Today in the Spirit: Proper 29C (Christ the King)
The feast of Christ the King is the Church’s celebration of Jesus Christ’s kingship over all things, earthly and heavenly. Though many Anglican provinces around the world have unofficially celebrated the feast for a century, the only official Prayer Book designation I could find of the final Sunday of Pentecost as “Christ the King” is in the BCP 2019. In Year C, the assigned Gospel reading is Luke 23:35-52. In this section of Luke’s coverage of the crucifixion narrative, a sign posted above Jesus’ cross, “This is the King of the Jews” (38), provides a point of irony when one of the two criminals crucified alongside him prays, “‘Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom’” (42). He is King of the Universe, yet only the meek can see it.
The assigned OT reading from Jeremiah 23:1-6 begins as an indictment speech by God directed against the evil kings of Judah, perhaps especially Zedekiah (see 21:1ff). They are the “shepherds” of the nation on trial before YHWH. God will redress the plight of his people by appointing new rulers (Zerubbabel, Ezra or Nehemiah?) after the exile. More prominent, however, in this text is the announcement of the advent of the Messiah: “Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land” (5). In our worship, we joyfully confess Jesus Christ to be King in fulfillment of this prophecy.
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The appointed Psalm 46 is a beloved song of praise that has inspired the creation of countless hymns and choruses across the centuries. Whether our worship on this Sunday is accompanied by music like Martin Luther’s “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God” or Shane and Shane “Lord of Hosts,” we will hear the echo of this psalmist’s opening line, “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble” (1). In our adoration on the feast of Christ the King, we fall at the feet of YHWH declaring, “Be still then and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, and I will be exalted in the earth” (10).
The NT readings selected each year for Christ the King demand from the worshiper attention to among the most profound pieces of biblical literature we have on the universal sovereignty of Christ. In Year C, hearing Colossians 1:11-20, we are inspired in our worship to expand the horizons of our localized faith with Paul’s words: “And [the beloved Son] is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent” (17-18).
The Collect for Christ the King is one of the newest in the BCP, composed initially by the Roman Catholic Church for the celebration of this feast day, established in 1925 (exactly 100 years ago). It calls upon us to, first, draw upon the witness of our hearts and the scriptures in affirming the largest of God’s purposes “to restore all things in” Christ, “King of kings and Lord of lords;” and, then, to calculate that truth into a plea for what seems to us be the most insurmountable task, that “the peoples of the earth, divided and enslaved by sin, may be freed and brought together under his most gracious rule.” In him, and in his rule alone, is the only hope for the human race.
The Collect
Almighty and everlasting God, whose will it is to restore all things in your well-beloved Son, the King of kings and Lord of lords: Mercifully grant that the peoples of the earth, divided and enslaved by sin, may be freed and brought together under his most gracious rule; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
Behold the Days Are Coming (Jeremiah 23:1-6)
1 “Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture!” declares the Lord. 2 Therefore thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, concerning the shepherds who care for my people: “You have scattered my flock and have driven them away, and you have not attended to them. Behold, I will attend to you for your evil deeds, declares the Lord. 3 Then I will gather the remnant of my flock out of all the countries where I have driven them, and I will bring them back to their fold, and they shall be fruitful and multiply. 4 I will set shepherds over them who will care for them, and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, neither shall any be missing, declares the Lord. 5 “Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. 6 In his days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely. And this is the name by which he will be called: ‘The Lord is our righteousness.’
Jeremiah 23:1-6
This passage comes at the end of the long section of the prophet’s oracles against Jerusalem and Judah covering the whole first half of the book (Chs. 1-25). We recognize in this passage much the same dynamic we saw in the Malachi reading last Sunday: YHWH severely condemning those who are responsible for Israel’s demise (here the “shepherds,” referring to weak governing rulers); and his longing to return his people to “their fold” (“their pasture,” NIV). The great desire of God is the salvation of his people and the setting over them of a new king, called “The LORD is our righteousness” (6), clearly foretelling the coming of Jesus.
Devotionally, this passage instructs us how to pray into the will of God. What is his purpose here: the overthrowing of the shepherds? That is a means to an end. The end is his own glory to be manifested in the establishment of his people. How are your prayers directed lately? Are they only for the eradication of that which is destructive, upsetting, or inconvenient? Do they carry the sentiments of God speaking through Jeremiah toward leading his people, including yourself, to God’s “pasture,” the place (if that is the right word) ordained by him for their happiness and the worship of his name. Beloved, let your prayer life take into account God’s grand purposes. “Let your conquest come, Lord Jesus, over the evil shepherds throughout the world, not according to our own preferences, but that your ‘righteousness’ may cover the world as the waters cover the sea. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”
Today, Holy Spirit, let the prophecies we hear in this season convert our prayers into a chorus singing back to you your own desires for our King Jesus and us, his people.
A Very Present Help in Trouble (Psalm 46)
1 God is our refuge and strength, *
Psalm 46, New Coverdale Psalter (BCP 2019)
a very present help in trouble.
2 Therefore we will not fear, though the earth be moved, *
and though the hills be carried into the midst of the sea;
3 Though its waters rage and swell, *
and though the mountains shake at its tempest.
4 There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, *
the holy dwelling place of the Most High.
5 God is in the midst of her; therefore she shall not be moved. *
God shall help her at the break of day.
