Nov. 22-Christ the King Rev. 1:4-8, John 18:33-37, 2 Sam . 23
Christ is not the the last name of Jesus. Christians hold that it is an eternal aspect of God. to give it focus, a pope declared Christ the King Sunday until 1925. On the other hand, Calvin long ago emphasized three roles, office of christ, as priest, prophet, and king.-kingship not of this world-truth and kingship God’s way in the world. The source of the power of Christ is god’s. this world is god’s own.
We used the notion to make an easy move: the Church should be allied with the exercise of power. sometimes it was state-imposed power, an established church, a state church. sometimes it was cultural power, respect, money, grandeur. the church made that mistake when it adopted every fancier clerical appoointments to mirror the excesses of princes.It is filled with irony, as older Protestant churches celebrate it, but now the older churches of the Protestant founding era are in decline in this new century.The newer sectors of the Chrsitan faith are almost unrecognizable to many as it seems to morph into a motivational exercise for success.Maybe that is not all bad. After all, the church lacked that sort of power in its early days.
called the ruler of kings of the earth in Revelation-kingdom of priest of Exodus in a new key
(In Jer 23;hopes for a messianic king of justice and righteousness)
In Christ we see still a reversal of kingly power-source is god not inheritance or revolution the Cross shifts the notion of kingship rather directly.That second miracle. What if the sign of Jesus walking on the water was about, as Douglas John Hall writes, Jesus’ presence and compassion enabling “ordinary, insecure and timid persons…to walk where they feared to walk before?” Torrance-if Christ rules, it is with the hands with the imprint of the nails-so the firstborn of the dead, the resurrected one, the living one.
In the exercise of Christ’s kingly office, Calvin says, “God mediately, so to speak, wills to rule and protect the church in Christ’s person” [emphasis mine] in order for “Christ [to stand] in our midst, to lead us little by little to a firm union with God.”... Union with Christ, in the person of the Mediator, who remains God-man permanently, will lead finally to visio Dei, when the saints will “see his [the Father’s] majesty face to face.”. (quodlibet?) Against what we see and experience daily, another power exists in heaven; it intersects with the earth but it is not the same as earthy powers-
To speak of Christ the king is the crucified one.Reversal of exaltation and power, not its extension. Cosmic Christ Not coercion but following by invitation. Not acquisition, but gift.this is the exaltation of service to others, even if it means handing down one’s life, not taking one.Christ the king is a point of entry into the world. As the Pope realized almost a century ago, that requires that the state give room, free space, for religion to exist alongside of it. It is God working in the most surprising places.
time embraced in JC, past, present, and future. Alpha and the omega, the A to Z.Rohr-We’ve turned Christianity into that evacuation plan for the next world. The term “cosmic Christ” reminds us that everything and everyone belongs... We’re indeed the body of Christ. God’s hope for humanity is that one day we will all recognize that the divine dwelling place is all of creation. Christ comes again whenever we see that matter and spirit coexist. This truly deserves to be called good news.
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