November 25th – Christ The King Sunday Worship Service and Adult Education Hour
Christ The King Sunday marks the end of the church year. The service was filled in music and word with king and shepherd imagery. Pastor Dayle talked about the elements of cross and crown. She preached that no earthly kingdom will shepherd us or lead us to do what is essential and of the spirit.
My recent reading has included a book by Dorothee Soelle, Theology for Skeptics. She argues against using the imagery of God or Christ as king because it is so easy to leap to the assumption that God is all-powerful and is the cause of suffering; ultimately that humans thus suffer for some greater purpose.
Soelle’s view is that God suffers and is powerless alongside us. Humans are to struggle together against oppression, sexism, anti-Semitism, and other forms of authoritarianism. This fits in with the what Pastor Dayle preached about Jesus being a political activist.
People from the book group and readers of this blog may know my discomfort around thinking of Jesus as a political figure. This discomfort comes from two places within me and I am not sure that it isn’t healthy to leave it unsettled.
The first level of discomfort for me is that when Jesus is attached directly to politics it is easy to assume we know how God wants to work within the political process. It becomes harder to understand and love those who pursue different views.
The second is that there is a tendency to discount internal change, the metanoia that is often translated as repentance instead of “mind change” or becoming a new man. Instead seeing Jesus as a political activist promotes action that changes the world and addresses social injustice.
Deep in my heart I want to be committed to both those changes. I don’t know that one is forced to choose between these views. The good part of leaving this unsettled and uncommitted to just one is that it can drive us deeper into the divide and challenge us to both change internally and promote change that brings about justice. It is not good if we do not change internally but attach ourselves to the promise of political change, or feel we have changed internally but there is no fruit in the form of action taken.
During the Adult Education I attended the Men’s Group led by Paul. We talked about Advent and explored the concept of waiting. Mary asked me about what we are waiting for in Advent, if there is something during this time of year that has not yet come that has come during other parts of the church year.
When I think of this I think about God time and knowing the beginning, middle and end of a story. I think about the story of Abraham and Isaac; a story we know as exploring the depths of faith. Yet not knowing the end of the story radically changes it, at least in my mind. God is commanding Abraham to disobey the laws of God and man by sacrificing Isaac. It moves from a comfortable Sunday School story to a terrifying choice.
And so, with the coming of Christmas and Christ’s birth, do we pretend to wait for what we know happened historically, or do we move into God time where somehow history has not happened yet, or do we wait for the coming of something else?
Christ The King Sunday marks the end of the church year. The service was filled in music and word with king and shepherd imagery. Pastor Dayle talked about the elements of cross and crown. She preached that no earthly kingdom will shepherd us or lead us to do what is essential and of the spirit.
My recent reading has included a book by Dorothee Soelle, Theology for Skeptics. She argues against using the imagery of God or Christ as king because it is so easy to leap to the assumption that God is all-powerful and is the cause of suffering; ultimately that humans thus suffer for some greater purpose.
Soelle’s view is that God suffers and is powerless alongside us. Humans are to struggle together against oppression, sexism, anti-Semitism, and other forms of authoritarianism. This fits in with the what Pastor Dayle preached about Jesus being a political activist.
People from the book group and readers of this blog may know my discomfort around thinking of Jesus as a political figure. This discomfort comes from two places within me and I am not sure that it isn’t healthy to leave it unsettled.
The first level of discomfort for me is that when Jesus is attached directly to politics it is easy to assume we know how God wants to work within the political process. It becomes harder to understand and love those who pursue different views.
The second is that there is a tendency to discount internal change, the metanoia that is often translated as repentance instead of “mind change” or becoming a new man. Instead seeing Jesus as a political activist promotes action that changes the world and addresses social injustice.
Deep in my heart I want to be committed to both those changes. I don’t know that one is forced to choose between these views. The good part of leaving this unsettled and uncommitted to just one is that it can drive us deeper into the divide and challenge us to both change internally and promote change that brings about justice. It is not good if we do not change internally but attach ourselves to the promise of political change, or feel we have changed internally but there is no fruit in the form of action taken.
During the Adult Education I attended the Men’s Group led by Paul. We talked about Advent and explored the concept of waiting. Mary asked me about what we are waiting for in Advent, if there is something during this time of year that has not yet come that has come during other parts of the church year.
When I think of this I think about God time and knowing the beginning, middle and end of a story. I think about the story of Abraham and Isaac; a story we know as exploring the depths of faith. Yet not knowing the end of the story radically changes it, at least in my mind. God is commanding Abraham to disobey the laws of God and man by sacrificing Isaac. It moves from a comfortable Sunday School story to a terrifying choice.
And so, with the coming of Christmas and Christ’s birth, do we pretend to wait for what we know happened historically, or do we move into God time where somehow history has not happened yet, or do we wait for the coming of something else?
These are the questions that are in my mind as I prepare for Advent.
posted by Gary at
5:27 AM
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