THE LAST WORD

“But to the Son He says: ‘Your throne, O God, is forever and ever; a scepter of righteousness is the scepter of Your kingdom.’”  (Hebrews 1:8 NKJV)

Christians sing, especially at Christmas and Easter, “And He” – that is, Christ – “shall reign forever and ever.” We stand for the singing of it, and for those moments when the Hallelujahs ring, we feel that someday, somehow, He will reign. But then we go back to reading the paper and listening to the evening news as if the end will be a whimper rather than a hallelujah.

At this point, it’s time to immerse ourselves in the good word of God. We need to know that though our political and social and economic structure seems so often to have some kind of fatal, deteriorative illness, so that every good scheme we develop turns only to embarrassment, these are not the last word. Even our best words are not the last word. I’m very sure that monarchy is not the last word, nor is dictatorship. I’m equally sure that socialism is not the last word, nor is communism. And although I happen to be a passionate believer in democracy and in those forms of economic freedom which foster democracy, I don’t think democracy is the last word, nor responsible capitalism. None of these! The last word is GOD. And then there’s an exclamation point. 

-- J. Ellsworth Kalas, from a sermon entitled “In the End, the Exclamation Point”, February 28, 1990

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