Christ may be king, but there seem to be an awful lot of princes and extra royalty standing around in our lives to which we bow and curtsey.

How are people to understand the kingship of Christ? We know to enthrone him in our hearts and minds, putting him at the center of how we live and how we look at the world.

LET’S DROP SOME names. Who’s the most impressive person you ever met? I had a glass of wine with Henri Nouwen 30 years ago. I was at a party attended by Hans Küng—though he certainly wasn’t aware of me. I think I passed Yoko Ono at a crowded bazaar and was nine rows from Paul McCartney at a concert, speaking of the Beatles.

Michael Ramsey, the late Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury, once said, "No resurrection, no Christianity." His words echoed those of Saint Paul in 1 Corinthians--"if Christ has not been raised, then our proclamation has been in vain and your faith has been in vain" (15:14)--and point to the fact that without faith in the resurrection of Jesus, and ultimately of all who die in Christ, Christianity doesn't mean much.

When my daughters were little and I would read them fairy tales we'd often come across lands where the king was either bad or missing in action.

Our parish sings a wonderful Communion hymn titled "Bread to Share." Its upbeat melody and exchange between cantor and congregation led me to believe it was an updated version of an old spiritual.

Human beings have a hard time handling power well. In the past couple of years we've had ample evidence of that in disclosures of how certain unscrupulous CEOs and chairmen of the board of large companies abused their positions of power, arrogantly looted the resources of the organizations they were charged to manage, and brazenly lied about it all to shareholders and legal authorities alike.

Encouraged by God's promise of salvation, let us pray for reconciliation with God and one another.

Let us give thanks to the Father. . . . The unique material in this reading from Colossians indicates the insertion of a hymn in the text, with some additions by the author. Another hymn occurs in Philippians 2:6-11, and both provide key New Testament theological expressions about Christ.

Christ has dominion over all creatures, a dominion not seized by violence nor usurped, but his by essence and by nature. --Cyril of Alexandria (376-444)