Sermons from Grace Cathedral

Pope Pius IX instituted today's Feast of Christ the King, or the Reign of Christ, in a 1925 encyclical, a papal letter sent to the bishops of the Roman Church. The feast and its timing was incorporated broadly in Christian churches -- including ours -- through ecumenical and liturgical movements a few decades later. Even if we dismiss the notion of king as an outmoded overlord, we have taken that identity in Christ in baptism, and by virtue of that, must wrestle with that identity and the sacred principles that gave rise to today. In today's gospel, on the one hand, Pilate is trying Jesus: what have you done? And on the other hand, Jesus is recapitulating the trying question of the gospels: who do you say that I am?