Cappella Palatina di Palermo (mid-12th century)
Revelation 7:9-17
Last Words
“The sun shall not strike you by day,
Nor the moon by night,”
At graves I’ve often said those words,
And it all seemed right.
To martyrs here the text refers,
Who were struck to death;
And offered hope to others who
Faced their dying breaths.
Not many face such reckoning
But we still proclaim
A God whose faithfulness declares
Love is no cause for shame.
Scott L. Barton
After this I looked, and there was a great multitude that no
one could count, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages,
standing before the throne and before the Lamb, robed in white, with palm
branches in their hands. They cried out in a loud voice, saying, “Salvation
belongs to our God who is seated on the throne, and to the Lamb!” And all the
angels stood around the throne and around the elders and the four living
creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God,
singing, “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and
power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen.”
Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, “Who are these,
robed in white, and where have they come from?” I said to him, “Sir, you are
the one that knows.” Then he said to me, “These are they who have come out of
the great ordeal; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood
of the Lamb. For this reason they are before the throne of God, and worship him
day and night within his temple, and the one who is seated on the throne will
shelter them. They will hunger no more, and thirst no more; the sun will not
strike them, nor any scorching heat; for the Lamb at the center of the throne
will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of the water of life,
and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”
Some Miracle!
Though no daughter of Samantha and Darrin*
This Tabitha bewitched Joppa
By her good works and charity,
But also provided the opportunity
For Peter to follow his Lord
And pull off a Lazarus trick.
Then, to top it all off,
Peter went and stayed at the home of
One Simon the tanner,
As unclean a fellow as you'd ever meet,
By way of his occupation and all,
And apparently didn't even hold his nose,
Let alone wiggle it.
Now, that's some miracle!
Scott L. Barton
(*The popular ABC sitcom, “Bewitched” (1964-72) featured a
witch (Samantha) and an ordinary man (Darrin) who tried to live an ordinary
suburban life, and their daughter, Tabitha. Samantha (Elizabeth Montgomery)
occasionally did magic by wiggling her nose, which infuriated Darrin (Dick York
and later Dick Sargent.))
Now in Joppa there was a disciple whose name was Tabitha,
which in Greek is Dorcas. She was devoted to good works and acts of charity. At
that time she became ill and died. When they had washed her, they laid her in a
room upstairs. Since Lydda was near Joppa, the disciples, who heard that Peter
was there, sent two men to him with the request, “Please come to us without
delay.” So Peter got up and went with them; and when he arrived, they took him
to the room upstairs. All the widows stood beside him, weeping and showing
tunics and other clothing that Dorcas had made while she was with them. Peter
put all of them outside, and then he knelt down and prayed. He turned to the
body and said, “Tabitha, get up.” Then she opened her eyes, and seeing Peter,
she sat up. He gave her his hand and helped her up. Then calling the saints and
widows, he showed her to be alive. This became known throughout Joppa, and many
believed in the Lord. Meanwhile he stayed in Joppa for some time with a certain
Simon, a tanner.
+ + +
John 10:22-30
Don’t Split Him Down the Middle
When in the portico of Solomon,
He gives me quite a clue
About the nature of a faith in him,
When Pharisees construe
He's uttered simple blasphemy to them
In his equation, bold;
I think it's even hard for US to take,
Although the church of old
Attempted to make sense of such a thing:
"The Father's not the Son."
And yet he pulls no punches with this line:
"The Father 'n' I are one."
There seems to be one way that even we
Might answer now this riddle -
Just think of young king Solomon at court -
Don't split Him down the middle!
He's not a human here, and God o'er there,
As if two forms of him might live;
He's what we need to see just what "God" means:
That is, to give, and give, and give.
Scott L. Barton
At that time the festival of the Dedication took place in
Jerusalem. It was winter, and Jesus was walking in the temple, in the portico
of Solomon. So the Jews gathered around him and said to him, “How long will you
keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly.” Jesus answered,
“I have told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father’s
name testify to me; but you do not believe, because you do not belong to my
sheep. My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me. I give them
eternal life, and they will never perish. No one will snatch them out of my
hand. What my Father has given me is greater than all else, and no one can snatch
it out of the Father’s hand. The Father and I are one.” The Jews took up
stones again to stone him. Jesus replied, “I have shown you many good works
from the Father. For which of these are you going to stone me?” The Jews
answered, “It is not for a good work that we are going to stone you, but for
blasphemy, because you, though only a human being, are making yourself God.”
No comments:
Post a Comment