Narrative Lectionary Key Verse for Today
“Then the seventh angel blew his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, saying,
‘The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord
and of his Messiah,
and he will reign for ever and ever.’”
NL Daily Devotion for Monday, August 25, 2025
by R. M. Fergus, Clergy Stuff
This sounds like a resounding “The End!” to Revelation. But, um, there are 11 more chapters. So I’ll just go off on a tangent, which I am well known to do.
In his book The God We Never Knew, Marcus J. Borg discusses two models for the image of God. The monarchial model synthesizes images of God as king, lord, and father to create an image of God that is both far distant and male and leads us into a relationship based entirely on our performance (centered on a general obsession with sin and earning salvation). These images from Revelation seem to me to be the ultimate expression of this, setting up a God who is “other”, rather than a God who desires an intimate, mutually loving relationship with us. I think that’s just one more reason I find the imagery in Revelation so off-putting. Jesus’ life pointed to the idea of kingship that was turned completely on its head—a king who is entirely self-sacrificial, and a kingdom in which the first is last and the last is first. This idea feels entirely absent from Revelation (and, actually, from most of modern Christianity).
I wonder (and maybe I’ll try this) if it would make any difference to read Revelation with this inverted kingship front and center in mind—how would angels announcing this reign feel different if I were to assume that it was the one characterized by humility and self-sacrificial love that Jesus espoused.
Like a said. A tangent. But perhaps one worth thinking about?
How do I feel about monarchical ideas of God?
