So we are still moving through the church year and were approaching the time when we
think about the end of the age and the coming of Christ to judge the world. That really should be front and center in our minds most of the time anyway. It is blasted at us every Sunday if we belong to a church that recites the Creeds – “He will come again with Glory to Judge”….That is why we had a Reformation – because someday Christ will come again and we must give an account of our witness. That is why celebrate All Saints – because someday Christ will come again and unite us all. I’ve been talking lately about the fact that the mystery that we are to proclaim in the churches is that Christ is the head of the new creation, and that it is the purpose of God the father to bring everything under his headship.
Jesus said “all power is given unto me in heaven and on earth.” This is pretty much limitless. All means all. There is not a lot of wiggle room there. It’s hard for us to see the whole scope of God‘s redemption. When we see our friends suffer and die and watch as things decay and fall apart it is difficult to understand the full scope of our saviors mercy and grace.
There is a strange passage in the midst of revelations chapter 6 in which the saints under the altar cry out “how long Oh Lord” and the question has to do with coming to judge the earth and avenging their blood. There is the passage in Romans 8 that talks about the creation groaning as it waits for the sons of God to be revealed. It’s important to note that the Revelation is in the middle of the opening of the seals. The riders are let loose, and they are given authority. They are given authority by the only one who has authority and that is Christ.
One of the old theologians wrote that “when the steeds of conquest ride across the skies, when the red steed of war goes galloping out, when the black steed of famine comes clumping down our road, when the steed of death over takes us – that is no accident.. That is the lamb that was slain opening the Seals of God’s book, for you.” What power they have is given to them by Christ because all authority is given to Jesus.
I wrote the song above because our mercy and care for others is a sign in these gray and latter days of the love of God in Christ. Our acts of mercy are a sign to the whole creation that the sons of God are being revealed.
