The Preacher’s Study
First thoughts about next Sunday’s sermon,
Last Sunday after Pentecost: Reign of Christ
(or Advent III, expanded season)
William H. Petersen
Note: The
Anglican Church of Canada lists this Sunday as “The Last Sunday after
Pentecost” and adds “The Reign of Christ” while the Episcopal Church only
indicates “Proper 29 ” without further designation. For parishes
in an expanded Advent (www.theadventproject.org ) it is Rex Gentium Sunday, continuing the use of the Messiah’s
scriptural titles as found in the Great “O” antiphons. In all cases, the
readings are identical, while a canticle replaces RCL’s Psalm 46.
Contextual Considerations
This
feast is less than a hundred years old. Christ the King was added to the
calendar by Pope Pius XI in 1925. It was originally instituted as a counter to
nationalist, communist, and fascist claims upon peoples’ ultimate loyalty. In a
pre-ecumenical age, however, it provided an offense to Protestants by placement
on the Sunday before All Saints’ Day, viz.
Reformation Sunday. The force of that original slight was, however, removed by
Pope Paul VI in 1969 when the solemnity of “Our Lord Jesus Christ King of the
Universe” was changed to its present location. The stated rationale for the
change was to make clearer “the eschatological importance of this Sunday.”
Nearly all churches following a liturgical calendar have adopted the feast and
it is noted as a title for the day in the RCL.
Thus, whether the Sunday is seen as an “end of time” (Last Sunday after
Pentecost) or as the third Sunday of an expanded Advent, the eschatological
focus that marks the weeks after All Saints’ Sunday until the week before
Christmas is not only continued but emphasized. For those following an expanded
Advent, it is obviously fitting to employ the Rex gentium “O” antiphon to designate this Sunday. In all cases,
the original point of the feast in regard to ultimate loyalties remains the
same. For the preacher, the challenge is to help people to understand and live
in terms of the “now and yet still more to be manifested” of God’s reign.
Reflections on the Lections
Jeremiah 23:1-6. The majority of this passage has an
interesting history for Anglicans. In BCPs from 1549 through 1928 it
represented the singular instance in the liturgical year when an OT reading
appeared in lieu of “The Epistle” Not found in Roman lectionaries in this
place, but retained from the Sarum Missal
by Cranmer, it amazingly anticipates by some centuries a central feature of the
present festal designation. Its appearance in the RCL for “The Reign of Christ” represents an affirmation of
Cranmer’s wisdom. The expansion of the reading backwards from an eschatological
start at vs. 5 (“The days are surely coming”) to vs. 1 of Jeremiah 23 (“Woe to
the shepherds”) is comprehensive. The inclusivity of the judgment announced by
the prophet tells as much against dysfunctional and divisive ecclesial
leadership as it does against destructive and deadly civil rule of whatever
form. The prophet, speaking for the Lord, envisions a better future.
Canticle 16 (TEC) / 19a or 19b
(ACC). How that better future has been
made present, is being manifested, and will be brought to completion is the
burden of this canticle substitute for a psalm which normally appears in this
position. The NT canticle is, of course, the Benedictus or “Song of Zechariah” – the prophetic utterance about
John the Baptist as harbinger of the Messiah which the Lukan evangelist puts in
the mouth of John’s father when he is finally free to break the silence imposed
upon him by his initial incredulity regarding his child. In the mouths of
Christians today it continues to be a sublime affirmation of the vision given
to and through Jeremiah. The canticle fairly begs to be sung and the forms for
this are plentiful, ranging from plainsong to Anglican chant to excellent hymn
paraphrases.
Colossians 1:11-20. There is probably no passage in the NT that
is more powerfully appropriate to this Sunday. This is especially so in terms
of its understanding of the implications of Christ’s sovereignty. The icon of
Christ Pantokrator comes to mind (“he
is the image of the invisible God”). In terms of intellect Christ as logos is primal and final generative
wisdom and reason (“all things have been created through him and for him” –
Alpha & Omega, in other words). In terms of affect, Christ is the cause,
focus, and means of our worship (“to endure everything with patience, while
joyfully giving thanks to the Father”). And, in terms of volition, Christ is at
the center and the circumference of all that makes for unity and harmony (“in
him all things hold together” or, better, “coinhere” or find their inner
connectivity). These aspects of doctrine, liturgy, and polity all work together
for the human community then by a singular act of reconciliation, i.e., as Christ was, is, and will be
“making peace by the blood of his cross.” How can such claims by Christians be
made cogent, attractive, and operative? Only insofar as we understand, value,
and act upon the fact that is at the heart of this passage as a direct
implication of our Baptism, namely, as we have been “rescued from the power of
darkness and transferred...into the kingdom of [God’s] beloved Son.” Preachers
can note that the eschatology of this passage is entirely free from any hint or
taint of apocalyptic, that is, of force or violence from the side of Divinity.
Luke 23:33-43. The antitype of kingship or sovereignty as
“the world” understands it is nowhere more aptly portrayed than in Christ’s
crucifixion. Hymnographers of the early church such as Fortunatus clearly
understood this in setting forth in Pange
lingua and Vexilla regis the
multivalent image of God in Christ as “reigning from a tree.” Jesus’ words of
forgiveness to his enemies; his endurance of the mockery at the very moment of
salvation – whether from the mob’s shouting or the earthly ruler’s cruel
two-edged jest in the sign affixed over his head; and his mercy extended to the
repentant thief in this passage all combine to establish both the fact of the
kingdom’s present and continuing reality and the enduring quality of the
sovereign. What remains for the preacher is effectively to connect the fact and
the quality of the sovereign with us, members baptized into his body, for our
life and mission.
Bonus Suggestion
The
collect for the day is the one in either BCP 1979 or BAS 1985. For those
following an expanded Advent one effective way of marking the Sundays is to use
as a gradual each Sunday a single verse with refrain of Veni, Emmanuel. Thus for the Reign of Christ it would be: “O come,
Desire of nations, come.”
William
H. Petersen is Emeritus Dean & Professor of Bexley Hall Seminary, Columbus,
OH. An Honorary Member of APLM Council, he is Consultant to the Ecumenical
Office, Episcopal Church Center, NYC, and Founder & Convener of The Advent
Project, North American Academy of Liturgy
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