This blog provides a meditation on the Episcopal daily readings along with a headline from world news

REVELATION 15

USA VOTES TODAY

1 Then I saw another portent in heaven, great and amazing: seven angels with seven plagues, which are the last, for with them the wrath of God is ended.

2 And I saw what appeared to be a sea of glass mixed with fire, and those who had conquered the beast and its image and the number of its name standing beside the sea of glass with harps of God in their hands.³And they sing the song of Moses, the servant^* of God, and the song of the Lamb:
‘Great and amazing are your deeds,    Lord God the Almighty!
Just and true are your ways,    King of the nations!^*
4 Lord, who will not fear    and glorify your name?
For you alone are holy.    All nations will come    and worship before you,
for your judgements have been revealed.’

5 After this I looked, and the temple of the tent^* of witness in heaven was opened,⁶and out of the temple came the seven angels with the seven plagues, robed in pure bright linen,^* with golden sashes across their chests.⁷Then one of the four living creatures gave the seven angels seven golden bowls full of the wrath of God, who lives for ever and ever;⁸and the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God and from his power, and no one could enter the temple until the seven plagues of the seven angels were ended.

evil leads to evil: South African Police who killed miners, doctor the evidence

Above the sea of glass, the firmament that divides the realm of God from the realm of the beast, those who belong to Moses and the Lamb, to the true Israel, sing praises to God as the just judge of all nations. We are not to imagine this realm as separate from the earth in space or time, but rather in spirit. This is a picture of what true worshippers are doing all the time, on earth and in heaven.

The great angels who will receive the bowls of the wrath of God come from the “tent of witness” the holy meeting place established by Moses: God’s wrath is an aspect of his holiness. What is this wrath? It is God’s profound anger at those who have chosen evil, at the suffering they have caused to others, whom God will rescue, and to themselves, whom he will leave with the consequences of their choice. God will not override the will of his children, such is his love for them, but will respect their decisions. That is why the author can also talk about the wrath of the Lamb.

Virtue is not its own reward as it will receive the blessing of eternal life in God’s love; but evil is its own punishment, suffering its own violence and ending in death.

On the day of the USA presidential election, it seems right to  say as it would be of any election anywhere, that choices of good and evil are not only private, they are also political. In some cases, the choice is ambivalent; in others, people may choose life or death by the vote they cast.