Have you ever been overwhelmed? I went to Target the other day. And while there, I remembered that I needed to pick up some toothpaste. I walked around until I found the area where the toothpaste was on display and I glanced down at the options. I was immediately overwhelmed with the sheer number of options for toothpaste that were available. Did you know that Crest toothpaste alone offers 8 product lines just for toothpaste? And if you factor in size varieties and different flavors, there are actually 54 different options for Crest toothpaste. And there are many other brands of toothpaste available. That is kind of overwhelming. I also read somewhere that Folgers has over 80 varieties and sizes of coffee available for purchase. And Tide? Tide has over 180 varieties, sizes, and scents of laundry detergent to select from. That sort of variety can be overwhelming.

Variety is not the only thing that can overwhelm us though. A mom blogger by the name of Jeri wrote a blog post in January of 2019 about all the things that can overwhelm a parent. Here are the things she lists: housework, parenting, relationships, work, finances, food, pets, health, self-care, and balancing it all. And then under each of those things she breaks it down into three to fifteen sub-categories of things that overwhelm parents. And I would wager to say that many of the things apply to more than just parents. There are so many things in our lives that can quickly become overwhelming. We’ve watched over the past nearly two years now as the spread of a new virus has overwhelmed our entire world. Hospitals have struggled to keep up. People have died. Society shut down for a time. Some things have never returned. And it has all been rather overwhelming at times.

So many things can overwhelm us in life. For instance, my daughter wanted to go to Bath and Body Works yesterday. And anyone who has come within 100 feet of that store knows something about being overwhelmed. The incredible volume of competing scents that emanate from that store are just unbelievable. I took her in there wearing my mask, which helped a little initially to block some of the scents. But then after 20-30 minutes of wandering the store, when we finally left, some of the scents came with me, having clung to the mask. I wasn’t really free of the smells until I made it outside and could remove my mask. That first breath of fresh air felt so refreshing, like I was breathing out all of that overwhelming scent and replacing it with freshness.

The book of Revelation was written in a time when I imagine it was probably rather overwhelming to be a Christian. There was significant persecution of Christians under Roman rule, especially under Emperor Nero in the 50s and 60s AD. When Emperor Domitian took over, it is rumored that this persecution continued. And we know that some Christians, including John the author of Revelation, were banished. John, specifically, was banished to the island of Patmos, which was a small penal colony. The interesting part is that it was out of that situation that John wrote Revelation, a vision of the love and peace of God overwhelming the darkness of sin and despair. It serves as a reminder that the overwhelming things of life cannot compete with the overwhelming love of God.

And John sets the scene with the words we read this morning from the opening to the revelation. John begins, “Grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven spirits who are before his throne, and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth.” Over the past two months, we’ve been asking God to fill our cups. For many of us, myself included, the past 2 years have been draining as we wrestled with COVID-19 and the division in our nation over politics. I’ve felt so empty at times. But this greeting from John speaks words of grace and peace and faithfulness from God to God’s people. And I feel like that is something I stand in need of. I need God’s grace because I fail constantly. In my emptiness, I have had less to give and have made more mistakes when I attempt to give too much. I need God’s peace because the world seems to lack peace and I have struggled to create any for myself even. And I need God’s faithfulness because so much of life is fleeting and failing and weak.

John continues his greeting, saying, “To him who loves us and freed us from our sins by his blood, and made us to be a kingdom, priests serving his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.” The overwhelming love of God frees us and makes of us a kingdom. The language in this verse of Revelation is reminiscent of Peter’s first letter when he wrote, “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.” When the Old Testament writers wrote about God’s people as a holy nation, they were thinking of Israel, the nation of Abraham, Isaac, and Jakob, given to them by God. This would have been what both Peter and John were steeped in as Jewish boys growing up learning in the synagogue and in the temple. But in the time when Peter wrote his first letter and by the time John wrote Revelation from the island of Patmos, that vision of a holy nation had been changed by Jesus. Jesus as King changes everything because Jesus is not the sort of king that people expected. He’s not the sort of king people would expect or seek out even today. Jesus was and is and will always be a king of love, freedom, and acceptance.

We celebrate Jesus as King today because we saw the love of God displayed through him both in his life and in his death. There’s a song by Cory Asbury called “Reckless Love” that I just discovered as I was preparing this sermon. And I love the words. Listen to how he describes the love of God:

Before I spoke a word, You were singing over me

You have been so, so good to me

Before I took a breath, You breathed Your life in me

You have been so, so kind to me

Oh, the overwhelming, never-ending, reckless love of God

Oh, it chases me down, fights ’til I’m found, leaves the ninety-nine

I couldn’t earn it, and I don’t deserve it, still, You give Yourself away

Oh, the overwhelming, never-ending, reckless love of God, yeah

That is the beauty of God’s love for us. When the world and its stresses and struggles threaten to overwhelm us, God’s love invites us to draw close and be overwhelmed instead by its life-giving, undeserved goodness. Jesus as King displays love for his people unlike we’ve ever seen before.

But Jesus as King also offers his people freedom. And this is not the sort of freedom that can be earned or fought for and won. This is a freedom that can only be given in love. This is a freedom that can exist even when we are not free in any other respect. Madame Guyon, while in prison in France, wrote these words:

“My cage confines me round;

Abroad I cannot fly;

But though my wing is closely bound

My heart’s at liberty.

My prison walls cannot control

The flight, the freedom of the soul.

“Oh, it is good to soar

These bolts and bars above,

To Him whose purpose I adore,

Whose Providence I love;

And in Thy mighty will to find

The joy, the freedom of the mind.”—Selected.

A freedom that can exist even when we are behind bars, or otherwise confined or restrained, is only possible through the overwhelming love of God.

Jesus as King shows us love and freedom, but he also accepts us as we are. John says that Jesus “made us to be a kingdom, priests serving his God and Father.” And Jesus’ kingdom is not one where we have to work to attain citizenship. We are welcomed openly. We don’t have to apply for citizenship or pass any tests or meet with the right government officials or jump through the right hoops. Jesus simply welcomes us in. John references some ideas from the prophets Daniel and Zechariah when he writes, “Look! He is coming with the clouds; every eye will see him, even those who pierced him.” We are all welcome in the kingdom of Jesus Christ and we will all see him when he comes.

Today, Christ the King Sunday, marks the end of the church year. When we gather next Sunday, we begin our journey through Advent toward the manger. We begin a new year of church life. That means a new opportunity to journey through Christ’s life, a new opportunity to walk with God, a new opportunity to enter into the overwhelming love of God in Jesus, our Savior and our King. It seems perfect timing to me that Thanksgiving falls right in the middle between the end of one church year and the beginning of another. For what better way to look back and where we’ve been while still embracing where we are going but to give thanks. That’s why the Lord’s Supper is called the Eucharist, which means thanksgiving, because we give thanks for what Christ has done while simultaneously embracing what the Spirit is about to do. Today, may we celebrate what Jesus has done for us, giving praise to God for all of our blessings! And let us also embrace what the Spirit is ready to do through us. For the God we serve who was shown most fully to us in Jesus Christ, introduced himself to John by saying, “I am the Alpha and the Omega.” For alpha was the first letter of the Greek alphabet and Omega was the last. Jesus is the first and the last, the beginning and the end, the God who is and who was and who is to come. And we have been made a part of God’s kingdom and invited into the overwhelming love of God for us in Christ Jesus. Let us rest in that love, when times are good and when times are bad. May God’s love embrace and overwhelm us until we are filled to overflowing! Amen!