“Our King Changes Things” – November 21, 2021

Hello Everyone,

Well we’ve come to the end of yet another year. Yes, I know it’s not December 31st but this Sunday is kind of like New Year’s Eve. It is the last day of the Christian year. We celebrate this feast day called Christ the King or the Reign of Christ, before we move into the Advent season. Before we again hear the story of God coming to earth in the person of Jesus.

If you read the assigned texts for this week, it might sound like an odd way to end the year. For example, on Sunday we will look at the passage from John 18 where Jesus is brought before Pilate by the religious elite and Roman soldiers requesting to have Jesus executed.

As Jesus stands in front of Pilate awaiting his decision, I can’t help but think of Jesus as pitiful, meek, pathetic even. I find myself joining the voice of the crowd…“If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself!” In other words, if you are really the King, act like it. Measure up to my expectations. Don’t just stand there.

But then Jesus,of course, says something that shifts the whole thing. He says, “My kingdom is not from this world.” Oh right! Those things that Jesus had been trying to teach all those years about the last being first, and the meek inheriting the earth, and not to worry about our lives, he meant those things.

This Sunday we are reminded that our King is not of this world. Jesus calls us to something more, something better, than the power struggling, ego protecting, one upping, win at all cost way of life that our world promotes and we fall into.

When we claim Jesus as our King and Lord, it changes things. It changes us.

I hope you will join us Sunday as we look more deeply into the ways our King changes things. Join us for a thirty-minute 8 a.m. worship in the Chapel with Communion, 9:30 a.m. worship with the Chancel Choir in the Sanctuary. Also, our ongoing Livestream worship continues at 9:30 a.m. and (throughout the day and week on our YouTube channel).

Peace in Christ,
Chelsea