Anglican Diocese of San Joaquin
  • Home
  • About Us
    • What's an Anglican?
    • Bishop & Staff
    • Bishop's Log
  • News & Events
    • News & Events
  • Convention 2025
  • Churches
  • Open Positions
    • Clergy Positions
  • Resources
    • Diocesan
    • Congregational
    • Protect Children & Youth
    • Catechetical Resources
    • Devotional/Liturgical
    • Join The Daily Office
    • Standing Committee
    • Misconduct Reporting
  • Calendar
  • Clergy
    • Incorporation
  • Contact
  • Donations

News & Events

Advent Devotional Jack Franicevich

12/10/2020

0 Comments

 
Picture
​Here's an entry for the Nashotah House Advent Devotional that was written by one of our seminarians, Jack Franicevich. We hope it better helps you to prepare for the coming of Christ!

​Holy City, Seen of (Moses & Ezekiel &) John

Ps. 72, 111, 113; Isaiah 28:9-22; Revelation 21:9-21; Luke 1:26-38

In Revelation 21, we see John whisked away by an angel to the top of a mountain to see a vision of the New Jerusalem. This vision is the Grand Finale of all mountaintop visions in the Bible. As John pens what he sees, he invites his readers to remember the other holy men who were whisked away to mountaintops and shown new things.

First, the Lord tells Moses to “come up to me on the mountain,” where he shows him “the pattern of the tabernacle.” Then he tells him to make everything he sees “after the pattern which was shown to you on the mountain” (Exod. 24:12; 25:9, 40).

Twenty-five years into Israel’s exile, Ezekiel is the second man brought up to the mountaintop. The Lord “brought [Ezekiel] into the land of Israel and set [him] on a very high mountain” where he was shown “a structure like a city” (Ezek. 40:1-4). Up on the mountain, Ezekiel meets a heavenly man who gives him a detailed tour of a temple, like a Holy Real Estate Agent. Three chapters into the vision, the glory of Yahweh fills the house and the Holy Real Estate Agent tells Ezekiel what’s going to happen and what he needs to do: I will dwell in this house forever; make sure all of Israel knows the measurements for my house, puts away her harlotry, and gets ready to offer new sacrifices (43:6-27). The heavenly man is not only a Holy Real Estate Agent, but also a Prophet, a Holy Architect, and City Planner.

Moses and Ezekiel are taken up to mountaintops to see God’s new worlds and sent back down to go build them.

After Moses and Ezekiel comes Jesus. Like Moses and Ezekiel, Jesus is in the wilderness, and there he meets an angel, who takes him to “a very high mountain” and shows him “all the kingdoms of the world and their glory” (Matt. 4:8). Wait a minute. Did you catch that? Jesus’ vision is not like the first two. To begin with, the “angel” is a fallen angel. And the vision the fallen angel offers Jesus is also
fundamentally different. Moses and Ezekiel are shown heavenly realities, new worlds to build, future kingdoms to long for. Jesus is shown earthly realities, the world as it is, kingdoms that are passing away.

Jesus rejects the kingdoms of the earth because he is the Costly Cornerstone of the Coming Kingdom (Isa. 28:16). He is the Founding Father of the New Jerusalem, Holy Architect and City Planner, and The Very Pattern shown to Moses and Ezekiel.

John – author of the fourth gospel, and one of the four pillars of the church (Gal. 2:9) – sees his fourth vision in Revelation. He sees the city coming down. And standing at the end of a line of great men of faith who precede him, who “desire a better country” (Heb. 11:16), John rejects the kingdoms of this world, fixes his eyes on Christ, and descends the mountain, putting his hands to the plough and building up the One City of God among the many cities of men.

Oh Lord, pry our eyes from the world as it stands and show us, as you did your servant John, our New Jerusalem from above, adorned like a Bride, shining resplendent in jasper-brilliance, gold and glass, chrysoprase and pearl. And give us, O God, the strength to build:

O holy city, seen of John, where Christ, the Lamb, does reign, within whose four-square walls shall come no night, nor need, nor pain, and where the tears are wiped from eyes that shall not weep again!

O shame to us who rest content while lust and greed for gain in street and shop and tenement wring gold from human pain, and bitter lips in deep despair cry, “Christ has died in vain!”

Give us, O God, the strength to build the city that has stood too long a dream; whose laws are love, whose ways are servant-hood, and where the sun that shines becomes your grace for human good.
0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Archives

    March 2025
    September 2024
    July 2024
    April 2024
    February 2024
    January 2024
    December 2023
    September 2023
    June 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    September 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    April 2018

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Our Mission

As the Anglican Diocese of San Joaquin We Will Call,
​Equip and Deploy Laity and Clergy to Bring People to and
Disciple Them in a Saving Relationship with Jesus Christ.

Office Number

Contact Us

559-244-4828
  • Home
  • About Us
    • What's an Anglican?
    • Bishop & Staff
    • Bishop's Log
  • News & Events
    • News & Events
  • Convention 2025
  • Churches
  • Open Positions
    • Clergy Positions
  • Resources
    • Diocesan
    • Congregational
    • Protect Children & Youth
    • Catechetical Resources
    • Devotional/Liturgical
    • Join The Daily Office
    • Standing Committee
    • Misconduct Reporting
  • Calendar
  • Clergy
    • Incorporation
  • Contact
  • Donations