Christ the King Sunday

Our readings for Christ the King Sunday are:

1. Daniel 7: 13-14
2. Psalms 93: 1, 1-2, 5
3. Revelation 1: 5-8
4. John 18: 33b-37

• Renewed
• "Old age is not for sissies" my father frequently said.  He may have been even smarter than I gave him credit for.  One challenge of old age is trying to reconcile the present to the past, find what has endured and what has not, and ask yourself, "if this aspect of who I was taught to be, who I am, seems so irrelevant today, what should I learn from that?"
• Imagine yourself thirty years in the future.  What do you think might have changed by then?
• If you knew for sure what life will be like by then, how would that affect the way that you are living now?
• What of your life today are you absolutely sure will still be there in 30 years (besides death and taxes, those don't count).
• If you could live the rest of your life without any change, would you?

• The call to holiness
• Maybe a problem that young people have today is that they look at work as nothing more than a way to make a living.  As such, the most efficient way is to have one brilliant idea, like Facebook, and then, somehow, you are set for life.  What if we got that wrong, and the best work comes from us when we follow our calling.
• How has God called you in your life?
• Who has God used to communicate His call to you?
• What do you think God might be calling you to now?
• What do you hope God is calling you to?
• Why do you think there might be a difference? 

• The power of the circle
• In the movie News of the World, Tom Hanks finds himself "restoring" a young girl captured by native Americans and raised as one of their own, to her white family.  Along the way, she tries to tell him that life is a circle, that everything comes back to the beginning.  He tries to tell her that the way to make progress is a straight line.  I found that scene to be truly epic.
• If God is the beginning and the end, what does that tell you about resurrection?
• What is ending in your life these days as we approach the end of the Liturgical Year?
• Should that be ending?
• What is beginning for you at this time?
• Should that beginning be happening at this time, in this place?

• Authenticity
• As an instructor, I constantly struggle with the fundamental question: "how well do I have to know this topic before I am qualified to teach it?"  A corollary to that question is: "what do I have to offer these students that they cannot get on their own?"  Jesus asks Pilate whether his question regarding Jesus' identity is something that springs from within, or whether that question is from someone else.
• Do you believe that we can be more "real" in our life as we give ourselves away?
• How prepared do we have to be before we can authentically give ourselves away?
• How do you tell when you're ready?
• What, really, is a hypocrite?

• Preparation for Reconciliation:

1. Where might God be calling me to let go of something to take up something even better?
2. What is the passion that God has given me calling me towards?
3. What is God resurrecting in my life?
4. How might God be "loving me into real"?

Shalom!