King Jesus.

We aren’t used to calling you that.

We’ve got other names for you,
usually nice, usually kind, usually respectful.

But we’re more likely to think of you as the one who saves us than as the one who can tell us what to do.

We’re more likely to know your friendship than your authority.

We confess that we want to keep authority ourselves,
to tell rather than be told, to command rather than to confess.

Forgive us for missing your power over all when we focus on your neglect of what we want.

Help us to be humbled when we say, “for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.” Help us remember that you are the king and we are part of the kingdom.

Help us to remember that you are the kind of king who is kind, who came to your authority by understanding your people from the inside, who calls us friends and family without any diminution of your authority.

Help us to remember you.

Amen.

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Next Sunday is the first Sunday of Advent. A set of prayers for year starting next week is in, “God. We Need You.”: A Year of Prayer in a Hospital Chapel. If you find these prayers helpful for personal or public reading, I’d invite you to order copies as gifts or for your chair-side table.