Service for November 23 Christ the King Sunday
Sermon for November 23, 2025 Christ the King Sunday
At the end of the church year, every year, we celebrate this odd Sunday we call the Reign of Christ Sunday or Christ the King Sunday. We close the liturgical circle being reminded to whom we have committed our lives: this revelation of God who chose to reveal God, dying on a cross.
In the calendar of the church year, Reign of Christ Sunday is only 4 weeks before the celebration of the birth of Christ and yet our gospel reading is from Good Friday, the crucifixion of Christ. We take these 4 weeks of Advent to hold Jesus’ birth in a manger side by side with Jesus’ death on a cross. 4 weeks that push us to embrace the truth that we need both events to understand the revelation of Emmanuel, God with us.
That God would choose to become human, born among the poor and disenfranchised is foolishness by any definition. That God would choose to die a humiliating death on the instrument of torture chosen by empire is foolishness. That we proclaim that truth every Sunday, naming that this is the God we gather to encounter in word and meal is foolishness.
On this very odd Sunday of the church year, the words of the apostle Paul in his letter to the Corinthians should ring in our ears. Paul wrote, “the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. Jews ask for signs and Greeks desire wisdom, 23 but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to gentiles,.. For God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength. …God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; 28 God chose what is low and despised in the world, things that are not, to abolish things that are, 29 so that no one might boast in the presence of God.
Paul uses a stark contrast to make his point. But, in most cases I think we have to admit that the choice is not “either/or” it’s “both/and.” It’s not true that some of us are wise and some are foolish, at least regarding faith. It’s not true that some of us are strong in faith and some are weak in faith. We’re all foolish, we’re all weak. Following a crucified God is foolishness. Following a crucified God leads us to dark and dangerous places where the weak are to be found. It leads us to those places where the lowly and despised in this life are at home.
Following this God, the one who revealed his glory by dying powerless on a cross next to two thieves and had the audacity to forgive his executioners and promise paradise to a confessed criminal, following this God is foolishness.
And we give thanks for that foolishness. We give thanks because we know that every time we think we are wise enough or strong enough or able to save ourselves, we fail miserably. Our arrogance is revealed as we fail again and again. Again, the apostle Paul says, “All have sinned and have fallen short of God’s glory.” ALL! We give thanks that despite our inability to be strong or wise or to save ourselves, we are not lost. Jesus has already done all that is needed to set things right, to bridge the gap between what God desires for us and for all creation and what we are capable of doing for ourselves.
Despite our limitations, simply because of who God is, we, you and me are included in Jesus’ last, earthly act of forgiveness: “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.” We are included in Jesus’ promise of salvation spoken to the thief on the cross, to whom he said “you will be with me in Paradise.” To believe that is foolishness. To trust our lives to that truth is foolishness. And so, we proudly take the name of Christian, of fool, fools for Christ, trusting that God’s thoughts are not our thoughts, neither are our ways God’s ways.
As the world and some version of Christianity tries to claim that Jesus’s kingship is demonstrated in physical power and show of force, we remember that Jesus told us time and time again what his “reign,” his “kingship” would look like and how different it would be from the world’s idea of power. This is Jesus’ description of the power he called his followers to exercise:
“Love your enemies; do good to those who hate you; 28 bless those who curse you; pray for those who mistreat you. 29 If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also, and from anyone who takes away your coat do not withhold even your shirt. 30 Give to everyone who asks of you, and if anyone takes away what is yours, do not ask for it back again. 31 Do to others as you would have them do to you…
36 Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.”
Loving our enemies, refusing to strike back when hurt, giving even when it hurts, being unfailingly merciful, that is real strength! That is the kind of strength, shown in being humble. It is strength shown by restraining the desire to get even, to give in to anger and jealousy. This gentle kind of strength asks more of us than using force does. Instead of relying on brute force, Jesus calls us to a higher strength, strength over our own impulses, strength to put others first, strength to forgive those we don’t like or understand, strength even to admit we may not know everything and we can learn from each other, even and maybe especially from those with no power, no status.
On this Sunday before our celebration of giving Thanks, we ponder what God is asking of us now, what it means to follow THIS king now. Over these 2 thousand plus years, has the world seen enough brutality and use of force? Have enough people suffered from the heartless actions of those who think they have a right to use any and all power available to enforce their vision of Jesus’s kingship?
Can we finally admit that that kind of strength is destroying us, destroying the planet? Can we now give thanks for restraint, for humility, for letting go of power and status for the sake of more faithfully following this king, Christ who shows
us the way.
Theologian, Walter Brueggeman gives us the words of thanksgiving appropriate for we who are Christian, we who are proud to be fools:
“We are among those who give thanks in every circumstance.
We give thanks easily for the obvious blessings of our lives:
We give thanks for family, and for good friends such as these who bring wellbeing to our lives.
We give thanks for abundant food, like the bounty of this table.
We give thanks for the warmth and comfort and safety of our homes.
But we also give thanks in harder, more ambiguous circumstances:
We give thanks for every breath of life, while fragility or old age crowds in on us.
We give thanks for an economy in which we flourish, not unmindful of the multitude left behind.
We give thanks for the body politic, while we track the force of violence, fear, and hate.
We give thanks for the beauty of the earth, even while we collude in its toxicity.
We give thanks for the church, while our familiar forms and habits fade away.
We give thanks everywhere, all the time.
Receive our thanks. Give it back to us, we ask,
as courage, energy, and resolve, that we may love more fully the things you love, faithfulness, justice, and mercy.”1 Amen.
1Walter Brueggemann, written for Thanksgiving, November 24, 2022