Naming the Days

The big shopping day has passed, and it appears that we’ve begun the season when our days are named according to the level of our retail shopping. We hope for a “Black Friday” – so that financial books come out “in the black” and not “in the red.” Tomorrow is “Cyber Monday” because of all of the online shopping predicted to take place. Soon we can look forward to “Green Monday” as shoppers make one last surge to grab up Christmas gifts and Christmas bargains. Today it seems our days are numbered and named according to our spending.

The church has another way: Every moment of every day is noticed and numbered by the One who has given it to us – God the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth. WE are named by the One who reigned from a cross on that “Good Friday” – Jesus Christ, – and who marks us with that cross in Baptism. And we are called by the Holy Spirit who gives us true joy, not in seeing how much we can pile up for ourselves, but in discovering the joy that is known in serving the neighbor.

At Bethlehem this past week, there have been telling signs of Christ’s rule over the lives of disciples here: a meal served on Thanksgiving Day to 175 new Americans; and still on the pews in our worship space – some of the 510 quilts made by the Mission Work Day Quilters to share locally and around the globe.

On the Sunday of Christ the King, we look to the promised day when “the kingdom of this world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Messiah, and he will reign forever and ever.” Rev. 11:15 NRSV

And we pray:
O God, our true life, to serve you is freedom, and to know you is unending joy. We worship you, we glorify you, we give thanks to you for your great glory. Abide with us, reign in us, and make this world into a fit habitation for your divine majesty, through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

(ELW, Prayer of the Day – Christ the King)