GLEANINGS from the Daily Office – Exile vs Flight

GLEANINGS (from the Daily Office) – Exile vs Flight – Year One, Proper 25, Monday, October 26, 2015, Revelation 1:4-20

“I John, . . was on the island called Patmos . . .”

Throughout church history there are moments when Christians flee the world. Whether it was to avoid persecution or maintain some moral purity in a defiling world, fleeing is flight. It is flight from the world for which Jesus suffered and died. It is to abandon the post given to us. It may seem harsh but it could be deemed desertion.

Exile, as opposed to flight, is different. John writes from Patmos. He did not go there to enjoy the sandy shores or the peace and quiet. He is not there on sabbatical writing a book. He is not there by choice to avoid being defiled by the unwashed masses. He has been placed there by people of power who are threatened by the “word of God and the testimony of Jesus.” Hid did not run but was carted off like Jews to Babylon under Nebuchadnezzar.

The norm for followers of Jesus is to be engaged in battle for which we may at times be sent away. The Church Militaristic may not be in vogue. It does not diminish the call to remain on the field and don the armor.

–Frodo: “I wish none of this had happened.” Gandalf: “So do all who live to see such times, but that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us.”–