Jamie Greening's Blog, page 8

Advent 2022: Christmas Eve, Galatians 3:23-4:7

It seems convoluted at the outset, but it is a beautiful aspect of the BCP that the assigned readings finish with the stretch from 3:23 and ends with 4:7. Magnificent!

Today is Christmas Eve, you should go to church tonight. Sing the songs. Hear the lessons. Pray your prayers. Light the candles. Eat the bread and drink from the cup. Worship the Lord in spirit and truth. If you are too busy or too obligated to worship the Lord at Christmas, then you are too busy and too obligated.

3:23. Before faith came, we were held captive under the law, waiting for faith to be revealed. 

24. The law became our teacher in Messiah, so that we might be made right by belief. 

25. But belief has come. We are no longer under the teacher.

26. For all of you are children of God by belief in Jesus as Messiah. 

27. Those who have been baptized into Messiah, they have clothed themselves in Messiah. 

28. There is no Jew nor Greek. There is no slave nor free. There is no male nor female. You are all one in Messiah Jesus. 

29. And, if you are of Messiah, then you are seed of Abram, inheritors by promise. 

4:1. What I say is this, at the time an infant inherits, he or she is practically no different than a slave, although he is the master of everything.

2. He is under a guardian and steward until the time approve by the father.

3. We are, then, when we were infants, enslaved under the elements of this world. 

4. But when the right time came, God sent out his own son, born of a woman, born under the law.

5. So that he might ransom those under the law, and we then might receive adoption. 

6. Now, you are children to whom God sent out the Spirit of his son, crying out in our hearts, ‘Abba, Father.’ 

7. You are no longer slaves, but children, and if children, then inheritors through God. 

I will resist the urge to preach here, but open your heart two the inclusive nature of the gospel and the marvel that God has sent his son and the Spirit to us. As Jesus was born, so too are we, not physically as he was but through faith, reborn into the kingdom of God as children. It is a thought too beautiful to be expressed in mere words.

Advent 2022: Week Four, Friday, Galatians 3:15-22

Today is Christmas Adam — because it comes before Christmas Eve. Our reading focuses another character from the book of Genesis, though.

15. Brothers and sisters, let me speak to it in an everyday human way; it’s all very similar to a will that’s already probated, and no one can annul any of it or add a codicil. 

16. The promise was made to Abram and his seed. It does not say ‘seeds, as though it were plural, but from one – your seed – who is Messiah. 

17. I tell you this, a will already probated by God cannot be annulled by the coming of the law four hundred and thirty years later.  The promise cannot be cancelled. 

18. If the inheritance comes from the law, it is no longer by the promise, but God has bestowed the promise to Abram.

19. Why then the law? It was added because of transgressors until the promised seed would come. It was handed down by the angels, mediators. 

20. The mediator was not one, but God is one.

21. Is the law then against the promise of God? Never! If the law that was given was able to bring life, then rightness really would come from the law. 

22. For the scriptures locked everyone up under sin, so that the promise comes by belief in Jesus as Messiah to those who are believing.

I have argued, vehemently, that The Lord of the Rings movies, the original three, are Christmas movies. It just feels Christmassy to me — Gandalf’s beard, the snow, elves, elves giving gifts, wandering stars, and trees. Somewhere I should make a definitive list of the reasons why, but that is not for now. For now, it just feels that way to me because of the themes and imagery.

In the same way, these lines pulled from Galatians about the law feel Christmassy as well because of the themes and imagery, namely that of a promised child whose entry is mediated by angels, thus combining the promise to Abram and the law. The birth of Jesus is the fulfillment of the promise to Abram. Even the language of codicil and will reminds us of the legal restrictions of Joseph having to register under the edict of the Emperor. It as all so legal.

