Narrative Lectionary Key Verse for Today
“You are worthy, our Lord and God,
to receive glory and honor and power,
for you created all things,
and by your will they existed and were created.”
NL Daily Devotion for Saturday, August 9, 2025
by R. M. Fergus, Clergy Stuff
A reminder that Revelation is speaking to a very specific context: “Here the twenty-four elders ascribe to the Creator the name that the emperor Domitian had usurped, “our Lord and God.” (Metzger, p. 51) This emperor proclaimed himself Lord and God and demanded that his subjects worship him as a god. He wasn’t too fond of Christians who refused to do this. Persecution followed.
John of Patmos wasn’t having it. No earthly power is God. Only God is God. And frankly, we shouldn’t be having it either. In our modern context money and power are God. Political figures usurp power in order to inflict cruelty on the marginalized at the same time demanding that their supporters basically worship them as infallible, overlooking their crimes and pettiness. It’s so important for us to remember that our leaders are human, flawed, and need to be held accountable for their actions. They are not “our Lord and God.” It would be nice if God would show up and just magically set things right, although reading through Revelation that sounds like it wouldn’t be pretty! Meanwhile, we can read this book as a call into God’s work of justice.
What things have I observed in our culture that try to declare themselves “Lord and God?”
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Metzger, Bruce M. Breaking the Code: Understanding the Book of Revelation. Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 1993.
