3rd Nov. Trinity
Revelation 14, 1-20
And I looked, and there was the picture of the Lamb,
standing atop Mt. Zion and with him one hundred forty four thousand having his
name and his Father’s name written on their foreheads.
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| Ghent Altarpiece |
And I listened and heard a voice from the heavens,
a voice like a mighty rush of waters, and like a mighty thunderclap—the voice I
heard was like the voices of harpists playing on their harps.
And they
all sing a new song, there in front of the throne and in front of the four creatures
and the elders, and no one could learn the song but the one hundred forty-four
thousand ransomed from the earth. These are the ones who did not defile
themselves by the straying, through which the spiritual in man is betrayed;
they have remained virginal [pure] in their inmost being and follow the Lamb
wherever he goes. They were ransomed as the seed of a new humanity which
belongs to the Father God and to the Lamb. Deceit and lies are not found in
their mouths; pure and unblemished are they in their innermost being.
And I looked and saw another angel flying in
mid-heaven, bringing the good news which is good news forever to those live on
earth—to every race and nation and every tongue and folk. And the angel cried
out with a great voice, saying:
“Stand in awe of God and turn to honor him. For we
have come to the hour of his divine decision. Raise yourself in prayer to him
who in truth created the heavens and the earth and the sea and all the springs
of water.”
And a second angel followed, who said, “Fallen,
fallen is the great city of Babylon, who made all nations drink of the wine of
her sacrilege, in order to draw the holy into misuse.”
And a third angel followed them, who cried out with
a powerful voice: “Whoever adores the beast and its likeness, and accepts its
stamp on forehead or hand, he will drink of the wine of God’s anger, thick and
strong and undiluted, from the cup of his wrath. And in the presence of the
holy angels and in front of the Lamb shall anger be transformed into pain like
the pain of fire and sulphur.
Their suffering rises and darkens the encirling air
like smoke through the cycles of time. And day and night those who made the
beast into their god, who honored its picture as the highest, who took its
being into their innermost being, find no peace. In this place however there
works the power of the steadfast endurance of those who have taken the healing
power of the Spirit into themselves, who have fulfilled the goals of the
Spirit, and who have worked trusting in Jesus’ healing deed.
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| Bamberg Apocalypse |
And I heard a voice out of the worlds of Spirit
which said, “Write this down: People of heaven are the dead who die in the Lord
from now on. Yes, says the spirit, let them rest from their efforts and
labours, since their good deeds, the fruits of their lives, are not lost along
their paths of soul, but have preceeded them here.
And I looked, and suddenly I saw in the spirit a
white cloud, and seated upon the cloud the figure of a son of humanity, with a
golden crown upon his head and a sharpened sickle. And another angel stepped
forth from the temple crying in a loud voice to the one seated on the cloud:
“Let your sickle go forth and harvest, for the hour
of harvest has come; ripe and dry and firm are the crops of the earth.”
And the one seated on the cloud threw his sickle
down upon the events on earth, and the earth’s crop was harvested.
And again another angel came out of the temple in
the heavens; and he too held a sharpened sickle. And a further angel came out
who tended the fire at the altar. He cried out with a mighty voice to him who
held the sharpened sickle and said, “Let your sickle go forth and harvest the
grapevines of the earth, for their grapes have reached their prime.”
So the angel threw his sickle down to the events on
earth; and he harvested the earth’s vineyard, and threw the grapes into the
great winepress of God’s anger. And they took the winepress outside the city
and trampled the grapes. Blood flowed from the winepress that reached to the
muzzles of the horses for sixteen hundred miles around.
3rd November Trinity
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| Luther Bible, 16th Century |
November 10, 2013
Revelation 14: 1-20
This is the time of
harvesting. The grapes have been brought in. They are crushed and their juice
is separated from skin and seed. The juice is collected to serve as wine for
winter nourishment.
In today’s reading we are
shown earth’s mid-time in mighty pictures. We have been planted on the earth.
We are shown the spiritual harvesting of humanity, the fruits of our inner
nature, our work and our striving. We have engendered both noble and ignoble
thoughts, feelings, deeds. All these are harvested by Christ and his angels.
Our funeral service reminds us that we are beholden to the spirit for
everything we think and say and do. For what we bring forth, our inner and
outer fruits will be the nourishment for divine beings, offered on the high
altar.
Naturally not all of what we
have produced is good. In the picture of the winepress, the pure juice of what
flows in our blood is separated from skin and seed. What flows in the blood is
the effect of our thoughts and feeling, the impulses behind our deeds. And what
also flows in the blood is God’s faith in humanity. For Christ, God’s own Son,
has poured out his own Blood into the earth. Taking up His Blood, drinking of
His Wine, we can produce a good, rich and abundant harvest for the beings of
the divine world. With His Blood in our blood, we can pray in the words of the
poet:
Lord:
it is time. …
Command
the last fruits to be full,…
urge
them to perfection, and chase
the
last sweetness into the heavy wine.[1]
