November Trinity
Revelation 1, 1-20
This is the unveiling of the being of Jesus Christ,
which proceeds out of the divine world for those who would serve him. To them
shall be revealed what must of necessity happen in the future and which
powerfully presses into world events. God formed this revelation in imagery and
sent it through his angel to his servant John. And so John speaks as a witness
to everything he saw, that is, to the Divine Word, and to the life of Jesus
Christ, which serves as a testimony. Blessed is he who knows how to read the
prophetic words, and blessed are those who know how to hear them, and all who
take what is written in this book into their souls; for time presses.
John, to the seven congregations in Asia:
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| Grunewald |
Grace and peace to you
From Him who is, and who was, and who is coming
And from the seven creating spirits before his throne
And from Jesus Christ.
By his witnessing, he is the archetype of trust.
He is the firstborn from the realm of death,
He is the leading spirit of the Kings on earth.
He has turned to us in love, and by the power of his blood
He has released us from the spell of sin which lay upon us.
He has established us as true kings and made us into priests
before the divine Ground of the World, his Father.
To him belongs all light of the spirit and all power of soul from eon
to eon. Amen.
See: he comes in the realm of the clouds.
All eyes shall see him, also the eyes of those who
pierced him. And men down the ages will lament about him. Yes. Amen.
I am the Alpha and the Omega,
Thus speaks the Lord our God
who is, and who was, and who is coming
the divine ruler of the world.
I, John, your brother and your companion in all
trials and also in the inner kingdom and in the power of endurance which we
possess through our oneness with Jesus: I was on the island of Patmos. There
it was granted to me to receive a share of the divine Word and to bear witness
to the sufferings of Jesus.
On the Lord’s Day, I was lifted up to the world of
spirit and I heard behind me a mighty voice like the sound of a trumpet. It
said: write what you see in a book and send it to the seven congregations: to
Ephesus, to Smyrna, to Pergamum, to Thyatira, to Sardis, to Philadelphia and to
Laodicea.
And I turned to see him whose voice was speaking to
me. And as I turned I saw seven golden lampstands, and in the midst of the
lampstands, a figure like that of the Son of Man:
clothed with a long billowing garment,
encircled round his breast with a golden band;
his head and his hair shining white like snow-white wool,
his eyes like a flame of fire,
his feet like burnished bronze glowing in a furnace,
his voice like the rushing of many streams of water.
In his hand he held seven stars;
from his mouth issued a sharp two-edged sword
and his face shone, as the sun shines in its full radiance.
And when I saw him, I fell at his feet and was as
if dead. But he laid his right hand upon me and said: “Do not be afraid. I am
the first and the last, and the living one. I was dead, and look! I am living
and I bear the life of the world through all eons. Mine is the key to the
realm of death and of the shades. Write down what you see: what is now, and
what is to come.
The secret of the seven stars, which you see in my
right hand, and of the seven golden lampstands is this: The seven stars are the
picture in the spirit for the angels of the seven congregations, and the seven
lampstands are the seven congregations themselves.”
First November Trinity
October 27, 2019
Revelation 1: 1-20
During this dying time of year, we are immersed in the
ebbing of natural life. Meanwhile, in the other hemisphere, spring is growing.
An image for this is the old-fashioned sand clock or hourglass. The more time
passes, the less sand there is in the upper chamber. In focusing on how little
is left, however, we may fail to realize that the clock will soon be inverted.
What poured down below will be turned over and become the content of what is
above.
Last week we saw the image of Christ in the warrior garb of
Michael. His truth, His justice, His loyalty to humankind’s development was
demonstrated in His strength in the battle for human evolution.
Once the battle has been fought, the chains fettering humans
to the earthly are severed. The clock can be inverted. And we see a mighty
image of grace and peace. We see Christ shining in the light of lamps, of
stars, of sun, in a fullness of radiant love. The One who sacrificed Himself,
who died in battle, is birthed out of death. He is now master, not only of the
heavens but also of the underworld. He holds the key to the realm of the dead.
He is the hourglass itself.
He stands now among the seven lamps that the communities
light with their prayers. Those who have died join in the praying. And in His
hand, he holds the starry angels who guide those communities into the future.
For there is always a future. It is the future that we are creating. And Christ
stands at the doorway, is the doorway
to that future. And so in the words of the poet, we ask:
door of being, dawn and wake me,
allow me to see the face of this day,
allow me to see the face of this night,
… take me to the other side of this night,
where I am you, we are us,
the kingdom where pronouns are intertwined,
allow me to see the face of this day,
allow me to see the face of this night,
… take me to the other side of this night,
where I am you, we are us,
the kingdom where pronouns are intertwined,
…door
of being, dawn and wake me,…*
*Octavio Paz, in Sunstone/Piedra de
Sol, translated by Eliot Winberger
