November 20, 2022 – The Reign of Christ

Today’s Gospel text may seem out of sequence to us. After all, here we are on the last Sunday of the Christian year (Advent is the beginning of a new church year and it begins next Sunday.), and we are reading texts that remind us of Holy Week, Good Friday, and Easter. And where does this term “Reign of Christ” that we use today really come from? Many of you might be wondering why we did away with “Christ the King Sunday”. And these are ALL great questions.

To start with, we haven’t done away with Christ the King Sunday. I don’t think kings and queens are something that most of us can understand precisely, and when we talk about God being an unknown, but loving being, we don’t know whether God is male or female. And so naming Christ as King, although we for sure know that Jesus was a male, can speak to some of us who have had abusive males in our lives in a very negative way. Kingship seems foreign and outdated (although we’ve all learned from the death of Queen Elizabeth II). This phrase “Reign of Christ” just seems to be more inclusive and recognizable. And sometimes, just by giving things a new name, we draw attention to them in new ways.

But the larger question is, what is it when we speak of Christ reigning? It’s clear from our Gospels that Jesus redefined what it means to be a king. The one who reigns, Christ, was tried as a criminal, punished by those in authority, and crucified  – killed in a heinous act of execution devised by those in power. And to this one, we pledge our allegiance. We gather weekly to worship and follow he who reigns over us, Christ our king.

So… how do we worship this king? With our words and praises. Let our worship be full of songs of praise to Christ, our king. Let our prayers abound with our commitment to the one who reigns over us. Let our pledge to be followers of Christ to eternity.

That’s all well and good to say in words, but what does this mean for us as we leave the church building after worship today? What are the marks of those of us who are citizens of the kingdom of God and not just of this world? How will we live differently? How will we live out this citizenship of God’s kingdom?  

Jesus said, “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.” This brings us back to these words – this first word from the cross. It is interesting that this first word isn’t a word to us; it is a word to God. Jesus still has much to tell us, much to pass on to us even with his dying breaths. But he uses this first word to intercede for us yet again. “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.”

It is not an easy word to hear, because knowledge is so important to us. We strive after knowledge. We live in an information age. We grow to the age of understanding. We confer degrees of knowledge upon one another. We pride ourselves on our intelligence quotient. Yet when push comes to shove, when life bumps up against death, when meaning stands before us, salvation is offered to us, love reaches to embrace us, we need to be forgiven because we don’t know what we are doing.

We live out the kingdom daily by loving God and loving our neighbor in tangible ways. We can only live as followers of Christ when we do it together. When we can all “forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.”

To whom do we go… with whom do we grow… as we seek to be one who doesn’t scoff at the criminal dying on the cross, but instead sees the king who will forever and always reign over our lives? Who will forever forgive us, for we know not what we are doing.