Narrative Lectionary Key Verse for Today
“Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!”
NL Daily Devotion for Friday, March 24, 2023
by R. M. Fergus, Clergy Stuff
We are still killing prophets. No one wants to be told they’re wrong, or that they need to change. Change is automatically interpreted as loss. Loss of “how it used to be.” Loss of what’s familiar and comfortable. Loss of the “good old days.” Since by nature humans see things as “either/or” rather than “both/and” any call to change is an affront—a declaration that “you’re bad.” Even when the truth is that you were just doing what you knew and God still loves you. You might still have to make amends, but it doesn’t mean you’re irredeemable.
It's much easier to decide the prophets are wrong. To make up stories about them to destroy their reputations and call into question their motives. To try to intimidate them with threats. And, yes, to kill them.
But Jesus still calls us to speak truth to power on behalf of our oppressed neighbors, despite the risk. And Jesus still laments that when all he wants to do is gather all God’s people together in his loving arms, they are not willing.
How does it feel to be called out on something in me that needs to change?
