Loading more...
Celebrating Native American Heritage Month
November marks Native American Heritage Month in the United States. Join us as Rev. Bryan Tener Read More
The Upper Room is here for you in these anxious times. Click Here
Britney Winn Lee | Read 2 Samuel 23:1-7
Disciplines is available in a variety of formats: print, digital, and print/digital combo packages. A digital subscription includes access to author bios, the ability to comment, and audio lectio.
Sign Up TodayPower—like water, like fire, like crowds, like promises—walks a fine line between restoration and destruction. Given to someone who is not committed to the common good, power can be abused and weaponized, especially against those who navigate the world in the margins. We see this in dictatorships or oppressive theologies....
Omnipotent God, within the power and privilege we have normalized in our lives, call to our conscience the places where we are not considering the common good. Lead us out of fear and into perfect love. Amen.
Second Samuel records the final words of David. David takes comfort in the covenant that God has made with his family, which must be continued by kings who will honor God and rule justly. The psalmist sings of this same covenant with David’s family and the same necessity to follow God’s decrees in order to rule well. Revelation opens with a vision of Jesus Christ, the fulfillment of the Davidic covenant, the King to rule over all kings for all time. Many expected Jesus to set up a political kingdom. Yet in John, Jesus tells Pilate that his kingdom is not an earthly one. This week let us thank God that the kingdom is based not on the exercise of power but on Jesus’ example of serving others.
Read 2 Samuel 23:1-7. What characteristics would you include in a description of a just leader? Where do you see those characteristics in world leaders today?
Read Psalm 132:1-18. What is your vision of Paradise? Who will be seated at the table with you?
Read Revelation 1:4b-8. How do you bear witness to the “Alpha and the Omega”?
Read John 18:33-37. What is your understanding of what it means to live in God’s kingdom?
Respond by posting a prayer.
I join many of those who will pray for you as you seek to discern what you are called to be at this moment. May God grant you the courage to fulfill that calling. May we all open our eyes and see the misery, open our ears and hear the cries of God’s people, and, like God through the Lord Jesus Christ, be incarnate amongst them.”
View a growing list of resources for the spiritual work of overcoming racism.
