Before Advent (2 Samuel 23:1-5)
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Today on the Church Calendar we observe the Sunday of Christ the King. The Calendar tells the story of salvation from Advent—our expectation, our waiting for God to keep His promise—all the way around to the day when we recognize that Christ is King; all promises are kept. All boxes are ticked. It is all finished.
It's important for us to take time to recognize that Christ is King, because that's where we're headed... and that's where we live right now. We live in the reality that Christ is King. Whether you like it or not. Just because of who He is. We end the Church year celebrating that fact, before beginning the next season of waiting.
The Church Calendar reminds us every year that we are living His story; we experience and express His story as a circle beginning and ending each year.
But we live His story (as with every story) through a beginning and a middle and an end. Jesus’ story goes from ‘Once upon a time in a galaxy not that far away...’ , to (literally) ‘Happily ever after.’
Jesus’ story is not just in those few pages in the Gospels that have shepherds and wise men and Herod, the donkey and the sheep and all the cute, fuzzy, little things that we put in our into our manger scenes every year. Jesus’ story is told on every page of the Bible.
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Our story with Jesus begins with Creation. God created the world with love, community, purpose, the presence of God, healthy relationships.
So God created humanity in His own image; ... male and female He created them. God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and every creature that crawls upon the earth.” ... And it was so. And God looked upon all that He had made, and indeed, it was very good. Genesis 1:27-31
If you've been around Church for any length of time, you've heard the next chapter. We blew it. We listened to the enemy, we ‘drank our own kool-aid.’ We threw away the “very good” in exchange for an illusion of control.
So God promised us... a Victor.
So the LORD God said to the [enemy]: “Because you have done this, cursed are you...! On your belly will you go, and dust you will eat, all the days of your life. And I will put hatred between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed. He will crush your head, and you will strike His heel.” Genesis 3:14-15
Generations later, with Abraham, God started putting that plan into action, choosing one family out of all humanity.
He promised that through them He would give us... a Blessing.
Then the LORD said to Abram, “Leave your country, your kindred, and your father’s household, and go to the land I will show you. I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you; and all the families of the earth will be blessed through you.” Genesis 12:1-3
Generations later, through Moses, God cemented His covenant with Israel.
God promised us... a Prophet.
The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your brothers. You must listen to him. ... I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers. I will put my words in his mouth, and He will tell them everything I command Him. And I will hold accountable anyone who does not listen to my words that the prophet speaks in my name. Deuteronomy 18:15-19
Generations later, when David was King of Israel (a far from perfect ruler, or servant of Yahweh God), God reinforced His promise.
God promised us... an eternal, perfect, and true King.
The LORD declares to you that He himself will establish a house for you. And when your days are fulfilled and you rest with your fathers, I will raise up your descendant after you, who will come from your own body, and I will establish His Kingdom. 2 Samuel 7:11-12.
Generations later, when the people of Israel had rejected God as their only God, had disobeyed Him in so many different ways, and had gone seeking other gods, Yahweh sent them into exile. Because they needed that wake up call. They needed to be called back to who they were supposed to be. Israel (again) had thrown away the very, very good of God in exchange for an illusion of control. So God took away His protection and the nation was conquered.
God promised us... a Deliverer, a Reconciler, and a Healer.
“The spirit of the Lord GOD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and freedom to the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour...” Isaiah 61:1-3 (echoed by Jesus in Luke 4:21)
Generations later, God opened the door for the people to return to Jerusalem, the home of their heart: to return to the home of the house that God had let Solomon build for Him, where the people could meet Him and worship Him most closely.
In that moment, in those days, in those years, through His prophets, God promised us... a Future.
Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and awesome day of the LORD. And He will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers. Malachi 4:5-6
God was saying, “Watch for me. Listen to me. I am coming.”
Then there's a long gap between the Old Testament and the New Testament. Nothing was written down that we recognize as Scripture between the end of Malachi and the beginning of Matthew. Sometimes people call those the ‘silent years’ because we don't hear God speak. But God was not idle. God was working, preparing the people who would be doing His work, preparing the ones who would bring His message.
Generations later, we hear those voices speak. Hear those hearts begin to sing.
We hear Mary singing her song of praise: Everyone is going to call me blessed, because look what God is doing through me right now!
We hear an angel telling Zechariah: Don't be afraid! You are the father of that ‘Elijah’ who is coming before the Messiah.
We hear John the Baptiser saying: He's here! He's walking around. You've probably bumped into Him on the street and didn't even recognize Him, but He is here. God is keeping His promises.
And generations later... here's us.
Here's the Church, filled with the Spirit, unified in mission, mobilized in love.
Here we are on Christ the King Sunday. Looking back on all of those people. Looking back on that story and how it unfolded from the days before creation, through generation after generation after generation, until it reached that turning point, when Jesus had arrived and people heard Him speak and felt His touch and received His healing and His love.
Here’s us—the Church—standing in our moment—our moment to speak those words to the world: He is here, the promises have been kept, there is power, there is joy, and there is a future.
Here's us on the last Sunday of the year, looking forward—looking forward to the day when we see Christ return, looking forward to the day when we see creation renewed, looking forward to the day when we see Christ the King.
Here we are at the end of the year, standing with everything behind us and everything before us, saying along with David, as he wrote in his last message to the world:
For He has established with me an everlasting covenant, ordered and secured in every part. Will He not bring about my full salvation and my every desire? 2 Samuel 23:5
Here we are today saying along with Malachi and his ‘Elijah’ John the Baptiser: This is the one we've been waiting. He is here.
Telling the world that Christ is the Victor, and the Blessing. He is the Prophet, and the Deliverer, the Reconciler, the Healer. He is the Giver of Good to those in need. He is the Bringer of Justice to the power brokers. He is every promise kept.
Christ is King. Over everything.
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