> Revelation 19:4-16 - WEB > The twenty-four elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshiped God who sits on the throne, saying, “Amen! Hallelujah!” > A voice came from the throne, saying, “Give praise to our God, all you his servants, you who fear him, the small and the great!” > I heard something like the voice of a great multitude, and like the voice of many waters, and like the voice of mighty thunders, saying, “Hallelujah! For the Lord our God, the Almighty, reigns! > Let us rejoice and be exceedingly glad, and let us give the glory to him. For the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his wife has made herself ready.” > It was given to her that she would array herself in bright, pure, fine linen: for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints. > He said to me, “Write, ‘Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.’” He said to me, “These are true words of God.” > I fell down before his feet to worship him. He said to me, “Look! Don’t do it! I am a fellow bondservant with you and with your brothers who hold the testimony of Jesus. Worship God, for the testimony of Jesus is the Spirit of Prophecy.” > I saw the heaven opened, and behold, a white horse, and he who sat on it is called Faithful and True. In righteousness he judges and makes war. > His eyes are a flame of fire, and on his head are many crowns. He has names written and a name written which no one knows but he himself. > He is clothed in a garment sprinkled with blood. His name is called “The Word of God.” > The armies which are in heaven followed him on white horses, clothed in white, pure, fine linen. > Out of his mouth proceeds a sharp, double-edged sword, that with it he should strike the nations. He will rule them with an iron rod. He treads the wine press of the fierceness of the wrath of God, the Almighty. > He has on his garment and on his thigh a name written, “KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.” # Paraphrase And then  twenty-four elders and four holy living ones of the Pleroma prostrated and worshiped the Unknown and Unknowable God seated on the throne of depth, saying,
"So may it be.  Praise be to God."

And from the throne of Depth came a voice saying, "Praise our God beyond thoughts and words, all you his servants, and all who fear him, great and small."

And then I heard what sounded like the voice of a great multitude of believers, like the sound of many waters and like the strong crash of thunder, saying, "Praise be to God!  For the God beyond Names and Naming, the Source and Substance of all things reigns.

Let us exult and rejoice and bestow upon the Holy One all glory, for now is the marriage of the Lamb, and we as bride are made ready,

We have received the grace to dress in bright and pure linen.  For the white linen is the righteous works of all things."

And my angel said to me, "Burn these words on your heart: Blessed are those called to the marriage of the Lamb."  And my angel said to me, "Truth is the word of God."

Then I fell down, and worshiped the feet of the one who showed me the truth, but he said to me, "Do not worship me, or any other truth bearer!  I am merely a fellow servant with you and all other believers who bear the testimony of Christ Jesus.  Worship God, the Ultimate Ground and Abyss of all being and becoming!  For the Testimony of Jesus is the Spirit of Prophecy."

Then the heavens opened to my sight, and I saw a white horse!  True and faithful was the name of the rider, and he judges and makes war in the Spirit.

His eyes burned like a purifying furnace, and many crowns inscribed with an Unknown Name sat on his head.

His clothes had been baptized in blood, and he was called the word of God.

And believers wearing their righteous deeds as robes, followed on the white horse of the Holy Spirit.

The sharp sword of the Holy Spirit, known as the word of God, was his tongue to strike down the high from their thrones and to raise the meek to his side, and he ruled them all with the laws of cause and effect; and he repaid each according to their deeds.

On his righteous deeds and along the path he walked were inscribed, "King of Kings, and Lord of Lords." # Meditation On the cross, Jesus Christ nailed the proclamation of the gospel of truth, "Through grace alone, by faith alone, for the glory of God alone, the great transcendent mystery can be known and participated in."  There, on that cross, all that is divine and all that is human met.  On that cross, all that could be known yielded itself to the mystery beyond.  Our Blessed Mother stood under his broken and bleeding body; her pain and tears cried out at the mystery.  As her son hung there on the border between life and death, humanity and divinity, this world and the world to come; she suffered for the ignorance of our feeble wisdom.  Christ suffered for our sins, and Mary joined her suffering to that of the Savior on account of our ignorance (Colossians 1:24).

After our Lord's death, burial, and resurrection, he ascended to sit at the right hand of the Unknowable Father.  He did not leave us without witness.  On Pentecost, he poured out the Indwelling Spirit of Truth, and to each of us he has assigned a ministering spirit, a ray of light from his own brilliance, that at all times stands before the Throne and has the face of God before it's very eyes.  Just as we are the incarnations of fallen wisdom (Achamoth), our ministering spirit is an incarnation of heavenly wisdom (Sophia).  Behold our twin, our true and vital self, our Buddha nature.  Our ministering spirit is the aspect of our being that exists separate from our body.

Ever since Christ's ascension, the church has awaited his second advent.  The second advent of Christ will come to each and every one of us as soon as we realize, we are co-laborers with our angels, and we really are the same as it is.

In our lesson this week, we are granted a glimpse into the fullness (Pleroma) of God.  There are many ways to interpret the book of Revelation, but I assure you, the most interesting is to see it as an allegory for the journey of faith.  From the visitation of Christ that brings us to faith in the beginning, to our examination of our Lord's many churches, to the struggle with the forces of darkness at work in our own lives to prevent us from living in the fullness of the gospel.  Our lesson opens with the image of the twenty-four elders and the four living creatures worshiping God on the throne of depth.  Notice, that with the angel’s presence that counts to 30: 24 elders plus 4 living creatures plus 1 throne plus 1 angel.  The energies of the fullness of the Godhead that we participate in worship the same God as we do.  They are not gods, but ways to know that which can never be said.

