Christ the King Sunday

Gratitude and Thanksgiving

 

The Four Freedoms Series

by Norman Rockwell

 

 

 

Norman Rockwell's Freedom of Speech appeared on the pages of The Saturday Evening Post on 

February 20, 1943. 

Norman Rockwell's Freedom to Worship was published on the pages of The Saturday Evening Post on February 27, 1943.

 

 

 

 

Norman Rockwell's Freedom from Want appeared on the pages of The Saturday Evening Post on March 6, 1943.

Norman Rockwell's Freedom from Fear appeared on the pages of The Saturday Evening Post on March 13, 1943.

 

http://www.best-norman-rockwell-art.com/norman-rockwell-saturday-evening-post-article-1943-03-06-freedom-from-want.html

 

 

The four freedoms refer to President Franklin D. Roosevelt's January 1941 Four Freedoms State of the Union address, in which he identified essential human rights that should be universally protected.[2][3] The theme was incorporated into the Atlantic Charter,[4][5] and became part of the Charter of the United Nations.[6] The paintings were reproduced in The Saturday Evening Post over four consecutive weeks in 1943, alongside essays by prominent thinkers of the day.

 

Franklin Delano Roosevelt's January 6, 1941,

 State of the Union address introducing the theme of the Four Freedoms

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Freedoms_(Rockwell)

 

 

 

 

A THANKSGIVING PRAYER *

 

Oh, Lord, I thank you for the privilege and gift of living in a world filled with beauty and excitement and variety.  

I thank you for the gift of loving and being loved, for the friendliness and understanding and beauty of the animals on the farm and in the forest and marshes, for the green of the trees, the sound of the waterfall, the darting beauty of the trout in the brook. 

I thank you for the delights of music and children, of other people's thoughts and conversation and their books to read by the fireside or in bed with the rain falling on the roof or the snow blowing past outside the window. 

I thank you for the beauties of the four seasons and of the churches and the houses built by fellow men that stand throughout the centuries as monuments to man’s aspirations and sense of beauty.

 

I thank you for the powers of mind which find in the universe an endless and inexhaustible source of interest and fascination, for the understanding of so many elements which make life precious.

 

I thank you for all the senses you have bestowed upon me and for the delights which they bring me. I thank you for my body itself which is so wonderful and delightful a mechanism.

 

I thank you for the smile on the face of a woman, for the touch of a friend’s hand, for the laughter of a child, the wagging tail of a dog and the touch of his cold nose against my face.

 

I thank you for all of these things and many more, and above all I thank you for people with all their goodness and understanding which so far outweigh their vices, their envy, their deceits.

 

Thank you, God, for life itself, without which the universe would have no meaning.

 

~ Louis Bromfield

 

 

 

 

Most of us forget to take time for wonder, 

praise, and gratitude until it is almost too late. 

Gratitude is a many-colored quality, 

reaching in all directions. 

It goes out for small things and for large; 

it is a God-ward going.

~ Faith Baldwin

 

 

 

 

More from Tokyo

 

Niece Robin had to work on Sunday morning so Dottie and Jack Alexander

and I visited the local shrine.

 

They were getting ready for the next day, Culture Day, a National Holiday.

 

 

 

Shichi-Go-San Day is on November 15 but is now observed anytime

in November.  It is for three and seven-year-old girls, 

five-year-old and sometimes three-year-old boys.

These girls with their long-life candy bags are waiting

for their younger brother.

 

We stopped for lunch on the way back to Robin’s.

I stayed with Robin and Dottie and Jack stayed in a hotel next door.

 

Reina Sakamoto Sakakibara, Robin’s second daughter, with Meishi, their older son.

Meishi will be three in February.  Reina is expecting their third child in April!

 

Reina’s husband, Yushi Sakakibara, with Shuto, who is one and two months.

Reina and Yushi met when they played soccer in the 7th grade.

 

 

Reina and Meishi

 

Shuto and his father, Yushi

 

Four generations:

My brother, Jack Alexander

His daughter, Robin Sakamoto

His granddaughter, Reina Sakakibara

His great grandsons, Shuto and Meishi

 

And with Yushi!

 

Jack and Dottie with Shuto

 

Dottie and Meishi

 

Meishi

 

Shuto Sakakkibara

 

From Robin’s balcony; can you see Mt. Fuji on the left?

 

Robin treated us by playing her koto in her hobby room.

She takes lessons in koto and ikebana.

 

The koto is the national instrument of Japan and has 13 strings.

 

 

 

 

 

 

O Thou who hast given us so much,

mercifully grant us one thing more … a grateful heart.

~ George Herbert **

 

 

 

 

 

November 20, 2022   Christ the King/Reign of Christ - Last Sunday after Pentecost- Year C

 

Previous OPQs may be found at:

     http://www.dotjack.com/opq.htm

 

*  Thank you, Oralie!

* * A Thanksgiving annual repeat

 

33When they came to the place that is called The Skull, they crucified Jesus there with the criminals, one on his right and one on his left. 34Then Jesus said, "Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing." And they cast lots to divide his clothing. 35And the people stood by, watching; but the leaders scoffed at him, saying, "He saved others; let him save himself if he is the Messiah of God, his chosen one!" 36The soldiers also mocked him, coming up and offering him sour wine, 37and saying, "If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself!" 38There was also an inscription over him, "This is the King of the Jews."

