From Caroline - [email protected], 01285 712467
Readings for Sunday: Jeremiah 23.1-6; Colossians 1.11-20; Luke 23.33-43
This Sunday we celebrate the festival of ‘Christ the King’, when we reflect on what we mean when we say ‘Christ is our King’, and upon what we think leadership looks like in our broken world.
Kingship is an idea that might be becoming distant for some of the younger generations. We, along with a few other countries, do indeed have a King, but the idea of what he does and indeed what he should do, has changed a great deal from what it was just two hundred years ago, let alone two thousand! In fact, those very first Christians didn’t call Jesus their ‘King’ or their ‘Emperor’, which would have been the correct term for the supreme ruler in their day, of course. They didn’t call him ‘Caesar’, they called him ‘Lord’ or ‘Master’. His first disciples called him ‘Teacher’ or ‘Rabbi’, and it wasn’t until he was raised up on the cross that anyone thought to attach the title of ‘King’ to that humiliated, pitiful, suffering figure.
But that paradox – calling a crucified man a supreme ruler – was more fitting than those mocking soldiers knew. Because in that moment, Jesus showed the world for evermore what God’s own leadership looks like – solidarity, suffering and sacrifice, giving up everything for the sake of the world he loves. Giving up everything, as Paul reminds his readers in his letter to the Colossians, to reconcile all things to himself. To bring everything and everyone back together, and back to him.
Can leaders in our time show any of these qualities? It is a hard example to follow, to be sure. Our world is divided and polarised in these days perhaps more than it ever has been. It may seem strange to think that the ability to communicate with the whole world (through the wonders of the internet) should have set so many people against each other, but then on the other hand, perhaps it does not. It is a deeply human flaw to fall into tribes and parties rather than to seek unity and acceptance, and too much information can have the unfortunate side-effect of pushing people into black-and-white explanations as a quick and comforting fix.
It is Jesus’ continual example which calls to us, his people, who seek to follow him on his path, that we are to be people who overcome barriers and divisions. We are to be people who reach across barricades and echo the voice of our Lord. For “He himself is before all things, and in him all things hold together”. No divide is too great for him. No gulf too deep.
So this week, may our faith be a unifier, and not a divider, and may Christ’s Kingship, the one who is Lord of lords and King of kings, be the example of strength and leadership that all seek to follow.
Rev’d Caroline
Join us for Morning Prayer via Zoom on Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday at 9am every week. Click below for the week starting 24th November.
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82168687276?pwd=bLnz9hVRNO4EPnfoDlgy0lDWz50W1C.1
Meeting ID: 821 6868 7276 Passcode: 829504