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CHRIST THE KING SUNDAY

Sheep, led by their shepherd-kings, graze in the pastures of our lectionary readings for this day. Watch the shepherds as they feed, lead, heal, search and find, and unite the flock. However, earth-bound kings don’t always make good shepherds and so God becomes the Shepherd-King par excellence. In Ezekiel 34, God excoriates self-aggrandizing shepherds and goes off to unite the scattered flock. In Matthew 25, Jesus is the Shepherd-King who fulfills God’s promise. When he returns in glory as the King, Jesus will judge all people-separating humanity as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.

Ezekiel 34:11-16, 20-24-The shepherd is my Lord or visa versa?

This passage fills the imagination with images of shepherds and sheep. To read all of the chapter is to become aware of contrast. The writer contrasts very bad shepherding with the kind of Shepherd that God seeks and in fact, models. Speaking in promise of regathering from the Exile, God promises to search out every nook and cranny of the exile and dispersions to bring them back and feed them richly on the mountain heights of their own land (34:11-12). No matter their condition-lost, strayed, injured, weak-God will feed his people with justice (34:16-17). Still, God will do some sort of classification: he will "judge between sheep and sheep," between the "fat cats" (sheep) and the lean sheep who have been neglected and oppressed (34:20-22). Finally, God will establish a new Shepherd-King who will feed and shepherd them properly (23-24).

Ephesians 1:15-23--A Prayer for Wisdom, Insight, and Power

This passage has us praying with Paul for our respective communities of faith. Paul has just enumerated the spiritual blessings that are available to Christians "in Christ." He now pauses to offer a prayer of thanksgiving and petition. The prayer reflects the usual Pauline rememberance and response formula, but the actual petitions seem unique to Ephesians: a prayer for spiritual intelligence (the message), discerning, and understanding of God’s awesome power. Each of the three petitions includes or implies a "so that" clause to suggest what the desired result might look like.

Matthew 25:31-46-The King is Coming

Matthew has much to say about Christ the King. In this dramatic scene of Last Judgment, Jesus-who enters as the "new-born" king (2:2), who has entered Jerusalem as King (21:5), now represents the king, the Son of Man who will judge the living and dead, not unlike a shepherd who might separate the sheep from the goats (25:31-33). Sheep /followers seem to be defined as such primarily by the fact that they have served others in the same spirit that Jesus served those in need and in so doing in fact, served