24.11.2025
Saint Francis
Reign of Christ Sunday
Nov. 23, 2025
St. Francis Lutheran Church
Pastor Elizabeth Ekdale
Today is the New Year’s Eve of the Church year. Happy New Year!
Christ the King or the Reign of Christ Sunday is our final Sunday of the liturgical year. Next Sunday, we begin in earnest our preparations for the arrival of and the celebration of the birth of Christ.
But before we get there, we are here-- ironically, on the last day of Jesus' life. Hanging on the cross, Jesus offers a different vision of God’s reign and rule than what we all too often see in the public realm of rulers and reigns. This different vision began in a manger and concludes on a cross. Jesus is taunted by the soldiers who are agents of the empire and the Pharisees -- self-serving religious leaders. They demand of him to exercise the kind of dominant and oppressive power they know best -- act like a ruler and save yourself.
Jesus refuses. His last words in response to his humiliation on the cross are words of forgiveness: Forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing. His final words to another human were an invitation to embrace the hope of life and death in God’s reign: Truly I tell you today you will be with me in paradise. In the final hours and moments of the life of God’s incarnate one, he is listening and present with those around him, aware that to the very leaders who have conspired to have him killed, he has just offered divine forgiveness, aware that the criminals hanging beside him deserve one more opportunity to be relationship with a loving and graceful God.
From dying on a cross to being born in a manger, we encounter God who fully identifies with the weak, rejected and humiliated of the world which was consistent with the ministry of his life. Jesus has spent 3 years teaching about the reign of God, preaching liberation to the captives, healing those who were sick and told they weren’t loved by God. Jesus' miracles and teachings had so confounded the powers of the world, power which abused and oppressed, that he was deemed a threat to this sinful way of life. Jesus had challenged the unjust treatment of women and the elderly, preached the need for patience and the inherent worth of children, provided human touch and connection to lepers, and didn’t hesitate to accuse religious leaders of lacking compassion. This is the kind of God we worship today and give our lives, our allegiance and our loyalty to -- a God who suffers with us when we are crucified by the suffering of our lives, a God who engages us when we are on the cross or carrying a cross or bearing witness to the cross, a God who enters into our humanity and is present with us in all of life’s pain and joy.
Between the manger and the cross, Jesus taught that the reign of God is like the love freely given when a child foolishly asks their parent for their inheritance, takes it, goes to a foreign land, and squanders all they have. Then, when the child comes to their senses and returns home, hoping their parent will forgive them, they are met with rejoicing and jubilation because of the father’s great love and ability to forgive.
Jesus said that the beloved community of God is like a shepherd who cares so deeply for all her sheep that when one is lost, the shepherd goes in search of the lost and does not give up until the sheep is found. Jesus said that the community of God is like a rich man who gives a party and when the wealthy invitees are too busy for the party, the rich man throws open the invitation and invites the poor, the blind, and the lame to be part of the feast. Between the manger and the cross, Jesus shows us another way of living and serving -- a cross-shaped way -- which invites us to live with humility and generosity and value the importance of human connection with one another. Jesus models for us God’s reign on earth and in heaven and shows us power in vulnerability so evident on the cross as a way for us to be in community with one another in the peaceful reign of Christ.
A few years ago at St. Mark’s, one of our council members at our monthly meeting shared about her experience being present with her sister who suffers from a bi-polar mental disorder. This council member witnessed beautifully to the simple profound power of human connection as she listened to and was present with her sister in all of her pain and suffering. She encouraged those of us at the meeting to speak honestly of our own experiences of mental illness -- either our own or in those whom we love. She spoke about the vulnerable power of her own faith which guides her as she cares for her sister and cares for others she serves in her vocation as an occupational therapist.
In remembering this story, I thought of our gospel reading for today on this final Sunday of the Church year --Jesus vulnerable on the cross, listening to those hanging on either side of him and embracing their and our humanity -- expressing a love deeper than the world has ever known. “Today you will be with me paradise.”
When we receive such a love and offer it in our relationships with one another, the reign of Christ moves off the pages of the liturgical and into the lifeblood of our world.
Thanks be to God. Amen.
