Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

¹² This demands patience from God’s holy people, who keep God’s commands and the faith of Jesus.

¹³ Then I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, “Write this: God’s blessing on the dead who from this time onward die in the Lord.”

“Yes,” says the spirit, “so that they may rest from their works, for the deeds they have done follow after them.”

Reaping the harvest

¹⁴ Then I looked, and there was a white cloud, and sitting on the cloud one like a son of man. He had a gold crown on his head, and a sharp sickle in his hand. ¹⁵ And another angel came out of the temple, shouting in a loud voice to the one who was sitting on the cloud, “It’s harvest time! Put in your sickle and reap: the harvest of the earth is ripe!” ¹⁶ So the one sitting on the cloud applied his sickle to the earth, and reaped the harvest of the earth.

¹⁷ Then another angel came out of the temple in heaven. He, too, had a sharp sickle. ¹⁸ Yet another angel came from the altar; he had authority over fire, and he spoke with a loud voice to the one who had the sharp sickle. “Go to work with your sharp sickle,” he said, “and gather the clusters of fruit from the vine of the earth; the grapes are there in ripe bunches!” ¹⁹ So the angel went to work with his sickle on the earth, and gathered the fruit from the vine of the earth, and threw it into the great winepress of God’s anger. ²⁰ The winepress was trodden outside the city, and blood came out of the winepress, as high as a horse’s bridle, for about two hundred miles.