{"id":17323,"date":"2021-06-18T06:15:00","date_gmt":"2021-06-18T05:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mailchi.mp\/urc\/urc-daily-devotionfriday-18th-june-2021"},"modified":"2021-06-18T06:15:00","modified_gmt":"2021-06-18T05:15:00","slug":"urc-daily-devotion-friday-18th-june-2021","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.trinitywimbledon.org\/index.php\/urc-daily-devotion-friday-18th-june-2021\/","title":{"rendered":"URC Daily Devotion\u00a0Friday 18th June 2021"},"content":{"rendered":"

Friday 18th June 2021<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Revelation 19: 11 – 16<\/strong><\/p>\n

Then I saw heaven opened, and there was a white horse! Its rider is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and makes war.  His eyes are like a flame of fire, and on his head are many diadems; and he has a name inscribed that no one knows but himself.  He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood, and his name is called The Word of God.  And the armies of heaven, wearing fine linen, white and pure, were following him on white horses.  From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron; he will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty.  On his robe and on his thigh he has a name inscribed, \u2018King of kings and Lord of lords\u2019. <\/p>\n

Reflection<\/strong><\/p>\n

From an earthly perspective, the Seer witnesses the heavens opened, and a divine warrior riding out on a white horse leading the heavenly armies.  Although we are told that only the Rider knows his name (v.12), we are left in no doubt that this is Christ, known as the Word of God (v.13) and \u2018King of kings and Lord of lords\u2019 (v.16).  This seeming contradiction reinforces the mystery surrounding Christ\u2019s return.<\/p>\n

But we know that Christ will return, and that the return will bring judgement, as powerfully portrayed in v.15.  The \u2018sharp sword\u2019 protruding from the Rider\u2019s mouth recalls the \u2018sword of the Lord\u2019 familiar from various Old Testament passages (e.g. Deut. 32:41; Isa. 34:5-6; Ezek. 21:3-5; 30:24; 32:10), a potent symbol of eschatological judgement.  The \u2018rod of iron\u2019 which the Rider wields to rule the nations offers a messianic interpretation of Psalm 2:9.  \u2018Treading the winepress\u2019 is a further metaphor for divine judgement (Isa. 63:2-3).<\/p>\n

During this time when nations seem to be increasingly divided, and our world more fragmented than ever, the Seer reminds us that ultimately all will be accountable to Christ.  National identity will be irrelevant when we are confronted by the Christ whose robe is stained with the blood he shed for the whole of errant humankind.<\/p>\n

Prayer<\/strong><\/p>\n

Gracious God,
Forgive us our complacency:
our cowardly desire to shy away from your fiery gaze
which illuminates our failures and wrongdoing.
Forgive us our divisiveness,
when we distinguish between \u2018them\u2019 and \u2018us\u2019
and fail to recognize our responsibilities
towards one another in our fractured world.
Forgive us, and help us
to overcome the dividing barriers
as one people united
in the Christ who died for all.  Amen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Friday 18th June 2021 Revelation 19: 11 – 16 Then I saw heaven opened, and there was a white horse! Its rider is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and makes war.  His eyes are like a flame of fire, and on his head are many diadems; and he has a name … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “URC Daily Devotion\u00a0Friday 18th June 2021”<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17323","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.trinitywimbledon.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17323","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.trinitywimbledon.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.trinitywimbledon.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.trinitywimbledon.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.trinitywimbledon.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17323"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.trinitywimbledon.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17323\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.trinitywimbledon.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17323"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.trinitywimbledon.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17323"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.trinitywimbledon.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17323"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}