Let me also work another angle with this text. It is a little graphic, but the Bible is just that way sometimes. The word for seed in the language of the New Testament is spermati, the root for sperm. Graphic indeed. Abram was promised seed through his own loins, not that of an adopted heir. His misunderstanding of this would lead to tragedy later, but the promise was still valid, nonetheless. In a twist, though, we believe and the Bible teaches that Jesus was born without such seed. Again, graphic, I know but important. Mary was the offspring of Abram that mattered, and she brings the promise of Abram but through the female side, as a kind of re-imaging of Sarah. Through her the promised child would come, through her, the virgin.

Now, as to the misunderstanding Abram had with Hagar, O reader of blogs, understand how even the most faithful can be misguided and led astray by their own insecurities, fears, doubts, and justifications. We do this in our walk with Jesus all the time. We misunderstand what is so clear because the sin in our lives weakens and blocks our ability to perceive.

At Christmas, this is amplified even more by family turmoil, greed, or self-indulgence.

Advent 2022: Week Four, Thursday, Galatians 3:1-14

The reading guide likes us to finish in Galatians 3 for the last three days leading up to Christmas. So here we are with Paul ripping into the Galatians.

1. Stupid Galatians! Who tricked you? It was before your very eyes Messiah Jesus has been publicly crucified.

2. There is only one thing I want to learn from you; did you receive the Spirit from works of the law or by hearing then believing? 

3. You are truly tricked to begin in the Spirit and now finish in the flesh. 

4. Why did you suffer so much for nothing? If it was for nothing. 

5.  So come now, does the one who supplies you with the Spirit and wonder working power do so by works of the law or by hearing then believing, 

6. just like Abram who ‘believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness.’

7. Know then, those who believe are the children of Abram.

8. The scriptures predicted the Gentiles would be made right by believing when God gave the gospel beforehand to Abram, that ‘all the Gentiles will be blessed in you.’

9. So now those who believe are blessed with the faith of Abram. 

10. Those who count on the works of the law are under a curse because it is written, ‘everyone is accursed who does not keep everything and do everything written in the Book of the Law.’ 

11. For it is clear no one is made right with God by the law, for, ‘those who are right will live by belief.’

12.  The law is not kept out of belief, therefore the one who has done them, ‘will live by them.’ 

13. The messiah redeemed us from the curse of the law. By becoming accursed for us, and so it is written, ‘accursed is everyone who has been hanged on a tree.’ 

14. So now the blessing of Abram stretched to the Gentiles in Messiah Jesus, and thereby we might receive the promised Spirit through belief. 

There is way – way – way – way too much going on in Galatians 3 for a full discussion here. Therefore, I’d like to set this reading in the context of Advent. Paul’s great innovation, as far as I am concerned, is to bypass Moses and go straight to Abraham. Yes, Jesus fulfilled the law by hanging on the tree, but his ultimate purpose was to fulfill the promise to Abram that all nations would be blessed. Moses and his laws were just a pesky little fly to be swatted away on the road to global impact.

The birth of Jesus, and indeed the life and ministry of Messiah Jesus, is a blessing to the world and we can hear the nations proclaim it all over the place. His praises are being sung this day in stores where people are shopping, on radio airwaves which usually worship self and sex, in decorations, lighted candles, and even on silly t-shirts. It seems like the whole world has stopped its madness and is focused on Jesus.

Even those who don’t believe in anything.

I am certain the blessing Paul has in mind which is fulfilled in Jesus is that of eternal life — full inclusion into the family of God. But we limit, I think, if we make the blessing of Jesus only about salvation, as if that is all. Is it not possible, as time has marched on, that one of the blessings to the nations which has emerged from Jesus is Christmas itself? The ideas of peace, charity, and love are uniquely present this time of year. What a gift! And all because of Jesus. The world would be worse if it didn’t have Christmas.

Yes, it is abused. Yes it is commercialized. Yes it is sometimes simplistic. But that doesn’t negate the blessing to the nations of a special time of year called Christmas when the whole world contemplates the Messiah in Manger. Christmas is not a curse. It is a blessing. ‘All the gentiles will be blessed in you’ is what the scriptures say. Let’s treat it accordingly.

