SCRIPTURE: Ezekiel 34:11-16, 20-24
TEXT: THEME: INTRODUCTION The Reign of Christ Sunday is the last Sunday in the Church Calendar’s Season of Pentecost. Next week Advent begins the four Sundays before Christmas. For the past few years, we have been observing the theme of the Reign of Christ Sunday. It seems like an odd duck, the season that bring our focus on living our ordinary lives faithfully with the Spirit comes to an end. It shifts our theological gears to prepare for the coming celebration of Christ’s birth. This year during Pentecost, we focused on passages with food and the table guest of God. Then we moved on to the Compassion of God, mostly through the books of Matthew, Genesis, Exodus, and singular readings from Deuteronomy, Joshua, and Ezekiel. There has been a progression for the People of God, from the Head of the household and family, to the expanded family that finds themselves enslaved in Egypt. To the prophet Moses who liberates them from slavery and forms them experiences in the wilderness. The Warrior Joshua leads them to recapture and inhabit abandoned lands, while Judges dispense justice over the settled lands. This will give way to Kings who reign with Prophets who keep the voice of God heard. Finally, even though captured in Babylon, the prophet Ezekiel gives a vision of God’s reigning as a shepherd. Seeing the next rule of Israel as shepherd could expand the boundaries of God’s rule beyond the Joshua, Middle East. The story of people and their relationship with God, expands, grows, and evolves. On the edge of the end of the reign of kings, the prophet Ezekiel envisions something different, beyond a patriarch, prophet, judge, and king. A shepherd is an interesting image for the Reign of Christ Sunday. SCRIPTURE At Monday night Bible study, as we read this passage, the words of the 23rd Psalm echo in this prophecy. Those echoes have become the heading for these paragraphs. Imagine the activity of a Ruler, King, Dictator, Sovereign, President, Czar, Emperor, as being that of a shepherd. A Ruler concern about the outcaste and including those who have lost their way. Giving all a way back as part of the community, the family, the people of God. From the abundant resources, a distribution giving to all what they need. There will be a richness in the community, with art, peace, creativity, music, inventiveness, and care. What would be spent on defense would be spent on improvements on the quality of life. The immigrant would we treated without fear and there would be a learning from each other and a blending in our communities. Our Ruler would not be out of touch with the people, but dwell among us. Making decision for our good. The next part, that completes this imagine of the shepherd ruler is healing. Wounds would be bound up, as well as the emotional ones and we will see what else we can create as stewards of creations and partners participating in the work of God. APPLICATION I didn’t include the last part of the passage from verse 20-24. It has to do with the judgment of the shepherd between the sheep that are fat at the expense of other sheep. Their selfishness and bulling caused the other sheep to be lean. A common theme throughout the Pentecost readings has been living out our relationship with God. Or as the Ten Commandments states it, ‘carrying the Name of the Lord’ with us. It is the People of God being the People of God, not by following a bunch of rules and judging others, but by the way we live. Which brings us to the question, ‘How do we live, as those who live under the reign of a caring shepherd?’ One way is to be who we are with God where ever we are. At Thanksgiving Dinner, I met a young adult and had her as a captive audience as I ranted on about how the church is being sent out instead of having people only come to us on Sunday mornings at 9. When she had the opportunity, she fled to sit at another table. San Francisco made a touchdown and she made her move to sit with others with the skill of a tight end. Christ has chosen to be the ruler in our lives and although we may not be the ruler of any nation, we can make changes in our marriage, with our children, with our family members, our neighborhood, in our school, at work, community, state and even our nation. By the way we act, what we vote for, who we support and by those we stand with in solidarity. Our living, with the God who has sought out the scattered, rescues those in trouble, saves us from materialism and idols, heals us from our infirmities, does not require us to be more than human, but to live into the love and grace that is found in the embrace of God. Not living to escape death, plagues, hardship, but to live through it all with God and as a help to our neighbors. Working with God and learning how to be forgiving. Protecting ourselves from hurtful situations and choosing not to harm those who have hurt us. Being happy with the accomplishments of others. Having the strength to endure suffering so we can be compassionate with those who are suffering. Living the best life that we can with God and with those around us and desiring the very best for others. CONCLUSION The reign of Christ Sunday is Sunday is an odd duck, like a cap stone rejected by the builder but capable of that holding the two sides of an arch together in the formation of a people of God. From the family of Abraham and Sarah, discovering God as they left their home to journey towards the promise of land and decedents. The head of their households build on their experiences with God as the family grows from generation to generation until they find themselves in Egypt. They are led by God through the prophet Moses through an escape from slavery and wandering in the wilderness that formed their faith and themselves as a people of God. Warriors capture and resettled long abandoned land, while later Judges arise to dispense justice. Kings then take their thrones over them. But now from another captivity and in the wilderness of Babylon the voice of the prophet speaks of the reign of a Shepherd as the Christ. The Christ will be a Prophet, a King, a Peaceful warrior, a justice bringer, recapturing hearts in every territory, and gathering the scattered sheep with a belonging, inclusion, into community like a shepherd. The capstone that bears the tension from one side of discovery and formation that continues to pushes the family of God into the direction of living our faith in God, every day, with every people, in love. The God of the ancestors becomes the Christ in flesh and blood, living among us. The Reign of Christ Sunday opens us up to a season to prepare what is coming with Advent; the incarnation.
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