9-10-17 "But Wait...There's More!" - First in the “There Is UNITY in CommUNITY” series on Ephesians

9-10-17 “There Is UNITY in CommUNITY” Ephesians Series

 Week 1 - “But Wait! There’s More!”

   I don’t know about you, but I’m a person who wonders about things. I’m curious - how did this come to be, who was the greatest at or the first to do that, why is this “whatever” this way? I’ve always been a questioner, and with the advent of Google the answers to my endless questioning is often only a few keystrokes away. So, do you ever wonder, what is the greatest invention of all time? I mean, which inventions, over the course of history, have made the biggest impact on the world? It’s a big question, and of course, the answer you get depends largely on who you ask. 

   Well, my work in researching and preparing for this sermon admittedly often took a circuitous route, not un-like the route Billy often takes when asked to do something in the comic The Family Circus, by Bill and Jean Keane. Like Billy in that cartoon, I sometimes begin with a particular task in mind and after meanderings through the Bible, books, online commentaries, a timeout for another cup of coffee, You-Tube videos, my iPhone music playlist, Google, more coffee, and any number of other stops along the way, I end up with something different than what I started out looking for. 

So, here’s kind of what the process looked like for me, this time.

   I began by reading the scripture - good place to start, right? And as I read chapter one of Ephesians the writer points out that God’s plan is for much more than just the forgiveness of our individual sins, there’s more to it than that. And then my brain made the connection of “more,” first to the song by Steve Lawrence (sing “More than the greatest love the world has known…) but I didn’t stay there long before I moved to the TV informercials and the line that always pops up - and became the title for this week’s installment, “But Wait, There’s More!” And that connection made me think about all of the things we’ve seen advertised on these ads over the years, from the Popeel Pocket Fisherman (which I know for a fact Tom Pettit still uses to this day) 

to the Vvegematic, Flex Seal tape and thousands of other As Seen On TV inventions. This, of course, led me to the question, what is the greatest invention of all time? Which led me to Google, and that’s how we go to this point, right here, right now

. 

   So, according the website BIGTHINK.COM, (by Paul Ratner, October 30, 2016) the top ten greatest inventions of all time, in descending order are:

10. STEAM ENGINE - invented between 1763 and 1775 by James Watt, who built upon the ideas of previous steam engine attempts. The steam engine powered trains, ships, factories and the Industrial Revolution as a whole.

9. ELECTRICITY - utilization of electricity is a process to which many bright minds have contributed over thousands of years, going all the way back to Ancient Egypt and Ancient Greece, when Thales of Miletus conducted the earliest research into the phenomenon. The 18th-century American Renaissance man Benjamin Franklin is generally credited with significantly furthering our understanding of electricity, if not its discovery.

8. PRINTING PRESS - invented in 1439 by the German Johannes Gutenberg, this device in many ways laid the foundation for our modern age. It allowed ink to be transferred from the movable type to paper in a mechanized way. This revolutionized the spread of knowledge and religion as previously books were generally hand-written (often by monks).

7. GUNPOWDER - this chemical explosive, invented in China in the 9th century, has been a major factor in military technology (and, by extension, in wars that changed the course of human history).

6. PAPER - invented about 100 BC in China, paper has been indispensable in allowing us to write down and share our ideas. 

5. COMPASS - this navigational device has been a major force in human exploration. The earliest compasses were made in China between 300 and 200 BC.

4. OPTICAL LENSES - from glasses to microscopes and telescopes, optical lenses have greatly expanded the possibilities of our vision. They have a long history, first developed by ancient Egyptians and Mesopotamians, with key theories of light and vision contributed by Ancient Greeks.

3. NAIL - The earliest known use of this very simple but super-useful metal fastener dates back to Ancient Egypt, about 3400 B.C. If you are more partial to screws, they’ve been around since Ancient Greeks (1st or 2nd century BC).

2. WHEEL - the wheel was invented by Mesopotamians around 3500 B.C., to be used in the creation of pottery. About 300 years after that, the wheel was put on a chariot and the rest is history.

1. FIRE - It can be argued that fire was discovered rather than invented. Certainly, early humans observed incidents of fire, but it wasn’t until they figured out how to control it and produce it themselves that humans could really make use of everything this new tool had to offer. The earliest use of fire goes back as far as 2 million years ago, while a widespread way to utilize this technology has been dated to about 125,000 years ago. Fire gave us warmth, protection, and led to a host of other key inventions and skills like cooking. The ability to cook food helped us get the nutrients to support our expanding brains, giving us an indisputable advantage over other primates. 

