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Christ the King
November 24, 2004 - 12:03 p.m.

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I preached for the first time today...it went well, considering. The venue was the rehab hospital where my parish holds a Wednesday Eucharist for the patients. There are usually about twenty or so present, though today was more like thirty. Fr. J said it was because they heard I'd be giving the sermon...that would have been some kind of grapevine, since I didn't know until I showed up!

"Do you want to read the gospel?"

"Sure."

"And then you can give the reflection."

"O...K...?"

In all fairness, Fr. J asked if I felt comfortable preaching. I remembered that the reading was from this past Sunday, which was Christ the King (or, Reign of Christ, in the new, cuddly version of things) and since that particular theology is one I like, (Christ the King, not the cuddly bit) I said yes.

I like it because it's such a complete reversal of what we think of as kingly power. Christ was last, shamed and executed on the cross...and because of that he is the King. But, as he said himself, the last shall be first and the first shall be last. This particular theology is easiest when read in Mark, which is my favourite gospel, but really it's there no matter what.

The beauty is that throughout the Bible, God consistently chooses the unlikely, the underdog, as the vessel of greatness. The younger brother, Jacob, gets the blessing over the older and stronger Esau. Joseph, the dreamer, is favoured over his older brothers both by his father and by God. David, least of Jesse's sons, is anointed and becomes Israel's greatest king. Over and over again God ignores our ideas of greatness and power. And in Jesus, God becomes human...lowers himself to our frailty...and thereby raises us to glory.

Much of what Jesus does on Earth, especially in Mark, is an utter failure. His disciples don't understand him, nobody obeys him, his friends abandon him...only by emptying himself out, accepting totally his helplessness, does he attain power.

I hope I presented it well enough...I know that to the rehab group, most of whom are completely helpless, the message of Christ the King has great potential for resonance.

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