Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying,
‘See, the home of God is among mortals.
He will dwell with them;
they will be his peoples,
and God himself will be with them;
he will wipe every tear from their eyes.
Death will be no more;
mourning and crying and pain will be no more,
for the first things have passed away.’
And the one who was seated on the throne said, ‘See, I am making all things new.’ Also he said, ‘Write this, for these words are trustworthy and true.’ Then he said to me, ‘It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give water as a gift from the spring of the water of life.
Revelation 21:1-6
As I was reading from the Lectionary for the vigil of the Feast of the Holy Name and reached the passage from Revelation, I hoped that I would find these words, and my heart leaped with delight when I saw them. Not because I knew chapter and verse, because I'm not good at that. I have only a small number of verses committed to memory. I usually have to search. Coincidence? Perhaps, but I think not.
What? It's not the Feast of the Holy Foreskin? The Episcopal Church has really gone downhill, I tell you :)
ReplyDeleteThere goes my annual New Years prank--wishing Jesus a happy Brit-day.
At any rate, may 2009 be a good year for all of us.
Or at least, not as many hurricanes for Louisiana.
When I was a teenager, and my Protestant friends asked me why I was going to church on New Year's Day, I was so embarrassed to answer, It's the "Feast of the Circumcision". When I was younger, I was not embarrassed, because I didn't know what it meant. I'll take Holy name.
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