November 25, 2001
John 18:33-37
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"Who Is The Reigning King!"
Rev. Kathryn Rust

Well, my friends, today we come again to the end of the cycle.  Next Sunday we start again with a NEW YEAR!  Now you may think I am about five weeks off, right?  New Years begins January first.  However, next Sunday is the NEW YEAR in the Church's worship calendar and I am not speaking just of this congregation but of the worship calendar for Christians all over the globe.  The New Year of the worship cycle begins with the beginning of Advent.  And Advent begins next Sunday.

The worship cycle itself is a great teacher of the faith.  We begin the year by looking forward to, preparing for, and anticipating the coming of the Christ Child.  We celebrate His coming with Christmas.  We learn his teachings during Epiphany.  We prepare to face the reality of the Cross during Lent, and we celebrate the Resurrection at Easter time.  Then we go on to the celebration of Pentecost and the foundation of the Church and the long weeks after Pentecost that talk of the ministry and outreach of the Church. 

So the cycle comes around again to the end of the long Pentecost season, today!  Next Sunday, as Advent comes, we start again and the great cycle begins over again.  We are instructed once again about Christ and our faith.  This week we have spent time giving thanks, and next week, we start over. This morning I want to share with you my hope that as you have celebrated your Thanksgiving this week, you also remember to be thankful for the church.

As I gave thanks this week, I also gave thanks for you. I gave thanks for all that you and we have done together.  I gave thanks for the experiences that we have shared.  I gave thanks for this very special family of the faithful.

Today, I want to look back a bit and sum up the cycle of the year just finished and then look ahead a bit to what may be coming for us.  As we have walked our way through this long year, we have much for which to give thanks with the REVITALIZATION of this place and for our yet UNFINISHED HOPE that not only the place of worship but the places of fellowship, study and service will be renewed before our eyes. 

I am thankful for you and your patience, your long-suffering, your willingness to make many adjustments as we have gone along.  I am thankful to be a part of this church that prepares this place for other generations that follow us.  It is an awesome thought to be a living, breathing energy of this place in time.

As I have approached Thanksgiving this year, and at the end of the church cycle, I first gave thanks that we have successfully and safely been through the restoring of the columns and the front entrance of the church building.  But that is just the beginning.  So many things have happened in the life of our church this year for us.

I am also thankful for the Fellowship gatherings; the Wednesday evening meals, Breakfast With The Girls on Saturday mornings, the Winter Wonderland Weekend, Family Camp, Work Days, Christian Education Leadership Workshop.  All these moments in time have brought us closer together, sharing our personal life journeys with our church families.  We have shared moments with tears of joy and tears of sorrow.  Could it be that the Christ in our personal being met the Christ in each other's personal being?

As we scan back into this past year, let us not forget all those eager minds who met at the wee hours of Wednesday mornings studying the Bible and studying our Congregational history and tradition.  But Wednesday mornings were not the whole story.  There were Wednesday evenings, Sunday mornings, Sunday afternoons devoted to searching the Scripture.  Learning the stories of an ancient time and seeking meaning for our Contemporary time.  Oh, there is more.  I gave thanks this week for the mission of this church.  I gave thanks for volunteers who went to Honduras.  Our youth as well as the adults who gathered materials for construction and journeyed to San Pedro Sula.   They helped the people build a children's playground near the hospital and dental clinic, an area of great need.

I must not forget to give thanks for those young people working month after month spending time with young children at Joy House reading stories and teaching these young minds about the adventure of the written word.  

And if any of you happen to come into this building early on Friday morning, you will experience the warm, delicious smells, similar to the memories you may have of your grandma's kitchen… drifting throughout the halls.  And then, you will know the faithful kitchen crew once again gathers upstairs to cook food for St. Vincent.  Then late afternoon we hear the footsteps of many more faithful volunteers who pack their cars and vans and make the journey to downtown Milwaukee and serve a meal to those less fortunate than us.  Jesus said "feed the poor"!

I pray in thanksgiving for all those in this church who have shared their gifts by serving on the many boards and committees to help this church be a vital and living entity as we reach out beyond these doors to God's kingdom "already…but not yet.!"  I gave thanks for those who share their voices in making sweet music for this community.  Music which is praising our Lord through a medium which crosses all ages and all families of origin.

We must give thanks for so many others, who reached out by taking the elderly to doctors, grocery stores, and deliver meals to those in need in our wider community.  And in particular, I give thanks for those in our Visitation Ministry who touch someone by a phone call, a note or a home visit.  All this in the name and love of Jesus Christ!  As I prayed my prayers of thanksgiving this past week, I thought about all the joyful Sundays filled with baptisms just as we have today.  I invite you, just as I did then, to close your eyes and smell the sweet fragrance of the colorful flowers adorning this Nave, greeting the young couples who have begun their married lives with Christ as the head of their home.

As we continue to sit in silence, feel the calm peace that engulfs this Nave, recall the moments of sorrow and those times we have said our good-byes to family and friends during memorial services in this Nave.

I am grateful for sharing those moments with you.  I am grateful for what you have done.  I am grateful for the difference you have made in the lives of others, and I give thanks for you this year and particularly this week.  I am thankful for the difference Christ is making in the world within and through you.

As the cycle ends, as the great worship cycle of the year comes around again to this time… this week of Thanksgiving, God has been at work here.  Do not think otherwise!  God has been at work in you as you taught, sang, worshiped, studied and been involved in mission.  And though you may not always have realized it at the moment, the hand of Jesus Christ was in your hand.  I am thankful for that.

When the cycle comes around again, when it is the Sunday before Advent, when it is time for Thanksgiving, will you be able to rejoice in the fact that you have sought to grow in Christ?

I invite every one of you to join with me every day in praying for this church.  Yes, truly pray for this church daily.  If you do not already have it in your routine, begin today.  Pray for this church, and its leadership, both lay and clergy, every day.  For I tell you that the church will be better for your prayers and that you will be changed by your own prayer.

I cannot tell you where we will be when Thanksgiving rolls around again, but I believe that if we worship, sing, teach and are involved in mission, it will make all the difference in the world.

In John's Gospel we have a scene of Jesus on the day of his crucifixion being tried by Pilate.  In that great scene, Pilate asks Jesus, "Are you a king?"

On "Christ the King" Sunday, we remember to whom we belong and to whom all of our praises are sung.

This Sunday leads us to the season of Advent, that time of watching for the King to come, the King whose truth has set us free!  All the things we have talked about today are simply another version of that same question posed by Pilate… Is Christ the King?  I ask you, for you and for our church, when the cycle comes around again, will Christ be King for us?  Will our actions and words and deeds bow to his reign?  What will it be?