Visual Resources for the Lectionaries

This post offers visual resources for the Revised Common Lectionary and the Narrative Lectionary for November 26, 2023.  This is Christ the King Sunday, or The Reign of Christ Sunday. The RCL offers visions of the Messiah from Ezekiel 34 and Ephesians 1. The Gospel is Matthew 25:31-46. This scene of the Son of Man seated at the right hand of God concludes the Eschatological Discourse. The NL jumps to the story of Josiah in 2 Kings. He is an image of a good king in Judah.  The Gospel reading is Luke 24:30-32 where Jesus eats with the disciples in Emmaus.

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Jump to Narrative Lectionary resources.

Drop the “g”!

I don’t often offer interpretation in my weekly posts. I simply want to offer visual resources to present the text. This week, however, I do feel compelled to offer one thought about preaching on Christ the King Sunday.

It is increasingly difficult for me to speak of Jesus as a King who sits on a throne and rules over a kingdom. That was a metaphor that had some helpful allegorical meaning for the first century. The metaphor does not work in the USA for two reasons. First, it does not reflect our political context of a democracy (we rejected a king, remember). Second, we tend to latch on to the patriarchal domination structure of our mythic memories of European kings, which is not helpful and the opposite of Jesus’ teaching.

If we drop the letter g then many things are solved. We move from a king to a kin, meaning a family member. We move from a kingdom to a kin-dom, meaning a family.

Jesus proclaimed and modeled a relationship with Abba and invited his disciples into a community. He did not lord it over people, but his glory was demonstrated on the cross of execution and humiliation. Read my posts here,  here and here where I have illustrated notes on these ideas.

We celebrate Thanksgiving in the USA this week. Many congregations have a special Thanksgiving Eve service. I invite you to explore my Cartoonist’s Guide to Thanksgiving post and PowerPoint. Enjoy!

Revised Common Lectionary

Here are quick links to all the texts for this week:

Ephesians 1:15-23

The RCL Gospel Reading is Matthew 25:31-43.

This image comes from page 17 in A Cartoonist’s Guide to Matthew.

I added a throne to this image based on Daniel’s vision of the Son of Man (Daniel 7:1-14). These images give a visual commentary on the passage. It is important to note that this is a judgment of all nations. The boundaries between Jew and Gentile are erased. All that matters is how the nations treat the “least of these.” Read more…

Preview PowerPoint

Feel free to use any or all of these slides and images in your own preaching and teaching.

Narrative Lectionary

The NL takes us to the story of King Josiah in 2 Kings.

Josiah

Two generations after Manasseh’s reign of sin, a second king like Hezekiah ascended to the throne. Through a reconnection to the Law of Moses, Josiah spearheaded a radical reformation of Judah’s religious landscape. While Josiah’s reformations were true, thorough, and authentic, they were too late. God spared Josiah in response to his devotion, but the nation itself could not escape from the damage that Manasseh had done. As soon as Josiah was gone, the threads of the nation began to unravel.

The Gospel is Luke 24:30-32.

This is page 24 in A Cartoonist’s Guide to Luke.

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