Prayer Request
Feast of Christ the King
Daniel 7: 13-14; Psalm 93; Revelation 1:5-8; John 18: 33-37
Does power mean ruling, managing, fixing, competing? Does power mean being with, staying with, listening, holding and listening again? Sometimes, especially in grief, people rage at God’s powerlessness. God’s is not always the dominion that Daniel portrays. God may not be clothed with strength, to quote the psalmist. We look to Jesus, “the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead” before we ever bow before him as “Alpha and Omega, the Almighty”. We “Behold the man” as Pilate questions him, shivering in his blood soaked robe. Jesus responds, “You say that I am a king”—the strong, the leader. Then adds, “For this was I born and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth.” He might have continued, “And when you kill me, God will show my power as Emmanuel,” the God who stays with, listens, holds.
How over the years have you wrestled with the paradox of God’s weakness and strength? When you call on a powerful God for rescue and you get a humble, gentle closeness from a very human Jesus, how do you feel? When others call on you, whom do they get? Someone who listens or someone who tries to fix problems? If it is hard for you just to stay faithful, to witness the pain of someone whom you can’t fix, pray for this gift of com-passion, suffering with, feeling with.
Jesus, our faithful witness, so many of us need leading, need direction, need meaning in our lives. Be our leader, our Prince of Peace, God’s justice-in-the-flesh.