Let Love Reign

 November 23, 2025

Rev. JT Smiedendorf  |  Acting Lead & Intentional Interim Minister

Text: Colossians 1:15-20

Download and print a PDF of this sermon here.

 

CENTRAL FOCUS

To uplift and reclaim the ultimate sovereignty of the Christ-energy, Love.

“We look at this Son and see the God who cannot be seen. We look at this Son and see God’s original purpose in everything created. For everything, absolutely everything, above and below, visible and invisible, rank after rank after rank of angels—everything got started in Christ and finds its purpose in Christ. Christ was there before any of it came into existence and holds it all together right up to this moment. And when it comes to the church, Christ organizes and holds it together, like a head does a body.

Christ was supreme in the beginning and—leading the resurrection parade—Christ is supreme in the end. From beginning to end Christ is there, towering far above everything, everyone. So spacious is Christ, so expansive, that everything of God finds its proper place in Christ without crowding. Not only that, but all the broken and dislocated pieces of the universe—people and things, animals and atoms—get properly fixed and fit together in vibrant harmonies….”

These are the words of our ancient tradition.
May these words become Living Wisdom within us, among us, and beyond us.

 

A story is told about a Guru who was meditating in his Mountain cave. When he opened his eyes, he discovered an unexpected visitor sitting before him—the abbot of a well-known monastery.

“What is it you seek,” asked the Guru?

The abbot recounted a tale of woe. At one time his monastery had been famous throughout the western world. Its cells were filled with young aspirants, and its church had resounded to the chant of its monks. But hard times had come on the monastery. People no longer flocked there to nourish their spirits, the aspirants had dried up, and the church was almost silent. There were only a handful of monks left and these went about their duties with heavy hearts.

Now this is what the abbot wanted to know: “Is it because of some sin of ours that the monastery has been reduced to this state?”

“Yes,” replied the Guru, “a sin of ignorance.”

“And what might that sin be?”

“One of your number is the Messiah in disguise and you are ignorant of this,” replied the Guru—and having said so he closed his eyes and returned to his meditation.

Throughout the long journey back to his monastery the abbot’s heart beat fast as he thought that the Messiah—the actual Messiah—had returned to earth and was right there in his monastery. How was it that he had failed to recognize him? And who could it be? Brother Cook? Brother Sacristan? Brother Treasurer? Brother Prior? No, not he; he had too many defects, alas. But then, the Guru had said he was in disguise. Could those defects be part of his disguise? Come to think of it, everyone in the monastery had defects. And one of them had to be Messiah.

Back in the monastery the abbot assembled all the monks and told them what he had discovered. They looked at one another in disbelief. The Messiah? Here? Incredible. But he was supposed to be here in disguise. So, maybe. What if it were so and so? Or the other one over there? Or…

One thing was certain. If the Messiah was there in disguise, it was not likely that they would recognize him. So, they took to treating everyone with special respect and consideration. “You never know,” they said to themselves when they dealt with one another, “maybe this is the one.”

The result was that the atmosphere of the monastery became vibrant with joy. Soon dozens of aspirants were seeking admission to the order. And once again the church echoed with the holy and joyful chant of monks who were aglow with the spirit of love.

Love was reigning in that monastery.

Today is what some in Christianity call Reign of Christ Sunday, the last Sunday in our symbolic year. (We begin again next week with our New Years Day of faith in the church, the first Sunday of Advent.)

The story of how this Sunday was named Reign of Christ Sunday is important and most relevant for today.

It was 1925.

Mussolini had been the leader of Italy for three years, and a rabble-rouser named Hitler had been out of jail for a year and his Nazi party was growing in popularity. The world lay in a great Depression—a depression that would become far worse over the next fifteen years.

This is what Pope Pius XI saw in the world.

Amidst the rise of anxiety and authoritarian figures, the church needed the image of Christ, the wounded and crucified one, the humble servant, the healer, the prophet of peace and justice as the One who overcame, as the One Seated on the Throne. At that moment, the world of Christian faith, and maybe the whole world, needed a reminder of what a true leader looked like, what power was for, what true power really is, and where it came from.

