The scheme for May – June can be found here

2 Sa 15-16; Rev 1-2; Psalm 45

From the mystical world of Jude, we are plunged deep into the book of Revelation, The Apocalypse of St John the Divine, to give it the fuller title ascribed to it by many in the church.

For many this is a book which is in some regards off limits. Its imagery is alien to many of us and of course it has always been a happy hunting ground for many who consider they have an inside line on the end of the world. But we should not avoid it.

In large part it is entirely suitable as the final book of the scriptures – for it encapsulates so much of that which has gone before. Indeed one of the reasons we may find it alien is our lack of knowledge of so much of the Old Testament, to which it contains over 600 ascriptions.

But supremely it is worthy of our consideration for its theme of the glorified Christ – the one who makes himself known to John on Patmos. John of all the New Testament writers is the Evangelist of Glory. And herein lies perhaps the key. For it is John who declares that in the crucifixion of Jesus of Nazareth, the Glory of GOd is revealed. In other words in that which repels our eyes, which can only be understood by us as the darkest of scenes, the Light of God blazes forth.

So in the Apocalypse – Unveiling – Revelation – we See this glory which blind eyes cannot comprehend. And it is such that John falls prostrate at the feet of Christ. If there is no other reason for reading Revelation, it is this – that we recapture our sense of Christ as the one at whose feet we too can only fall at, as though dead, that he might speak words of Life to us.