Welcome
Invite various persons to bring a designated item and use this liturgy as a way to begin your time of learning together.
One: Come, let us gather around and see how the Spirit will nurture our faith today.
All: Who is with us?
One: Christ, the light of the world.
(Place a candle on a table in your gathering place and light it.)
All: Who is with us?
One: The Love of God, who came to meet us in the world.
(Place a cross on a table in your gathering place)
All: Who is with us?
One: The Wisdom of God, who speaks through the scriptures
(Place an open Bible on a table in your gathering place.)
All: Who is with us?
One: The Grace of God, who proclaims we are children of God
(Place a symbol of baptism – a bowl of water, a seashell – on a table in your gathering space.)
All: Who is with us?
One: Our risen Lord, who meets us at the Table.
(Place a symbol of Communion – a plate and cup, a loaf of bread and grapes – on a table in your gathering space.)
One: We are here, Holy Spirit, ready for your leading.
God sightings and prayer offerings
Invite each person to share where they saw or experienced God this week. Invite each person to share something – a person, community, experience, event, etc. – for which they want to offer prayer.
Good and gracious God, we thank you for all the ways you were and are present in our lives and in the world … [Invite each person to say aloud the sighting they named earlier.] We bring our prayers to you, prayers for … [Invite each person to say aloud the prayer need they named earlier.]. In Christ’s name, we pray. Amen.
Connecting with Scripture — John 18:33-37
Read the scripture aloud the first time using the New Revised Standard Version or the Common English Bible.
For the second reading of today’s text, assign parts and dramatize the story.
Connecting through story
Watch and listen (and sing along if you want) to this treasured song and clip from “The Lion King.”
- What is Simba’s idea of what is means to be a king?
- Why does he want to be king?
Connecting with our lives
Engage in dialogue
- What do you think are the characteristics of a king/queen?
- Who are the kings you think of when the word is said and how do they act?
- What are the priorities of worldly kings/queens?
- Why do you think we have or need kings/queens?
- What do you think God wants from a king/queen?
- What do you think God wants that king/queen’s priorities to be?
- Therefore, how should the king/queen act if they are to be faithful to God’s idea of king/queen?
- What do you think it means that Christ is Lord of all creation?
- What was Jesus’ idea of what it meant to be a king?
- How did he act as king?
- How does he continue to act as king?
- What example did he give us for what it means to be in and have great power?
- What’s the difference between Jesus and Lord and King and all the world’s kings/queens?
- What kind of world was Jesus trying to create?
- In what ways can we join Christ in building the kind of kin-dom (or world) that reflects God’s priorities and best intention for all of creation including humanity?
Teaching Points that can be incorporated into your discussion
- Today is the last Sunday in the liturgical Church Year. Next week will begin Advent, but today we celebrate Christ the King Sunday.
- Christ the King Sunday calls us to remember and honor Jesus as King and the lordship of Jesus Christ. Jesus has many titles – Son of God, Emmanuel, Son of Man, Messiah, Rabbi, Christ, Savior – and was many things to many people throughout the ages. He was and is grace incarnate, teacher, preacher healer, advocate and champion of the least of these and those you are pushed to the margins. Today, however, we focus on his role as King — the one who reigns over all creation.
- The ancient Israelites were waiting on the arrival of the new and promised King. God’s covenant with David, that one of his descendants would always rule over Israel, was an unconditional and eternal promise. In their mind, the promised King would be a mighty ruler and return Israel to its political power. God had a different kind of king in mind.
- God knew the kind of King God’s people needed — a king who would rule over a kin-dom that reflected God’s priorities and restored the relationship God’s people broke through their unfaithfulness. This King would work to shape a realm that reflected God’s best intention for it. We have only to look at Jesus’ own mission statement in Luke 4:16-20 or read the Sermon on the Mount. In God’s kin-dom there are to be no “haves” and “have-nots,” no “powerful or powerless.” God’s idea of a king is one who breaks down the walls that divide humanity one from another and from God.
- Jesus as King is self-giving, grace-gifting and justice-seeking even as he is King of kings and Lord of lords. He is invested with all power beyond any earthly conception and reigns eternal over all creation.
- This is the realm over which Christ is Lord and Savior and this is the kin-dom making to which he beckons us to join him.
Using paper and art supplies (colored pencils, crayons, markers, pen and ink, etc.) or, if you are so inclined and feel comfortable web-based platform, build the world as you believe God would want it.
Prayer
Close your time together by praying for one another, your neighbor, community and the world.
Rebecca Davis is the associate professor of Christian education at Union Presbyterian Seminary in Charlotte, North Carolina. A teaching elder and certified educator, she served congregations for over 20 years before moving into academic teaching. In addition to teaching and mentoring students, her passion is child advocacy and ministry.
