[Mcgregorpage] McGregorPage #531, Christ the King, 11/26/06

[rmcgregoralbq at aol.com]

Christ the King, November 26, 2006

Psalm 132:1-12
2 Samuel 23:1-7
Revelation 1:4b-8
John 18:33-37

Where Does Our Thanks Lie?

Thanksgiving?  Is it Thanksgiving for Christ the king or for Christ the 
servant?  "God, I thank you that I am not like other people..." who 
don't have Christ on their side.  Can we really say thanks for Christ 
the servant if we don't recognize Christ the king?  Can we take the 
blessings and not the orders?  Can there be a God who serves and a 
people who don't?  Is it possible that our deepest thanks should be, 
not for our blessings, but for Christ the king, a ruler who is 
righteous and whose rule that is just?

Do we really think that world peace is the result of the common sense 
of humanity and not the reign of God?  Do we really think that "the 
American way" will civilize the world?  China will be coaxed into human 
rights?  Terrorism is an aberration?  What if killing people for their 
organs to transplant is as much the common sense of humanity as is the 
Bill of Rights?  What if the Bill of Rights has more to do with Christ 
the king than with any "common" sense?  Then where will any further 
civilizing of the world come from?  What power?  What reign, if not the 
reign of Christ?  Will it come from the moral authority of the American 
Presidency or Congress?  The reign of Christ is the world's only hope 
for peace. David recognized the relationship between the reign of God 
and the peace of Jerusalem.  The Apocalypse sees Christ above all the 
rulers of the earth, and Jesus sees himself in a taunting question, 
"Are you the King of the Jews?"  But, can we see God as the authority 
for our lives --  yield, surrender, serve and be thankful?  And, if we 
can't surrender our wills to God's, how can we proclaim to the world 
the only reign with a blessed future?  If the church can't surrender to 
Christ, if the church can't conceive of the reign of God apart from the 
reign of the church, can the church deliver its saving message to a 
dying world?  Since Constantine, the expansion of the reign of God has 
been understood as co-extensive with the expanded reign of the church.  
Can the church put itself beneath the feet of Christ before God has to 
do it for us?

But, to stand beneath the feet of Christ is to feel the drops of his 
blood, to see him ascending and to yearn for his return.  To stand 
beneath the feet of Christ is to live in the paradox of the martyred 
king, the dying God.  To stand  beneath the feet of Christ is to reign 
with him through service.

There is an urgency for God to have God's rightful place in the world.  
It is not God's urgency.  It is ours.  "I will not enter my house or 
get into my bed; I will not give sleep to my eyes or slumber to my 
eyelids,  until I find a place for the LORD, a dwelling place for the 
Mighty One of Jacob."  (Psalm 132:3-5)

May these thoughts strengthen you.

An Open Letter to Fellow Pastors
>From Roland McGregor, United Methodist Pastor
 (an e-mail service)

[See Web Page address below for a Children’s Message coordinated with 
these lections.]

http://www.webspawner.com/users/ChildPage/

Multiple Sermon Starter Essays are available at
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      --Copyright 2006, Roland McGregor, all rights reserved—
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