So, uh, I was listening to CBC radio yesterday and a woman came on the show and sang, ‘Doo ah diddy diddy DIN-WIDDIE doo”. And now I’ve got that song in my head. I am going to make a prediction that the Winnipeg Blue Bombers will win the Grey Cup with the score, Bombers 24, Roughriders 16. That’s my prediction and I’m sticking to it. And I hear Gary Doer and Brad Wall (the new premier of Saskatchewan) are gearing up for the trip to the Manitoba Saskatchewan border sometime after the game to exchange team jerseys and unveil a sign all drivers will see as they enter Manitoba that reads: "Welcome to the Home of the 2007 Grey Cup Champions." That’s going to be a long and lonely trip out to the border for the premier of the losing province. In our house on Friday and Saturday my husband Jim and I have been writing all the words that are contained in the name DINWIDDIE. We’ve got it up to 40 words. It’s a contest that Jim’s entering. I even noticed a sign at the Catholic Church not too far from where I live that said, “Go Bombers!” Everyone who needs to be in Toronto is in Toronto including Dancing Gabe. Everyone picks the side they think will win and that’s where they remain. Do we have any Roughrider fans here? Put your hand up if you dare. The two teams are each on their own quest for the cup, and the cup will go to one team and one team only. Who will be the winners of the 2007 Grey Cup and who will be the losers? You may ask, what does this have to do with today’s scripture passage?

Let me tell you. At the beginning of this week I came across a church bulletin that was from Christ the King Sunday six years ago in 2001 and in it was written a title to this particular sermon that Michael, the minister at this church preached, and the title was, “Winnipeg 27, Calgary 12” And so I thought that’s a catchy title and so I sat with that title and the text all week and by Friday nothing bubbled up and my curiosity got the better of me. So I phoned Michael and asked him what the connection was between Winnipeg 27, Calgary 12 and Luke 23:33-43 in his sermon 6 years ago.  And he said, “Absolutely nothing. There is no connection. And that’s the beauty of it.”

Christ the King has nothing to do with winners and losers. It has everything to do with Christ being the king the way Christ chooses to be king. Christ the king--Christ's way. The text descirbes two criminals. One of the criminals, the one on Jesus’ left managed to choke out the words that in one form or another people have been choking out ever since, Are you not the Christ? Save yourself AND US. If you are the savior then why don’t you save us from the world that crosses us up. The other criminal, the one on Jesus’ right rebuked the bad one for what he had said angrily, and then in effect said it again himself, only not angrily.  Jesus remember me when you come in your kingdom, when you come into your kingly power. Save me Jesus! And Jesus answers, Today you will be with me in Paradise. These words are absurd when you really think about it. Jesus is covered with blood, his own blood, half-dead and hanging onto the last minutes of his life, The world has crossed him out. King of the Jews! Ha! Some king. How can such a king like that save us? That is what Christ the king Sunday is all about. That question, How can that king save us when that king looks more like an embarrassment than anything else hanging nailed to a cross? Our King, our Messiah, our Christ is nailed to a cross. There are no winners on Christ the King Sunday, only what looks like losers. This is our salvation. It’s ludicrous and quite a scandal when you think about it. Have you ever thought about it?

Paul says in the letter to the Colossians, “May you be made strong with all the strength that comes from his glorious power.” What glorious power of God might that be? There is no high-power defence or offensive line. There is only the power of a broken man slowly dying, on a cross? The power of God entering the world as a needy infant? The power of God riding on the back of a borrowed donkey? Christ the King Sunday has nothing to do with being a powerful winners in the world. It has everything to do with God’s power made perfect in weakness and Paul writes about it in every one of his letters.

In this kingdom that Christ is the King of it is really weakness that reigns if anything reigns at all. There is no muscle-flexing, only an invitation, “follow me” and a promise, "I will give you rest". And this seemingly "weak" power is the only thing that is strong enough to save us. This is our salvation--Jesus hung on a cross in humility. On Christ the King Sunday it is good for us to gather around the cross and it is good for us to think about humility when we do so.

Barbara Brown Taylor, one of my favorite authors and preachers knows about humility. She talks about attending a Catholic ordination. She describes it as the service was magnificent, the music, the person being priested wore a gold brocade that seemed to twirl and dance in suspended beauty. Barbara Brown Taylor sitting there watching it couldn’t help but think how this person was here in this glorious place right now on Friday but by Monday sure as anything it wouldn’t take long before somebody in the church would come up to him and say, The lightbulb in the washroom is burned out. Could you put a new one in by Sunday? There is such a temptation to think that we are called to some glorious high calling, but the truth is our high calling is really a calling to wash each other’s feet, all shapes and sizes, with wet towels, dirty water, and a chronic shortage of soap. The towel and the basin are the tools of our high calling. I have a book with the title: Ministry is a High Calling: Aim Low. We are all ministers of Christ and in humility we go about our ministry at work, at the border, at the Craft Centre, teaching a grade 6 class, caring for parents, working at Friesen’s, and in all places.

Reign of Christ Sunday reminds us that we put our lives under the reign and authority of God as manifested in Jesus. We put our lives under the power of the cross, under the power of the towel and basin, under the power of the powerlessness. Christ the King is an unpredictable King. Jesus, the King is a different kind of ruler. A ruler who is with us when we are broken. A ruler who challenges us when we get a bit too arrogant. A king who weeps when life is lost. A caring King who moves us to care. A Lord of Lords who makes the impossible possible. A King who teaches us to love the unlovable. A King who summons up a hope against hope. A King, a savior who tells us how to live.  A King who shatters all of our stereotypes of what a king might be and do.

And one more thing...

When I make a prediction at the Grey Cup it may come true and it may not. In the kingdom of which Christ is the king of there are no predictions. There are only guarantees of God's promise. "Come, and I will give you rest."   And so on Christ the King Sunday let us join the criminals beside Jesus with our own prayer:   Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.