Daily Devotional • November 21
A Reading from Revelation 22:6-13
6 And he said to me, “These words are trustworthy and true, for the Lord, the God of the spirits of the prophets, has sent his angel to show his servants what must soon take place.”
7 “See, I am coming soon! Blessed is the one who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book.”
8 I, John, am the one who heard and saw these things. And when I heard and saw them, I fell down to worship at the feet of the angel who showed them to me, 9 but he said to me, “You must not do that! I am a fellow servant with you and your brothers and sisters the prophets and with those who keep the words of this book. Worship God!”
10 And he said to me, “Do not seal up the words of the prophecy of this book, for the time is near. 11 Let the evildoer still do evil, and the filthy still be filthy, and the righteous still do right, and the holy still be holy.”
12 “See, I am coming soon; my reward is with me, to repay according to everyone’s work. 13 I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.”
Meditation
“See, I am coming soon! Blessed is the one who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book!”
In response to all that he has seen and heard, John as eyewitness to these things falls at the feet of the angel to worship, but the angel rebukes him. The angel is a servant, too, a creature, like John and the prophets and all who keep the words. Worship God! Jesus — God with us — is coming soon.
I can imagine John’s feeling of awe and perhaps overwhelm by all he has seen; who wouldn’t fall at the feet of the angel? Still, it is only God who is good, it must be only God whom we worship. And in fact we still hear, again and again, that Jesus is coming soon, so soon that there may not be time to change our ways, so we are to be diligent. We are still watching and waiting for Christ’s return.
Take a moment and feel that, lean into it — what do you feel when you think of Christ’s return? Is it joy? Yearning? Perhaps it’s fear or even panic. What does it mean to you, to your heart and soul, that Jesus’ coming is immanent? What if it’s today? What if it’s tomorrow?
In C.S. Lewis’s Prince Caspian, the children and animals are in a deadly pinch. They’ve called on Aslan, but there is no apparent help on the way. Trufflehunter the badger encourages the humans not to lose heart: “The help will come …. I stand by Aslan. Have patience, like us beasts. The help will come. It may be even now at the door.”
“See, I am coming soon; my reward is with me, to repay according to everyone’s work. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.
The Very Rev. Sherry Black is a second-career Episcopal priest, and has been a full-time hospital chaplain for over ten years. She also serves a small mission church as priest-in-charge, and is dean of her deanery.
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Daily Devotional Cycle of Prayer
Today we pray for:
St. Martin’s Episcopal Church, Houston
The Diocese of Rhode Island – The Episcopal Church
This ministry of The Living Church Foundation is made possible in part by a special bequest from the Anglican Fellowship of Prayer.
