Narrative Lectionary Key Verse for Today
“Then I saw another portent in heaven, great and amazing: seven angels with seven plagues, which are the last, for with them the wrath of God is ended.”
NL Daily Devotion for Tuesday, September 2, 2025
by R. M. Fergus, Clergy Stuff
These last plagues are reserved for those who are unrepentant in their idol worship. They are not just dropped on humanity as a whole. They are for those who stubbornly refuse to acknowledge God’s sovereignty and keep right on worshipping “other gods.” I’ve said it a million times before (hyperbole, yes) and I’ll say it a million times again: our society worships money. They bow down to it. They do anything to get it, keep it, grow it. They pray it will give them security and serenity. They trample on anyone who gets in the way of their amassing more of it. They follow after anyone and everyone who promises them happiness for a price. They have no trust in God, no trust in their fellow human beings, their government, their communities. And the result is such sharply defined injustice along economic lines (which is reflected in racial lines) that there are literally children starving to death or dying from lack of appropriate medical care while Jeff Bezos is going to space in his private rocket. Honestly it sickens me to my core.
I’m not wishing God’s bowl of wrath to be poured on those who worship money—we’re doing a fine job of destroying ourselves, thank you very much. Instead, I’m praying fervently for a time when this pathetic power-grabbing, money-grabbing hunger in our society is broken, and we are fed instead by compassion, love, interdependence, trust, and flourishing. Mind you, I’m not holding my breath. But I am praying, and I have to believe God is listening and answering.
What am I praying for in these troubling times? How is God reassuring me?
