“A message of some urgency”

By Rev. Michael Stonhouse

Meditation – Monday, December 6, 2021

Revelation 1:1-8 (Forward, p. 38) CEV p. 1295

Back in 1968, the Bee Gees came out with a song, “Gotta Get This Message to You”. It certainly expresses a sense of urgency, of the necessity of a particular message getting passed on to someone. Robin Gibb, who wrote the lyrics, explained that it arose from an actual situation, namely of a convicted felon, someone facing imminent execution, pleading with the prison chaplain to pass on his last, final message to his wife back home.

In a very real way this echoes the sentiment of today’s portion of Scripture and of the book of Revelation in general. It is all about ‘what is to happen soon’ and so it is quite urgent that the message get through. As he says in verse 3, “The time is almost here.”

There are three things that should be noted from today’s short passage. The first has to do with the origins of the message:

“This is what God showed to Jesus Christ, so that he could tell his servants what must happen soon. Christ then sent his angel with the message to his servant John. And John told everything that he had seen about God’s message and about what Jesus Christ had said and done” (verses 1-2).

Notice how often the word ‘message’ shows up: three times in just two verses. And notice the line of transmission. It begins with God the Father, who passed it on to Jesus, who then passed it on to John by means of an angel. Jesus had repeatedly said during His earthly career that He was not privy to the timing of the end of all things, and this bears it out. Yes, He said, only the Father knows, Nevertheless, it reminds us that nothing happens that is outside of God knowing of it in advance and that He will indeed reveal it to us when the time is right.

In Isaiah 42:9, the Lord says, “Now I will tell you of new things even before they begin to happen.” And in John 14:29, we are told something of God’s reasoning for so doing. Here in this passage, Jesus says, I have told you this now before it all happens, so that when it does happen, you will

believe.” Indeed, it is God’s intention that our faith and trust in Him are firmly rooted and that we are not ‘left in the dark’ about what is to happen.

The second thing that, to me, immediately jumped out, was the phrase ‘kindness and peace’ (or grace and peace, in some translations). It occurs three times in my present translation:

“I pray that you will be blessed with kindness and peace from God, who is and was and is coming” (verse 4a);

“May you receive kindness and peace from the seven spirits before the throne of God” (verse 4b);

“May kindness and peace be yours from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness” (verse 5).

These are prayers, and highly significant ones at that. It is the grace or unmerited kindness of God that makes salvation possible in the first place, and that enables us to persist and grow in faith. And, it is that same grace or kindness that puts us right with God and bestows upon us the peace of Christ.

The third, or final, thing to be noted in today’s passage is the well-spring of all these blessings, the source of it all. It is none other than Jesus Christ Himself, and it is of particular interest that His blessings and His works are described on three levels, past, present and future.

In terms of the past, the passage has this to say: “Jesus was the first to conquer death, and he is the ruler of all earthly kings. Christ loves us, and by his blood He set us free from our sins” (verse 5b).

In terms of the present, it says: “He lets us rule as kings and serve God his Father as priests. To him be glory and power forever and ever! Amen” (verse 6)

And regarding the future, it says” Look! He is coming with the clouds. Everyone will see him, even the ones who stuck a sword through him. All people on earth will weep because of him. Yes, it will happen! Amen” (verse 7).

No wonder He is described as the ‘Alpha and Omega, the one who is and was and is coming.’

All of this is intended to evoke our confidence and faith in God and in Jesus Christ, especially during perilous and uncertain times. The church to which the Revelation of St. John was addressed was certainly going through such times, and is not our church today in such times as well? So, we are encouraged to press on to Christ and to hang on, to hang on to Him, no matter what takes place around us. Amen.

Forward notes: “’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).

“During college, I worked summers at a Christian camp. It was a place I called home; I embraced its traditions, and its traditions embraced me. I sang its praises to anyone who would listen, and given the chance, I (quite literally) sang the camp praise songs deeply engrained in my soul.

“One year, however, a director decided to buck tradition. Instead of letting the camp staff run with old song favorites, she hired a former Disney songwriter and choreographer to teach us a new song called, ‘The Alpha and Omega.’ She thought it would take us to the next level of performance and expertise; we thought it would be the beginning of our ruin, the destruction of everything good.

“In the end, our dramatic, adolescent selves won the fight—after all, when we threatened to overturn wooden picnic tables and leave, she couldn’t viably operate a camp by herself. But nearly twenty-five years later, I can still sing every word of that horrendous, unforgettable song, and I realize that she may have won the battle in the end.”

Moving Forward: “Is there a piece of scripture firmly written on your heart? Take a minute to write it down and sit with the memory of how it came to be.”