Today is, in the Church calendar, the last Sunday of Ordinary Time, known as Christ the King (or Reign of Christ) Sunday. The group I worship with follow the Revised Common Lectionary — which is how I started reading it.

This was not my experience of Reformed Churches before I moved to Dunedin. Most of the time we celebrated Easter and Christmas: knowing that our forefathers really did not want to do this. It was a fear of Papism, of candles, smells, vestments, theatre and fun.

Well, we have candles now. And we still have reformed theology… but we have been influenced by the Anglicans on one side and the Pentecostals of another.

But God does not judge us by these things, but by what we do.

Matthew 25:31-46

31“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory. 32All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, 33and he will put the sheep at his right hand and the goats at the left. 34Then the king will say to those at his right hand, ‘Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; 35for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, 36I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.’ 37Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink? 38And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing? 39And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?’ 40And the king will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.’ 41Then he will say to those at his left hand, ‘You that are accursed, depart from me into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels; 42for I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not give me clothing, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’ 44Then they also will answer, ‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not take care of you?’ 45Then he will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’

Romans 15:5-6

5May the God of steadfastness and encouragement grant you to live in harmony with one another, in accordance with Christ Jesus, 6so that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

The Church, in this day, appears broken.

There is no way, in this earth, that you will get a firmly convinced and serious Presbyterian to bend his reformed model of God to accept the practices and prayers of a firmly convinced Catholic. He will grudgingly accept the Anglicans, and will wear earplugs at a Pentecostal service… but there divisions between the models are great.

Yet the same two men (or women) will agree that the committees of both churches come out with statements that subvert the gospel. (I linked to Trad Cath sites yesterday for a reason. The same issues occur in all churches, ranging from Gay men demanding a place by their very existence and the problem of teenage pregnancy to con artists defrauding the Church of funds set aside for the poor).

And both will agree that we need to reach out to those who are mad, who are imprisoned, homeless, hungry… in our family, then in our community, then in the world.

What we are seeing is a functional or organic unity. This crosses the lines of any denomination or sect. The serious about their faith are talking across the boundaries. Because in the end, it is not about the committees, the moderators, the elders, the bishops… it is arbour Christ. We are his Church. He reigns over us. And he will lead his church regardless of who is trying to lead us into error, or away from doing good.