Now that we have finished the church year we now plow right into Advent with talk of expectation and judgment, heavenly signs, and getting ready for God to visit his justice and judgment upon us… then Christmas. The beginning of the church year sets the stage and puts into context the last Sunday of the year. Jesus is indeed king, but it is not a reign, it is not a rule we were expecting. The coming of this king in the humble circumstances of the nativity is the first sign that King Jesus will not be the kind of king we expected.
Starting this Sunday we will be reading Isaiah and Matthew, but we won't be reading the Christmas story of the shepherds and angels and Baby Jesus wrapped in swaddling clothes. Instead we will be reading about Isaiah and God's future kingdom of justice and peace inaugurated by a suffering servant. We will be reading about John the Baptist preaching by the river calling people to repent because God is about to do something big, something cosmic in nature. Divine salvation is at hand and God's people need to be ready. And after reading and reflecting on promise and expectation and judgment and deliverance, on Christmas we will discover how that deliverance comes-- not in pomp and circumstance, not in the king that conquers through violence and coercion-- but in a helpless baby born in a backwater village to peasant parents. Jesus the King comes in circumstances that can hardly be considered royal. Apparently, God needs some instruction in shock and awe.
Christ the King Sunday may have passed for another year, but Advent and Christmas puts Jesus' kingly reign in context. The lessons taught at the beginning of the Christian year need to be heeded at its end.
Jesus Christ is indeed King... and it is a reign like no other.
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