Standing before the throne of glory, we are all invited to the life of devotion, the life of praise of the One beyond Names and Naming.  In our modern world, this is very hard for us.  The images of faith that once gave us meaning, gave us purpose, gave us a sense of being truly alive, are now seen as something for priests and theologians to handle.  These images have no life in the hands of priests or theologians, they only come alive in the hearts and minds of the believers.  They are for our contemplation, not for their pontification.  If we do not encounter these images in our meditations, devotions, and prayer life, they have no meaning, no purpose.  They are hollow, empty shells, but when they come to life in our hearts and minds they bring us to life as well.

So praise the One beyond All Words and Wisdom!  Praise the Lord Jesus Christ whose life, teachings, death, burial, Resurrection, and ascension on high, proclaims the gospel of truth.  Praise our blessed mother Mary, our life, our sweetness, our Clement and ever loving Coredemptrix whose Fiat and participation in the suffering of the body of Christ saved us from Satan's power.  Praise God through the Holy Spirit that sings within us all the song of life.  Praise God in a deep silence where we see our ministering spirit face to face.

We are all called to the marriage feast of the Lamb.  There, we, the offspring of fallen wisdom, shall be reunited and reformed into our whole self.  The marriage feast is not far off, my brothers and sisters.  For Jesus stands now knocking at the doors of our hearts, waiting for us to let him in.  He waits for us to see ourselves as we truly are.  He waits for us to see the world as it is.  To gain this sight without illusion, bias, or delusions, we practice deep wisdom (prajna paramita), meditation.  For just as John did in our lesson, when we behold our ministering spirit, or true Buddha nature we will be tempted to fall down and worship it.  If we choose to worship it rather than God, we have chosen to worship Mara, the devil, and have blinded ourselves to that true nature of the cosmos.  We must realize as John's angel did, that worship belongs to God alone.  We worship no person, no institution, no book, no idea.  We worship the living God.

The moment we realize these things, the moment we realize that the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy, the moment we realize the truth of no-self, then the second advent of Christ will occur in our lives.  Like John before us we will see the heavens open, and the man on the white horse.  We will not see this with our fleshly eyes, but with the eyes of the spirit of prophecy.  We bring to mind the words of the living Jesus found in the Gospel of Thomas: Jesus said, "If your leaders say to you, ‘Look, the kingdom is in heaven,’ then the birds of heaven will precede you.  If they say to you, ‘It is in this see,’ then the fish will precede you.  Rather, the kingdom is inside you and it is outside you. "When you know yourselves, then you will be known, and you'll understand that you are the children of the living father.  But if you do not know yourselves, then you dwell in poverty, and you are poverty (Marvin Meyer, the Gospel of Thomas, P. 21)."  We see the marks of enlightenment we should strive to mature in ourselves in the image of the returning Christ.  He rides the white horse that is the Holy Spirit.  His name is faithful and true and he discerns the spirits and “wrestles not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places (Ephesians 6:12).”  “For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ; And having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience, when your obedience is fulfilled (2 Corinthians 10:3-6).”

His eyes burned like flames of fire, discerning truth from falsehood, and many crowns sit upon his head on each is inscribed the name that only the unknown Father knows.  His clothes have been baptized in blood, showing that he is the twice born son of God.  We were born of the blood of our mothers into this world as flesh.  Through the waters of baptism we are washed in the blood of Christ shed on the cross, and born again as children of God through our blessed mother Mary in heaven.  

His tongue is as a sharp sword.  The inspired Word of God is a sharp two-edged sword to those who do not believe and to the wicked.  In the Magnificat of Mary, the edge of the sword is kept sharp.  He carries in his hand a rod of iron, a vajra, a symbol of the force of truth and enlightenment.  On his robes, which we are told are symbolic of our deeds, and on his thigh, which is the roots of his power, it is written, “King of kings and Lord of lords.”  In every action that he does and every step that he takes, he lives God to the world.

Devotion is the easiest way to meditate.  Nothing empties us of a sense of self faster than praising that which is so much greater than we could ever hope to be.  In our praise and devotion, we admit to our ignorance, we admit our error, and we admit that we are as nothing.  Is that not the object of our meditation?  In all things, we strive to see the cosmos as it is, not as we want it to be, not as we presumed it ought to be.  We strive to see the world as God does.  To say with the purity of mind and heart, "It is good, for without darkness there is no shadow.  The world is perfect as God made it."  And like the apostles before us, we strive to perfect that which God has already made perfect (Philippians 3:12-16).  The moment we realize, with every fiber of our being, that our angel, our Buddha nature, is our co-labor, and we unite ourselves with it, then Christ will be born in our hearts.  Then we shall live Christ to the world.  Then, and only then, will we truly live God to the world and be about our work of reconciliation.

So praise the One beyond Names and Naming.  Love God, for God has always loved you (1John 4:19).  Live out the gospel of truth, and share it with all who listen.  The peace of Christ be with you all.  Amen.