Although the moment the Thanksgiving turkey cools down much of Western culture plunges into the Christmas frenzy, in the church calendar there is one more Sunday before Advent officially gets underway. This is the last Sunday of Pentecost, Christ the King Sunday.

It seems pleasantly paradoxical that the church devotes a Sunday to celebrate Christ's exaltedness, his lordship, his omnipotence, just before we begin the weeks of Advent that contemplate Christ's entrance into this world as a frail and tiny helpless infant.

In Disney's animated Aladdin story, the zany Robin Williams as the big blue genie describes this eternal conundrum quite nicely. Summing up a genie's most essential elements, he explains it to Aladdin in this way: "IMMENSE UNIVERSAL POWER . . . itty bitty living space."

Ev…