Advent 2022: Week Four, Wednesday, Titus 3:1-15

The scheduled reading I have followed for Advent inexplicably stops this reading at Titus 3:8 and skips 9-15. I am sure there is a well meaning, thoroughly explained reason for this such as they will come to it later in the cycle, but for now I thought it best to go ahead and translate the whole thing for you. It didn’t seem right to translate all of Titus except the last seven verses.

You’re welcome.

3:1. You must remind them to be subject to rulers and authorities, to obey, and to be ready with every good work. 

2. Insult no one. Be peaceable and considerate to everyone. Show yourselves gentle to all people. 

3. For we were once senseless, rebellious, led astray to serve desires and all kinds of pleasures, handing ourselves over to negative impulses—envy, loathing, hatred for each other.

4. But when the kindness and love for humanity was revealed by God our savior

5. not from works of righteousness we ourselves had done, but by his mercy, we were saved through washing, being born again, and renewal by the Holy Spirit,

6. which he poured out upon us richly through Messiah Jesus our savior. 

7. Having been made righteous by this grace, we could become inheritors through hope of eternal life.

8. The word is faithful. Now about these things, I want you to insist they give their minds to good works and those who are trusting in God to put first these things which are good and helpful to people. 

9. But you must stay out of foolish speculations, rivalries about genealogies, and arguments concerning the law for it is useless and pointless.

10. One or two warnings for heretical people, then you must ignore them

11. knowing that a person like that is turned inside out with sins. He condemns himself. 

12. When I am able to send Artemis or Tychicus to you, be quick to come to me in Nicopolis, for I have decided to winter there. 

13. You must see off Zenas the lawyer and Apollos diligently so that they lack nothing. 

14. Our people should learn to lead out in good works for critical needs, so they might not be fruitless. 

15. The people with me greet you. You should greet the people who love us in faith. Grace be to you. 

The second verse here sticks in my throat like a lump. It is so obvious and clear, but hard to abide by in our world. The command to be peaceable is completely in line with the teachings of Jesus our Lord. We are told by him to be peacemakers. The kind of person who is considerate is also consistent. Considerate here is the idea of thinking about what other people need in their life. Putting the needs of others first. Show yourselves gentle to all people. What a beautiful sentiment.

And he started that line off with ‘don’t insult people.’ Can you imagine a world where people put into practice just this one line of thought? What if Christ-followers did? We are, at least not where I am living, not known for being gentle, considerate, or peaceable people who don’t insult others. No, we are confrontational, insistent, demanding, and harsh.

I think an emphasis on verse two could lead to revival in our land. I am serious.

Now, pair that thought with verse 14. The ‘our people’ here is cryptic, at least to me, in the Greek. I am not certain if he means ‘our people on Crete’ or if he means ‘Christ-followers.’ I feel like it is the later. Christ-followers should be leaders — a word he also uses in verse 8 where it translate it ‘put these things first’ because of the context.

As the time of the Nativity of Jesus comes closer, may I exhort you to lead out by helping people in their critical needs. Be considerate. Bless others with peace. Demonstrate gentleness with everyone you come across. Try your best to not insult other people. Try, okay. Just try.

Advent 2022: Week Four, Tuesday, Titus 2:1-10

I want to point out again the rough nature of this rendering. I have not smoothed it out because I think the way it clunks together is part of the message.

1. But you keep speaking what is proper, that is, healthy teaching –

2. the older man to be sober, honorable, temperate, healthy in faith, love, and patience. 

3.  The older women, likewise, a reverent demeanor, not gossipy, not much addicted to wine, teaching good things

4. encouraging the young women to love their husbands and children,

5.  to be temperate, pure, a good housekeeper, submitting to her husband so she may not blaspheme the word of God.

6. Likewise, encourage young men to be reasonable.

7. Above all, show yourself as a good example of good works, teaching with integrity and dignity, 

8. solid, incontestable words that would put to same any opponent as having nothing meaningful to say. 