   But the power of Google to provide answers aside, I have to disagree. Having lost untold hours of my life that I will never get back watching thousands and thousands of commercials for everything from the Aqua Dog canine water bottle to the Flippin’ Fantastic Perfect Pancake flipper to the Spin Mop, I think the greatest invention known to humanity HAS to be… the digital video recorder. 

Why? Because it allows the user to skip past all of those ridiculous commercials and saves you hours of couch time that would otherwise be wasted! But, as a means of giving credit where credit is due, were it not for the Billy Mayes, Ron Popeils, and others who interrupt our viewing of CSI and Law and Order reruns with ads for mops, all things plastic, and time savers in the kitchen, we might never have heard the phrase, “But wait, there’s more,” and WHO KNOWS where this sermon might have gone! 

   Seriously though, “But wait, there’s more!” is the core of the message of Paul or pseudo-Paul -  remember from our earlier series, Ephesians is one of those letters that we can’t say with certainty that Paul actually wrote, or whether it was one of his followers who wrote in his name. We’ll call him Paul to keep it simple. And likewise, the earliest versions of the letter don’t have the name “Ephesus” included in it, leading some to believe that this letter originated as a more general letter and that “Ephesus” was added later. Regardless, the gist of the message in our passage today is, “But wait, there’s more.”

   And the letter begins with Paul pronouncing a blessing on God rather than any kind of thanksgiving for the Ephesians themselves, one of the traditional marks of the genuine Pauline letters, by the way. And then Paul, in verse 5, at nearly the beginning of the letter, makes clear the implications of God’s work for those to whom the letter is written: they (and we) have been adopted by God. And then Paul proceeds to list many of the things that God has done for us:

• God chose us in Christ to be holy and blameless in God’s presence even before the creation of the world.
• We have been freed through Christ from those things which bind us or hold us captive.
• We have forgiveness for our failures through God’s grace.
• God revealed God’s plan in and through Jesus Christ.

   And then comes the “But wait, there’s more” moment. In addition to all that God has already done for us, this is God’s plan for the climax of all times: to bring all things together in Christ, the things in heaven along with the things on earth. All things, all people, all of creation - all means all!

   Paul says that we are insiders to a much bigger plan than even the lavish grace that forgives our sins and frees us from all that would seek to own us. 

God intends to gather all things up into Christ, so that the love, healing, wisdom, and welcome that we associate with Jesus will be the way the whole creation works. This is our destiny and that of the whole creation: to “live for the praise of God’s glory.”

   But what does this mean for us, today? 

What does this look like for us - made in the image of God as co-creators with God? And what does it look like for church, the hands and feet of God in the world? And how are we to think about what it means to “live for the praise of God’s glory?”

   Let’s think about it in three ways - a kind of a trinitarian approach. We begin with the idea that God provides. God is at work in our lives before we are even aware of it, before we can even think about responding to that providence. God has a plan, not a detailed step-by-step set of controls that dictates everything we say, think, or do, or everything that happens in the world, but a plan, a desire, a preferred future as it is sometimes called, that is not only for our good and our redemption, but for the redemption of the whole world. 

It’s a providence rooted in grace, particularly what John Wesley called prevenient grace, the grace that precedes or goes before us. It is the love of God for all of creation that tugs at us, loves us, woos us into relationship with God even before we have awareness of it. 

   So there is God’s providence, and there is also God’s power. We see and experience God’s power as it makes us whole, holy, and blameless before God. 

It’s a power born of love, not of control; a power that defers to our free will; that desires our love but never forces it. And the source of this power can be found in the phrase “in Christ,” which is found multiple times in our reading for today. To live “in Christ” is to live in such a way as to strive to glorify God as we seek to fulfill the mission of Jesus Christ, who came to reveal God’s self, God’s plan of redemption, and God’s irresistible love most fully to us, glorifying God in how he lived and died.

   So what does the power of God mean for you and for me? At the end of the letter, in Eph 6:30, Paul refers to himself as an “ambassador in chains.” 

That is, even as he is in prison awaiting trial, Paul still clings to the power, the love, the grace of God. By all obvious measures or appearances, Paul is powerless. Some of us sense that we are powerless in this life, that we have lost, or never had control of our destinies, that our lives and the world is closing in on us.

