(704) 599-9810 | Worship Sundays @ 10:55 a.m.
(704) 599-9810 | Worship Sundays @ 10:55 a.m.
🕊️ “Kingdom vs. Kin-dom” — Trading fear-based empire for a kinship of mercy, solidarity, and liberating love in the shadow of the cross.
Kingdom vs. Kin-dom – November 23, 2025
Gospel: Luke 23:33–43 (CEB) | Modern Lesson: Valarie Kaur, Revolutionary Love
This Sunday at Holy Covenant United Church of Christ, we marked Reign of Christ Sunday not with images of royal crowns and distant thrones, but with a powerful meditation on “Kingdom vs. Kin-dom.” Pastor Christopher Czarnecki invited us to consider what kind of reign Jesus truly embodies — not empire and domination, but a kinship of compassion, courage, and shared liberation.
The morning opened with a Centering Prayer that named our mixed realities in this season: gratitude for abundance, but also the fear and grief hovering over our city. We prayed for neighbors afraid to leave their homes, for families bearing the trauma of separation, and for those whose daily lives are shaped by the presence of unmarked vehicles and armed agents in our streets. At the same time, we confessed the privileges that shelter many of us from dangers others face. Pastor Chris asked God to root us in a compassion that doesn’t look away, but listens, learns, and stands beside those most harmed. “Center us now in your peace, your truth, and your Kin-dom that is breaking in,” we prayed together.
Pastor Chris connected this to our own moment in Charlotte and beyond: to migrants and families living under threat; to communities that have always felt the weight of surveillance and state violence; to those whose identities or immigration status make them vulnerable to the machinery of empire. He reminded us that the Kin-dom of God is not abstract — it looks like showing up for those most at risk, listening to their stories, and refusing to categorize any human being as disposable. “Where empire says, ‘You are a problem to be managed,’” he said, “Jesus says, ‘You are kin. You belong to me.’”
The sermon invited us to consider where we locate ourselves in this story. Are we living like citizens of a kingdom rooted in fear and scarcity, or like kin in a community rooted in mercy and courage? Small actions — advocating for humane policies, supporting immigrant neighbors, giving generously, praying for those targeted by violence — become ways we practice the Kin-dom in real time. As Reign of Christ Sunday closed the church year, we were reminded that Christ’s kingship is not about control over us, but solidarity with us and with all who suffer.
The service moved toward sending with the hymn “Fight the Good Fight” and a charge to let our lives bear witness to hope in the face of fear. The Postlude, “We Have Come into This House,” sent us back into the world with a simple truth ringing in our ears: we gather around Christ not as subjects of an empire, but as kin at a shared table of grace.
🕊️ “Christ’s reign does not come riding a warhorse, but hanging on a cross, calling us kin and inviting us into a love that empire cannot cancel.”
“Where empire says, ‘You are expendable,’ Jesus says, ‘You are kin.’ That is the Kin-dom we’re called to live into.” — Rev. Christopher Czarnecki
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