9. Slaves are to be subject to their own masters with every pleasantry so as not to be spoken against.

10. Not pilfering, but in all faith showing oneself good so the teaching of God our savior might adorn everything. 

These are the kinds of verses that, in the wrong hands, are twisted into something perverse and anti-gospel. For one can see that it is not hard to turn Paul’s words here into a call for women to blindly submit to whatever a husband says and to solely labor in the issues of domestic bliss and at the same time as a proof text to justify slavery.

To the contrast, these texts teach men and women to help to help other men and women navigate life. Life two thousand years ago was different than today, and the passage reflects that. Perhaps a better way of appropriating these teachings today is to think of them as something like, ‘husbands should live in a way that honors the Lord and safeguards their family’ and women ‘should make certain their home is a place of safety and peace.’

Slavery was a part of the world. In fact, it still is in many places. Yet, just as the word for slave is sometimes translated as ‘servant’, in this context, I feel like ‘worker’ would be a better rendering. Workers should work hard and not steal from their employers.

But the short of it is, really, that whatever station in life we find ourselves — woman, man, elder, or servant our primary concern is with the way others will perceive our faith in Christ Jesus. One of Titus’ main jobs, and that of the church, is to help believers live in a way that glorifies God. The exact specifics of what that looks like on Crete in the first century are decidedly different from what that might look like today in North America, just as it would look different today in Cairo or Hong Kong.

Healthy teaching is doctrine that promotes joy and happiness, and we believe family life is a major source of joy and happiness this side of heaven. This seems to be what Paul’s concern is.

Advent 2022: Week Four, Monday, Titus 1:1-6

Precisely because the Advent season is a little longer than normal, we find ourselves moving from Revelation to a pastoral epistle: Titus.

1. Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Messiah Jesus by faith, chosen of God by a knowledge of truth in godliness

2. upon the hope of eternal life which the God who is without deceit promised before eternal time. 

3. In his own time he revealed his word, the preaching of which I was entrusted by the command of God our savior.

4. Titus, a legitimate child by shared faith, grace, and peace from Father God and Messiah Jesus our savior. 

5. This is why I left you in Crete, to set everything straight and to appoint elders in the cities the way I commanded you. 

6. If anyone is irreproachable, a man of one wife, having faithful children, not accusable, extravagant, rebellious,

7. –for it is necessary that a bishop, as God’s steward, be not arrogant, temperamental, a drunkard, violent, or greedily dishonest

8. but instead be hospitable, a lover of good things, temperate, right, devout, self-controlled,

9. holding onto the faithful teaching of the word, so that he might be able to encourage teaching that is healthy and to refute opponents.

10. For many are rebellious windbags who rot the brain. They are from the circumcision group. 

11. It is necessary to silence these because they are upsetting whole houses with improper, shameful teaching.   

12. One of them, a prophet of their own, said that Cretans always lie, are bad, beastly, and idle gluttons.

13. This is a true statement. For this reason, begin to scold them sharply so that they may be sound in the faith.

14. Pay no attention to Jewish myths and human commandments which turn their back on the truth. 

15. Everything is clean to those who are clean, but for those people who are defiled and unbelieving nothing is clean because they have defiled their mind and conscience. 

16. They confess to know God, but deny works. These people are horrible, disobedient, and worthless for any good purpose. 

In my honest opinion, the language of Titus is clunky. I left it the way in my rendering on purpose. I feel like Paul, and I do believe he is the author with perhaps a different ‘secretary’, is trying to deal with a very specific issue, which is the problems Titus is having on Crete. Verses 6-9 are long rambling list that is loosely focused on what an elder should be like, but it is nothing as organized as it should be. It feels like a grumpy old Paul is just shouting things and his poor secretary is trying to organize it. Bless him.

The clearest thing here is when he says in verse 13, ‘begin to scold them sharply’.

