Chris Campbell

You are worthy to take the scroll
   and to open its seals,
for you were slaughtered and by your blood you ransomed for God
   saints from every tribe and language and people and nation;
you have made them to be a kingdom and priests serving our God,
   and they will reign on earth.

Beloved in the body of Christ,

Tonight is the eve of the Ascension of our Lord, the day we remember the departure of the risen Christ from this world. Our reading from Revelation shows us where our hope lies now that God has physically left this world.

Our hope lies in the fact that, by His sacrifice and death, God—incarnate as the Christ child—defeated sin and death, drowning them in His blood. Now we only need prepare His way, and await the end of this world!

For now, we live in the world of sin and death. We see pain and suffering everywhere. Even yesterday, we saw this in the mass shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, and a few weeks earlier in Buffalo, New York. With such events, hope seems far from us, much like Christ is to us, and as He must have appeared so to his followers on that day He ascended.

But do not weep, for the end of time is approaching, even if we might not see it in our short lives.

Do not weep. See, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered, so that he can open the scroll and its seven seals.

The day that God bled upon the cross, the doom of death was sealed, and sin's power over life was destroyed. So look into the seven eyes of the seven-horned lamb as He opens the seven seals, and do not be afraid. For His blood has been shed for your salvation!

As the end of time comes, instead sing with every living creature:

To the one seated on the throne and to the Lamb
be blessing and honour and glory and might
for ever and ever!

May you live in Truth, Peace, and Love,
—Christopher Campbell