Feast of Christ the King

We as Americans don’t always like the idea of authority, a king, a ruler.  We pride ourselves on democracy, equality, independence and standing on our own two feet.  But as Christians we claim that God is God and we are not, as Christians we claim to submit ourselves to Jesus Christ, as Christians we claim to bring about the reign of God’s kingdom on earth – beginning with our own lives: minds, hearts, words and actions.  So what am I?  Am I more of a modern American with a mind of independence?  Or am I more of a Christian with the mind of being entirely dependent on my God?  This feast is a challenge for us as a Church and as individuals to ask ourselves, “Where in my life do I still try to be independent?  What in my life have I not offered to God?  Do I allow Christ to be the King of my life?  Is He King of all of it, or just some of it?”  We will always feel like something is missing in life, like there must be something more, like something in us is just not quite filled, until we give our God every aspect of our life, total control: until Jesus Christ is truly our King!

Nativity of John the Baptist

This weekend we celebrate the birth of John the Baptist.  John was a crucial figure, bridging the gap between the Old and New Testaments and preparing people for the coming of the Lord.  He spent most of his life in quiet preparation in the desert, and even though his role was crucial when he stepped out of the desert and into the spotlight, his time “on stage” was very short.  Maybe in your life you don’t feel like you’re on the front lines; maybe parts of your life seem un-amazing and un-eventful; maybe you don’t feel like God is using you often for a special purpose.  Perhaps, like John, this is your time in the desert, when God is preparing you for the time when He wants you to step on stage and play a crucial role in the life of someone else.

Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity

Some things we experience in life are beyond description – words can’t reach as deep or as high as the reality.  Love is a good example.  We can use all different kinds of images and words and phrases to try and describe it, but in the end it’s something indescribable with words – the experience and reality of love is deeper and truer than any words can express.  In the Trinity, we bump up against another reality (or is it actually the same reality?) that words will always fail to describe.  Words might fail, but we can live in and experience the reality of the Trinity in our lives if we are willing.

Feast of Christ the King

God’s judgment is totally different than ours.  Our judgment of people and situations is narrow and subjective – concluded based on our limited perception.  God’s judgment, on the other hand, takes into account every thought, every inclination, every factor, every pressure, every influence – God’s judgment is absolutely fair.  After our own particular judgment at the end of our life, and after the final judgment at the end of time when everyone’s life will be completely laid open for all to see and we will understand how our life fit into God’s great story, we will know ourselves (and others) as God knows us (which is fully and entirely, nothing hidden)…and we will end up in exactly the place we belong in God’s love: no shame, no pride, just an honest acknowledgment of the decisions we freely chose to make in this life, whether for God, others, or ourselves.  God is absolutely fair, and we will end up exactly where we’ve chosen to be.

Most Holy Trinity

Every time we say, “In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit,” we are proclaiming that our God is a Trinity – that from all time our God has been a relationship of love: 3 distinct Persons, fully united as 1 God.  And this God made us – humanity – to share in His love!  But to know God as Trinity is not something we can describe with words alone, it is something that has to be experienced to be believed!