in opposition to the
sinful attitude of the culture of humans – we are saying peace is more
important than power, equality is more important than wealth, charity is more
important than greed, humility is more important than pride, and gratitude is
more important than fame.
In the kingdom of God, whoever
wishes to be first must become last of all and servant of all. Whoever thinks
they are first are actually last. When Jesus was questioned about how to enter
the Kingdom of God, Jesus pointed to a child and said that “whoever takes the
lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And
whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me” – Jesus. We are called
to welcome vulnerable people in the name of God, and in turn, we will help make
the kingdom of God more visible here on earth.
Today, we celebrate that God is
reigning over the earth. It is our work to not only praise and worship God for
God’s rule over us, but also to live compassionately and help others to see God
through our work in the world. We are called to make God’s kingdom and rule
visible to people who don’t yet have a relationship with God and who need to
feel God’s loving presence in their lives. We are here to humble ourselves and
love and serve our God.
May we do so today and all days.
Amen.
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