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Stirring
Have you ever misplaced or lost something, and it stirs little worry? You just know that Read More
Britney Winn Lee | Read Psalm 132:10-18
Reign of Christ
Sometimes, when I get lost in analytically dissecting my theology by wondering if following this faith is good, I remember that God did not have to make a home among us. Wouldn’t it be logical for an all-powerful Creator and ruler of the universe to remain distant from its work or, at least, not embedded in it?
As an artist and writer, I know what it means to create something that absorbs your blood, sweat, tears, and time, only to disdain it and cast it aside. But the Good Creator loved the world so much that God made it a home. This is such good news to me! It is a testimony to the worth of humanity and of the world, as well as an invitation for us to humble ourselves and make homes in vulnerable places.
God, through Jesus, relocated into the world in order to fully experience, relate, express, invite, and demonstrate what it means to love unto death, what it means for death not to be the end. This is so personable, kind, intimate, and inspiring! The One who made everything put the divine self in the middle of everything to teach us that we are loved and that we can love, that we are not alone in our suffering or in our restoration.
Christ, whose holiness far surpasses human comprehension, entered our reality as a brown-skinned refugee who experienced homelessness and discrimination before ultimately being executed by the state. Jesus made a home not only among God’s creation but among its pain and loss. He related to people on the deepest levels—where our loss and hope live—so that we may be compelled to do the same through holy relocation and homemaking among the last and the least. Out of this reality comes the reign of Christ: informed by the human experience in which he chose to live and love.
Thank you for making your home among us, God. Show me where you are calling me to relocate my life so that I can relate to those in need at the deep level of their loss and hope. 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.”
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