The last Sunday of the liturgical year is known as Christ the King Sunday. The lessons speak not only to that of kingship, but also to the shepherding of God. That beings to mind the hymn “The King of Love My Shepherd Is” (#645, Hymnal 1982, a paraphrase of the 23rd Psalm by Henry Williams Baker) which describes a very different kingship than the stereotype that “king” might suggest to us. Americans, having rebelled against a king to establish this country with its democracy over 200 years ago, tend in general to take a jaundiced view of kings, expecting them to be autocrats, tyrants, despots.

Christ Jesus, on the other hand, comes to us as a “King of Love”, a “Good Shepherd” caring for us through thick and thin, regardless of what life sends our way. As the hymn puts it: “The King of love my shepherd is, whose goodness faileth never, I nothing lack if I am his and he is mine forever.” And in verse 3: “Perverse and foolish oft I strayed, but yet in love he sought me, and on his shoulder gently laid, and home, rejoicing, brought me.” And then in verse 5: “Thou spread’st a table in my sight; thy unction grace bestoweth, and oh, what transport of delight from thy pure chalice floweth.” What a lovely and comforting picture of redemption and joy that hymn provides of the “gracious rule” of Christ Jesus!

As the epistle reminds us: “[God] has rescued us from the power of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved Son” along with “the saints in the light.” Hallelujah!