Last Pentecost - Who is Christ the King for You?

Sermon on the Last Sunday after Pentecost. We celebrate Christ the King with Luke's Gospel of Jesus hanging on the cross where people taunt him to use his authority to serve himself. God chooses right action rather than easiest action. God chooses to win out of love rather than resort to violence. God chooses to remain self-defined in image of unconditional love, life, and truth--even when God will pay a high price for doing so. God's justice is restorative rather than retributive. Jesus tells the criminal he will be with Jesus in paradise today--no groveling or punishment from God given first. The punishment of sin--missing the mark--is the consequences of our actions. As we move into Advent we are invited to reflect on whether our way of defining Christ as King is God's way of defining Christ as King.