Reign of Christ, Year C

I will raise up shepherds over [my people] who will shepherd them, and they shall not fear any longer, or be dismayed, nor shall any be missing, says the Lord.
~Jeremiah 23:4

He himself is before all things, and in him all things hold together.
~Colossians 1:17
 
[Jesus] replied, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise.”
~Luke 23:43
 
Christ the King Sunday, or the more amenable Reign of Christ was instituted in the lectionary cycle of biblical readings in 1925. It was enfolded into the Presbyterian calendar for the first time in the early 80s. It’s aristocratic imagery amid a progressive, democratic, partisan setting, requires thoughtful contextualization. Yet its vision of Christ ascended, and now seated at God’s right hand still offers a vigorous check for any tendency to limit our allegiance and our hope to earthly powers, principalities, or personalities.
 
To claim that Christ deserves our allegiance more than any earthly leader or political party is to commit ourselves to a radical notion in the present time. It is to claim that ultimate power and ultimate security lies beyond ourselves and our affiliations and tribes and philosophies and even our economics. It is to make the claim that Christ and this Way can be trusted more than anything else to overcome evil and despair and get us where we truly want to go.  
 
And yet, to trust in this claim is to claim a paradox. The poetic nature of Christ’s reign is further revealed as we turn the page of the liturgical calendar to the new year and to Advent and discover just what kind of a rule and ruler God had in mind.
 
Enter into worship.
 
Readings: Jeremiah 23:1-6 † Psalm 46 † Colossians 1:11-20 † Luke 23:33-43
 
About the Art, Swanson, John August. Festival of Lights, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=56546 [retrieved November 10, 2025]. Original source: Estate of John August Swanson, https://www.johnaugustswanson.com/.
 
Artist Notes: It is a dark night with a star-filled sky. Tiny lights are seen on the distant hillsides, gradually becoming figures carrying candles as they come closer to the foreground of the painting. I thought about liturgical processions I had seen. I remembered walking with groups in candlelight for peace in Central America. The symbol of candles shining in the dark night is powerful to me. Star-filled nights are images that help give me a sense of the place we are in the universe. My original thought was that this would be a procession of children from every city and town. The children would bring light and peace to the world. They would gather from many places, joining an unending procession towards peace and nonviolence for all children of the world.

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