Hearth & Altar

Woe to those who plan iniquity on their beds; when morning comes, they accomplish it because it is in their power to do so. Micah names the deliberateness of the evil that is planned in the dark and executed in the light. The couch is where the plan forms. The morning is when the power is applied.

A bruised reed he will not break, a smoldering wick he will not quench. Matthew quotes Isaiah's servant song over Jesus as the Pharisees are taking counsel to put him to death. The contrast is absolute: those who plot in the dark to execute their plans at dawn, and the servant who is gentle with what is bruised and does not extinguish what is barely lit.

The bruised reed is still a reed. The smoldering wick is still lit. Both have been damaged; neither is what it was. And the servant does not break or quench them. He tends what remains - the bruised thing that could still play, the dimming light that could still illuminate - until justice comes to victory.

The household formed by this text knows something essential about how to treat what is damaged. The bruised child, the smoldering faith, the barely-lit hope - the servant's way is not to push harder on what is already bent.

• For our family, that we would treat what is bruised and smoldering in each other with the servant's gentleness - not breaking, not quenching, tending what remains until the justice comes to victory, we pray to the Lord.
• For those who have been the targets of the iniquity planned on the couch - who have had their fields seized and their houses taken by those whose morning power executed the night plan - that the Lord who sees the misery and sorrow would take their cause in hand, we pray to the Lord.
• For those whose faith is a smoldering wick right now - barely lit, reduced from what it was - that the servant who will not quench it would tend it this week, we pray to the Lord.
• In this Precious Blood month, for the Precious Blood of the servant who was bruised for our iniquities and did not retaliate - who brought justice to victory through the way of the bruised reed rather than through the way of power, we pray to the Lord.

A bruised reed he will not break. Name the bruised reed in your household - the person or the thing that has been damaged and is not what it was. Tend it today with the servant's gentleness. No pushing harder, no frustration at the damage. What remains is still something. Tend what remains.

A smoldering wick he will not quench. The faith of a teenager or a young adult may be smoldering - reduced from the flame it once was, or not yet the flame you hope it becomes. The servant's way with the smoldering wick is not to push harder. It is to tend what remains until the justice comes to victory.