Our old friends the circumcision party have shown up again (see Galatians) and Paul has strong words for them — words I adore! He calls them ‘rebellious windbags who rot the brain.’ Rot the brain is my very loose rendering on a term that probably means ‘dilute the mind’ or ‘causing to think poorly.’ I think that means brain rot, like what happens to humans today who watch too much cable television news.

I take comfort from Titus problems. They sound like ours, or at least mine, today. People voluntarily listen to those who rot the brain, and the result is people of faith are lacking fortitude, spiritual strength, and proper values. Paul’s solution was to appoint the right kind of elders and to scold.

I am not certain whether or not that is an effective strategy right now. Scolding doesn’t take well, because people will just find a church to tell them what they want, which is probably a Christmas Eve service with a laser-light show and drones. And camels. And drummers flying through the air.

Advent 2022: Week Three, Saturday, Revelation 6:1-17

Six of the seven seals, the four horsemen, and nowhere to hide. Hard times for humanity.

1. Then I saw the lamb open one of the seven seals. I heard one of the four creatures say, like a voice of thunder, ‘Come!’

2. Behold, I saw a white horse. The one sitting upon it had a bow and was given a crown. He went out so as to conquer in victory. 

3. When he opened the second seal, I heard a second creature say, ‘Come!’

4. Another horse, a red one, went out. It was given to the one sitting upon to take peace from the earth so that they might slaughter one another. He was given a large sword. 

5. When he opened the third seal, I heard the third creature say, ‘Come!’  Behold, I saw a black horse and the one sitting upon it had a pair of scales in his hand. 

6. And I heard a voice in the midst of the four creatures saying, ‘It will take a whole days wages to buy a quart of grain and three quarts of barley, but there will be no change to the oil and wine.’ 

7. When he opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth creature say, ‘Come!’

8. Behold, I saw a yellow-green horse. The one sitting upon it was named Death. Hades was following him. Power over a fourth of the earth was given to him to kill with the sword, famine, disease, and the wild beasts of the earth. 

9. When he opened the fifth seal, Underneath the altar I saw the souls of those who had been slaughtered because of the word of God and their witness. 

10. They shouted in a loud voice, saying, ‘Holy and true ruler, when will you judge? When will you avenge our blood upon those living on the earth?”

11. Each of them were given a long, white robe and they were told to rest for a little while until their fellow-servants were finished, their brothers and sisters about to be killed as they were. 

12. When he opened the sixth seal I saw a great earthquake happen. The sun became black like sackcloth. The moon became as blood. 

13. The stars fell from heaven to earth like a fig tree drops unripe fruit when shaken by a strong wind. 

14. The heaven was separated, like a scroll being rolled up. The hills and the islands were removed. 

15. The kings of the earth, the important people, the generals, the rich,  the strong, the slave, the free they all hid themselves in caves and rocky hills.

16. They say to the hills and rocks, ‘Fall on us. Hide us from the one sitting upon the throne and from the lamb’s wrath.’ 

It feels as though one horsemen and one seal would be enough. Yet, God is thorough. When judgment comes upon the earth, it comes from all four directions. Just as the wind may blow from the north, south, east, or west, judgment may come from war, famine, plague, or oppression.

As a student of history, one has to ask is this all future from now, or is this some kind of summary of the human experience? A third to half of all humans died during the great black death of the Middle Ages. How many billions have died from war? Economic and social unrest along with environmental disaster have caused famines since the beginning of time. What of concentration camps and gulags, genocide and slave ships? John indeed, with the six seals, be seeing that which has happened as much as what will happen.

The question of why then so much death and carnage is not on God’s hands, but human hands. The seals of the book are broken because the book, maybe, just maybe, is what contains the record of mankind’s story, and it is not a pretty store.

One can feel this time shift as the sixth seal is broken and the heavens signal something new. The sun goes dark and the moon bleeds. The stars fall from the sky like out-of-season figs shaken by the wind. What an image. Surely it is not stars, they don’t fall. Meteors, perhaps? Missiles? Satellites? Planes?

