Kingdom… or Kin-dom?
REFLECTION FOR REIGN OF CHRIST SUNDAY - Nov.23, 2025
Rev. Sandra Nixon
Today is Reign of Christ Sunday. This marks the end of the church’s “liturgical year”.
In each yearly cycle, the church moves through “seasons” in its worship life which help us explore and deepen our faith as we explore the christian story. The liturgical year begins with Advent and the birth of Jesus, continues into his life and ministry, through his death and resurrection in the holy seasons of Lent and Easter, then into the life of the early christian communities, and finally, we finish by exploring our call as the church and as those who follow Christ today.
This is the rhythm of the church’s worship life, a sacred way of living in God’s time and grounding ourselves within God’s ongoing story.
Wikipedia will tell you that this special Sunday “is a relatively recent addition to the Western liturgical calendar, having been instituted in 1925 by Pope Pius XI for the Roman Catholic Church”. At that time it was officially known as The Solemnity of Jesus Christ, King of the Universe, but became commonly referred to as the Feast of Christ the King or Christ the King Sunday.
You may have noticed we in the UCC don’t call it that. We now refer to this special Sunday is “The Reign of Christ”. Its gets us away from patriarchy, but the monarchy feel is still there.
This year especially, this Sunday takes on both a new awkwardness and a new meaning in the light of the “No Kings” Protests held earlier this year, which drew millions of people together in opposition to the policies and actions of the Trump Administration. Not only were these protests held across the USA, but protests were also held in other countries in solidarity, including here in our country - and our city.
In the light of these strong calls for “no kings”, what are we to do with a celebration that calls Christ a king?
In the light of these strong calls for “no kings”, what are we to do with a celebration that calls Christ a king?
For starters, we can look to the origins of this concept, and we find them in the New Testament, where Jesus is both referred to by others as “the long-awaited king”, and he himself is recorded as speaking about his kingdom.
We can also remember Jesus, riding into Jerusalem on a donkey, intentionally parodying the way King Herod would parade in on his horse with much pomp and circumstance.
The message in that moment was clear - God had sent Jesus to proclaim that God’s kingdom, in contrast to the earthly kings, known for their vanity and shows of coercive power, was one of humility, and belonged to the least and last.
Jesus also taught that instead of kingdoms that retained their power though violence and conquest, God’s reign would bring peace and collaboration. Instead of judgment and wrath, there would be grace and forgiveness; instead of exclusivity and dominance, as we see with the life of Jesus, there would be welcome and servanthood.
If you want to talk servanthood, you can look no further than the example of Jesus washing the feet of his disciples. If you want to talk radical welcome, look no further than the accounts of Jesus eating with the most despised people in society -the prostitutes and tax collectors. And - in the passage we heard today, his welcoming of the criminal hanging on a cross next to him, into the kingdom of heaven.
And so, it can be helpful to embrace Christ the King or Reign of Christ imagery to show how different a life and a world oriented to the way of Christ - how vastly different in fact, it is - from life lived in conformity or allegiance to the norms of earthly empires, and under the control of worldly kingdoms.
All that being said, there’s also a cosmic dimension to this idea of the Reign of Christ.
Consider this excerpt from the UCC Song of Faith (2006):
We sing of a life beyond life
and a future good beyond imagining:
the end of sorrow, pain, and tears,
the making new of all things.
Divine creation does not cease
until all things have found wholeness, union, and integration
with the common ground of all being.
Our Song of Faith (our denom’s most recent faith statement) - contains a lovely thread of cosmic perspective, of a divine consciousness that is always and right now creating, collaborating with creation, with us, to move all things toward wholeness, union, and integration (harmony?) with the divine energy, the creative word of love.
John’s gospel in particular articulates this eternal, cosmic aspect of Christ:
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people.” (John 1: 1-4)
For John, Christ is the eternal word: with God, part of God, a creative energy moving in the world, some would say deeply embedded in the world (“All things came into being through him”). This is very close to a birthing image definitely a creating image - a creative word energy that is constantly moving us to more becoming..
In this way of looking at it, the reign of Christ isn’t just about juxtaposing the way of Jesus with the way of the world’s rulers, it also about recognizing that this “way” is an energy which is active in the universe, and is responsive to the activity of the world - and to each of us - in every moment.
This “way” is an energy which is active in the universe,
and is responsive to the activity of the world
I was talking with the jazz vespers crowd Friday about Advent, and specifically, how the four great themes of Advent (hope, peace, joy and love) are best thought of as spiritual practices more than pie-in-the-sky ideals that God gave us a promise of in the birth of Jesus and will usher in fully at some distant time in the future.
Note how that “usher in in the future” idea feels so passive. While “practicing” hope, peace, joy and love is not only active, it’s collaborative. It assumes that we somehow have a role to play, in a creative, collaborative relationship with the Christ consciousness, ground of being, however you want to describe it.
