A Coincidence?

 A friend gave me a booklet from her church: "Forward Day by Day": Daily Devotions for Disciples.  I was impressed by the devotion for November 6th, 2025. The text is Matthew 14: 5, "Though Herod wanted to put him to death, he feared the crowd because they regarded him as a prophet."

The reading is as follows:

"History is full of awful rulers. Some, like the Russian Tsar Ivan the Terrible, are so bad that we include their nature in their names. Others, such as Roman Emperor Nero, are metonyms for evil, their reputations permeating our language.  Then we have Herod, whose legacy places him high in the pantheon of awful rulers.

"Herod beheaded  John the Baptist, and then fearful of the growing following of Jesus, he condemned the prophet to death. Herod witnessed this cowardly nature in his father, Herod the Great, who was the ruler who called for the Slaughter of the Innocents because he worried a baby would unseat  him.

When we look closely at powerful leaders, we often find them  operating from fear. Our task is to take our cue from Jesus, a leader who acts from the brave, bold place of love.

What would need to change in our communities and civic life to elevate leaders who model Jesus's style of authority and action?"

My note: The last U.S. presidential election was held on November 5, 2024. The following day, November 6,  the world learned that Donald Trump had been elected President for the second time.  

Congratulations to the writer at the Forward Movement for recognizing that readers might be feeling upset about this first year anniversary.

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