Christ the King / Reign of Christ Sunday · Evangelical Lutheran Church in America

God's Seeking Shepherd and Just Judge

Ezekiel 34 promises that God will personally search for scattered sheep, rescuing them from every place of exile. But the same shepherd also judges between sheep and goats, fat and lean. Preach this as the two-sided comfort and challenge of Christ's reign: God's pursuit of the lost is relentless, yet God's justice confronts leaders who exploit and members who hoard. The shepherd-king restores not by overlooking harm but by ending it, binding up the injured and feeding the hungry with equity. This text invites a sermon on how divine care and divine judgment are one saving work.

Knowing the Hope of God's Power

Ephesians 1:15-23 turns from doctrine to intercession. Paul praises faith and love, then prays for a spirit of wisdom and revelation so believers may know the hope of their calling and the immeasurable greatness of God's power. That power raised Christ far above every rule and authority and gave him as head over all things for the church. Preach this as an invitation to move from knowing about God to knowing God's power at work among us. On Christ the King Sunday, the church needs enlightened hearts more than triumphant talk—confidence rooted in resurrection, not coercion.

The King Who Meets Us in the Needy

Matthew 25:31-46 portrays the Son of Man enthroned in glory, separating sheep from goats. The criterion is astonishing: not doctrinal precision or public piety, but concrete care for the hungry, thirsty, stranger, naked, sick, and imprisoned. The king identifies so fully with the least that ministry to them is ministry to him. Preach this as a sobering and liberating truth: Christ's reign is not distant but hidden among the vulnerable. Faithfulness to the King is tested in ordinary acts of mercy, and divine judgment reveals whether our worship has hands and feet.

Love for others

“The test of a man then is not, "How have I believed? " but "How have I loved?”

— Unknown, The World's Great Sermons, Vol. 10 (ed. Kleiser)

Second coming

“We preach not one advent only of Christ, but a second also, far more glorious than the former.”

— Cyril of Jerusalem, Nicene & Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series, Vol. 7

Care for the poor

“Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you, ye who esteemed not riches, ye who had compassion on the poor, who aided the orphans, who helped the widows, who gave drink to the thirsty, who fed the hungry, who…”

— Hippolytus, Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 5