Presby-Musings

In the book of Revelation chapter 12, John the Revelator has a crazy vision of a pregnant woman with clothes like the sun, and a seven-headed dragon with a huge tail that sweeps stars from the sky.   Additionally, there's war in heaven and conflict on earth in this vision, which most scholars believe is the author's depiction of the effect of Jesus' birth on the cosmos. In other words, when Jesus was born, the whole universe shifted, the world was turned upside down, Evil was dealt a deadly blow.  Not very Christmas-y, is it? Our depictions of the birth of the Messiah, the Savior of Creation, the Redeemer of our Souls, the Prince of Peace are not quite as dramatic.  We've tamed it down just a tad with perfect nativity scenes, idyllic images, gentle, soothing songs of the season...  When in reality, the advent of the Christ is literally earth-shattering news.  Philip Yancey writes, "Christmas was far more than the birth of a baby; it was an invasion, t...

This past week I got to do something that I have wanted to do for years--I visited the island of Patmos, and the traditional site where the book of Revelation was born.  In the first chapter of Revelation we find these words from John the Revelator:   I, John, with you all the way in the trial and the Kingdom and the passion of patience in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos because of God’s Word, the witness of Jesus. It was Sunday and I was in the Spirit, praying. I heard a loud voice behind me, trumpet-clear and piercing: “Write what you see into a book.  Tradition teaches that it was John the Evangelist, the youngest of the disciples of Jesus, who received the Revelation while he was in exile on Patmos.  These traditions teach that he would climb the highest hill on the island to pray inside a cave.  It was in that cave that he saw the vision that would become the Apocalypse  or the book of Revelation.   We visited The Cave of the A...

When we were in England last week, we visited Holy Trinity Church in Stratford-Upon-Avon, the church where none other than William Shakespeare was both married and buried.  I've been to this particular church at least four times in my life, but this time was different.  There's been a lot on my mind lately.  This past summer has been a season when I have found myself struggling to understand what God is up to--probably more than any other season in my life.  On top of all of the craziness in my own life, the world seems to be going stark, raving mad, doesn't it?  Every single day there are more stories on the news of violence, war, strife and tragedies of all kinds.  It can get to you if you dwell on it too much.   So while we were inside of the Holy Trinity Church, an announcement was made that there would be a Scripture reading from the Daily Lectionary.   An old Englishman stood at an ancient lectern and began reading from Revelation...

The passage of Scripture that I read today for my daily Bible reading came from the book of Revelation chapter 7.  I'm reading through the New Testament again this year, and am nearing the end, so I'm making my way through the rambling writings of John the Revelator once more.   The passage I read today describes a scene of cosmic worship and praise.  The Revelator writes:  I looked again. I saw a huge crowd, too huge to count. Everyone was there—all nations and tribes, all races and languages. And they were standing, dressed in white robes and waving palm branches, standing before the Throne and the Lamb and heartily singing: Salvation to our God on his Throne! Salvation to the Lamb! All who were standing around the Throne—Angels, Elders, Animals—fell on their faces before the Throne and worshiped God, singing: Oh, Yes! The blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving, The honor and power and strength, To our God forever and ever and ever! Oh, Yes...

I woke up with a headache this morning.  It's not all that serious, just a dull ache behind my eyes, probably denoting some kind of allergic reaction to something or another in the air.  I was feeling a little sorry for myself a bit earlier.  "Great way to start the day," I thought to myself.  "Awesome."  And then a number of my friends and some of my church members were brought to my mind--people I know who are dealing with chronic pain, struggling through illnesses, and the like.  I had the sneaking suspicion that the Spirit of God was nudging me a bit, reminding me of them for a reason.   All of a sudden, I felt an overwhelming sense of shame at my whiny, complaints over my petty issues. Every single one of those people I was thinking of in that moment would have gladly traded for my measly headache.  But even so, I asked myself, "Wouldn't it be wonderful to be free from all of this?  For there to be no more pain, no more sickness...

This week the inspiration for our Daily Devotions will be drawn from the sermon that I preached this past Sunday for All Saints' Day--a sermon on grief, loss, hope, life, heaven, Heaven and resurrection. If you would like to read the transcript of that sermon, you can click  HERE .  The Scripture that we used as our guide was John chapter 11--the story of Jesus raising of Lazarus from the dead.   When I was young I wasn't that keen on going to heaven--at least the heaven that was described to me.  My Sunday school teachers, pastors and youth leaders would talk about heaven as a place with streets of gold, pristine furnishings, mansions, jewels everywhere...   It sounded kind of awful to me at the time.  It sounded like an old lady's parlor--the kind of place where you can't touch anything, and can only sit uncomfortably on a plastic covered sofa that you kept sliding off.   I was also told that in heaven all we would do is wor...

So, for the past nearly two months I have been teaching a study on the book of Revelation entitled, "The Apocalypse of John ."  We have been live streaming the teaching sessions for anyone who wants to watch at home, and the videos have also been available to re-watch for anyone who would like to see them again, or catch up on the series altogether. I am also blogging on Tumblr (although I am pretty far behind the sessions at this point!) what will eventually become a companion guide for the videos themselves. You can follow along at tumblr here: https://www.tumblr.com/blog/leonbloder Below are the sessions with links to the videos that you can view. Session One - "How Do We Read Revelation?" https://new.livestream.com/accounts/1917279/events/3445563 Session Two - "The Origin and Context of Revelation" https://new.livestream.com/accounts/1917279/events/3470132 Session Three: " God , The Lamb , Seven Seals and Seven Trumpets ...