Lection: John 18

November 21, 2021

 John 18:33-37

“Are You a King or Not?”

This is Reign of Christ Sunday – the final Sunday of our Church Year before we begin a new cycle with the Season of Advent next week. And so, it seems good to remember the journey through the Scriptures that we have shared in our worship throughout the last year – the cycle that we go through each year in our life together as church.

We began with Advent a year ago – waiting and preparing for Emmanuel and then celebrating the arrival of Jesus the tiny, helpless child at Christmas.

We remembered the Baptism of Jesus – that moment when the Spirit of God descended onto him and the voice from heaven was heard declaring “You are my beloved Son.” We traveled with Jesus through his ministry in Galilee. We heard his parables. We witnessed his miracles – food multiplied, people healed, evil spirits driven out.

We heard his debates and arguments with the religious authorities of his time. We watched Jesus break the rules and turn our understanding of the world upside down. We saw him eat with the outcasts and rejected people of society. We wondered at his strange, wandering way of life and … Read more »

November 25, 2018

2 Samuel 23:1-7
Psalm 132:1-12
Revelation 1:4b-8
John 18:33-37

“Thy Kingdom Come on Earth”

Today is the last day of the year – not in the Gregorian calendar that we follow along with the most of the world, running from January 1st through to December 31st. But today is the last day in the Church Year – the special calendar that many Christian Churches began to follow as part of the liturgical reform of the last 30-40 years.

The Church Year begins with Advent, four Sundays leading up to our celebration of the Birth of Jesus at Christmas. Then there is a short Christmas season, Epiphany, Lent, Easter, Pentecost, and ordinary time which comes in between.

The Church Year is the reason that we mark different Sundays and seasons with symbolic colours like purple for Lent, red for Pentecost, and white for Easter and Christmas. And the Church Year provides the framework for the lectionary cycle of Scripture readings that we read and reflect on Sunday-by-Sunday.

The special Sunday that we mark today is called “Reign of Christ” or “Christ the King” Sunday, and it is the culmination of the Church Year before we begin a New Year with the Season of Advent next week.

It was Pope Pius … Read more »

November 25, 2012

2 Samuel 23:1-7
Revelation 1:4b-8
John 18:33-37

Over tea and homemade pie yesterday afternoon, a church member asked me about the church’s celebration of Christmas. He remembered that when he was growing up in Scotland there were no special church services for Christmas, and gifts were exchanged at New Year’s rather than on December 25th. Indeed, Christmas didn’t become a national holiday in Scotland until fairly recently.

Unfortunately, I didn’t know when Canadian Presbyterians or other Protestants began celebrating Christmas, nor did I know when Canada made Christmas Day into a statutory holiday. I could point out that all the Churches have gone through some significant liturgical reform over the last 30 or 40 years. One significant reform is the celebration of the Church Year in most of the mainline Churches. The Church Year includes not only special Christmas services, but also special seasons like Advent to anticipate and prepare for our Christmas celebrations.

Growing up in a Canadian Presbyterian Church in the 1980’s, we were already lighting Advent Candles on the Sundays leading up to Christmas, and I think it was a fairly long standing tradition to gather for worship on Christmas Eve for a service of lessons and carols that was one of … Read more »