Christ the King Sunday

Our readings for Christ the King Sunday:

1. II Samuel 2: 1-3
2. Psalms 122: 1-2, 3-4, 4-5
3. Colossians 12: 1-20
4. Luke 23: 35-43

• Servant leadership
• We often seek God to lead us.  If God is a leader, how does God's leadership stack up against other great leaders?
• Have you ever had a leader that you would say is "Godly"?
• In what way?
• Have you ever been in a position of leadership?  Perhaps as a teacher, manager, parent, council member?
• What Godly qualities did that position call for?
• Were you able to the that Godly leader? 

• Can you go with me?
• Living virtuously can be a lonely way of life.  Not only are we in a culture that has little use for anything that does not contribute to the "bottom line", but to some extent each of us must find our own path to holiness in Jesus.  No two of us have exactly the same path to travel.
• Where do you go when you feel the need for an understanding listener?
• Do you look to them for advice, or as a "sounding board", a place and time where you can better listen to the voice of God as someone else listens to you?
• Do you see yourself being that spiritual companion to anyone else? 

• I can only imagine
• Jesus is the image and likeness of God.  Amazingly enough, we were created, are created, are being recreated in the image and likeness of God.  I look at my sagging visage, feel the steady march of aches and pains in my body, and I'm pretty sure that however long I have left to live, when the end comes for me, it ain't going to be pretty.  Will I be a better image and likeness of God by then?
• Who are some folks that you would say are an image of God for you, someone who shows you by their life who God is?
• What is it about them that makes you say that?
• Are they getting better at being God's image as they age?
• How is that possible? 

• Listening through it all
• It's easy to let personal issues like having half inch spikes driven through your wrists and feet distract you from listening to someone else.  Especially if you've just paid good money for a manicure.  But Jesus was able to be true to His identity in spite of all that.
• To be truly generous to others, do we have to deny ourselves?
• What does that denial of self actually amount to?
• How do you tell when your self denial has become toxic, to you and others (a martyr complex)?
• Is it possible to be generous by being truer to your essential identity? 

• Preparation for Reconciliation
• Where might God be calling me to servant leadership?
• Who around me needs a good listener?
• How am I imaging God today? 
• Where might God be calling me to greater mercy? 

Awed by Mercy

There was a dry, dusty breeze that day.

The sun beat down on us mercilessly.

Sweat gathered and ran down my body.

The heat of today's hammering burning me.

 

I glanced at my knotted arms.

Rippling muscles testament to many days

Spent impaling prisoners to crude wood.

And hoisting them high for all to see.

 

My commander is proud of me, my work.

Tells me that we help keep the rabble orderly.

"Nothing like good crucifixion" he'd say

"To help put things into proper perspective."

 

At first, "proper perspective" was simple:

"I'm glad that I'm not that poor sod" I'd say.

Then I changed and began to realize

Sometimes they stole to feed their babies.

 

And I'd realize that I was lucky to have steady work.

Gruesome though it may be.

I began to wonder if this sort of punishment

Was the only way to keep Rome great.

 

Out of curiosity, at first anyway,

I started to ask the prisoners what they were in for.

Some for heinous acts, some for petty thievery,

Others for unfortunate adultery with the proud and prominent.

 

All, all of them sent here to dangle and die.

No risk of pardon, no second chance, no dignity.

The sorry likes of me & my cohort here

The last human faces that any of them would see.

 

None of them thinking of anyone but themselves.

Not that I could blame them.

And once they were hoisted between heaven and earth -

The searing pain and fatigue soon took over.

 

But this man, Jesus.  He listened to another doomed man.

Jesus had been stripped, beaten, spat upon.

Everything taken away from him.

Except for His mercy.

 

And He gave that freely to a complete stranger.

And I'll never be the same again.

My longtime buddies won't understand.

My family will think that I've "gone native".

 

But somehow, I need to find a life -

Where I can start showing mercy rather than efficiency

Give honor to this miracle of mercy that I've witnessed here

And maybe find this Jesus still walking our streets today.

 

Shalom!