Eastertide
April 26, 2019
Scripture Reading: Revelation 1:4-8
Look! He is coming with the clouds;
every eye will see him,
even those who pierced him;
and on his account all the tribes of the earth will wail.
So it is to be. Amen.
‘I am the Alpha and the Omega’, says the Lord God, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty. –Revelation 1:7-8
Is God here with us right now or not? When I hear people talk about the second coming, this question comes to my mind. There are even some that seem to think they can hasten God’s arrival by causing a war in the Middle East. Some seem to forget that the gift of the Holy Spirit was given whether as John reports (John 20:22) immediately or as Acts 2 describes during Pentecost or perhaps both. I tend to lean toward both. I stood with my mother in the hospital waiting room when the doctor came to report that my dad had had a massive heart attack severely injuring his heart. If he survived the heart attack, he would be an invalid. He had the second heart attack one week later and died. My mother does not remember being in the meeting with the doctor after the first attack. Shock and grief play strange games on all of us. A later dramatic reminder of the promise of the gift of the Spirit as described in Acts is fitting in dealing with the human state.
My, perhaps fanciful interpretation, of Christ’s return in a cloud is that he will rejoin us as the Omega when and if we ever become the people of love and peace, he taught us to be and do. Not war but shalom will usher in the returning Christ who through the Spirit guides us in the direction of love and peace, if we allow it.
Prayer:
Spirit, Spirit of gentleness,
blow through the wilderness calling and free,
Spirit, Spirit of restlessness,
stir me from placidness,
wind, wind on the sea.
You call from tomorrow,
you break ancient schemes.
From the bondage of sorrow
all the captives dream dreams;
our women see visions,
our men clear their eyes.
With bold new decisions
your people arise*. Amen.
*Chorus and Fourth verse of Spirit by James K. Manley https://digitalsongsandhymns.com/songs/3373
All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights are reserved.