SermonStudio

We have arrived at the last Sunday of the church year. Next Sunday, we begin anew with the First Sunday of Advent. So we've come, in a sense, to the completion of a journey that has taken us from the birth of Jesus, to the death and resurrection of Jesus, through an account in the Gospel of Luke of the earthly ministry of Jesus, through the Ascension of Jesus, and the birth of the Church. Now, on this final Sunday of the church year, we crown it off by recognizing Jesus Christ as the head of the church -- and indeed our whole lives. So we have a special name for this unique Sunday in the church calendar.

Christ the President Sunday.

Doesn't quite work, does it? Like, would Christ the President get elected every four years? Or, is this "Christ" position an elected office, and Jesus could get voted out, and we could vote in someone else, like, say "Elvis"?

Metaphor is everything. Christ the Prime Minister Sunday isn't any better. Christ the Dictator Sunday. The Totalitarian. And Christ the Sovereign Sunday sounds just as silly.

Some argue these days that the word "king" -- being a masculine image, and a political metaphor of aeons in the past -- is no longer a useful metaphor for a postmodern, twenty-first-century world. It's outdated and archaic.

Same goes for the word "lord." What's a lord, except for a goofy-looking man wearing a wig of white curls and sitting in the English parliament?

That's why people who know far much more than I do about such matters are given to striking the word "king" and "lord" from our hymnals and Bibles. No need to cause offense, they say. Instead, they've substituted the word "sovereign" for "king" and "lord." Like we're going to understand the meaning of "sovereign" better than "king." Please.

I don't think there's a living soul in America above the age of five who can't give you a fairly good definition of what a "king" is. Have you checked out your children's video game collection lately? You might find The King of Dragons, King of the Fighters, King of the Monsters, King of Boxers, King of Route 66, and Lord of Guns. And how about those fabulously popular movies, Lord of the Rings?

Who are we kidding? Christ the King. We get it. We understand it. In Christ is all power and glory, and someday, Christ will have all dominion. And it is to Christ, in whom "all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell" that we owe our allegiance, our fealty. And in a few days, we'll be standing in awe and reverence when the community choir gets to that magnificent chorus in Handel's Messiah:

Hallelujah!
For the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth! Hallelujah!
The kingdom of this world is become the Kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ!
And he shall reign forever and ever.
King of kings, and Lord of lords.
Forever, and ever!
Hallelujah!