Narrative Lectionary Key Verse for Today
“The second angel blew his trumpet, and something like a great mountain, burning with fire, was thrown into the sea.”
NL Daily Devotion for Tuesday, August 19, 2025
by R. M. Fergus, Clergy Stuff
In 79ce, Mt. Vesuvius erupted and utterly destroyed Pompei. It’s likely Revelation was written after this, so John’s readers “would have had no difficulty picturing ‘something like a great mountain, burning with fire, [being] thrown into the sea.” (Metzger, p.64).
It makes me wonder if our modern experiences of catastrophe inform our conceptions of God. World War II rendered Europe largely atheist—after all, most of Europe’s wars had been framed in religious contexts. No one really knew how bad new military technology would make this war. No one could have imagined the horrors of the Holocaust. How could anyone have lived through the devastation and not lost their faith that there was any sort of God who cared about human beings? It just makes sense.
On the other hand, were there those who witnessed the trauma and came to the conclusion that God was punishing humanity for their sins? Probably. Is it possible to look at our current context and recognize the ways we have brought things on ourselves and conclude that God is standing by and letting us destroy ourselves as an object lesson? Probably.
As for me, I try to remember the quintessential truth that God is right in the midst of our suffering, suffering with us. God’s love for us is so great that God opens herself to experience everything we experience even though it is of our own making. Whether it’s a volcano wiping out a city (no fault of their own) or a rampant pandemic exacerbated by incompetence, selfishness, and conspiracy theories (totally our fault) God feels every iota of pain that we go through, and continues to love and inspire us, to fill us with hope and spur us to action to do better and to be better.
Have I experienced trauma that has shaken my faith in God? How have I addressed it?
———————————
Metzger, Bruce M. Breaking the Code: Understanding the Book of Revelation. Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 1993.