The rich and famous, the powerful and the privileged recognize this is the day of the Lord, the great and terrible day, and they run away to hide. Yet there is no place to hide. The Psalmist warned us:

‘If I ascend to heaven, you are here! If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!’

Psalm 139:8

That is the lesson of the seals. God is coming, and there is no where to hide from his judgment.

Advent 2022: Week Three, Friday, Revelation 5:6-14

Today’s reading is filled with liturgical refrains that soar from our hearts, through our mouth, and into the very throne room of God.

6. A lamb that had been slaughtered stood in the midst of the throne, the creatures, and the elders. It had seven horns and seven eyes, which are the [seven] spirits of God sent out upon all the earth. 

7. He went and took the book from the right hand of the one sitting upon the throne. 

8. When he took the book, the four creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the lamb. Each one had a harp and a golden bowl full of incense, which is the prayers of the saints.

9. They sang a new song, saying, ‘You are worthy to take the book and to open its seals because you were slaughtered. With your blood you bought for God persons from every tribe, tongue, people, and nation.

10. You made them into a kingdom of priests to God who will reign upon the earth.’

11. I saw and heard the voices of many angels encircling the throne, the creatures, and the elders. They numbered into the ten thousands, thousands upon thousands 

12. saying in loud voices, ‘The lamb who has been slaughtered is worthy to receive power, riches, wisdom, strength, honor, glory, and blessing.’ 

13. I heard all the creatures in heaven, upon the earth, underneath the earth, and upon the sea saying, ‘To the one sitting upon the throne and to the lamb is blessing, honor, glory, and might forever.’

14. The four creatures kept saying, ‘Amen’ while the elders fell down and worshipped. 

The slaughtered lamb takes center stage, and takes the book. I filled in the book for verse 7, but he text just says ‘he took from the right hand . . . ‘ It is a strong moment when the Lord exerts his authority to do what no one else in the universe can. It is also a glimpse at the Father and Son relationship of the Trinity that speaks to their intimacy. No words are spoken between them: The Son acts.

Within the liturgy we see the underlying calling of God in Christ — The blood of Christ, the slaughtered lamb, has purchased people from every conceivable grouping of human relationships — nations, tribes, people, and languages. The gospel is global, and the lamb is celebrated by people from all over the globe.

The elders join in, and I am captivated by their incense bowls. They hold our prayers as incense before the Lord. It is an evocative image that should change the way we pray and how we imagine our prayers function. They are not court filings or briefings, wants and lists of desires. No, they are the aroma that fills heaven.

The aroma of prayers is combined with the combined voices of thousands upon thousands of angels who worship the Lord, and these voices are then joined by ‘all’ the creatures in space, on the earth, under the earth, and on the sea. And to this cacophony of sound and celebration, we join our voices when we worship Almighty God.

Advent 2022: Week Three, Thursday, Revelation 4:9-5:5

The verbs in this section are not smooth when it comes to tense. Some of them are future but with a present feeling. Some are present but nestled within other verbs that are past. I translated them that way, and didn’t smooth it out. You will see them. I think there is a reason for this. John is seeing things that have him quite rattled.

9. When the creatures give glory, honor, and thanksgiving to the one sitting upon the throne, the one who lives forever,

10. the twenty-four elders will fall before the one sitting upon the throne and prostrate themselves in worship of the living one, forever and ever. They will throw their crowns before the throne saying, 

11. ‘You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory, honor, and power because you created things and by your will it happened and was created.’  

5:1. On the right of the one sitting upon the throne, I saw a book which had writing inside it. It was sealed up on the outside with seven seals. 

2. I saw a strong angel preaching in a loud voice, ‘Who is worthy to open the book and to untie its seals?’

3. No one in heaven, on earth, or underneath the earth was able to open the book or look inside it. 

4. And I began to weep loudly because no one was found worthy to open the book or look inside it.

5. One of the elders says to me, ‘You should not weep, for behold, the lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David, he conquered to open the book and its seven seals.’

