On this the last Sunday of the Church year, the Feast of Christ the King, we celebrate that Jesus is the Lord of all creation, the king of the universe.  The Gospel chosen for this feast is taken from the trial scene where Jesus is being interrogated by Pilate, who directly asks Jesus. “Are you the king of the Jews?”  Jesus responded in so many words:  “Why do you ask?”

The evangelist John’s portrayal of Jesus’ trial before Pilate depicts Jesus and Pilate having a rather extended dialogue over Jesus’ identity as a king.  We are left to reflect on what it means to be a king.

Pilate comprehends a rule in which the sovereign can enforce his will.  But everything Jesus is about pertains to another plane, one based on loving relationships.  Jesus draws all people to himself, not by force or fear, but by the example of his life-giving love.

Jesus was certainly a strange kind of king:  Jesus was born in a stable and reached his glory on the cross of Calvary.  I invite you to gaze at our image of the crucified Christ.  Jesus is a king who serves – not one who rules.  Jesus’ dominant ministry is mediating the forgiving love of God to sinful people.

The prayerful question we ask ourselves:  “In what ways is Jesus the ruler, the king of your life?” 

Presently as we are dealing with the fear and threat that was generated by the horrific terrorist attack in Paris last weekend?  Is the message of love and forgiveness professed by Jesus as the Lord of our lives get modified as we are gripped with fear of terrorists?  How safe are we from the threat of senseless violence?  Are we still expected to look with love on those whose hearts may be filled with hate?  Can we welcome refugees with love in our hearts if we are paralyzed by fear that these refugees are a threat to our safety?

We mourn the breakdown of our global family and the violence in so many places when humans created in the image of God choose death instead of life, when they choose revenge instead of mercy.  In the midst, we still ask how is Jesus the king of the culture we live in?

Closer to home, is Jesus the king of your family life?  Is each and every member of your love treated with the love that Jesus has for each member of your family?  How much of a commitment do you have for family prayer?  Can you really say that Jesus is the King of your family life if you are too busy to pray together?

Is Jesus the king of your sexual life?  If we use pornography for our sexual pleasure in ways that does not reflect our profound respect for another’s person’s sexuality, are we really believing that Jesus is the king of our lives?  How much of our hearts are filled with generosity when we reflect on the number of children that we would like for our family?

This weekend we are celebrating our stewardship commitment Sunday, a time to Jesus first – to make him King – in at least three areas of our life  --  our time, talent, and treasure.   We are asking you to place your stewardship commitment card in the second collection today.  If you have forgotten to bring yours, there are extra stewardship cards in the pews.  We invite you to fill out the card now as together we reflect on the stewardship of time, talent, and treasure.  We then ask you to place the stewardship commitment card in the second collection today.

The stewardship of time is your prayer life.  Prayer is our conversation with Jesus.  How often to you talk with Jesus?  Personally I cannot envision a day to go by with our spending some time in prayer.  Can you say that Jesus is the king of your life if prayer is not part of your daily life?  If Christ is the king, the Mass needs to be part of your life Sunday after Sunday after Sunday.

The stewardship of talent is how you use your God-given talents.  In the stewardship of talent, we are called to participate in some dimension of our parish life to serve others in our parish community and to help us be a faith community that gives praise and thanks to God for our blessings.

Is Christ the king of your lives if our participation in our parish amounts to a few minutes each Sunday?  We can sit back and lament that our parish used to be larger than it is now.  We can lament that our youth are not as religious as we are.  Or we can commit ourselves to become part of the solution and be willing to use our talents for the building of our parish community.  If we trust in the kingship of Jesus as the Lord of our parish life, then our future is full of hope.  The spirituality of stewardship calls us to make a commitment to serve, for example, on one of our parish leadership teams.

Is Jesus the king of your hard-earned finances?  How much are we called to share what we have with our Church, with our diocese in the CMA, and with people in need in our community?  If we are able to tithe the biblical 10% of our income, that is incredibly generous.  Do we think in terms of tithing as we value our income?

But still, there is a further question to be asked:   we need to further ask is Jesus the King of your life over how you spend the remaining 90% of your income.

Christ the King won’t ask how many material possessions you have, but He will ask if they dictated your life.

Christ the King won’t ask in what neighborhood you lived, but He will ask how you treated your neighbors.

This weekend we are asked to make a decision on our spirituality of stewardship.  We ask you to take a couple of minutes in quiet or perhaps in filling our stewardship commitment card to be placed in the second collection.  Thank you for your generosity and for your spirituality.