Christ the King/Reign of Christ Sunday

Gratitude andThanksgiving

 

 

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.”



Jeremiah 23:1-6



 

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Christ the Judge

ANGELICO, fra

1447

Fresco

Cappella di San Brizio

Orvieto

Italy

https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/diglib-fulldisplay.pl?SID=20251119895993408&code=ACT&RC=57235&Row=5

 

 

 

The Four Freedoms Series

by Norman Rockwell

 

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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.

 

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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

 

"In the future days, which we seek to make secure, we look forward to a world founded upon four essential human freedoms.
The first is freedom of speech and expression—everywhere in the world.
The second is freedom of every person to worship God in his own way—everywhere in the world.
The third is freedom from want—which, translated into world terms, means economic understandings which will secure to every nation a healthy peacetime life for its inhabitants—everywhere in the world.
The fourth is freedom from fear—which, translated into world terms, means a world-wide reduction of armaments to such a point and in such a thorough fashion that no nation will be in a position to commit an act of physical aggression against any neighbor—anywhere in the world.
That is no vision of a distant millennium. It is a definite basis for a kind of world attainable in our own time and generation. That kind of world is the very antithesis of the so-called new order of tyranny which the dictators seek to create with the crash of a bomb."

—Franklin Delano Roosevelt[14]

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

 

 



Our disagreements may frequently hoarsen our voices, 

but they rarely sharpen our thinking, 

much less change our minds.

~ Bret Louis Stephens



 

 

 

 

Twice-a-month Bible Study

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Sue Phelps, Dianne Palmer

 

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Dee Demming, Joann Burnham

 

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Vicky Hildreth, Peggy Flowers, Laura Mehmert

(Not pictured: Judy Wonning, Heather McKinzie, Carolyn Alexander)



RYLA and Young RYLA
Learning about leadership, friendship, and trust together

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At Rotary this week we were treated by having eight Young RYLA (eighth-graders) and two RYLA (11th graders) members share their experiences at RYLA camps last summer.

Inspiring!!!

(RYLA - Rotary Youth Leadership Awards)

 

Annual Thanksgiving Luncheon

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Anna-Marie Nelson, Carolyn Alexander, Merit Helman-Funk, Roger Ambrosier

 

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O Thou who hast given us so much,

mercifully grant us one thing more … a grateful heart.

~ George Herbert **

 

 

 



November 23, 2025  Christ the King/Reign of Christ - Last Sunday after Pentecost - 29C

Previous OPQs may be found at:

     http://www.dotjack.com/opq.htm

 

*      Thank you, Oralie!  A Thanksgiving annual repeat

* * Another 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.’

39 One 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

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

 

 

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Norman Rockwell's Ye Glutton (1923)

http://www.best-norman-rockwell-art.com/norman-rockwell-life-magazine-cover-1923-11-22-ye-glutton.html

 

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LECTIONARY

Jeremiah 23:1–6 

Psalm 46

Luke 1:68–79 

Colossians 1:11–20 

Luke 23:33–43

 

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.

 

 

 

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."

 

 

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