6 The nations are in an uproar, and the kingdoms are moved, *
but God has lifted his voice, and the earth shall melt away.
7 The LORD of hosts is with us; *
the God of Jacob is our refuge.
8 O come and behold the works of the LORD, *
what devastations he has brought upon the earth.
9 He makes wars to cease in all the world; *
he breaks the bow, and shatters the spear, and burns the chariots in the fire.
10 “Be still then and know that I am God; *
I will be exalted among the nations, and I will be exalted in the earth.”
11 The LORD of hosts is with us; *
the God of Jacob is our refuge.
The image of God as “a very present help in trouble” (1) is the controlling idea of the poem. YHWH himself presents as the high, impregnable fortress against which every earthly calamity breaks and recedes like the waves of the sea on the land. Nothing can penetrate the walls of this “fortress” so as to threaten the lives of the people who dwell in him. Appropriately for our pre-advent period of worship, the disasters are apocalyptic in scale: the “earth be moved;” hills “carried into the midst of the sea; mountains shake; nations and kingdoms in complete disarray. But who do we find is the source of the “devastations” from the storm? “O come and behold the works of the LORD, what devastations he has brought on the earth” (8). Safely, within God her refuge, even against the mighty tempests of his own making, his treasured possession Israel chants the refrain, “The LORD of hosts is with us, the God of Jacob is our refuge” (7,11).
Devotionally, as we meditate in our worship on King Jesus and the calamitous end of all things to come, do we not crave the assurance of a God who is stronger than even a worldwide destruction of his own doing? “Be still,” is his command to us, and “know that I am God” over every storm. No matter what, Jesus says, “I will be exalted among the nations, and I will be exalted in the earth.” And later, by the testimony of John, he assures us, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand” (Jn. 10:27-28).
Today, Holy Spirit, plant in our hearts the assurances of Jesus the exalted King, that he will be indeed “a very present help in trouble.”
Increasing in the Knowledge of God (Colossians 1:11-20)
9 And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, 10 so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him: bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; 11 being strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy; 12 giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. 13 He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. 15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. 16 For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. 17 And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18 And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. 19 For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.
Colossians 1:9-20
I would suggest adding vv. 9-10 to the beginning of the reading, not just to avoid an awkward start in mid-sentence but also to preview important ideas connected with Paul’s teaching on Christ as God. Notice in these two verses the two kinds of “knowledge” (Gk. epignōsis, also translated “insight” or “understanding”) the apostle commends to his readers: “the knowledge of [God’s] will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding” (9); and “the knowledge of God” himself (10). In each case, we are to understand that the “knowledge” is not acquired by the believers’ efforts but by God’s gifting; and so it is that Paul prays constantly that they may receive it.
Devotionally, we might ask, by what power and by what right should the believer expect to receive “knowledge” from God? It is only through Christ, and who is he? Paul exclaims, He is God himself who, as the creator of everything, in union with the Father, is infinitely capable of revealing insight to his chosen ones. He is also the Savior of men, who by his blood has “qualified” the saints to receive “knowledge,” an “inheritance…in light” (12).
The first so-called “O” antiphon, which will accompany the Roman (and some Anglican) church’s recitation of the Magnificat during Advent, hits squarely on this theme: “O Wisdom of our God Most High, guiding creation with power and love: come to teach us the path of knowledge.”
Today, through the Spirit, we pray like Paul without ceasing to be filled ourselves, and that our loved ones, too, may be filled, with the “knowledge” he is both able and willing to pour into us.
But This Man Has Done Nothing Wrong (Luke 23:35-43)
35 And the people stood by, watching, but the rulers scoffed at him, saying, “He saved others; let him save himself, if he is the Christ of God, his Chosen One!” 36 The soldiers also mocked him, coming up and offering him sour wine 37 and saying, “If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself!” 38 There was also an inscription over him, “This is the King of the Jews.” 39 One of the criminals who were hanged railed at him, saying, “Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us!” 40 But the other rebuked him, saying, “Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? 41 And we indeed justly, for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong.” 42 And he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” 43 And he said to him, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise.”
Luke 23:35-43
“Do you not fear God…?” (40). It is worth pondering this criminal’s moment of “conversion.” What has motivated him so suddenly to turn on his companion and attach himself to Jesus of Nazareth? It could be just what the text says: that “we are receiving the due reward of our deeds, but this man has done nothing wrong” (41). But how has he come to this conclusion? He no doubt saw the disparaging “inscription” over Jesus. He might have, like the centurion a bit later, considered the way he died and concluded that “surely, this was a righteous man” (see 23:47). It is possible that this criminal had had some exposure to Jesus in the past and now, in this desperate moment, responds to the call to believe. Whatever the case, we must be stunned by his words to the other criminal and to the Lord.
Dear Jesus, how could you know my heart so deeply that you could reach in and, at just the right moment, persuade me to make a sincere confession of your Lordship? How could you know the circumstances that would cause me, just in the nick of time, to repent of my sins and call upon your mercy for entrance into “paradise”? The depth of your power and love, and the eagerness with which you invite me to join you, bring from me tears of happiness, and, yes, regret that I did not respond sooner.
Today, Holy Spirit, as we meditate on this moving passage in Luke, we offer ourselves to you again with open hearts and hear, again, your hearty welcome, uttered from glory won by blood and pain.
Today in the Spirit
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