We can't enjoy beginnings and endings if we don't like change. And Jesus is describing the biggest change of all, the transformation of everything when "the Son of Man" rides in "on a cloud with power and great glory."

What does it means to be the church--the Body of Christ--in the world? On this Christ the King Sunday, we ask how the "not-of-this-world" reign of Jesus Christ relates to the very-much-this-world situation in which we live.

We live in a culture very different (at least in some ways) from Hannah and Elkanah and Samuel's culture. They led what Eugene Peterson calls "large lives--large because they live in the largeness of God…. God is the country in which they live."

If last week's passage from the Book of Ruth was about making a commitment, this week's passage is about living out a commitment of concern for another's welfare.

Between the lines, and in a powerfully moving way, the narrator of the book of Ruth tells a story with great artistry and deep feeling. The characters that really matter are those most on the margins, the least powerful, those with the fewest resources except for their wits, their determination, their faithfulness to each other.

Jesus and the disciples are approaching the end of their travels. They're at Jericho, on the edge of Jerusalem, on the edge of suffering and death for Jesus. As they've traveled along, the disciples have been busy figuring out where they want to sit when their dreams of triumph and success come to realization.

We can only guess what's going on in the minds of the disciples as they walk the dusty roads with Jesus. For awhile now, they haven't known that Jerusalem is their destination, and over the past three chapters, it seems that they haven't wanted to know why they're on this journey in the first place.

The laws of any (true) religion are a gift, a path laid out for us, a set of guideposts when we're not sure of the way. Jesus, in his response, isn't quoting a law or laying a mandate on this man. He is opening a door to the next stage, the next step, on this man's journey of faith.

Jesus is asked a legal question, a technical, down-to-earth, question about everyday, lived reality, and he answers with an ideal that is, to be honest, almost impossible to achieve.