Today is one of those Sunday’s I like to call Liquorice Sundays!
Now just before you worry that I have not had enough sleep – let me explain.
Today is the feast of Christ the King, it’s a relatively new thing being given that name first in 1925. It’s also Stir up Sunday – now that’s been around a little longer but never officially, it’s the nickname for today, and stems from the Book of Common Prayer (BCP) – so at least 1662. It’s also Safeguarding Sunday but that is an even more recent label. Nevertheless, here we are in 2022 with Allsorts to think about – that’s the connection!
So the question at hand seems to be… is this the kind of mixture that makes us turn up our nose – like my great grandfather’s idea of eating his dinner and pudding on the same plate, including gravy and custard – is to me?
Or alternatively, is this a mixture like Liquorice Allsorts, Eton mess or even trifle (if you like that kind of thing) which works together to give us something greater? I think it is the latter.
Let’s begin at the beginning. Stir up Sunday – a day for pudding and cake making, of which I am a fan, but that is not where it gets it’s name from. The collect in the BCP, which you’ll hear today as the post communion prayer, begins; ‘Stir up O Lord’ hence the name but the vital question here is what are we asking to be stirred up?
Not just the pudding but ourselves ‘faithful people’, not just the dried fruit but from us the ‘fruit of good works’. This is about us being stirred to make a difference, to behave differently, to live the Gospel we speak about.
As our reading from Colossians puts it – we are made strong, patient and joyful… We are rescued from darkness and transferred into the Kingdom of God’s beloved Son.
And so we come neatly to Christ the King. Why something so new? Well the title might be new but if we were to look at the readings in the BCP, we’d see that from 1662 at least, we’ve been hearing from the 23rd chapter of Jeremiah as we did this morning about the King who will be raised from the house of David. It’s this Biblical picture of Christ as King that becomes the focus in 1925 and so today our Gospel is different but the idea is of course not new!
We might then ask, how do we get from Stir up Sunday and Christ the King to Safeguarding?
Let’s remind ourselves of that Gospel reading, it’s familiar to us (although usually connected with Lent not Advent) the crucifixion story that reminds us that Jesus was labelled ‘King of the Jews’ literally written on the cross where he died.
One of the criminals asks Jesus “remember me when you come into your kingdom” and it is Jesus that makes the connection between God’s Kingdom and ‘Paradise’ which takes us back to the idea of the Garden of Eden, a beautiful world where we walk with God in safety.
So we have our prayer that God will stir us up as faithful people to do the right thing, to bring forth the ‘fruit’ of good works. We have the image of Christ as King, a suffering, dying King who prays forgiveness over those who hurt him. A patient King who brings joy to the world.
If Jesus is King though, and we, like the criminal, look forward to being with Jesus in paradise, we are people of the Kingdom. For us as Christians that provides a clear challenge. God’s Kingdom is made fully real when we arrive in Paradise, but we know from other places in the Gospels that Jesus says to his friends tell people ‘the Kingdom of God has come near’. So we are to do something that brings that kingdom near to us while we are still here on earth.
For me this is where we find our third focus for today – Safeguarding. For me, safeguarding is not about the rules we have to keep if we are working with children. It is not solely about protecting children from an adult who would harm them, it is about a place where every body matters.
It doesn’t matter what that body looks like, it doesn’t matter what has happened to that body, it matters that an individual human body finds a place in the body of Christ, in the community of God’s faithful people, stirred together, held together, in Christ. Because as our reading from Colossians reminded us it is through the love of Jesus that ‘God was pleased to reconcile all things…. on earth or in heaven’.
Reconciliation of us as human beings with God is vital, knowing we are loved and valued no matter what is at the heart of the Good news we have to share. Safeguarding Sunday turns our focus to those who have been hurt, survivors of all kinds of abuse, domestic, spiritual, physical, mental and any other kind.
It also reminds us that the good news of God’s love is true in that context and in every context.
There is a beautiful hymn that has been written for safeguarding Sunday, it is to the tune ‘Here is Love vast as the Ocean’ and I want to finish with just 2 verses;
May this place be one of nurture where we all may come to know, how your endless love sustains us as we live and move and grow. May we work to build your kingdom full of truth and light and grace, living life in all its fullness held in one divine embrace.
For you hold the broken-hearted till they learn to live again, and your justice stands like mountains, while your mercy falls like rain. when the smallest child is valued, and the strong empower the weak, when each human life is hallowed and the unheard voices speak.
So this Sunday as we come to worship Christ our King, we pray that God will stir up in us the fruit of good works that lead us to build a community in which every body is valued not just regardless of difference but because of difference, for the more diverse we are the more we show that God’s love is for everyone.
Amen.
Service: The Venerable Alison Booker, 20th November 2022, (St John the Baptist Church Peterborough UK)
Referenced Scriptures: Jeremiah 23:1-6, Colossians 1:11-20, Luke 23:33-43