Narrative Lectionary Key Verse for Today
“His authority shall grow continually,
and there shall be endless peace
for the throne of David and his kingdom.
He will establish and uphold it
with justice and with righteousness
from this time onwards and for evermore.
The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.”
NL Daily Devotion for Saturday, March 5, 2022
by R. M. Fergus, Clergy Stuff
I’ll be honest. I don’t see it. Russia just invaded the Ukraine (it’s February 24th as I write this). And it’s not like this is some rude awakening, as if there aren’t any other wars being fought right now (there are more than 70 ongoing armed conflicts according to Wikipedia, not to mention the countless incidents of violence within nations, regions, and among various populations). If we are to believe that Isaiah’s prophecy was about Jesus, then where is this endless peace? Where is the justice and righteousness? Where is the zeal of the Lord of hosts?
And here we are again in the tension between the “already” and the “not yet.” Jesus has already come, already saved, and already reigns. And at the same time, we do not yet experience the fullness of Jesus’ reign. We catch glimpses of it. It breaks into our temporal experience whenever we work for justice, whenever we seek to know and do God’s will in the care for neighbor, in the care for creation. Those are beautiful, beautiful moments. But sometimes it just doesn’t feel like enough, and I’m sad. And I guess that’s okay, too.
Where have I seen the reign of God breaking into the world?