 Since that fateful day sixteen years ago, when two planes brought down two towers, and stoked the fears of the world, the world has become much smaller - too small for some.  Corporate decisions seem to have been removed from us, the adage “follow the money” speaks to how fear, including the fear of scarcity, has replaced faith for many and points to the idol that many people truly worship if the truth be known. The challenges in the world seem more immense, the needs greater, and the resources fewer. Paul writes as one in bondage, and his writing challenges us to consider, to what are we in bondage? Fear? Idolatry? Racism? Materialism? Privilege? Consumerism? Militarism? Greed? But even as Paul writes from a place of physical bondage, he knows and claims the power of God. And he tells us in our reading today, that the power that he claims is promised to us, is an inheritance to us, as well.

   So God provides for us. God’s power is with us and for us. God also has a purpose for us, that we might live “to the praise of God’s glory.” That is, that we might live lives that testify to the presence of God in our lives and that doing so brings glory to God. And what does that look like for us? A clergy colleague shared a wonderful illustration with me several years ago that I’ll share with you to help us picture this.  

   Have any of you ever been to Redwood National Park, or seen redwood or sequoia trees in nature?  These majestic trees are said to be the tallest living species in all of God’s earthly creation.  They can exceed 300 feet in height, and can be 44 feet around at its base. With trees this big, you would expect them to have huge, deep roots underground, supporting and stabilizing them, right?  But, in fact, redwood roots are very shallow, growing only 4-6 feet deep.  This isn’t much support for a tree that grows 30 stories high and more than 40 feet around, is it?

   A redwood’s roots don’t grow deep, but they do grow wide, spreading as far as 125 feet in all directions.  And redwoods never grow alone, they grow in groves, or communities, so that as each tree’s roots grow outward, they interlock with those of its neighbors, to form a network of roots.  It’s as though they’re holding hands underground, forming a web of roots that allows the trees to withstand even the greatest of storms. God created them in such a way that they must grow in community with other redwoods.

   Now, I’ll ask you to turn and look at all of these who are gathered here with you today - those on your left and right, those in front and behind. These are your redwoods - this is your grove, your network of roots, your community. This is who God has provided for you, planted alongside you to interlock with, to hold hands with, to grow with, when the seasons get testy, when the world seems cold and violent, when the wind of change blow hard and the fire of conflict appears ready to bring us crashing down. 

   This unity is our purpose; the unity that Jesus modeled in selecting twelve to follow him, twelve to stand together. Only one of the twelve fell - the one who attempted to live outside the grove, the one who tried to go it alone. And this is the unity in community as a church family that is our purpose that we are invited into when we share together in our worship, in our service, in fellowship, in our giving, in our living. Where any one individual or family cannot, on its own, do all the work of living in a way that glorifies God, when we are joined together in community, then all things are possible through the God’s providence, power, and purpose. It is in that unity that we support one another, love one another, provide care for one another, and hold one another up, bearing one another’s burdens, carrying each other.

    In a couple of weeks we’ll ask you to make two commitments to unity in our community. The first will be with your pledge of financial support for the next year, answering after prayerful consideration, “what percentage of your income God is calling you to give to support the vision, the mission, and the ministries of your church for the next year.” And second, we’ll ask for your commitment to giving of your time and talents to both support and extend the community to those around us through our mission and ministries here at Crossroads. 

   As an act of worship this week we invited you to help us prepare the soil for the seed that God has planted in our community. As we shared in our last series, the Tree of Life was present in the garden “in the beginning,” and had become a grove of its own “when God made all things new” in the new Jerusalem. The Tree of Life, in some ways, represents all that God desires for us and for all of creation; it represents the life-giving presence of God with us, as well as the “more” that Paul promises us in the opening of the letter to Ephesians. And it represents that unity that we find in Christ, as a Christ-centered community.

  So as we conclude, I want to invite you, you mighty redwoods, to join hands with those around you, to your right, to your left, in front of you and behind you, that our roots might combine to hold one another up, as I share with you some lines adapted from a brief reading titled, 

“Thoughts from a Garden.”

All the seasons will be yours,
but remember, too,
that gardens are not just happenings.
The more wonderful the garden,
the more skilled the gardener.
So you will have to care deeply for the life that is yours together, and nurture it.
You will have to appreciate your differences and cultivate them.

