1st 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:
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 first born 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 aeon to aeon. 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
one-ness 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 Laodicia.
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 this 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
aeons. 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
Revelation 1: 1-20
As we in the Northern Hemisphere enter the dying time of
year, we are immersed in the ebbing of natural life. Meanwhile spring is
growing in the other hemisphere. 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. As light and warmth increases in the south, they wane in the north. In
focusing on how little is left, however, we may fail to realize that the clock
will soon be inverted. What we 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 Him 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 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,…[1]
www.thechristiancommunity.org
[1]
Octavio Paz, in Sunstone/Piedra de
Sol, translated by Eliot Winberger)
