Message – November 22, 2020

Brothers and Sisters:

The Church celebrates today the Feast of Christ the King or the Reign of Christ.  The collect for the day reminds us that it is God’s will to restore all things in his well-beloved Son, the King of kings and the Lord of lords, and it leads us on to pray “that the peoples of the earth, divided and enslaved by sin, may be freed and brought under God’s most gracious rule.”  Clearly the goal of mission is the coming of the time when the kingdoms of the world will become the kingdom of our Lord and his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever (Revelation 11:15). 

We are fully aware that although we pray daily that God’s kingdom may come on earth as it is in heaven, we have to do more than just pray.  We cannot sit back and hope that in some miraculous way, without any effort on our part God’s purpose for the world will be fulfilled.  The vision is large but we must approach our task with confidence, for we serve a mighty God, who has given to his church the power to accomplish his mission.

God’s plan of action to bring the world under his rule includes all of us.  It is not a task for a few specially chosen persons, but one in which the whole church must become involved.  Everyone in the Church, the young and not so young,  must  all be working together for the spread of the Reign of Christ. 

You may well ask, “What is the common feature that binds us all together, and enables us to work together?”  The simple answer is that we are “Jesus People!”  We have all been baptized into Christ, brought into the family of God, and called by Jesus to follow him, to serve him, to love him, and submit ourselves fully to his divine authority.  As Jesus stretched out his hands on the hard wood of the cross, so must we reach out to others in the face of difficulty to draw them into his saving embrace.

Blessings,

Think on these Things!