Narrative Lectionary Key Verse for Today
“After the sixty-two weeks, an anointed one shall be cut off and shall have nothing, and the troops of the prince who is to come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. Its end shall come with a flood, and to the end there shall be war. Desolations are decreed.”
NL Daily Devotion for Wednesday, August 28, 2024
by R. M. Fergus, Clergy Stuff
Desolations are decreed. It’s going to happen. War and floods. End-of-the-world sounding scenarios that make our blood run cold. No one wants these things. Yet the happen. And not just as predicted in Daniel’s near future. But over and over and over again. I still remember the terrible flooding of the summer of ’93 in the upper Midwest, when I was moving from Minneapolis to Grinnell, Iowa and significant portions of the route between the two were completely underwater for a period of time. I remember the Iraq war of ’91, then again the warring following 9/11, and now Ukraine (and this is just a tiny fraction of the wars that have been and continue to happen around the world). Most of these things happen to “other people” in “other places.” But I recently met a family who are refugees from Ukraine and when I took one look at the youngest child, it hit me like a ton of bricks. These things are happening to real people—to this child. The perspective was unsettling to say the least.
What are we to say to all of this? Where is God in the midst of this? What does it mean that Daniel is privy to the upcoming desolations that are decreed?
I don’t have answers, other than to say that I do not doubt for one moment that God is right there with that child and their family, with every child still hearing bombs land or gunfire close by, with every child whose life is threatened by floods or other natural disasters. And that God calls each of us to help where we can, so that we might alleviate the burdens of others and extend love and service for the healing of the world.
Is the idea of war ‘real’ or ‘concrete’ to me? If not, how can I work to be in solidarity with those who experience it directly?
