34KingA23.    Ezekiel 34:11-12, 15-17.  The Hebrew People have been released from captivity in Babylonia.  The Lord God cares for his people as a shepherd cares for his flock, especially the neediest.  They are often the scattered, injured and sick.  However the Lord God will destroy those who try to be so strong that they not only feel no need of God but try to compete with him.

Matthew 25:31-46.  On this Sunday we look to the Second Coming of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe, who “comes in his glory, and all the angels with him.” “He will sit upon his glorious throne, and all the nations will be assembled before him.”  Then he calls to all whom he created to be his children: “Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.”  However to receive the inheritance due to us as children of the Father we need to have lived as his children in his image and likeness, to have been as loving as he is loving.  Because God is our Father he identifies himself with us.  As our Father he is a part of us; as his children, we are a part of him. So love of God and love of one another are of the same fabric.   When we show love for one another we show love for our Father who is a part of each one of us out of his love for us.  On the other hand, when we fail to love one another, we fail to love the Father who out of love for us is part of us.

1 Corinthians 15:20-26, 28.   Jesus, by his ultimate act of love for us through the sacrifice of surrendering himself to the Father‘s will on the cross, destroys death that was created by the sin of the man Adam. “For just as in Adam all die, so too in Christ shall all be brought to life.”  God the Father has made Jesus the King who makes all subject to him. “For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet.”