Sunday, November 23, 2008

Christ the King Sunday

...a.k.a. the last Sunday of the Church year! I'll be worshiping at my home church next Sunday to kick off Advent. Today's readings were Ezekiel 34:11-16, 20-24; 1 Corinthians 15:20-28; and Matthew 25:31-46 (sermon text).

Business - we sometimes use it as an excuse for self-time. Today's text puts time as a whole in perspective: when will Christ return? We see a picture of our glorious God, Judge, and King. He gathers all peoples of the world - all nations - who will then be separated like sheep and goats. Those who are His, on His right, are called "blessed of My Father." Wow! He has a place for each of those who are His.

Next, He commends the sheep (right) for their good deeds toward Him - rather, toward even the least of His brothers and sisters. They're dumbfounded. Likewise, He condemns the goats (left) for their lack of similar good deeds. The sheep and goats finally go in opposite directions.

Works-righteousness? No! Rather, what are we doing in anticipation of the end? Sure, He's coming soon. But He also comes often, unexpectedly, even daily or hourly. We don't "see" Him in this light too much. But the thing to remember is that Jesus, the Christ, entered time that He might empathize with us, for us, to forgive our misuses of time and ignorances of Him in the form of one of His brothers or sisters. Give of your time; don't use business as a club for self. Why? Because you are His sheep too.

Later this afternoon will be a concert. I'll try to find some links to well-performed versions of the pieces so you can enjoy it too.

Update:YouTube is notoriously deficient in this area. However, I did find this lovely recording (video) of SLANE (tune for "Be Thou My Vision"), which had a custom text written for my school's 2008-09 school year. Perhaps text later. My other favorite item of the evening was a setting of "Come, You Faithful, Raise the Strain" that I've sung several times at my home church.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Great post and great reminder that we should always be mindful of what we do "for Him". If we aren't helping his other children, we are ignoring His will. Awesome job Hannah!

Elephantschild said...

I was there; nanny-nanny boo, boo.

Sat in the same pew as your parents. Looked for you, and then remembered you're away at college.

The organ went out! Argh! But Cantor did a lovely job w/ the piano.

Hannah said...

Thank you, H.A.M.!

EC, you lucky! Greet Sparkle Kitty for me. At least *I* got to listen to a working organ for both the service and the concert.