Yesterday was my favorite Sunday of the church year: Christ the King Sunday. And we heard a really good sermon, which I'm still thinking about.
The priest asked us to think about how many of us would raise our hands if he asked if we knew Christ as our Savior, then asked us to think about how many of us would raise our hands if he asked if we knew Christ as our king.
There was a lot to the sermon - he talked about how the good king must be obeyed, and how he protects his people from their enemies, and how he heals (he drew a lot from Tolkien's Aragorn character, which I think is fair, given Tolkien's theology) - but what is sticking in my head this morning is his challenge, asking if we were willing to do the things our King asks us to do. Basically: do you respect Jesus Christ's authority in your life?
I want to keep thinking about that this week, checking to see if I am listening and obeying, using my moments and my days the way my Lord would have me use them, because He is my Lord, and He is my king. This is challenging, because I would like to think that I own my moments and my days.
Connected to this, on the theme of self-examination, I've been reading some John Donne, and last night came across a place in one of his sermons where he says (emphasis mine):
You hear of one man that was drowned in a vessel of wine, but how many thousands in ordinary water? And he was no more drowned in that precious liquor, than they in that common water. A gad of steel does no more choke a man, than a feather, than a hair; Men perish with whispering sins, nay with silent sins, sins that never tell the conscience they are sins, as often as with crying sins: And in hell there shall meet as many men, that never thought what was sin, as that spent all their thoughts in the compassing of sin; as man, who in a slack inconsideration, never thought upon that place, as that by searing their conscience, overcame the sense and fear of that place. Great sins are great possessions, but levities and vanities possess us too. *
It seems to be a good meditation to go into Advent on.
peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell
*From a sermon preached March 4, 1625
3 comments:
The idea of building God's kingdom is one I've struggled with for years, simply because a kingdom is a foreign concept to me. That term, however, is much-used in scripture, and I ache to understand what it means.
I loved the solemnity of Christ the King, too. This is our first year in a new parish, and it was so exciting to see it celebrated so regally.
A Bishop of Uganda visited us this week and preached an awesome sermon on Christ the King. He talked about Rev. 1:4b-8, how Christ makes us kings and priests. Our human (and he said, especially our American) sesibility is to ask God to GIVE us (like the prodigal son did before going away). Then, once we have been humbled, we ask God to MAKE us what he would have us be. I'll be living in this sermon for awhile, I think.
Thanks for your words on my Gaudy Night meditation.
Blessings,
Annie
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