Sadly, this block doesn’t have a clean break with the previous section. Literally it is a continuation, beginning with ‘when’. Nevertheless, the main action that begins the reading is the elders, twenty-four of them, bowing low, throwing their crowns, and praising the Lord.

Then, like a play or a novel, a device is introduced that causes problems. It is a book. The book is in the right hand, or at the right, of the one sitting. The one sitting, remember, is God Almighty. The problem, as a loud angel preaches, is there is no one worthy to open the book. God has the book. No one can open it.

The book has seven seals. There is writing on the inside. I don’t know how John knows there is writing on the inside, but he does. This is likely not intended to be a book as you and I know it, but a scroll rolled up. Books were not really in existence during John’s lifetime. However, it might be a book that John saw even though he is unfamiliar with that kind of binding.

The scroll is secured by seven seals. No one in the sky, on the earth, or underground is worthy to open it. If we take this passage literally, which we probably shouldn’t, it reflects a time when human beings are living in space and deep underground as well as on the face of the earth. The best way to take it, however, is to think of no angelic being in the spiritual realm is worthy, nor any living humans, and none among the dead are worthy either.

But have no fear. There is a solution to the problem. There is one who is worthy. The lion of the tribe of Judah. The root of David. Do not weep. Do not mourn. He will break the seals and open the scroll so that history may proceed forward through its horrible destined fate until that time when all things are made new. This worthy one conquered so he would be able to do this very thing.

Advent 2022: Week Three, Wednesday, Revelation 4:1-8

Today we see the throne of God through John’s vision. I advise reading it slowly.

1. After these, I looked and behold, a door had been opened in heaven. At first, I heard a sound like a trumpet speaking, then it said to me, ‘Come up here. I will show you what needs to happen after this.”

2. Immediately I became in the spirit. Behold, a throne sat in heaven and someone sat upon the throne. 

3. The one sitting looked like a jasper and sardis stone. A rainbow, which looked like an emerald, encircled the throne.

4. Twenty-four thrones encircled the throne. Sitting upon the thrones were twenty-four elders. They wore white clothes, and upon their heads sat golden crowns. 

5. Lightening, noise, and thunder came out from the throne. Seven fire torches were burning in front of the throne, which are the seven spirits of God. 

6. Before the throne was a glass sea, like crystal. In the midst of the throne, encircling it, were four creatures covered front and back with eyes. 

7. The first creature was like a lion, the second like a calf, the third had a face of a human, and the fourth was like a flying eagle. 

8. Each of the four creatures has six wings that encircle it. Inside they are full of eyes. They have no rest day or night as they say, ‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty! The one who was, is and is coming.’

I spent far too long trying to figure out what a rainbow that looks like an emerald would be. Then I spent too long thinking about creatures covered in eyes. Then I though too long about a glass sea.

This vista of the throne of God — who is not named in the passage but is referred to simply as the ‘the one sitting.’ It is a curious way of talking about the Almighty. He has no activity here, but only sits. Everyone else does everything, especially these poor creatures that never get a break. It is easy to miss that part of it — they have no rest. Ever. Their eternal work is the praise of God.

There are many words to describe the feeling we in reading this text. One is awe. The other is incomprehension. Yet another word is fear. Indeed, this text could be described in fearful ways. It tells about a portal opening in heaven which transports a human in spirit to a place filled with color, color so bright the human has no way of really describing it. Twenty four people, all dressed the same, with golden crowns, watch. There are four monsters covered in eyes with six wings — like giant spiders that fly. It is loud with thunder, noise, and lightening. How frightening!

This scene is not supposed to bring comfort or peace. Why would we think we wouldn’t have fear in the presence of the Almighty God, maker of heaven and earth? Yes, he loves us. Yes he guides us. But he is awesome, holy, and powerful. His ways are not ours. His thoughts are not ours.

He is the sitting one.