Feast of Christ the King

Today we hear the Prophet Jeremiah speak of unfaithful shepherds.  The faithlessness  of Jewish leaders led to the fall of the State and of the state religion, culminating in the Exile to Babylon.  The Prophet tells us that God must be trusted to raise up new leadership.  In particular, there persisted the belief that a Davidic king, a Messiah, would come to save the nation and the faith.

Soon the credentials of the Messiah would expand to include conversion of the Gentiles to the God of Israel, and triggering the establishment of a never-ending Kingdom of God on earth -- a world free of pain, sorrow, violence and warfare, and even death.  Into this perfect world then would be grandfathered all the righteous dead who would be resurrected to join the eternal party.

Now along comes Jesus, hailed as Messiah, who revises the job description.  He will not save the people from Roman oppression but from sin -- the oppression of self-centredness, greed, violence and hate.  He will call for the Kingdom of God, not manufactured miraculously around believers but deliberately through us believers.  And the key will be servant ministry.  A relatively modern analogy might be His Majesty, King George VI who, when offered safe haven in Canada during World War II, refused safety and remained in England on the front lines with his people.  He modelled in action the idea that the true Christian king is servant of all.  And so must we be.

Jesus also demonstrated to us that God is the God of second chances.  At this season we once again have a second chance to make God first in our lives..  Let us ask ourselves:  if an auditor came to our home and looked through our personal calendars and our  chequebooks, would that auditor conclude that God's work is the most important thing in our lives?    If God is not first in our use of time, talent and treasure, then he is not our God.   Something else is in first place -- perhaps security, pleasure, family or wealth -- and we need to rearranged our priorities to re-establish the primacy of Christ the King in our lives..