Our observance this Sunday is...
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Our observance this Sunday is in honor of the King of kings. We do have to stop in the middle of this celebration to ask ourselves if we know what we are doing. No one is inclined to impose on the Holy Gospel for this day the political assumptions about monarchies as they are presently constituted or have been in the past. However, we should be prepared to answer as to what we do mean when we say that Christ is King, when we pray for his kingdom to come, or when we try to explain what he meant when he said the "kingdom of God has come near." It was John Bright who wrote an excellent treatise called The Kingdom of God. Bright noted that the term "Kingdom of God" is used sparingly in both the Hebrew Scriptures and the Greek Testament. Yet the concept runs through both and is a unifying theme throughout both. Others have suggested that the term for "kingdom" in the Greek, baseleia, is best translated "rule," i.e., the "rule of God." That is helpful and underscores Bright's thesis. However, all that is intended in the concept of the rule of God is summarized, illustrated, personalized, and made reality in the suffering, death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. -- Huxhold
