Words of Welcome

  A uftraggeber: Otto III. oder Heinrich II. –  Bamberger Apokalypse  Folio 13 verso, Bamberg, Staatsbibliothek, MS A. II. 42, Public Domain, Revelation 5:11-14 The Book of Revelation represents what is known as apocalyptic literature. The word Apocalypse, in the biblical sense, speaks of an unveiling or revelation of something sacred or divine. The Book of Revelation, which is filled with rather strange imagery that is difficult to decode, requires us to use our holy imaginations. If we do this, then perhaps we can begin to unpack the imagery we find here in chapter 5 of the Book of Revelation. Chapters 4 and 5 depict a heavenly worship service. Here in Chapter 5, the focus is on the Slaughtered Lamb.  The author of the Book of Revelation is a man named John of Patmos. He writes a letter to a group of churches in what is now Turkey. These churches were struggling to navigate significant challenges. They faced persecution and even martyrdom. John writes this lett...

Revelation 21:1-6 One of the consistent messages of the Book of Revelation is that God is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end of all things. To borrow from Aristotle, God is the first cause. Or, as the Prologue to the Gospel of John puts it:  “in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” And, everything that exists was created through and by this  Word. Finally, a few verses later we learn that this “Word became flesh and dwelt among us” ( Jn. 1:1-18 ). Not only is God the beginning of all things, but according to the Book of Revelation God is also the completion of all things.    If God is the beginning and the end of all things, should we not also say that God is also present in all things at all times? As Rick Lowery reminded us yesterday in his sermon at the Festival of Faith, in a moment of theological crisis, the people of Israel learned that God is not limited to a piece of land, but that God is th...