I don’t know what you thought when you heard it, but when I
read that Gospel story, I thought that it just does not seem to fit here. That’s the story we hear on Good Friday. And here we are, a month away from
Christmas. Does it make you wonder what’s
going on?
I hope so, because I want to take time today to teach a
little bit about how we walk through the Church year. For some of us, this might be new
information. For others, we might be
talking through some old, familiar territory.
As Maria sang to the children in The Sound of Music, let’s start at the
very beginning. Or at least in a way
that makes some sense.
The Church, big C, runs on a three – year cycle. Years A, B and C. In each of the years our Gospel text comes
primarily from one of the synoptic Gospels.
Year A is Matthew, Year B is Mark, Year C is Luke. Those three Gospels are called “synoptic”
because they tend to tell the stories of Jesus in the same way, with very
similar words, in nearly the same order. That’s called a “pericope.” The Gospel
of John is very different than the others.
It is sprinkled throughout each of the years.
I’ll teach more about the different Gospels another time. Before I go on, I’d like you to take out the
colorful insert that might be falling out of your bulletin today. This might be a helpful way to walk through
what we call the Liturgical Calendar.
The
Church Year, which we call the liturgical year, begins with Advent. This year, Advent begins next Sunday. We will be in Year A, so we will be hearing a
lot from Matthew.
Advent encompasses the four Sundays before Christmas. It is a time of preparation for the Christ
Child, but it is also a time to deeply consider our relationship with Jesus and
to prepare for Jesus to return to judge the earth at the end of times. The language in the lessons can feel very
apocalyptic. In our worship and maybe in
our lives we are called to be a little more solemn, introspective and
penitential.
You might notice on the wheel that there are colors that differentiate
the seasons of the Church year. The
colors are important to help us move through the year. Each Sunday the altar is dressed in a
colorful altar cloth, which is called a parament. I wear matching colors in the stole and in
the chasuble. We try to coordinate the color of the bulletin insert to the
paraments. These colors match the
liturgical season.
You
should see that the color for Advent is bluish purple. That’s because some churches use blue and
others use purple. We use blue. We will bring out our Advent wreath this week
in preparation for the beginning of Advent next Sunday. There will be five candles on the
wreath. Three blue, one pink, and the
white center candle, or the Christ candle.
If we had pink paraments, we would dress the altar with them on the
third Sunday of Advent, which is known as Gaudate, or Rose Sunday. It is the Sunday of rejoicing.
The
next season in the year is Christmas.
Beginning on Christmas Eve the paraments will change to white. We will take twelve days to celebrate the
incarnation of God in Jesus, the baby.
The season of Christmas ends on January 5. That song, The Twelve Days of Christmas, is a
reference to this season.
Next
comes Epiphany on January 6. This is the
day the sages, kings, men from the orient, whatever you might call them, came
to visit Jesus and his family, bringing gifts.
The next Sunday we remember his baptism.
This is a season filled with the revelation—that Jesus is God’s son.
This
year, the green season of Epiphany will last seven weeks. When we see green on the altar, it generally
means we are in a time of growth. You
might hear people call it “Ordinary Time.”
Following
Epiphany is Lent. Ash Wednesday is the
beginning of this 40-day penitential season.
This year, Ash Wednesday is February 26.
The color for Lent is purple.
Holy
Week brings black and red into our color scheme. Beginning with red on Palm Sunday and going
to black on Good Friday, we experience the story of the last days of Jesus’
earthly life. We begin the week shouting
“Hosanna!” then experience the way Jesus washed the feet of the disciples and
ate a modest meal with them before his arrest.
We strip the altar like his body is stripped and sit in grief, disbelief
and prayer, like the women and men did at the foot of the cross and in the
locked upper room.
But it
all changes on Easter, when Mary finds the tomb empty and we learn Jesus is
resurrected. We celebrate with white
colors and brightly colored flowers, shouting “Alleluias,” thankful that the
promises Jesus made are coming true.
