{"id":35,"date":"2014-01-11T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2014-01-11T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thewordthisweek.com\/index.php\/2014\/01\/11\/sunday-25th-november-2012-feast-of-christ-the-king\/"},"modified":"2014-01-11T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2014-01-11T00:00:00","slug":"sunday-25th-november-2012-feast-of-christ-the-king","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thewordthisweek.com\/index.php\/2014\/01\/11\/sunday-25th-november-2012-feast-of-christ-the-king\/","title":{"rendered":"Sunday 25th November 2012 &#8211; Feast of Christ The King"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"paragraph\" style=\"text-align:left;\"><font size=\"4\"><strong>The Word This Week:<\/strong><\/font><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a title=\"\" href=\"http:\/\/lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu\/texts.php?id=230#hebrew_reading\">2 Samuel 23:1-7<\/a> and <a title=\"\" href=\"http:\/\/lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu\/texts.php?id=230#psalm_reading\">Psalm 132:1-12, (13-18)<\/a>\u00a0 <em>OR<\/em><\/li>\n<li><a title=\"\" href=\"http:\/\/lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu\/texts.php?id=230#hebrew_oth_reading\">Daniel 7:9-10, 13-14<\/a> and <a title=\"\" href=\"http:\/\/lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu\/texts.php?id=230#psalm_oth_reading\">Psalm 93<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u2022\u00a0<\/li>\n<li><a title=\"\" href=\"http:\/\/lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu\/texts.php?id=230#epistle_reading\">Revelation 1:4b-8<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u2022\u00a0<\/li>\n<li><a title=\"\" href=\"http:\/\/lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu\/texts.php?id=230#gospel_reading\">John 18:33-37<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><font size=\"4\"><strong>Thoughts on the Word:<\/strong><\/font><br \/><span><\/span><br \/>\u00a0The idea of a king (or queen) is something that seems odd to many of us, who live in modern liberal democracies.\u00a0 While my country technically comes under the dominion of a monarch (Queen Elizabeth II) our constitution and legal structure is such that she is really no more than a figurehead who signs off on legislation.\u00a0 This was not always how Kings and Queens were however.\u00a0 The people of first century Israel certainly understood Kingship very differently.\u00a0 They understood it in terms of absolute power &#8211; the King had complete control, of every aspect of the kingdom &#8211; from the treasury, to the army, to the religion of their subjects.\u00a0 It was not uncommon for Kings to exercise this power with brutal force in order to ensure their continued reign &#8211; their continued power over their subjects. <\/p>\n<p><span>When Jesus came, and it began to dawn on his followers that he was the promised Messiah &#8211; the promised King of Israel, they were expecting that he would exercise his power in the same way &#8211; preferably by first vanquishing their Roman occupiers and destroying all those who opposed his rule.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>However that is not the kind of King that Jesus is.\u00a0 Jesus&#8217; Kingship is not one of earthly dominion and power, rather it is a Kinship not of this world\u00a0 &#8211; as we see in John 18:36.\u00a0 <\/span>It is important however that we understand that\u00a0 Jesus saying that his kingdom is not \u201cof this world,\u201d certainly doesn&#8217;t  mean that it is not \u201cin this world.\u201d Jesus calls us to  live lives of justice and compassion, understanding and generosity. His  kingdom, the reign of God, is centred on living out a life of service and love.\u00a0 Jesus is a very different kind of King!<br \/><span style=\"\"><\/span><br \/><span>The apocalyptic readings we see for today in Daniel and Revelation show us imagery of Christ the King reigning in the heavenly realm.\u00a0<\/span>  \t\t \t\t \t \t   \t\t \t\t \t\t \t\t \t\t \t\t \t\t \t\t \t\t \t\t \t\t \t\t \t\t \t \t \t\t \t\t \t\t\tThese readings have meaning for today&#8217;s feast, for the end of the liturgical year and for the world in which we  find ourselves today. First, they remind us of the nature of the  authentic rule of Christ. It is a rule of victory through self-giving.  It is a rule where authority springs from truth. Whenever we follow the  example set for us by Christ, we participate \u201cin this world\u201d in the  reign of God, which is not \u201cof this world.\u201d<\/p>\n<p> As we reflect on this reigning victorious King who is our Lord  and saviour &#8211; it is worth reflecting on the journey that we have taken  over the liturgical year, which ends today.\u00a0 The Church&#8217;s year takes us  on a journey, from anticipation of the coming saviour in Advent (which  we begin again next week) through his life, death and resurrection &#8211;  today we conclude the liturgical year by looking to our triumphant King.\u00a0  Let us in looking to Him, seek to love as He loves, to give as He gives and to serve as He serves.<\/p>\n<p><span>God bless you this week. <\/span><br \/><span>Daryl.<\/span><br \/><span><\/span><br \/><span>This was adapted from <a title=\"\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.americamagazine.org\/content\/article.cfm?article_id=3292\" rel=\"noopener\">here<\/a><\/span>.<br \/><span style=\"\"><\/span><br \/><span style=\"\"><\/span><br \/><span style=\"\"><\/span><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Word This Week: 2 Samuel 23:1-7 and Psalm 132:1-12, (13-18)\u00a0 OR Daniel 7:9-10, 13-14 and Psalm 93\u00a0\u00a0\u2022\u00a0 Revelation 1:4b-8\u00a0\u00a0\u2022\u00a0 John 18:33-37 Thoughts on the Word:\u00a0The idea of a king (or queen) is something that seems odd to many of us, who live in modern liberal democracies.\u00a0 While my country technically comes under the dominion &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/thewordthisweek.com\/index.php\/2014\/01\/11\/sunday-25th-november-2012-feast-of-christ-the-king\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Sunday 25th November 2012 &#8211; Feast of Christ The King&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewordthisweek.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewordthisweek.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewordthisweek.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewordthisweek.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewordthisweek.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thewordthisweek.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewordthisweek.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewordthisweek.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewordthisweek.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}