Daily Liturgy and Scripture

The final chapter of Revelation is full of invitations: from Jesus himself, to enter the Kingdom. And from those in the Kingdom, an invitation for his return. There has been judgement and wrath, but the ending is still focused on the joy set before us.

You have to hand it to God: he makes some really incredible stuff. The city he shows to John is unmatchable by human efforts, made of enture jewels. Not a bad place to spend eternity, huh?

The work of God to make things whole and new again finds completion in the closing chapters of Revelation. A more complete and whole world is what God put into the minds of the prophets, and the reminder of John to keep at his work finds its purpose as the new Heaven and new earth begin to unfold.

Today we remember the slaughter of innocents ordered by Herod following the birth of Jesus. We also remember that God does not overlook such things, and that the care of the helpless is very much something that Jesus was attentive to. If we have seen Jesus, we have seen God, and we can trust our judge and Savior to set things right.

John seems somewhat special among the disciples, having received the Revelation and also holding the distinction of being the last of the disciples to die. While outliving your peers comes with its share of sorrow, we might be reminded that the beginning of Revelation was a reminder of the need for the prophetic voice, something John certainly had and which God needed him to keep exercising.

Remembering Stephen is a commemoration of many of the characteristics of the early Church. Stephen stood for Jesus to inaugurate a new Kingdom, one that was not understood by the religious authorites of the day. Not even the Jewish leaders that practiced the tradition from which Christianity came understood the carrying on of God's promise through Jesus. Stephen died for that cause, giving leg...

Unto us a Son is born, and nothing will ever be the same again. God has fulfilled his promise to Israel, and we have seen God with the seeing of Jesus. No longer has God separated himself, but God has come in the Flesh to live among us. Jesus is born.

The wrath that unfolds in this chapter seems to reveal the true hearts of people: cursing God instead of blessing, refusing to repent. Of course, only God sees the true hearts of people, but circumstance has made them rise to the surface. Divisions are rising, and God is establishing his own people and those who are not God's.

As the judgment comes to an end, we are back to worship. It's like this was the objective that was always before us: worship must live and grow, and the wrath of judgement excises the poison that prohibits it. There is still a prophet standing on the hill, John the Revelator, who is being encouraged to keep doing his part, and reminded of the reason he was important.

It's an interesting perspective to think of the amount of times thunderous worship occurs in Revelation. We sometimes tend to think of it more like a book of horrors, and there is definitely some imagery to that effect. It isn't the whole character. There is also beauty and worship, and it this case it is a prelude to judgement. Of course, a just God must also enact justice, there is no on...

Thomas sometimes gets a bad rap as "the doubter," but he did actually have to courage to ask questions that other disciples were probably thinking without voicing. We definitely need those people in our ranks: those who know our cause and believe in it, but still question us to help us stay sharp.

This sudden onslaught of otherworldly action movies might seem out of place in sequence with the previous chapters encouraging the prophets to keep doing their work, but perhaps this might be an explanation for its placement: if prophets work in isolation, then their work seems quite daunting. If prophets see their place in a timeless story that includes the very war in Heaven, then they have a gr...

The bitter scroll of the last chapter how takes a turn with the introduction of two witnesses. These are again the prophetic voices, interpreted by different groups in different ways through the years. The Holy Spirit is certainly at work regardless of their identity, and the task of prophet remains to continue working even in tough times.

A lot of symbolism is happening i today's passge unless you are a proponent of eating scrolls! Revelation is cerrtainly part prophecy, and John is reminded of his role in a long line of prophets chosen by God to imagine a better world for God's people. John, in eating the scroll, is recommissioned and reminded of the important role he plays.

When the worship of God is replaced with something else, God. responds to set it right. These visions have been attached to both events in the first two centuries and portrayed as the "end of all time" in many places, but whatever the correct placement, God is holy and he is setting the world right.

A loving God must also judge the earth, or he is not a just God. Only God is worthy of doing such a thing, and especially the Son, who has walked among us. This should provide us with some comfort if we're worried: the very man who touched lepers and held children on his lap is responsible for our fate.

Quite a crowd! The purpose of being near God is worshipping God, and the tone of Heaven is doing just that. The people of the promise, the tribes of Judah, remain central even in the grand worship of Heaven. Don't worry, though. Even those outside the Jewish nation have a place.

There are some pretty scary images in this passage, but it's interesting that all of the scary stuff is still subject to the Lamb. Death and war are not above him, but only get the power they say he does. That lamb is the Savior we can trust, because he is more thank just an good teacher.

The imagery of the Lordship of Jesus is pretty stirring here. The unfolding events of Revelation are only possible in the hands of one who is worthy, and Jesus is worthy only because of who Jesus is. His sacrifice is central to who he is, and he is still the Lamb.

The throne room of God is quite a spectacle in John's vision, certainly something to look forward to seeing. For a church that was being persecuted and more to come, this would be key: their God was indeed on the throne, and nothing could unseat him.

John's churches show differing levels of commitment, and he is not afraid to challeng them to be better. Of course, this is not just so they will be nice people. The Kingdom of Jesus is something they are already part of, and sharing in the glory of that King means loving him and walking the way he walked.

John continues through the churches in his region, giving them a glimpse of the future and the Kingdom they serve. As Christianity becomes more distinct from Judaism, it becomes more important to resist the easy path of doing things the way that the worshipers of other gods do, which probably would have made it easier to mix with the religious landscape. This is not the path Christians are to walk...

John begins Revelation with a few comments to churches in his area, encouraging them to hold to the faith they had been given and not water it down as the Nicolatians were doing. This included avoiding food sacrificed to idols, which had been addressed in previous books of the New Testament. The Kingdom of Jesus was to look different than their neighbors, and their strangeness was not to be lost a...

Revelation can be a pretty hairy book, but here's something that's pretty poignant in this first chapter: it includes a victorious Jesus and the Church. Those are two things that will be persistent throughout, because that's reallly the dynamic that was put in place with th Kingdom of Jesus. There is no plan B.

It almost seems that Paul's exile is a tool for drawing an audience. He again has the opportunity to share the connection between the old and new covenants, connected by Jesus, with a group of Jewish leaders outside the influence of those trying to silence him. This becomes an occasion for the story of God's fulfilled promises to be proclaimed to those who had been part of that covenant.