Episode Transcript
[00:00:06] Speaker A: This is Sundays with Bishop Ken.
Thanks for sharing some quiet time with the Lord today. We welcome guest reader Deacon Eric Bissette.
Deacon Eric is a beloved spiritual leader in his home parishes of the Diocese of Rochester, New York.
Little Book's listeners will recognize Deacon Eric as a regular narrator for our daily reflections.
And now, here is today's gospel and homily.
[00:00:46] Speaker B: A reading from the Holy Gospel according to Luke.
The rulers sneered at Jesus and said, he saved others.
Let him save himself if he is the chosen one, the Christ of God.
Even the soldiers jeered at him.
As they approached to offer him wine, they called out, if you are king of the Jews, save yourself.
Above him there was an inscription that read, this is the King of the Jews.
Now one of the criminals hanging there reviled Jesus, saying, are you not the Christ?
Save yourself and us.
The other, however, rebuking him, said in reply, have you no fear of God, for you are subject to the same condemnation.
And indeed, we have been condemned justly, for the sentence we received corresponds to our crimes.
But this man has done nothing criminal.
Then he said, jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.
He replied to him, amen, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise.
The Gospel of the Lord the Feast of Christ the King is a relatively new feast.
It was instituted by Pope pius xi in 1925.
This feast was well intentioned, of course, and it was supposed to remind us Jesus is the true leader of all people, the leader of the whole universe.
But I think our images of king.
[00:02:32] Speaker C: Keep getting in the way.
[00:02:35] Speaker B: When we call Jesus king, we apply to him the trappings of the kings of this world.
I've seen paintings of Jesus with a royal crown on his head.
The only crown Jesus ever wore was a crown of thorns.
I've seen paintings of Jesus sitting on a throne.
The only throne he ever had was the cross.
Jesus turned our image of power and glory upside down.
For example, early in his public life, the people wanted to make Jesus a king and he fled from them when he entered Jerusalem and the people waved palm branches, they thought it was a triumphant royal entrance.
Jesus knew it was a death march.
The Roman soldiers thought he wanted to be a king like Caesar. So they dressed him up like one and then made fun of him.
The religious leaders taunted him on the cross and said if he were a king, he should come down from the cross.
But he hung there and died.
And finally, Jesus might have been a king in one sense, but his burial was the smallest funeral a king ever had.
Jesus came to be Our leader, there's no question.
[00:03:54] Speaker C: He came to connect with the whole human race and lead us in a new direction.
But Jesus didn't call himself a king.
[00:04:02] Speaker B: He called Himself the good Shepherd.
[00:04:05] Speaker C: He came to lead us into new pastures, a new way of living.
In a way, it's easier to hail him as a king and bow down before him rather than follow him as a shepherd and live his way of life.
Jesus came to be the new Adam.
Jesus came to take hold of the.
[00:04:28] Speaker B: Whole human race, the whole universe, and.
[00:04:32] Speaker C: Change our course, turn us in a different direction, toward God, move us away from violence, selfishness, separatism.
But he didn't accomplish this by military might.
He accomplished this by living a new.
[00:04:47] Speaker B: Way of life and by sending his spirit upon us so we can live it too.
[00:04:54] Speaker C: We can change the course of the human race and change the course of history.
What we accomplish when we live his way of life doesn't seem like much on any given day.
[00:05:06] Speaker B: But we always have to remind ourselves.
[00:05:09] Speaker C: The smallest act of love changes the balance of love in the universe.
It turns all creation a bit more toward God.
That's what Jesus came to do.
He didn't come simply to die and earn points for us by his suffering.
He came to lead a new way of life.
And he would live this way of life, even in the face of suffering, even in the face of death.
His death was an expression of his life.
Ultimately, he showed us his way of life.
The way of life to which we're all called is the way to the fullness of life, even in the face of suffering and death.
At baptism, we are not crowned, we are drowned.
We die to one way of life and rise to a new and different way of life.
At confirmation, the sword of a knight is in place in our hand.
Soft, holy consecrating oil is placed on our heads. And the Lord's Spirit comes upon us in a special way.
At the Eucharist, we don't listen to His Word and then go out shouting like a king's army to do battle.
After we hear his word, his way of life, we respond by placing ourselves on the altar with Him.
We bring forward the symbols that stand for us, bread and wine, and we put them right on the altar with Him.
By this we say we're going to walk with him in his way of life.
We're going to live this way.
We're not looking for suffering.
We're not looking to be sneered at, jeered at, or insulted as he was on the cross.
But if that happens because we are walking with Him. We're still going to walk with him.
We're going to join him in turning the whole family of the human race, the whole cosmos, toward God, toward our destiny.
Every Amen we say at the Eucharist is a way of saying, I will walk with you in your way of life.
We especially express this when we receive Christ's body and say Amen, and then receive the cup and say Amen.
I will.
On this, the last Sunday of the church year, we think long thoughts, deep thoughts.
We look at the whole stretch of history behind us and the whole stretch of history ahead of us, and we see Christ at the center of it.
And we recommit ourselves to walk with Him.
[00:08:02] Speaker A: Thanks for joining us today.
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[00:08:58] Speaker B: Sa.
