Year B, Reign of Christ, 2018 – To Be Continued…

November 23, 2018 / Molly Douthett / Christ the King, Reign of Christ

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Greetings!! I have been binge watching the television show Grimm lately. I was amused when at the end of one episode, the screen faded to black and the words “to be continued” came up. Right underneath it, someone added the question, “Are you really surprised?!” I loved the cheeky way the show acknowledged the episode had ended but the story had not.  Neither has THE Story. On this last Sunday in the liturgical year, we pause and do two things at once. We look into the past to see the visions of a final day when a king is crowned eternally, and look forward to the day when that king returns. We stand in the present and pivot. Looking into the past reminds us of God’s faithfulness. Looking into the future, we can be reassured there is hope. At the end of this year, we look back and see how God has come with us, led us, supported us, and loved us on the way. Looking forward, we can perceive God calling us to keep going and keep watching for the ways God will appear in our lives and in the world in the days to come. Today, the story will be continued. 

This week’s texts are:

Daniel 7:9-10, 13-14 [03:30]

We start off with MATH smart at verse 10 and where there are ten thousand times ten thousand servants attending the enthroned Ancient One. That’s a big number and so after entering it into a search engine, I discovered that Dolly Parton has donated 100 million books through her charity Imagination Library. The spectacle of this vision made David think of the way celebrities are introduced, which we talk about in MUSIC smart. A “son of man” enters the scene with the clouds of heaven, so of course we link to the Milky Way in NATURE smart! Also, the Ancient One is said to have hair like white wool. For PEOPLE smart, we tried to find an investiture in our own experience that is similar to the one given the Son of Man by the Ancient One. And for SELF smart, in what ways have you experienced this dazzling display of majesty in your own life?

• Smarts – Math [05:51], Music [08:31], Nature [10:51], People [13:17], Self [14:23]
• Daniel 7 worksheet
• Links in Daniel
  • MATH smart –
    • An article about Dolly Parton —
    • — who has has donated 100 million books since 1995.
  • MUSIC smart –
    • introducing the Beatles at Shea Stadium
    • Taylor Swift in London
    • Elvis in London
  • NATURE smart –
    • being wrapped in The Milky Way, but not quite like this light-up skirt
    • pictures of the Milky Way
    • Everything you may have ever wanted to know about wool.
  • PEOPLE smart –
    • The Prince of Wales has been receiving more and more responsibility as the current monarch is cutting back on her duties.

John 18:33-37 [15:24]

We have some sonnets to start us off in WORD smart, from the weblog A Poetic Kind of Place. See the links below. We move on to EYE smart with a suggestion that the scene between Jesus and Pilate plays like a courtroom drama. We have a clip from Perry Mason but there are many other examples out there! The Greek word Pilate uses for “king” suggests a physical and political boundary, so for a special effect, bring in some flags of countries or states. I ran across a fantastic MATH smart illustration using chess; the link is below and I highly recommend it. We have some other chess examples, too. For BODY smart, being handed over in the Greek has a physical element to it which made me think of a gut wrenching scene from Sophie’s Choice – where she made her choice. And the Greek word translated in English as “followers” can be literally translated as “under rower” which made me think of crew, which straddles BODY smart and SELF smart.

• Smarts – Word [17:38], Eye [18:38], Math [20:45], Body [23:01], (Music [16:39]), Self [24:17]
• John 18 worksheet
• Links in John
  • WORD smart –
    • Sonnet for the Reign of Christ (2015)
    • Pontius Pilate Posts to His Weblog (2018)
  • EYE smart –
    • Courtroom drama like the old Perry Mason television show. There might be better clips than this one. Hmm… I suddenly want cheese. 
  • MATH smart –
    • commentary at The Christian Century by John Morris regarding chess.
    • Surprise Checkmate Trope
    • If you choose to set up a game for a special effect, you might want to look at some notable games by masters.
    • or try this link
  • BODY smart –
    • Sophie’s Choice
  • SELF smart –
    • Read Boys in the Boat for a good first hand experience of crew.

Image Credit: Copyright : Krasimira Nevenova. Used by permission.

Tags: Daniel, John, Revelation