“Getting the message”

By Rev. Michael Stonhouse

Meditation – Monday, October 30, 2023

Revelation 1:4-20 (Forward, pl 93) CEV p. 1295

How I wish that I’d had a course of the apocalyptic writings of the Bible when I was at summary, for there are huge chunks of Daniel, the gospels, Paul’s letters and the Book of Revelation that are brim full of this kind of imagery. And sadly, it would seem, much of this imagery is lost to us today. Drawing from sources such as the Hebrew Scriptures and motives that were rife in the intertestamental period, many of these images convey messages that their original audience understood but that we can often only guess at. As one wag put it, “When the Book of Revelation was written only God and the early church understood it, and seeing as that church is no longer here, only God knows—and He’s not telling. (Now, of course, there are those who ‘claim’ to understand it fully, but I would suggest that they are only guessing at best. After all there are myriads of scholars and commentators of widely varying interpretations, each of which ‘claims’ to have the ‘correct’ understanding of the text, so they can’t all be correct.)

So, what are we to do with these writings, and particularly with the passage selected for today? I would suggest that we can’t be at all wrong if we take two things from this short passage:

a) First is that Jesus is sovereign and is in charge. He rules all the

nations of the earth and has everything under His control. And what is more is that He has conquered the grave so that even death and Hates are now subject to Him.

b) And second is that we, as the church, are dearly beloved of Him.

We will serve as priests and kings in His coming reign. But, even more importantly than this future prospect is that He wants to guide and inspire us in our present age, in our present struggles.

He addresses seven churches, seven actual churches in what is now Turkey, but my hunch is that He is actually addressing all of us. Encapsulated within the ‘seven’, contained within them, are all the varying features of every local church on earth. What I mean by this is to say that we may not fully align with any particular church, say the church in Ephesus or in Laodicea or anywhere

else, but that we have elements of them. And so, Jesus has a message, a rather pointed one, for all of us, one that He expects us to listen to, heed and apply.

And so, while we may not ‘get’ some of the more ‘outlandish’ imagery, such as the description of Jesus in verses 13-16, we do know that He is in charge, that He loves us, and that, in His love, He has some very specific messages for us, messages that He expects us to act on. Thanks be to God.

Forward note: “’I am the Alpha and the Omega,’ says the Lord God, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty” (verse 8).

“If you enter the sanctuary of my church through a side entrance, you’ll pass through a black metal gate than can be closed to separate the sanctuary from the rest of the building. While it may have been used a long time ago, it predominantly serves a decorative function now.

“The Greek letters for Alpha and Omega are embedded into the design of the gate. I imagine the long-ago designer wanted those letters to be visible as people entered or exited the church. The Alpha and Omega serve as a reminder that God is the beginning and the end, present always, both inside and outside the church walls.”

Moving Forward: “What signs and symbols are on your church doors? Check them out the next time you attend church.”