{"id":81,"date":"2024-11-18T14:24:29","date_gmt":"2024-11-18T14:24:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/inside.luthersem.edu\/deanofthechapel\/?p=81"},"modified":"2024-11-18T14:26:08","modified_gmt":"2024-11-18T14:26:08","slug":"reflections-on-christ-the-king","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inside.luthersem.edu\/deanofthechapel\/2024\/11\/18\/reflections-on-christ-the-king\/","title":{"rendered":"Reflections on Christ the King"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Christ the King Sunday can be a difficult topic to preach, especially for Citizens of the United States. It is baked into our Revolutionary DNA to&nbsp;<strong>distrust a king!&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Human kingdoms are built on the idea that one man has all the power. Whatever the king says is law. The reign of the king\u2019s power reaches to every border of his kingdom. If you disagree with the King, you die.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That\u2019s a lot of power for one human being. Most human kings don\u2019t hold that power well and a lot of people suffer under the hands of a tyrant who seeks wealth, power, and control.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Praise God,&nbsp;<strong>we do not have a king like that!<\/strong>&nbsp;Jesus never claimed himself to be the King. He proclaimed that the&nbsp;<em>basilea ton ouranon<\/em>\u2014<em>Kingdom of God<\/em>, the&nbsp;<em>Kingdom of the Heavens<\/em>, the&nbsp;<em>Divine Reign<\/em>, the&nbsp;<em>Divine Commonwealth<\/em>&nbsp;was at hand! Change your perspective and trust it! (Mark 1:14,&nbsp;Matthew 3:17)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Jesus points us to a God who rules, not as a tyrant, but as a Loving Parent\u2013whom Jesus called \u201cAbba\u201d\u2013seeking justice and righteousness for all of creation. Jesus sits at the right hand of God as the lamb who was slain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This is an upside down kin-dom of love. The Way of Jesus will always be counter cultural to any human system that worships\/feeds power, money, greed, self-exaltation, and the abuse of another human being.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.stevethomason.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/The-kin-dom-of-God.jpg\" alt=\"image of kin-dom where the g and the crown are discarded.\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.stevethomason.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Revelation5worthyisthelamb.jpeg\" alt=\"image of the lamb that was slain seated on the throne with a crown of thorns on top. This stands on top of an inverse picture of a human king wielding a staff of power under a dollar sign.\" \/><\/figure><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Christ the King Sunday can be a difficult topic to preach, especially for Citizens of the United States. It is baked into our Revolutionary DNA to&nbsp;distrust a king!&nbsp; Human kingdoms are built on the idea that one man has all the power. Whatever the king says is law. The reign of the king\u2019s power reaches [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":73,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-81","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized","7":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inside.luthersem.edu\/deanofthechapel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inside.luthersem.edu\/deanofthechapel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inside.luthersem.edu\/deanofthechapel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inside.luthersem.edu\/deanofthechapel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/73"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inside.luthersem.edu\/deanofthechapel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=81"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/inside.luthersem.edu\/deanofthechapel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":85,"href":"https:\/\/inside.luthersem.edu\/deanofthechapel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81\/revisions\/85"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inside.luthersem.edu\/deanofthechapel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inside.luthersem.edu\/deanofthechapel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inside.luthersem.edu\/deanofthechapel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}