The
season after Easter lasts 50 days. We
hear the stories of Jesus visiting people as a resurrected Christ. He teaches and reminds them – and us – how to
live and walk through this world, exemplifying the life Jesus lived.
And
then, on May 21 in 2020, he ascends to heaven to sit with God. I think we sometimes forget the importance of
that part of the story. Jesus leaves
this place to be with God. I find that
amazing. It’s amazing because he has spent these past days preparing us for
what comes next: the gift of the Holy
Spirit.
We
experience the mystery of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost, when tongues of fire
come and touch the heads of the people, giving them the ability to hear one
another in their own languages telling the story of Jesus. We mark that day with red, like the fire.
And
then, we spend the rest of the Church year, the season after the Pentecost, in
green. In 2020, that season will go from
June 7 through November 22, which is, like today, Christ the King Sunday, which
is dressed in white.
To
keep it all straight we have calendars in the sacristy—that room over there
where the altar guild works, and in the offices.
But
like in everything, there are exceptions to the rules. Times when life happens. Times including weddings, funerals,
ordinations, festivals and days that remember saints and others. Some of those dress the altar in white, like
weddings and funerals, others in red—like ordinations.
Yet the
question remains. What is Christ the
King Sunday?
Here’s
the scoop: Christ the King is one of
those made up holy days, created by Catholic Pope Pius the Eleventh in 1925 because
there was a definite leaning away from the teachings of the church toward
secularism and nationalism, and the Pope wanted Catholics to refocus their
loyalty to Jesus and to no other world leader.
This
day is a good reminder to whom and to what we pledge our loyalty. To the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. To our faith and practice and life as Jesus
Followers.
Christ
the King Sunday was originally celebrated the Sunday before All Saints’
Day. But in 1970, Pope Paul the Sixth
moved this solemn day to the last Sunday in Advent and he instituted this as a
day of solemnity, a day where we worship Jesus with a dignified ceremony.
Pope Pius put it this way:
"If to Christ our Lord is given all power
in heaven and on earth; if all men, purchased by his precious blood, are by a
new right subjected to his dominion; if this power embraces all men, it must be
clear that not one of our faculties is exempt from his empire. He must reign in
our minds, which should assent with perfect submission and firm belief to
revealed truths and to the doctrines of Christ. He must reign in our wills,
which should obey the laws and precepts of God. He must reign in our hearts,
which should spurn natural desires and love God above all things, and cleave to
him alone. He must reign in our bodies and in our members, which should serve
as instruments for the interior sanctification of our souls, or to use the
words of the Apostle Paul, as instruments of justice unto God." [1]
Many other denominations, including
Episcopalians, have taken on this day of solemnity as a part of the Liturgical
Calendar and celebrate Jesus as King, or, in some places, The Reign of Christ.
Our
Gospel today takes us to Jesus on the cross.
On that cross, Jesus says he “forgives them, for they do not know what
they are doing.” It’s beautiful, in its
ugliness. Jesus, when he could curse the
world, instead, forgives the world – then, now and in the future. He knows that we are incapable of living
blameless lives, of maintaining flawless homes, of sharing loving
relationships, and he forgives us.
That is the Good News of this
Gospel:
this King: berated, disfigured,
broken, and bleeding on the cross;
this King: servant, healer,
feeder, giver;
this King: model, mentor,
teacher and preacher;
this King, this perfect
God-with-us:
forgave us and forgives
us.
Not from a throne, but from a
cross.
Because he loves us, from Advent to Christ the King
Sunday.
He
loves us.
Let us pray.
King of Kings, Lord of Lords,
we celebrate you on this last Sunday of the Church year. Help us to live our lives recognizing your
forgiveness and love as offered from the cross.
Remind us that your reign shines on us through your mercy, kindness and
love. Give us grace to be like you – to
forgive and to love others. Amen.