Narrative Lectionary Key Verse for Today
“But the holy ones of the Most High shall receive the kingdom and possess the kingdom for ever—for ever and ever.”
NL Daily Devotion for Sunday, August 25, 2024
by Madison Johnston, Clergy Stuff
Main Idea: The Holy Spirit’s promise for us today lies in something that barely even gets a mention in this grand and surreal passage—that is, the holy ones of the Most High.
98% percent of this passage is dedicated to the fantastical, dramatic and otherworldly beings in Daniel’s dreams. It makes sense, then, that our reactions to this passage might mirror Daniel’s reactions. We might be troubled. We might reach out to the people around us to try to process, or to try to find some comfort. We will certainly find ourselves fixated on descriptive details, wondering: what on earth could all of this mean?
We could spin our wheels in this headspace for a long time. We could dive into studies on symbolism, anachronistically psychoanalyze Daniel, ask ourselves what we might write if we had been colonized by Greek and Persian emperors, and, ultimately, try to craft some interpretations of our own.
What if, instead, we focused on the 2% of this passage that speaks to something else? Specifically, “the holy ones of the Most High” mentioned in the very last line? That isn’t just an abstract notion. It is referring to Daniel’s community—Daniel’s people.
Something in the cosmos is speaking to Daniel on the most subconscious level possible, promising him that his beloveds are also the beloveds of a world-bending, world-ending defeater of all defeaters. Daniel’s people are special. Daniel’s people are spoken for. Daniel’s people will be delivered from suffering. Delivered from chaos. And what’s more, Daniel’s people will inherit and share more than they’ve ever known they could imagine.
Our good news this morning is that, in a landscape of the brutal and terrifying—in a world of arrogant mouths and competing powers—we are the holy ones of the Most High. Because we’re situated where we are in history, we may know that designation by other names: children of God; co-heirs of Christ; friends of Jesus. Whatever the words, the meaning is the same: that we are never alone in our trials and tribulations, and that the things waiting for us in them, through them, and on the other side of them are the stuff of our (well … Daniel’s) wildest dreams.
