Reflecting on
The Reign of Christ

Year B

Prayer

Psalm 76

God is victorious

 

In Judah God is known,

his name is great in Israel.

His abode has been established in Salem,

his dwelling place in Zion.

There he broke the flashing arrows,

the shield, the sword, and the weapons of war.    Selah

Glorious are you, more majestic

than the everlasting mountains.

The stouthearted were stripped of their spoil;

they sank into sleep;

none of the troops

was able to lift a hand.

At your rebuke, O God of Jacob,

both rider and horse lay stunned.

But you indeed are awesome!

Who can stand before you

when once your anger is roused?

From the heavens you uttered judgment;

the earth feared and was still

when God rose up to establish judgment,

to save all the oppressed of the earth.    Selah

Human wrath serves only to praise you,

when you bind the last bit of your wrath around you.

Make vows to the Lord your God, and perform them;

let all who are around him bring gifts

to the one who is awesome,

who cuts off the spirit of princes,

who inspires fear in the kings of the earth.

 

Ezekiel 29:1-12

Prophecy against Pharaoh

 

In the tenth year, in the tenth month, on the twelfth day of the month, the word of the Lord came to me: Mortal, set your face against Pharaoh king of Egypt, and prophesy against him and against all Egypt; speak, and say, Thus says the Lord God:

 

I am against you,

Pharaoh king of Egypt,

the great dragon sprawling

in the midst of its channels,

saying, “My Nile is my own;

I made it for myself.”

I will put hooks in your jaws,

and make the fish of your channels stick to your scales.

I will draw you up from your channels,

with all the fish of your channels

sticking to your scales.

I will fling you into the wilderness,

you and all the fish of your channels;

you shall fall in the open field,

and not be gathered and buried.

To the animals of the earth and to the birds of the air

I have given you as food.

Then all the inhabitants of Egypt shall know

that I am the Lord

because you were a staff of reed

to the house of Israel;

when they grasped you with the hand, you broke,

and tore all their shoulders;

and when they leaned on you, you broke,

and made all their legs unsteady.

 

Therefore, thus says the Lord God: I will bring a sword upon you, and will cut off from you human being and animal; and the land of Egypt shall be a desolation and a waste. Then they shall know that I am the Lord.

 

Because you said, “The Nile is mine, and I made it,” therefore, I am against you, and against your channels, and I will make the land of Egypt an utter waste and desolation, from Migdol to Syene, as far as the border of Ethiopia. No human foot shall pass through it, and no animal foot shall pass through it; it shall be uninhabited forty years. I will make the land of Egypt a desolation among desolated countries; and her cities shall be a desolation forty years among cities that are laid waste. I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations, and disperse them among the countries.

 

Revelation 11:15-19

God’s reign at the end of time

 

Then the seventh angel blew his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, saying,

 

“The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord

and of his Messiah,

and he will reign forever and ever.”

 

Then the twenty-four elders who sit on their thrones before God fell on their faces and worshiped God, singing,

 

“We give you thanks, Lord God Almighty,

who are and who were,

for you have taken your great power

and begun to reign.

The nations raged,

but your wrath has come,

and the time for judging the dead,

for rewarding your servants, the prophets

and saints and all who fear your name,

both small and great,

and for destroying those who destroy the earth.”

 

Then God’s temple in heaven was opened, and the ark of his covenant was seen within his temple; and there were flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder, an earthquake, and heavy hail.