November 20, 2022 – The Last Sunday In Pentecost

Mother Elizabeth Farr

Today, we reach the end. It is the last Sunday in the church year and our last Sunday focused on the Gospel of Luke. Next Sunday marks a new church year, a new season with Advent, and dwelling in a new Gospel. We’ll turn to Matthew. But that’s getting ahead of ourselves.

Today, we reach the end. The suspense and tension has been building to today. Last week, we heard from Jesus, “When you hear of wars and insurrections, do not be terrified; for these things must take place first, but the end will not follow immediately. . . Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; there will be great earthquakes, and in various places famines and plagues; and there will be dreadful portents and great signs from heaven.”(1)

The end. We hear the suspense in that apocalyptic reading from last week. We share the question with the disciples, “When will this be?” When will we know it’s the end?

So we’ve got the suspense, but what about the tension – the thing in conflict with our expectations of the end? Again we look to last week – this time to the reading from Isaiah, where the prophet speaks to us in poetry, “For I am about to create new heavens and a new earth / the former things shall not be remembered or come to mind. / But be glad and rejoice forever in what I am creating.” (2) And then Isaiah offered this image: “The wolf and the lamb shall feed together / the lion shall eat straw like the ox. . . They shall not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain, says the Lord.” (3)

And there’s the tension. It seems that we are never closer to the beginning than when we reach the end. Suspense and tension. Warring nations, raging climate events, and signs from heaven held alongside new creation and images of reconciliation and peace. Joy woven into the fabric of terror. We are never closer to the beginning than when we reach the end.

And so on this last Sunday of the church year, when the end and the beginning are closer to one word than two, we name the sovereignty of the One who holds all of our beginnings and endings. Today is Christ the King, or Reign of Christ, Sunday.

After a year of remembering the mystery of God in the Christ – Jesus’ coming to us as a child, his baptism, his temptation, Jesus’ ministry of teaching and healing, his calling of the disciples and fellowship with them, his fellowship with all the world’s undesirables, Jesus’ final week in Jerusalem – his washing of feet, the Last Supper, the garden, the trial, the cross, that long, first Holy Saturday before the glorious first Easter morning – Death and resurrection are also closer to one word than two.

So after a year of again living the mystery of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection, we arrive at the end to proclaim what we’ve remembered – that Jesus the Christ is all in all. He is Alpha and Omega, beginning and end. We hear that hymn to Christ in the reading from Colossians today: “In [Jesus] all things in heaven and on earth were created. . . — all things have been created through him and for him. He himself is before all things, and in him all things hold together.” All things. Endings and beginnings. Death and resurrection.

Today, we reach the end, and as we proclaim the Reign of Christ, our readings do not offer us the image of Jesus at his triumphal return, robed in splendor, crown on his head, and sitting on his throne. We do not have Jesus revealed in his divine glory at the transfiguration or even Jesus’ power in raising Lazarus from the dead. (4)

Today, we reach the end, and Jesus, King of kings, and Lord of lords, appears to be at the end as well. We join Jesus at the cross – at the place called the Skull. The Alpha and Omega is at the mercy of the Roman state. The people stand by. The leaders scoff. The soldiers mock. And one of the criminals being crucified with Jesus even derides and blasphemes him. And this image as we proclaim Christ the King – this image of Jesus humiliated and dying at the hands of the world’s powers as we proclaim Christ OUR King – is uncomfortable at best.

We may even plead along with the mocking voices, “Save yourself.” If the mystery of what we have remembered this past year is true – and the Reign of God is present here and now – then Jesus, come down from the cross. Give us a different image – a different story – as we come to the end.

And then we remember – after spending this year in the Gospel of Luke – that Luke shares the most important things in songs. We have one of them today, the Song of Zechariah, words spoken by Zechariah at the birth of his son, John the Baptist. And they remind us that the Reign of Christ is about exactly this scene at the cross: “Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel / he has come to his people and set them free.” (7)

He has come to his people – right into the midst of them and into the most godforsaken places and scenes (5) – where worldly powers are exercised by terrorizing hands. The Reign of Christ is present right at the center – in the middle between two criminals – proclaiming forgiveness to all of the actors and accomplices who crucified love incarnate on a hill outside of town. The Reign of Christ is there restoring the people of God and setting them free again and again and again.

Turning back to Zechariah’s song: “In the tender compassion of our God / the dawn from on high shall break upon us / To shine on those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death / and to guide our feet into the way of peace.” (8) At the cross, the Reign of Christ is proclaimed in mercy and forgiveness – and also in promise and hope.

One criminal derides Jesus. The other has one request. “Remember me,” he pleads, “when you come into your kingdom.” And Jesus responds in all compassion, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise” – the Reign of Christ present, promised, and proclaimed, a light in the darkness, challenging the shadow of death, daring the way of peace.

The Reign of Christ at the cross makes us strong to endure this world where people stand by (6), where leaders scoff and mock, where others deride, and where hate and discord often bat first. The Reign of Christ at the cross means the Reign of Christ is present in all places of brokenness – in Colorado Springs at a LGBTQ nightclub where just last night God’s beloved were targeted with hate and violence – in Charlottesville, Virginia, at UVA, at the University of Idaho.

Because the Reign of Christ is present at the cross, the Reign of Christ is present in all places of brokenness – present in all of our corporate and personal brokenness. And the Reign of Christ at the cross invites and implores us to make the Reign of Christ known exactly where we are – in whatever way we are called.

The Reign of Christ at the cross also makes us strong to repent and accept mercy when we are the ones who stand by, when we are the ones who scoff, mock, and lead with hate and derision. Jesus proclaims his reign in these moments and speaks the words of new creation, like the Spirit moving over the waters at the beginning. New life hovering just above the chaos. One word: beginning and end. One word: death and resurrection.

Today, with Luke as our guide, we reach the end: God with us, saving us, forgiving us, leading us by the way of peace to light and compassion. The Reign of Christ is here and now, and next Sunday we begin to wait and prepare for it again.

  1. https://www.lectionarypage.net/YearC_RCL/Pentecost/CProp28_RCL.html
  2. https://www.lectionarypage.net/YearC_RCL/Pentecost/CProp28_RCL.html
  3. https://www.lectionarypage.net/YearC_RCL/Pentecost/CProp28_RCL.html
  4. https://www.journeywithjesus.net/essays/2458-a-king-like-no-other
  5. https://www.saltproject.org/progressive-christian-blog/2019/11/18/power-and-mercy-salts-lectionary-commentary-for-reign-of-christ-the-king-sunday
  6. Colossians 1:11
  7. Canticle 16; BCP p. 92.
  8. Canticle 16; BCP p. 93.
Year C, Proper 29  –   November 29   –   The Last Sunday In Pentecost   –  The Rev. Elizabeth Langford Farr