Above: Icon of Christ Pantocrator
Image in the Public Domain
God is the Ruler Yet
NOVEMBER 22, 2020
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Blessed Lord, who caused all holy Scriptures to be written for our learning:
Grant us so to hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them,
that we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of life,
which you have given us in our Savior Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns
with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
—The Book of Common Prayer (1979), page 236
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2 Samuel 23:1-7
Psalm 100
Revelation 1:4b-8
Mark 15:16-20
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The mockery of Jesus by the soldiers in Mark 15:16-20 is gut-wrenching to read. It also contrasts with the depiction of Jesus in Revelation 1:4b-8. Not all the earth hails God and acknowledges the Son of David. Yet Jesus is the Alpha and the Omega.
The Festival of Christ the King is about a century old. Originally set by Pope Pius XI on what Lutherans and Presbyterians called Reformation Sunday, Christ the King Sunday occupies the Last Sunday after Pentecost, five Sundays before December 25. It occupies this place in the Western Christian calendar because of the revision of the Roman Catholic calendar in 1969 and the subsequent revisions of Anglican and Protestant calendars.
The theology of Christ the King Sunday is sound. As Presbyterian minister Maltbie Davenport Babcock (1858-1901) wrote after one of his nature hikes, in a poem published posthumously and transformed into the hymn, “This is My Father’s World,”
That though the wrong seems oft so strong,
God is the ruler yet.
May we never forget this truth.
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
JULY 27, 2019 COMMON ERA
THE FEAST OF BROOKE FOSS WESTCOTT, ANGLICAN SCHOLAR, BIBLE TRANSLATOR, AND BISHOP OF DURHAM; AND FENTON JOHN ANTHONY HORT, ANGLICAN PRIEST AND SCHOLAR
THE FEAST OF CHRISTIAN HENRY BATEMAN, ANGLICAN PRIEST AND HYMN WRITER
THE FEAST OF JOHAN NORDAHL BRUN, NORWEGIAN LUTHERAN BISHOP, AUTHOR, AND HYMN WRITER
THE FEAST OF WILLIAM REED HUNTINGTON, EPISCOPAL PRIEST AND RENEWER OF THE CHURCH; AND HIS GRANDSON, WILLIAM REED HUNTINGTON, U.S. ARCHITECT AND QUAKER PEACE ACTIVIST
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Adapted from this post:
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BLOGA THEOLOGICA 
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