You will have to take care of yourself,
if for no other reason than out of love for the other.
And you will need the support of family and friends to reach full growth.
As you caringly chose this place to [to connect to God’s community],
so remember its lessons for your life together through the seasons that are yours to share.
And may those seasons bring you joy and happiness [in God]. Amen. 

9-3-17 Sermon “You Say You Want a Revelation?” Part 4

9-3-17 Sermon “You Say You Want a Revelation?” Part 4

(A note - due to "operator error" on my part, the recording of this sermon didn't begin at the beginning, but actually about 1 minutes in. I have indicated below where the recording begins. My apologies for the miscue.)

   So we concluded chapter 18 last week with the pronouncement of the fall of Babylon, John’s code name for the Roman Empire. John’s late first century vision eventually came to fruition nearly 300 years later, when Rome fell in the year 410 - nearly 400 years after Jesus’ earthly life ended. For perspective, that’s about the same time interval as between now and when Pilgrims landed the Mayflower at Plymouth Rock in 1620.

   But in contrast to the songs of lament over the fall of Babylon that conclude chapter 18, chapter 19 begins in heaven, with voices of a great multitude singing “Hallelujah! Hallelujah!” and the twenty four elders and the four earthly creatures all falling down in worship to God as well. 

And in the midst of this great scene of worshipful celebration, a voice cries out calling all to worship God. And then the voice of the multitude, described again, as earlier, like the sound of many waters or of a waterfall, cries out “Hallelujah!” and declares the marriage of the Lamb, Jesus, has at last come. And who is his bride? 

The church.

   Metzger writes, “The concept of the relationship between God and his people as a marriage goes far back into the Old Testament. Again and again prophets spoke of Israel as the chosen bride of God (Isa. 54:1-8; Ezek. 16:7; Hos. 2:19). In the New Testament the church is represented as the bride of Christ; he loved the church so much that he gave himself up in her behalf (Eph. 5:25).”

   And then John is commanded to write down what is the fourth of seven beatitudes, or blessings found in the book. 

“Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.” The approach of the marriage supper means the climax of the drama is drawing to a close, or more colloquially, “the fat lady is about to sing!” In this case, Satan is about to be defeated…for good. 

(Recording begins here)

   But first John receives, in rapid succession, seven - count ‘em, seven more visions, each beginning with the words, “I saw.” First, comes a white horse, symbolic of victory, its rider called “Faithful and True,” has piercing eyes and on his head are many crowns. And Metzger clarifies this image for us, saying “To be crowned with more than one crown may seem a strange picture, but in John’s time it was not uncommon for a monarch to wear more than one crown in order to show that he was king of more than one country,” as was the case with the Roman emperor.

   The rider, the victorious Christ, “is clothed in a robe dipped in blood” (19:13), a description taken from Isaiah 63, where the conqueror’s garments are stained with the blood of his enemies. John reshapes that familiar image to portray Christ, who triumphed over sin and death in the shedding of his own blood. And with him are heaven’s armies, bearing no weapons but wearing white linen. 

And like the vision of the heavenly Christ in chapter 1, from his mouth “comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations.” No army or armaments are needed other that Christ’s word.

   This is followed by a revolting scene of vultures eating the bodies of those who have fallen in battle, the enemies of the church, familiar language and images John takes from Ezekiel 38-39. 

   And as Metzger repeatedly reminds us, “all of this is symbolism at its highest. No one imagines that such statements are literal. Never shall we see the ‘white horse,’ or the sword projecting form the mouth of the conqueror, or the birds gorged with the flesh of fallen warriors. The descriptions are not descriptions of real occurrences, but of symbols of real occurrences.” 

John’s message, conveyed through symbolism and apocalyptic imagery is that evil will be overthrown - Christ will prevail.

   Now the story moves to the final conflict between good and evil. “The beast and the kings of the earth with all their armies” comes face to face with Christ and his followers. John has been building toward this critical moment from the start. We might expect gory descriptions of this battle to end all battles, similar to “Saving Private Ryan” or “Nightmare on Elm Street,” but instead, John says nothing, evidence that he intends to describe, not an earthly military engagement, but a spiritual struggle. He portrays only the result - the overwhelming defeat of the enemies of Christ and his church. The beast and the false prophet, symbols of the Emperor and the religious cult around him, are captured and are - in the figurative language of apocalyptic literature - “thrown into the lake of fire that burns with sulfur.” And again, we note, the battle is won without any help from the faithful, but with only the power of Jesus’ word. In this way, Revelation differs from other ancient non-biblical apocalyptic literature, where great detail is provided about how “the battle between good and evil” plays out in the writings and beliefs of other cultures.

