Today is the last Sunday in the church year. Next week, Advent Sunday, marks the start of the new Christian year as we begin to reflect specifically on our readiness to meet Jesus, whether that is in the celebration of his birth at Christmas, or at his promised second coming.
This is the Sunday that has been designated as Christ the King Sunday, a day to reflect on our relationship with God and to ask the question of whether Christ really is the King of our lives.
In our readings today we’re drawn into this reflection...
The reading from Jeremiah (23:1-6) talks about a common biblical topic - shepherds. Shepherds were caring and attentive. They were willing to risk everything to guide and protect the sheep in their care so it’s not surprising that this was used so commonly as an indication of how God cares for his people.
But in this reading from Jeremiah, things have started to go wrong - these shepherds weren’t caring for the sheep in their care. In fact, quite the opposite. They were driving away and scattering the sheep. They were not exercising any sort of leadership, care or guidance - they were no longer fit for purpose and things needed to change.
But this isn’t just a warning of condemnation because it includes a promise that God will step in. God will provide leadership, care, guidance, love.... He will deliver as the reading says, justice and righteousness. Jeremiah then makes reference to the kingdoms of Judah and Israel, ancient kingdoms then, but he says they will be saved and live in safety... This isn’t some historical promise but an opening up of the possibility of salvation to all people.
God would be the hope and strength of all his people, and our psalm (46) begins with those words. God would always be present even in a dark world, even in the darkest moments of OUR lives... God is our hope and strength, the one to whom we can always turn.
While all around us there may seem to be chaos and misery and conflict, God is here, but sometimes we ignore that or don’t see it... The writer of the psalm has advice on this too - we are to ‘be still and know...’
I’m terrible at being still, I don’t like times of silence, but this is life changing stuff. We are to be still and spend time with God however hard it may be. We are to spend time in prayer, sometimes speaking, sometimes thinking, always listening. We need to take time out to recognise God’s strength and power and wisdom, and to recognise over and over again how precious we are in God’s sight, how loved we are by him.
The passage from Paul’s letter to the Colossians (1:11-20) was written perhaps to encourage the young church there or perhaps to address some opposition that was growing. Whatever the reason it is encouraging the congregation there to know that, whatever they face, they must remain strong and faithful. It is a continuation of the same broad theme as the Old Testament reading and the Psalm - knowing God’s presence, knowing his love and having confidence in him at the centre of our lives.
Jesus has given us strength, he has revealed his love for us and he calls us to trust, ‘be still and know that I am God’ says the psalm... And Jesus through the centuries has been portrayed differently but he has never changed, he has never moved away from being the bringer of justice and righteousness, the epitome of love and the giver of salvation...
There’s a story told before about a captain of a ship who looked into the dark night and saw faint lights in the distance. Immediately he told his signalman to send a message, "Alter your course 10 degrees south."
Promptly a return message was received back : "Alter your course 10 degrees north."
The captain was angered; his command had been ignored. So he sent a second message: "Alter your course 10 degrees south--I am the captain!"
Soon another message was received back: "Alter your course 10 degrees north--I am seaman third class Jones."
Immediately the captain sent a third message, knowing the fear it would evoke: "Alter your course 10 degrees south - I am a battleship.”
Then the reply came "Alter your course 10 degrees north--I am a lighthouse."
In the midst of our dark and foggy times, all sorts of voices are shouting orders into the night, telling us what to do, how to adjust our lives. Out of the darkness, one voice signals something quite opposite to the rest -something almost absurd - trust, be still.… But the voice happens to be the Light of the World, and we ignore it at our our peril.
Jesus is unchanging and his message and his love are unchanging. He is described in the letter to the Colossians as the image of the invisible God - in other words he is God in human form and God’s nature is revealed in him and it is an image we are called to follow...
And that image, that nature, is perfectly revealed in our gospel (Luke 23:33-43). On the cross with criminals hanging on either side of him, the Saviour of the world prays for forgiveness for those people who have put him there, for those who hated him....
How it puts us to shame with some of our petty squabbles and likes and dislikes... It is a reminder of the incredible grace and mercy of God, a reminder of love that brings and endures so much pain as he was wounded by people he loves, but it is also a reminder that we are never beyond redemption with him.
God never closes the door on us for good - whoever we are, whatever we’ve done, the invitation to turn back to him remains unchanged....
And so on this Christ the King Sunday we’re asked to think of where we put Christ in our lives... part of that answer will be known only by us and by God, but part of the answer will be shown in our love for others, in our kindness and compassion, in how we seek to work and live for justice and righteousness, how we offer forgiveness, knowing the forgiveness we have received, how we treat those we struggle to even like....
Christ the King is the King of every part of our lives or no part at all - there isn’t an in between. Each one of us may be far from the finished product, far from perfect, far from emulating Jesus as we would like and hope, but he doesn’t ask for the finished article, he simply asks for us to be ready to put him at the centre of our lives, to seek continually his strength, to have hope because we know him and to live our lives confident of salvation, not through anything we’ve done but through what God has done and is doing for us, and ready to offer that hope of salvation through our words and through our actions... through our lives.
As we approach Advent, the start of a new Christian year, we’re called again to recognise God’s love and his grace, and we are asked the question, ‘How do we respond?’ AMEN
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