So maybe the same thing goes for the Reign of Christ? Maybe instead of some reality that gets ushered in despite us, it’s something we practice - because the Christ consciousness is in each of us and between us and is just waiting for us to participate and collaborate?
If so, what is it that we’re participating and collaborating in? Well, we can turn back to the earthly embodiment of the Christ consciousness - Jesus - for some inspiration. Perhaps it’s the practice of Grace? Forgiveness? Gratitude? Love for the other? Non-violence? Generosity? Mutuality?
These are all orientations that are absent in the corrupt kingdoms and rulers this world has known - the ones whom Jesus directly challenged during his lifetime - and those today. These are orientations of the heart which many see as “weak” (no accident Jesus, is often characterized as weak (“love made known in weakness”) even buy the most well intentioned. These things don’t make us weak. They represent a different kind of power. The reverse of the power wielded by earthy kingdoms and empires. Which is why we choose to speak about the kin-dom rather than the kingdom. To make that distinction even clearer.
In other words, the reverse of coercive power isn’t weakness, it’s the power of love which requires vulnerability and mutuality. But it’s not weak. In fact, it’s incredibly powerful. It’s what generates the light that pierces the dark night of the soul so that a seed of comfort and healing may take root, or illumines/exposes the truth of human and corporate sinfulness so that a seed of change and justice may take root.
The spark to generate that Christ light is within us. The spirit is ready to respond fan the flame. But we have to embrace the reversal.
As I’ve been thinking about this Sunday, I’ve had th image of Jesus flipping over the table of the money-changers in the temple. Because it’s such a vivid illustration of one of his core messages - and I’m paraphrasing here - “My kingdom is literally the opposite of the earthly kingdom that uses fear and violence to oppress and control.” If you want to live in the reign of God, you have to flip the script of the rulers of this world, and the fear-mongering and desperation that keep us separated and fearful of and competing with one another.
The kingdom of God - the Reign of Christ -
looks like reversal.
The kingdom of God - the Reign of Christ - looks like reversal. In Advent we will hear of valleys being lifted up, and mountains being brought low. We will hear Mary speak of reversal in human life - the humble being honoured, the proud being scattered, and the mighty being cast from their thrones.
John the Baptist, the one whose birth happens through another reversal - an elderly couple having a child - he, as the one appointed to prepare the way for the lord - his message of repentance is yet another message of reversal. “Turn”, turn. Turn toward the kin-dom, practice the reversal.
And that responsive energy - the Christ consciousness if you will, the spirit if you will, that is always seeking communion and collaboration, it’s in you and it will meet you (in us and will meet us) in that space of: Grace - Forgiveness - Gratitude - Love for the other - Non-violence - Generosity - and Mutuality.
And the kin-dom will find you. In fact, we already belong to it, we just need to be awakened to it. As one of my favourite hymns proclaims, “The kin-dom will be with us all the way.“
Amen.
SCRIPTURE READINGS
Luke 1: 68-79
5 In the days of King Herod of Judea, there was a priest named Zechariah. His wife was descended from the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth. 6 Both of them were righteous before God, living blamelessly according to all the commandments and regulations of the Lord. 7 But they had no children because Elizabeth was barren, and both were getting on in years.
11 Then there appeared to him an angel of the Lord, standing at the right side of the altar of incense. 12 When Zechariah saw him, he was terrified, and fear overwhelmed him. 13 But the angel said to him, “Do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you will name him John.
Even before his birth he will be filled with the Holy Spirit. 16 He will make ready a people prepared for the Lord.”
57 Now the time came for Elizabeth to give birth, and she bore a son.
67 Then his father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied:
68 “Blessed be the Lord God,
for he has looked favourably on his people and redeemed them.
69 He has raised up a mighty saviour for us
in the house of his child David,
70 as he spoke through the mouth of his holy prophets from of old,
And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High,
for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways,
77 to give his people knowledge of salvation
by the forgiveness of their sins.
78 Because of the tender mercy of our God,
the dawn from on high will break upon us,
79 to shine upon those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death,
to guide our feet into the way of peace.”
Luke 23: 33-43
The Crucifixion of Jesus
33 When they came to the place that is called The Skull, they crucified Jesus there with the criminals, one on his right and one on his left.
35 And as the people stood by watching, the leaders scoffed at him, saying, “He saved others; let him save himself if he is the Messiah of God, his chosen one!” 36 The soldiers also mocked him, coming up and offering him sour wine 37 and saying, “If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself!” 38 There was also an inscription over him, “This is the King of the Jews.”
39 One of the criminals who were hanged there kept deriding him and saying, “Are you not the Messiah? Save yourself and us!” 40 But the other rebuked him, saying, “Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? 41 And we indeed have been condemned justly, for we are getting what we deserve for our deeds, but this man has done nothing wrong.”
42 Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” 43 He replied, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.”