horses and judgment

Good morning sisters and brothers,

Tomorrow evening at 7 we are joining in a worship service for Christian Unity. The service will be co-led with folks from our North East Church Cluster neighbors (Episcopal, Methodist, Lutheran and Catholic Churches) and will focus on how we are one church even though we are different. The service takes place at St. Mark's and St. John's Episcopal Church on the corner of Culver and Rosewood. I hope you can make it.

Today's passage continues the judgment of the world. As we read these pretty horrifying passages I think about how much in our world stands against God's desire for a loving, peaceful world. We are so tied to greed and selfishness that only drastic measures can bring about a new government of peace. 

God bless,
Sam

Revelation 9:13-21

¹³Then the sixth angel blew his trumpet, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar before God, ¹⁴saying to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, “Release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates.” ¹⁵So the four angels were released, who had been held ready for the hour, the day, the month, and the year, to kill a third of humankind.

¹⁶The number of the troops of cavalry was two hundred million; I heard their number.  ¹⁷And this was how I saw the horses in my vision: the riders wore breastplates the color of fire and of sapphire and of sulfur; the heads of the horses were like lions’ heads, and fire and smoke and sulfur came out of their mouths. ¹⁸By these three plagues a third of humankind was killed, by the fire and smoke and sulfur coming out of their mouths. ¹⁹For the power of the horses is in their mouths and in their tails; their tails are like serpents, having heads; and with them they inflict harm. 

²⁰The rest of humankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands or give up worshiping demons and idols of gold and silver and bronze and stone and wood, which cannot see or hear or walk.²¹And they did not repent of their murders or their sorceries or their fornication or their thefts.