The feast of Christ the King (CTK) came into being in 1925 to remind us that our allegiance to other kings and Kaisers), political leaders (Lenin) brought war, overthrew royal households and Governments.
What was needed was for the world to turn and look to Christ, the King, and following Him bring about a new revolution where the world bowed its knee to Him and worked for peace and unity. For Pope Pius the eleventh, whose idea CTK was, it was a response against all that brought about war and civil unrest as witnessed in the carnage of the 244 weeks that were WW1 and the October 1917 uprising of the Russian Revolution which had reshaped the world.
Christ the King was a call to reject the emerging secular state, fascism and the communism of Marx and Lenin (and Engels too) which opposed Christian faith and the Church as it sought to dethrone Jesus.
The irony here is that the Church (RC, C of E, Orthodox and others) was perhaps no different a political body than those this feast sought to bring new thinking against! Perhaps if the Church had heeded the cry to take up its cross, deny itself and follow Jesus, the world and the Church might look very different today.
Like the Russian October rising – this feast also appeared in October (later, in 1970, moving to the last Sunday before Advent where it is now) and has become one of the major feasts of the Church where we reflect upon the service, sacrifice and the glory of Jesus, our Lord and our King.
So today we reflect upon those ‘shepherds, who are destroying and scattering the sheep’ and think of the judgement and justice that is to come when Jesus, the Christ, The King returns. We reflect upon those faithful believers throughout the world as again we look at our Old testament reading and reflect upon ‘the remnant of God’s flock’ and think of what following the Christ really means.
As this last Sunday of the liturgical year arrives we think of Jeremiah’s words:
“The days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, a King who will reign wisely and do what is just and right in the land. In his days Judah will be saved and Israel will live in safety. This is the name by which he will be called: The Lord Our Righteous Saviour.”
Here, at the edge of Advent, that path that leads us to Bethlehem and the birth of Jesus becomes once more real for us, we look back on a year of selfish ambition, lies, deceit and division; of conflicts and awful happenings and rather than utter the words ‘Never Again’ – we commit ourselves to follow Jesus and His teachings and the message of love made real in our flesh just as it was made real in His!
We celebrate the invisible God taking on flesh and coming among us and embrace Him for all that He is. Remembering that just a the Father did not spare His Son, so too are we called to face opposition, lies, and strife – perhaps even to death as the saints we remembered and reflected on in our season of Remembrancetide. “Jesus is the head of the body, the Church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy over all things.’
Today the world stands as condemned as those men either side of the cross of Christ.
The men represent those who mock and those who believe.
Which side do you find yourself on today?
Do you ‘fear God’ (which doesn’t mean ‘fear’ in the common sense but means ‘respect, submission, honour, and the same reverence many still exhibit for a monarch such as our own Queen Elizabeth’)?
Where are you today?
Where is the world?
Where is the Church?
Pray for them and for yourselves and those you love – and more importantly, those you hate!
The Collect
God the Father, help us to hear the call of Christ the King and to follow in his service, whose kingdom has no end; for he reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, one glory. Amen.
Jeremiah 23:1-6
“Woe to the shepherds who are destroying and scattering the sheep of my pasture!” declares the Lord.
Therefore this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says to the shepherds who tend my people: “Because you have scattered my flock and driven them away and have not bestowed care on them, I will bestow punishment on you for the evil you have done,” declares the Lord.
“I myself will gather the remnant of my flock out of all the countries where I have driven them and will bring them back to their pasture, where they will be fruitful and increase in number. I will place shepherds over them who will tend them, and they will no longer be afraid or terrified, nor will any be missing,” declares the Lord.
“The days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, a King who will reign wisely and do what is just and right in the land. In his days Judah will be saved and Israel will live in safety. This is the name by which he will be called: The Lord Our Righteous Saviour.
Colossians 1:11-20
[We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives, so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God,] being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and giving joyful thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light. For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. He 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 and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy.
For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.
Luke 23:33-43
When they came to the place called the Skull, they crucified him there, along with the criminals—one on his right, the other on his left. Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” And they divided up his clothes by casting lots.
The people stood watching, and the rulers even sneered at him. They said, “He saved others; let him save himself if he is God’s Messiah, the Chosen One.”
The soldiers also came up and mocked him. They offered him wine vinegar and said, “If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself.”
There was a written notice above him, which read: this is the king of the jews.
One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him: “Aren’t you the Messiah? Save yourself and us!”
But the other criminal rebuked him. “Don’t you fear God,” he said, “since you are under the same sentence? We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong.”
Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”
Jesus answered him, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.”
Post Communion Prayer
Stir up, O Lord, the wills of your faithful people; that they, plenteously bringing forth the fruit of good works, may by you be plenteously rewarded; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
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