   As we move into chapter 20, John sees another vision: an angel descending from heaven, “holding in his hand the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain.” 

And it says, “He seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the Devil and Satan,” and bound him for a thousand years, and threw him into the pit, and locked and sealed it over him, so that he would deceive the nations no more; until the thousand years were ended. After that, he must let him out for a little while.” 

   And John writes that during this period the souls of the martyrs who would not worship the beast/emperor - said to be buried under the altar in heaven in chapter 6 - come back to life and reign with Christ for a thousand years. John doesn’t say if that thousand year reign takes place on earth or in heaven, but he does distinguish the martyrs from all others, saying that none of the rest of the dead come to life during this thousand years, or millennium, of blessedness and peace. 

   After the thousand years are up, Satan is released for a little while. Why? Who knows, it doesn’t say. Seems like if they had him locked up they could have kept him locked up, but who are we to judge, right? And failing his parole, Satan again deceives the nations, and brings in two mysterious figures, Gog and Magog, to do his bidding. Now, Gog and Magog are references to the book of Ezekiel, where that prophet refers to “Gog, of the land of Magog…” (Ezek. 38), invades from the north against the people of that time living peacefully in the land. Here, John takes the name of a man and a land, and presents them as world powers opposed to God. They besiege the beloved city, which we understand is Jerusalem, but before they could bring harm, fire from heaven consumes them. At the same time, the devil’s questionable parole is revoked and he, too, is thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur for eternity with the beast and the false prophet, the unholy trinity together once again. 

“Satan's rule is now completely and absolutely finished,” Metzger assures us, “and his world-age is ended forever.”

   And so with the devil now destroyed forever, let’s take a time out to consider what is, and what is not found in the book of Revelation. This thousand year period, a millennium, when Satan is locked away, is the source of a fairly recent idea called Millennialism, along with other terms like dispensationalism, and pre, mid, and post tribulationism. All of which are terms associated with what is called “rapture theology.” 

   Surprising to many, rapture theology has only been around for the past couple hundred years and is found predominantly in America. In fact, the world's leading biblical scholar, N.T. Wright, refers to it as an “American obsession” and notes that few Christians in the U.K. hold any sort of belief in it. The same can be said for trained biblical scholars of the book of Revelation, with the exception of a couple at Dallas Theological Seminary. Now I’m not referring to pastors, TV evangelists, Bible teachers, theologians, or even scholars whose expertise is in other biblical books. That qualification is important. I’m referring to academically trained New Testament scholars who have immersed themselves in the Book of Revelation, published peer-reviewed journal articles on the book or written commentaries on the book from reputable publishers. Few, if any, reputable, published, peer-reviewed Revelation scholars support the idea of rapture theology. 

   Rapture theology originated in 1830 Scotland where a fifteen year old girl, Margaret MacDonald, claimed to see a vision of a “two-stage return of Jesus.” 

John Nelson Darby, British evangelist and founder of the Plymouth Brethren, took MacDonald's vision and created an entire belief system based off of it in which Jesus returns not once (as Christians have always believed) but twice! Darby and others sympathetic to his views went back to the Bible to search for clues, signs, and verses which would justify thinking of worldly history in terms of “dispensations,” divinely appointed orders or ages, which included a seven-year period of tribulation, but not before the church could escape from it.

   Through various “mission trips” to the U.S. in the late 19th century, the notion of a “rapture” was appealing to American Christians who were going through the atrocities of the Civil War which, by all measure, must have looked like Armageddon: nation rising up against nation, brother against brother, son against father, etc. With more than half a million dead, who wouldn't find a “let's get out of here” theology attractive? This mindset was exacerbated fifty years later with World War I and the publication of the Scofield Reference Bible, Scofield being a Darby disciple, which was handed out to soldiers in the trenches. Two other events corresponded to the promotion of the “rapture” in America: the conversion of Dwight L. Moody to this rapture-based eschatological system (he later founded Moody Bible Institute and a major radio program which would become important in the promotion of rapture theology), and the establishment of a dispensationalism training center, Dallas Theological Seminary (and you get why their scholars are the exception I mentioned above).

