Kingdom of God
August 38, 2019
Scripture Reading: Psalm 81:1, 10-16
I am the Lord your God,
who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.
Open your mouth wide and I will fill it.
‘But my people did not listen to my voice;
Israel would not submit to me.
So I gave them over to their stubborn hearts,
to follow their own counsels.
O that my people would listen to me,
that Israel would walk in my ways!
Then I would quickly subdue their enemies,
and turn my hand against their foes.
Those who hate the Lord would cringe before him,
and their doom would last forever.
I would feed you with the finest of the wheat,
and with honey from the rock I would satisfy you.’
As I read this scripture I thought of the saying, We don’t appreciate what we have until it’s gone. I wanted to use it in this devotional but I was not sure of the exact wording or to whom it should be attributed so I googled it and to my surprise found that it is a quote from Boris Yeltsin, the first President of the Russian Federation. The actual quote is:
We don’t appreciate what we have until it’s gone. Freedom is like that. It’s like air. When you have it, you don’t notice it. –1995
After the fall of the Soviet Union, Boris Yeltsin worked to set up a representative democracy in Russia along with a market-based economic system in the early 1990’s. His vision was not sustained. He made this statement in the middle of his presidency. What resulted eventually was a few oligarchs running the country and “representative democracy” now ruled by an authoritarian. I wonder what he was thinking when he said it. I wonder if he was coming to the realization that people do not understand the commitment it takes to be free and to allow others to be free.
The Psalmist in the scripture above describes God observing God’s people, noting the abundance provided for them, and their turning away wanting to forge their own reality while ignoring the wisdom of the all-knowing Creator.
I have a sense that we in the United States are at one of those moments in history where our complacency is overshadowing the commitment it takes to be a democracy. It is at such moments that our choices or lack thereof define our outcomes.
The same type of moments occurred throughout our faith history. We who call ourselves Christ followers are being challenged not only in understanding what being a Christ follower means but also whether it means enough to us to invest ourselves in its furtherance. I have no doubt that the development of God’s vision will continue. The question is are we willing to do the work to make it a reality sooner than later or are we destined for some type of exile?
Prayer: Empower us, O Lord, to be your disciples in spirit and in truth as we work to shepherd into this world your Kingdom of Love. Amen.
All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights are reserved.