In such a time, Pope Pius XI, amidst all of those new dictators and false values in the world, proclaimed Christ as Sovereign of the universe and the last Sunday of the church year Reign of Christ Sunday.

That proclamation can and should be made again today, for we too live amidst actual and would-be authoritarians seeking worldly power, promising to quench human fear and anxiety by bringing a certain kind of law and order, punishing the troublemakers—those ‘others’ who become the scapegoats for anxiety and struggle. Humans here and all around the world can still be tempted by the simple solution of blame, separation, and domination.

Indeed, when these powers reign in the soul and society, there is not the Christ Love that heals and connects, but the fear that divides and the distrust that separates and discourages. When Caesar or Mussolini is on the throne, nuclear winter and ecological collapse are on the horizon, genocide and apartheid (subtle and overt) are nearby, while idols, entertainments, and distractions seek to mute underlying depression and disempowerment. The same will happen when consumerism, militarism, materialism, and tribalism are the reigning powers.

The writer of today’s Scripture poem, the mystical hymn we heard from Colossians, despite living under the shadow of these same powers of domination of Rome, proclaims another Sovereign power, another head and heart of all things: The Eternal Sovereign Christ presence of Divine Love that was witnessed and worshipped. In its ancient time of writing, it was practically subversive to claim another Sovereign power other than Caesar and Rome. More importantly, it was subversive to not cooperate with the way of Empire where might makes right, where you get yours first and defeat your enemies, and where the desires of the few eclipse the needs of the many and of Creation.

Like then, our invitation of faith today is to not cooperate with the way of Caesar and empire, but let the Way of Christ, the Way of Love reign within, among, and beyond us. The call to us all on this ‘end of the story’ Sunday is to let Love Reign.

Let me be clear, this is not the reign of Christians or of one religion, tribal and dominant. Not a rigid and punishing theocracy. Not a culture of conformity. Not Christ as our Caesar, but the Way of Love to be our Sovereign authority, the author of our days, the shaper of our ways of being and our ways of being together.

Does this sound all too lofty and pie in the sky? Divine Love as Sovereign? Maybe. Faith can seem that way sometimes, a kind of foolishness. History has much to suggest that Caesar and Caesar’s ways and values are still in charge. So often, it doesn’t seem like Love is Reigning.

And yet the invitation of faith remains, to let the Way of Love Reign, within us, among us, and beyond us, even to trust that it has already begun. Listen again to a part of the Scripture passage, this time from the New Revised Standard version,

“God has rescued us from the power of darkness and transferred us into the realm of the beloved Son, in whom we have redemption.”

Past tense. It has been done.

Like those monks in the monastery, we can faithfully choose to believe that Love is already among us. Once those monks in the sad monastery began to believe in the sacredness of the others around them and to treat them in the way of love, the monastery became renewed with joy and vitality. A shift within us, in human consciousness, in our perspective and intention, also changes the reality outside of us as we live into it.

Some of you may remember that on Palm Sunday of this year I spoke of the two parades that entered Jerusalem on that original Palm Sunday—one of Caesar with armor and war horses and one of Jesus with donkeys and palms. On Palm Sunday of 2026 I will again be here with you in the morning leading worship and preaching, but in the afternoon, I will be part of a procession to the capitol in Saint Paul. With many other people of faith, I will be in a parade of faith, witnessing that not Caesar but Love reigns, the love of the God of many names, the love that values neighbor and self, all human neighbors and all the neighbors of Creation. More information will be coming soon about that Palm Sunday path.

My friends, the author of this letter to the church at Colossae appealed to his early church community and calls to us today with an invitation of faith. Tuning into the mystic’s channel to know what is true beyond surface appearances, this messenger calls us to trust, even amidst the powers of empire, that the power of Love ultimately reigns, that there is a divine love holding it all, bringing it all into harmony within us, among us, and beyond us. The strange power of this trust is that when we trust it enough to live it, we can know that it is already true, already here, already incarnate. Despite so many ways of the world still being operated in the way of Caesar and of empire, we can faithfully shift our inner life and express our outer life in a way that gets in sync with the Love that reigns.

May these words become Living Wisdom within us, among us, and beyond us.