Includes Sermon Audio
Christ the King 25 November 2018
Sentence:
Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honour and glory and blessing. Revelation 5:12
Today’s readings
Daniel 7: 9 – 10, 13 – 14
Psalm 93
Revelation 1: 4b–8
Collect of the day
Everlasting God, whose will is to restore all things in your well beloved son, our Lord and King; Grant that the people of earth, now divided and enslaved by sin, may be freed and brought together under his gentle and loving rule; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
A thought to ponder upon – John 18:33 – 37
We celebrate the kingship of Jesus with John’s Gospel account of what is perhaps Jesus’s most humiliating moment: his appearance before Pilate. It is a strange exchange: Pilate had been blackmailed by the Jewish establishment into executing Jesus for their ends: it is the accused who dominates the meeting and takes on the role of the inquisitor: Pilate has no idea what Jesus is talking about what he speaks about “the truth.”
Pilate, a man of no great talent or exceptional competence, was under a great deal of political pressure. He had needlessly alienated the Jews of Palestine by his cruelty, his insensitivity to their religious customs and his clumsy appropriation of funds from the temple treasury for public projects. Reports of his undistinguished performance had reached his superiors in Rome. Jesus proclaimed himself the ruler of the kingdom built on passion, humility, our love and truth – power that Pilate cannot comprehend in his small, narrow view of the world.
The kingdom of Jesus is not found in the world’s centres of power but within human hearts; it is built not by the deals among the power elites but by compassionate hands: Christ reigns neither by influence the wealth but by selfless charity and justice.
Are we a people who radiate thankfulness and appreciation?
Sermon Audio
The Reverend Josie Steytler preaches from the text after the gospel reading.
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