3rd November Trinity
Revelation 7: 9-17
Next I looked and saw a great
crowd beyond anyone’s power to count, from every nation and all races and
peoples and tongues standing before the throne and before the Lamb draped in
garments of white and with palm branches in their hands, and they shout with a
great voice saying, “Healing and help
[salvation] to our God who sits on the throne and through the Lamb.”
And all the angels were standing in a ring around the throne and the
elders and the four living beings, and they fell down in front of the throne
upon their faces and adored God saying,
Yea, so be it. Amen. [To our God be blessing and
glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and strength for an age
of ages. Amen.”]
All the blessing power of the Word, that creating permeates the world,
all the revealing might of the spirit, that enlightens the senses appearance,
all the light of wisdom that leads us to true knowledge, the secret of
transformation which gives worth to all being, that brings the world forward,
and all the strength and power of the spirit –they belong to our God from aeon
to aeon. Yea, so be it, Amen.
And one of the elders spoke up, asking me: “These people draped in
garments of white, who are they and where did they come from?”
And I said to him, “Good sir, you yourself know.”
And he said to me:
These are the ones just come from the great
Suffering. They washed their garments clean, and made them shining white in the
blood of the Lamb.
That is why they can stand here before the throne of God
And serve him day and night in his temple.
The One who sits on the throne shall settle down upon them [dwell upon
them].
They shall not hunger ever again, nor thirst again;
The sun shall not bear down too hard upon them, nor anything burn them,
Because the Lamb, in the midst of the throne, will be their shepherd
And guide them to the springs of the water of life,
And God will wipe away each teardrop from their eyes.
3rd Sunday November
Trinity
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| Durer |
Revelation 7: 9-17
This wonderful image: a Being of
Light and sacrificial Love on a great throne; the four living beings of space,
the twenty-four elders of time; and all the angels, all of them prostrate in a
ring around the source of light and love. In the humility of their great power,
they are sending toward Him a counter-offering: all their own praise and
radiance, their wisdom and gratitude, their honor and strength, thereby
strengthening His light, His love, His healing work.
And with them are the countless
purified human beings who have died. They are standing upright, themselves
radiant Selves clad in white, raising their own voices in praise and in the
recognition that all help and healing comes from the Son on the Father’s
throne. In their very understanding and praise of this, they are sending their
own strengthening forces toward the Lamb and the Spirit God, who is the light
radiating from the throne. Those purified, living across the threshold are
helping increase the light in the spiritual world, to strengthen it, so that it
shines even into the earthly realm. This is their task, and ultimately also
ours.
Earth has become a place of
spiritual darkness, of suffering and pain. But we, both those living on earth
and those living in the heavens, are led by the Lamb who is also the Shepherd.
He leads us through the suffering, to the living wellspring, the shining waters
of life, where all suffering and grief is transformed into joy, into light and
living love.
Let us join the ones in white in
singing our praise of the Lamb. Let us offer Him the joy and strength of our
grateful awareness of his healing of mankind. Let us help Him increase the
light, the life and the love shining into the world through our offering of our
noblest thoughts, our heart’s love, our active devotion.