   Now Christians have always affirmed the second coming of Christ, but only in the Darby-Scofield-Moody dispensationalism system developed were there three comings. This was a brand new take on the end, and while Christians throughout the centuries have always wondered whether their days were the last days (including Paul), with some interpreting contemporary events in such a way, the establishment of a system and a timetable was entirely new, as was the idea that Jesus would save the Church from the last days.

   But the thing is, neither Jesus nor Paul taught or believed in anything like a rapture. In fact, most scholars say that the idea of a rapture isn’t even biblical - that those passages that are used to support such an idea are being misused, taken out of context. There’s a term used in biblical study, exegesis. When we research scripture and interpret it within its context, we do exegesis. But when we seek to read something into scripture, or do what is called proof-texting - trying to use scripture to prove a point you want to make, that’s not exegesis, that’s called eisegesis. Those scholars of Revelation that I referenced earlier, suggest that the only way to find rapture theology in Revelation, in Paul’s letters, or Jesus’ teachings, is to read it into those passages. 

   For example, 1 Thessalonians 4, probably the most popular of all so-called rapture texts, talks about being caught up to meet Christ "in the clouds" at his return. But the meaning of this is not as simple as it first appears, primarily because after two millennia we find ourselves in a vastly different cultural context from Paul. Paul is casting a vision of Christ's return wrapped in political overturns. You see, in Paul's day when a king would return back to his country after victory in war, he would be met at the city gates by his people or ambassadors, trumpets would sound, and the king would be welcomed by his people to rule and reign as the victor over threatening powers. Paul uses this same language, same image, to symbolize Christ's return: when Jesus returns it’s because he has finally and fully defeated evil, suffering, and death itself and is establishing his Kingdom here on earth. Contrary to rapture oriented interpretations, 1 Thess. 4 doesn't say that in Christ's return we will all fly away from this earth. Instead, it testifies that Christ returns to this earth and we — those alive and those already passed on — will welcome his Kingdom as God's people, God's citizens, and God's ambassadors. When Paul refers to some being “caught up” (1 Thessalonians 4:17) he's not referring to a rapture that comes before a time of tribulation in the modern world: He’s giving his audience hope in the midst of persecution and death and reminding them of the hope that all Christians share, that Christ will come again (just not again and then again!). And he doesn’t say that once they meet Jesus in the clouds that they go anywhere but back to earth. 

   In fact, the words translated as “in the clouds” or “in the air,” scholars point out, in Greek literally translates as “the lower, denser atmosphere, not the higher, ethereal atmosphere.” Paul doesn’t mean heaven here.

   Another passage commonly used to support rapture theology is 1 Corinthians 15:52. The fact that this verse is used to suggest to a pre-Second Coming coming is odd, given that Paul spends the entire chapter talking about the final "resurrection" of the dead. As in the passage above, the "trumpet" is used to symbolize Christ's victory over death and, again just as the passage above suggests, he’s not talking not about being "raised" out of this earth but being raised in our physically transformed bodies to this earth. The resurrection of the saints is a central orthodox belief of Christianity and has been since Jesus himself became the "first fruits." Christ's return will inaugurate the resurrection of believers and the transformation (not the transportation) of both our bodies and this world.This will happen, of course, in the "twinkling of an eye" (meaning, we will not know when it will happen), but this verse and its surrounding context has nothing at all to do with a rapture in which Christians will fly away prior to a worldwide tribulation.

   And lastly for our purposes, Matthew 24:40-42. 

When Jesus speaks of “one being taken” and another being left in this passage, he’s not referencing how Christians all across the world will escape from a period of trial; rather, he is referring to the Genesis flood story (vv 37-40) that he talks about three verses earlier, and, as that context makes clear, being “taken away” is not good. Jesus compares those taken to the ones who were swept away by the flood; it is the one who is “taken away” that faces judgment in this teaching. In other words, you don’t want to be taken, you want to be left behind, regardless of what Tim LaHaye’s collection of rapture-fiction books, emphasis on “fiction,” suggests. 

   What is clear, I hope, are two things: First, context is vital; our reading of Scripture must be informed by wider cultural understandings. Every writer — whether it's the Gospel writers, Paul, Augustine, Wesley, or Bonhoeffer — writes within a context and as responsible Bible readers we must must commit to understanding that context.