 

39One of the criminals who were hanged there kept deriding him and saying, "Are you not the Messiah? Save yourself and us!" 40But the other rebuked him, saying, "Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? 41And we indeed have been condemned justly, for we are getting what we deserve for our deeds, but this man has done nothing wrong." 42Then he said, "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom." 43He replied, "Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise.”

 

Luke 23:33-43

Agnus Day, by James Wetzstein

Agnus Day appears with the permission of www.agnusday.org

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jeremiah 23:1–6 

Luke 1:68–79 

Colossians 1:11–20 

Luke 23:33–43

 

 

Summary

 

On the final Sunday of the church year, Christ’s reign from the Cross is brought to the fore. The Cross shows the final Lucan irony: Jesus, executed as a common criminal is nevertheless labeled, properly, as a king.

 

Christ’s kingship comes from his passion. Though apparently his humiliation, the Cross is in fact Jesus’ coronation. Conquering death through laying down his life, Jesus stretches out his arms in love and restores humanity through this saving embrace. No one is beyond this salvation, not even the thief next to him who recognized his lordship as head of the kingdom.

 

In the Cross, God is revealed to be truly a king who can identify with the poor in their weakness, and yet his final humiliation in death opens the way to everlasting glory and life. Christ the King calls all of his subjects to shoulder their cross in the form of good works on behalf of the poor, humility before others, and meekness in suffering, and so reign with him, both now and in the age to come.

 

https://www.preachingtoday.com/lectionary/

 

 

Above him there was an inscription:  “This is the King of the Jews.”

The other criminal said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”

Luke 23: 35-43

 

THE WORD:

 

Throughout his Gospel, Luke has portrayed Jesus as the humble, obedient servant of God.  In the resurrection, such humility and selflessness will be exalted by God.  In Luke’s account, Jesus steadfastly refused any demonstration of power for himself but manifested the power of God only for the faith and healing of the poor, the troubled, the lost and the rejected.  Even while hanging on the cross (an incident recorded only by Luke), Jesus only claims power to save the “good thief” who places his trust in him.

 

Luke’s account of Jesus’ crucifixion is a pretty hopeless depiction: Jesus, the generous teacher and the loving healer, is hung on a tree like a common criminal; he is the object of scorn and derision by the very people he came to serve and save.  But in one of his last breaths, Jesus offers peace and healing to a criminal hanging there with him.  Such is the transforming and redemptive love of Christ.  From the crosses and crucifixions of our world, the reign of God takes shape when we imitate the humble selflessness of Christ in bringing his spirit of hope and reconciliation into the lives of those around us.

 

https://connectionsmediaworks.com/sundaygospel.html#nov20

 

 

 

 

First Reading Jeremiah 23:1-6

 

1Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture! says the LORD. 2Therefore thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, concerning the shepherds who shepherd my people: It is you who have scattered my flock, and have driven them away, and you have not attended to them. So I will attend to you for your evil doings, says the LORD. 3Then I myself will gather the remnant of my flock out of all the lands where I have driven them, and I will bring them back to their fold, and they shall be fruitful and multiply. 4I will raise up shepherds over them who will shepherd them, and they shall not fear any longer, or be dismayed, nor shall any be missing, says the LORD.

 

5The days are surely coming, says the LORD, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. 6In his days Judah will be saved and Israel will live in safety. And this is the name by which he will be called: "The LORD is our righteousness."

 

Gospel Luke 1:68-79

 

68"Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has looked favorably on his people and redeemed them. 69He has raised up a mighty savior for us in the house of his servant David, 70as he spoke through the mouth of his holy prophets from of old, 71that we would be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us. 72Thus he has shown the mercy promised to our ancestors, and has remembered his holy covenant, 73the oath that he swore to our ancestor Abraham, to grant us 74that we, being rescued from the hands of our enemies, might serve him without fear, 75in holiness and righteousness before him all our days. 76And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High; for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways, 77to give knowledge of salvation to his people by the forgiveness of their sins. 78By the tender mercy of our God, the dawn from on high will break upon us, 79to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace."

 

Second Reading Colossians 1:11-20

 

11May you be made strong with all the strength that comes from his glorious power, and may you be prepared to endure everything with patience, while joyfully 12giving thanks to the Father, who has enabled you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the light. 13He has rescued us from the power of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved Son, 14in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

 

15He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation; 16for in him all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or powers-all things have been created through him and for him. 17He himself is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18He is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he might come to have first place in everything. 19For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, 20and through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross.

 

Gospel Luke 23:33-43

 

33When they came to the place that is called The Skull, they crucified Jesus there with the criminals, one on his right and one on his left. 34Then Jesus said, "Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing." And they cast lots to divide his clothing. 35And the people stood by, watching; but the leaders scoffed at him, saying, "He saved others; let him save himself if he is the Messiah of God, his chosen one!" 36The soldiers also mocked him, coming up and offering him sour wine, 37and saying, "If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself!" 38There was also an inscription over him, "This is the King of the Jews."

 

39One of the criminals who were hanged there kept deriding him and saying, "Are you not the Messiah? Save yourself and us!" 40But the other rebuked him, saying, "Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? 41And we indeed have been condemned justly, for we are getting what we deserve for our deeds, but this man has done nothing wrong." 42Then he said, "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom." 43He replied, "Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise."