Images of Your Wrath--Nov. 6, 2012

Lord, what are we to think of these images of your wrath?

Are you poised to swing your sickle over the earth,

or ready to consume all its people with fire?

Has waiting for us to bear fruit exhausted your patience?

Where are you, Lord--hiding from us, waiting to

spring upon us and wreak vengeance?

I choose rather to trust you are a God of steadfast love

and compassion.  I think it is right to hold you

in awe,  even in fear, but the fear should

be our fear of the pain that comes with any separation

from you and from your providential care.

God, if I am wrong, forgive me.

Lectionary Readings

Ps. 42; 146; 102; 133

Zeph. 1:14-18

Rev. 14:14-15:8

Luke 13:1-9

Selected Verses

Ps. 42:3

 My tears have been my food
          day and night,
while people say to me continually,
          “Where is your God?”

Zeph. 1:18a-b

Neither their silver nor their gold
            will be able to save them
            on the day of the Lord’s wrath;
in the fire of his passion
            the whole earth shall be consumed…

Rev. 14:16

So the one who sat on the cloud swung his sickle over the earth, and the earth was reaped.

Luke 13:7

"…So the owner said to the gardener, 'See here! For three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree, and still I find none.  Cut it down! Why should it be wasting the soil?'  …"  [from Jesus' parable, told to some in the crowd]