Reformation: First Reading, Revelation 14:6-7                           

Revelation 14:6-7

God never reaches a point of desperation. In the sense that we might when we’re on our way to the grocery store before it closes for the Thanksgiving holiday. Grandma just realized there’s no cranberries!!!

No irreverence is intended here whatsoever, but our first reading for Reformation Sunday highlights the lengths to which God will go to both get out His gospel and to make sure everyone has heard the good news. Centuries of God’s people declaring the Kingdom of God and its sure point of entry. There is one way and one way only after all. No matter what century you were born. The promise of a Savior who will cure and put away forever the malady of mankind. Sin. And the final message, “Fear God and give him glory, because the hour of his judgment has come, and worship him who made heaven and earth, the sea and the springs of water” (Rev. 14:7).

It’s an apt conclusion. A final warning, the identification of whom we should worship, and the charge to fear him and give him glory. Nothing could be more appropriate. Nothing needs to be heard more clearly. And there’s no limit to what God will do to make sure we all know. That’s the kind of God we have. And that’s the God who wants everyone to know.