Let us pray: May the words that I speak, and the meditations of all our hearts, be acceptable to you, O God, and may they bring you glory. Amen.

    It is a common practice, at the end of a year, to look back at what has just passed. You’ll see it for yourself in about a month - the daily and weekly newspapers and magazines will adopt a retrospective stance for a few issues, recapping the events of 2007, and likely attempting to assign a short description of what the year brought to us.

    Well, our year, as Christians, comes to an end this week, so we can get a jump on the retrospective activity. In a sense, our readings have already helped us in this plan. The assigned responsive reading took a break from the psalms as the source and instead chose that piece from the beginning of Luke’s gospel - the song of Zechariah. Zechariah was the father of John, who became known as the baptiser, giving us a nice connection with the baptisms that we celebrated today of Lucas and Mackenzie. That reading from the beginning of Luke’s gospel, describing the situation before Jesus was born, provides one bookend, while the other bookend comes with the second reading from Luke’s gospel, the story of Jesus’ death on the cross. Thus, we have described for us, events which encompass the life of Jesus - beginning with such positive proclamation of who and what Jesus will be, and seemingly ending in an ignominious, but also enigmatic death on a cross. We have between those two bookends, the whole of the life of Jesus - in this case, as described by Luke. But there are three other versions - Matthew, Mark and John, along with some others that have come to our attention as a result of work done by biblical scholars in many different places - one example being, the gospel of Thomas and more recently and perhaps even more controversially, the gospel of Judas.

    Each of the four biblical gospels provides a different perspective on Jesus - and probably tells us more about the writer and the community the writer was writing for, than it does about Jesus. This can be said even more clearly about the non-canonical gospels. By non-canonical I refer to the gospel writings that are not part of the bible. For one reason or another, these other writings were not included as the bible came into being. While the stated reason would be that they were not deemed to be divinely inspired, there are many other stories of intrigue and mystery surrounding the choice of whether a particular text made it in or not.

    What you will find in these writings - part of the bible or not, is a different picture of Jesus - one that presumably is described to inspire, console, encourage, and even push the envelope for the community for which it was written. And of course, this is not limited to the gospels. We discovered this in our first reading this morning, as the writer of the letter to the Colossians takes the opportunity to remind the Christian community of the importance of Jesus in their faith story. The letter writer uses a number of different metaphors and images to tell the Colossians the story of who and what Jesus is for them.

    As much as our gospel passages this morning define bookends for the life of Jesus as described in Luke’s gospel, if you imagine those same bookends holding up all the books ever written about Jesus and who and what he is for us as Christians, you can almost imagine a library shelf of infinite length. I remember from my seminary days walking into the library and looking at the books about Jesus on the library shelves and wondering what different things each book could uncover for us on this person who is both the founder and example of what it means to be Christian. Just like the gospel writers, the authors have their own story to tell about the meaning of Jesus for their lives, and their own hope that their perspective might help others to know more about Jesus, the person and Jesus, the Christ - and yes, I believe those are two different statements.

    Jesus discerned God’s presence incisively, told parables, and lived his life in such a way that the search will always continue. That’s part of the beauty of the Christian life - the mystery, depth and many shades of meaning that we discover in the life of Jesus - partly because everything we have about him is an interpretation, and I believe also because Jesus’ life is so tied up in the transcendence of God - the part of God that we will never be able to describe.

    The learning for me here is that we should always be open to new understandings. If Jesus taught me anything, it is to always be open to a new perspective, for it just might be that that new perspective will be the one in which God’s presence shines through most clearly at this point in my life. So often that new understanding comes because I was persuaded or able to see things in a new way. The title of this reflection refers quite simplistically to two different ways that people have used to describe the importance of Jesus in their own faith journey. There are those who have a high christology. These people hold a very high image of who and what Jesus is. They would emphasise Jesus’ divine nature. The fact that this is the Sunday when we mark the Reign of Christ is very appealing to them. They might even appreciate even more the other name used for this day - Christ the King Sunday. There are others who hold a low christology. Such people emphasise the human nature of Jesus. A Sunday designated as Reign of Christ is not so appealing, for it challenges the nature of who and what Jesus is for them. Jesus the human being without any of the royal trappings is what is important.

    But clearly, both perspectives have their value. Both perspectives form part of what it means to be Christian. And if I have learned anything from the example of Jesus, it is not to dismiss outright one perspective for another, for if what I can discern from him - shining through the various lenses of his interpreters - is really true, then I believe he provides for us an opportunity to be continually surprised by the ways in which God is at work in our lives and in the world. When Jesus was challenged with the question of whether he was a king or not, he gave a very enigmatic answer, just another example of how he could cut through the expected and pat answers, so that his listeners would have to think about what he meant, and in so doing find out more about the God who loves them, and who called them on a journey towards justice for all people.

    And so, as a follower of Jesus, I can do no other than to keep on looking for Jesus, high and low - high if my tendency is towards a low christology and low if my tendency is toward a high christology. His example leaves us no other choice. We can do no more than to be ones who are constantly challenging ourselves to be better seekers after God, and at the same time challenging and being challenged by others among us who are also seekers after God.

    A few moments ago when Lucas and Mackenzie were baptised, Trent and Lorraine and Lindsay and Ron, promised that they would bring their child into the life of the Christian community that they may explore the dynamics of a God who created and loves them. The dynamics of a God - the high and the low - and everything in between. We all promised to be part of their journey, just as similar promises were made for us on our journey. May we continue to look for Jesus, high and low. May we learn, on this final Sunday of our Christian year, by looking back, and may we approach the new year which lies ahead with minds and hearts open for new understandings. Amen.