It took a year to read the Bible, then almost 9 months to read the Apocrypha. Now, I'm going to try to offer reflections on the Narrative Lectionary. But, I won't be posting daily--at least, for a while.

Saturday, April 10, 2010

Faithful Witness, a Reflection on Revelation 1:4b-8

This letter was written to churches at a time of stress and turmoil, a time when they needed to reminded not to be so afraid.

Christians continue to read this letter and still being afraid at times, still may receive comfort from it.

During this season of Eastertide, we working out the impact of the resurrection on our life--and of that new life on the world. This section of Revelation can help us in that work. First, we are reminded that Christ is the faithful witness and that Christ is the ruler of the kings of earth.

What do we do with this reminder? How are our daily struggles affected?

The world we live in needs a lot of work and a lot of that work is either tiresome or scary. Furthermore, a lot of us--or a lot in each of us--is not exactly outstandingly good material for doing outstandingly good stuff.

Looking again at this letter, well, neither were the first Christians all exactly paragons. But, we are reminded that Christ loves us and has freed us from our sins.

As we fear or just fret, we are comforted or encouraged to action by the assertion that the Lord God was with us in the beginning, continues to be with us, and will be with us in the future.

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