2nd 3rd or 4th
Michaelmas
Revelation 12: 1-17
And a momentous image was
unveiled in the world of spirit: a woman, clothed with the radiant power of the
sun, the moon under her feet, her head adorned with the crown of the twelve
stars of heaven. And she is with child and cries out in the labor and pain of
giving birth.
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| Woman Clothed with Sun, Arild Rosenkrantz |
And at the same time a second image was revealed in
the heavens: a great fiery-red dragon with seven heads and ten horns. On its
head it has seven crowns and its tail is sweeping a third of all the stars in
heaven and dashing them onto the earth. And the dragon is standing before the
woman about to give birth, so that when she bears the child he can eat it up.
And she bore a child, a son ”who would shepherd all nations with a rod of iron.”
And the woman’s child was caught up to God and to his throne. And the woman
fled into the wilderness where she has a place that God keeps ready there, so
that they can take care of her for days numbering one thousand two hundred
sixty.
And a war flared up in the spirit world. Michael
and his angels fought against the dragon. And the dragon fought in the midst of
his own angels, but he was not strong enough, and there was no longer
any place for them in heaven. Down came the dragon, the giant, the serpent, the
evil one called both Satan and the devil, deceiver of all the world. Onto the
earth he came hurtling down, and all his angels with him.
And I heard a great voice in heaven, saying:
Now can begin the working which proceeds from our God—
The power to heal the world,
The power to transform all being,
The power to draw everything into godly being.
Arisen is the spirit leadership of his Christ.
Overthrown is the accuser of our brothers,
He who accused them night and day before the countenance of God.
They have overcome him through the blood and the sacrificial power of
the Lamb
And by the divine Word to which they bore witness.
They did not love their own lives too dearly, and they did not fear
death.
Therefore, rejoice you heavens
And all who lodge therein!
But woe to the earth and the sea:
For the Adversary has come down to you,
And he seethes with measureless fury,
For he knows that his time is short.
And when the dragon recognized that he had been
cast onto the earth, he began to persecute the woman who had borne the son.
Then the woman was given the two wings of a great eagle, so that she could fly
into the desert to her appointed place, where she is to be nourished for a
cycle of time, for cycles of time, and for half a cycle of time, far from the
face of the serpent.
And the serpent opened his mouth and spewed out a
river of water after the
woman so she would be swept off her feet by the
river. But then the earth came to the woman’s assistance; it opened its mouth
and swallowed the river which the dragon spewed from his mouth. And the dragon
burned with fury against the woman. He stormed away to make war on the rest of
the woman’s seed, people who keep to the divine world aims and who are united
with the destiny and witnessing of Jesus. As I saw this I was standing on the
sandy shore of the sea.
3rd
Michaelmas Sunday
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| Birth of Light, Roland Tiller |
October
15, 2006
Revelation
12: 1-17
The
Book of Revelation describes mighty events. These are letters from the
spiritual world to us. They apply both to great spans of time, and also to our
individual lives. The cast of characters are both great spiritual beings and at
the same time parts of our own souls.
There
is the soul woman in all of us who is about to give birth to the spirit child.
The very existence of this child is opposed by destructive beings who once
lived in spiritual realms and now live on earth. For the time came when the
heavens had to send the forces of destruction to the earth, so that we human
being would grow strong in dealing with them. Heaven was cleansed so that the
heavens were free to offer us the power to heal, the power to transform, the
power to spiritualize both the earth and ourselves.
The
dragon persecutes us, breathing destruction. But we are given wings of prayer with
which to rise to a place of nourishment and strength. The dragon seeks to drown
us. But the absorptive power within our souls’ own groundedness in the earth
keep us from being swept away. The dragon breathes a burning fire, but again
our soul’s solidity finds the cooling waters with which to smother the flames.
The
forces of soul with which we defend ourselves from the dragon are the forces of
Christ, he who lives in the deepest part of our souls. He gives us the
resurrection force with which to rise above the dragon. He gives us the
absorptive power to accept that we must battle evil. He gives us the power with
which to subdue the dragon force within.
All
this takes place at a depth within which is mostly for us a darkness. But it is
the darkness of a womb, that one day will give birth to light. We shall not
fear the darkness.
In
the words of Rilke:
I love the dark hours
of my being.
My mind deepens into
them.
There I can find, as
in old letters,
the days of my life,
already lived,
and held like a legend,
and understood.
Then the knowing
comes: I can open
to another life that’s
wide and timeless.
And the warriors of the sky ride behind him upon white steeds, clad in
clean, white linen. And he has a sharp-edged sword coming out of his mouth with
which to strike the nations down, and he will shepherd them with a staff of
iron. He treads on the winepress holding the wine of the wrath of the will of
God, the ruler of all.
