{"id":9381,"date":"2011-11-20T23:25:34","date_gmt":"2011-11-20T12:25:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/?p=9381"},"modified":"2011-11-20T23:25:34","modified_gmt":"2011-11-20T12:25:34","slug":"christ-the-king-sunday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/2011\/11\/20\/christ-the-king-sunday\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Christ the King’ Sunday"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today the church celebrates Christ the King<\/em>. What a great festival to end the liturgical year and face us into the new year with Advent, preparing for Christmas: ‘Emmanuel, God with us’.<\/p>\n

The Gospel reading for Christ the King (Year A)\u00a0is Matthew 25:31-40<\/a> This passage records Jesus identifying himself, using his common self-designation ‘Son of Man’, with his coming in glory\u00a0accompanied by\u00a0all the angels to sit on the throne of his glory. An extraordinary claim!<\/p>\n

We remember Pilate’s question to Jesus: “Are you the King of the Jews?”<\/em><\/p>\n

Pilate followed this up with a sign\u00a0that he\u00a0ordered to be placed on the cross on which Jesus was crucified. It read, “jesus of nazareth, the king of the jews\u00a0… and the sign was written in Aramaic, Latin and Greek.”<\/em> \u2013 John 19:19-20<\/a><\/p>\n

The Latin version of the notice is “INRI”<\/em> which stands for “I<\/strong>esus N<\/strong>azarenus, R<\/strong>ex I<\/strong>udaeorum” – “Jesus (of) Nazareth, King (of the) Jews”.\u00a0 [Note: Latin doesn\u2019t have a \u2018J\u2019 so\u00a0an \u2018I\u2019 is used]<\/p>\n

I introduced the sermon using the catchy “Stir-up” from the collect of the day and also the link to Christmas pudding! – all about being ready for our King and our getting on with loving God, God’s world and a reminder to prepare the Christmas pudding! See, Stir-up Sunday<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“Why should we be stirred up?” leads to the text of the passage. See our Diocesan resources\u00a0for 20 November<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Just a few comments:<\/p>\n