This Sunday is “The Reign of Christ Sunday” or “Christ the King Sunday.” It’s the last Sunday of the liturgical calendar year. The “new” year begins the following Sunday with “The First Sunday of Advent.”
As such, the expectation is that the assigned scripture for the first Sunday of Advent would begin with the Birth of Jesus; but they never do. They are always scriptures thought of as “end times passages,” just as those assigned for “The Reign of Christ Sunday.” This week, the scriptures made me pause to reflect on how much of what we have been taught about the “end times” and Revelations is not true; especially since the assigned texts for the first Sunday of the new church year are also “end times” scriptures like those assigned for “The Reign of Christ Sunday.”
Rev. Matt Laney wrote this week in a UCC devotion, “Revelation isn’t about the end of the world, it’s about God renewing the world after injustice and corruption have been destroyed. …Revelation offers a coded message of hope to persecuted, at-risk, first-century Christians. … Revelation is good news to the opposed and tough news for the powerful. In short, Revelation does not reveal the future. Revelation reveals us. Revelation exposes our privilege and proximity to power, by God, offers a way out.”
Not many in our community we are called to serve enjoy privilege and proximity to power. They rather have experienced more of the injustice, corruption and persecution first-century Christians faced. The good news is that God offers us all a message of hope and a way out. As assigned text this week from Luke 1 says, “Because of our God’s deep compassion, the dawn from Heaven will break upon us, to give light to those who are sitting in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide us on the path of peace.”
Join us on this last Sunday of the Christian Church year for a message of hope and a way out. The sermon is called “The Reign of Life with Hope” based on “Jeremiah 23:1-4” and “Luke 1:68-71, 76-79.”
About Author