   Secondly, out of the number of other texts used to support a rapture theology, and there are more than the “big three” that I just talked about, most of these can be — and should be — understood in other ways. The Second Coming is often confused with the rapture and many of the verses utilized as "rapture verses" are really "Second Coming" verses. They only support a rapture based eschatology if they’re extracted from their context and placed into an already existing rapture ideology or hermeneutic. 

Put another way, if you’re looking to support rapture theology, you can find verses to do that…if you take them out of context.

   The problem with rapture theology, which affects how many Christians think about the problems of this world is this: it embraces escapism as a solution. 

Rapture theology teaches us to think and hope for an escape from this world, not the endurance to persevere in it. In this view, Jesus loves the church too much to let it go through the intense suffering and judgment the world will face (similar to the popular notion that suffering doesn't happen to godly people). 

But that’s neither the message of Christ or Scripture. Sometimes bad things do happen to good people and Scripture doesn't promise us a way to avoid it, it promises us a way to get through it.

   The message of Revelation, then, is extremely important and how we interpret the last days is reflected in how we handle life and its troubles, both in the current global world and for all of history. Christians speak in a unified voice, “Come, Lord come,” not because we expect to escape and leave the trouble behind, along with the people in it, but because we seek redemption of all of reality and the ultimate death of death itself. God doesn’t call us out of the world but, rather, calls us into it with all its messiness, troubles, and dirt and asks us to be part of God’s work of redemption. Jesus did not, though he certainly could have, escape from the cross - he endured it. Likewise, the message of hope in Revelation is not that we won't face our cross — many of us will — but that God stands with us and gives us the strength to endure. Rapture theology is not biblical, it’s not redemption, it’s escapism and the belief that God won't let us endure tribulation. 

Revelation, however, calls us to the opposite: it encourages us to remain faithful even when it feels like the end of the world. Jesus didn’t pray that God’s will be done in Heaven, away from the earth, but rather that it be done on earth, as it is in heaven.

   So returning to what IS in Revelation, John sees what’s called the Final Judgment, where all the dead are brought before the judgment seat of God and books are opened. And Metzger suggests that the “one book can be called the Book of Merit, for it contains a record and remembrance of all the deeds of each one who stands before the throne of God. Another book is the book of life, which belongs to the Lamb. This one,” Metzger offers, “can be called the book of Mercy. Here the work of Christ who died to save his people from their sin, is put on the credit side of the ledger.” And he concludes regarding this brief scene, “The account in these few verses, in spite of their brevity, is one of the most impressive descriptions of the Last Judgment ever written. John’s vision presents these truths better than any reason argument could ever do. The opening of the books [an image found in other cultural end time sagas] suggest that our earthly lives are important and meaningful, and are taken into account at the end. But the consultation of the book of life shows that our eternal destiny is determined [not by what we did or didn’t do, but] by God’s decision, by God’s grace, by God’s amazing goodness.” And the final judgment then clears the way for the establishment of the new heaven and the new earth, from which sin and death are banished forever more.

   Chapters 21 and 22 provide a magnificent climax. 

John describes the holy city, the new Jerusalem, and reminds us of Isaiah’s promise that God would create a new heaven and a new earth which would abide forever, and that in this new city, God “will dwell with them as their God; they will be [God’s] people, and God will be with them; [God] will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more, for the first things have passed away.”

   Likewise, John says, “there will be no sea.” What does he mean by that statement? Well, Jews regarded the sea as a symbol of separation and turbulence, of chaos. Throughout the Bible it symbolizes restless insubordination, and in Revelation it’s the source of the system that embodies hostility toward God’s people - it’s from the sea that the dragon and one of the beasts emerge. There is no place for this in the new creation.

    And then, for only the second time in Revelation (1:8), God speaks. Seated on the throne God declares, “See, I am making all things new.” Because God speaks so rarely in Revelation, it’s important to look closely at God’s words. “See, I am making all things new” is in present tense, suggesting that God is continually making things new, in all times. It isn’t past tense; God didn’t say, “I have made all things new” as if it were a done deal or one time event. God also doesn’t say “I have made ALL NEW THINGS.” That is, it is the existing things that are made new, they aren’t destroyed, they are transformed, redeemed. God declared creation “good” and “very good” in Genesis, and here God takes creation and redeems, renews, even resurrects it in the new Jerusalem. And then God declares, “It is done!” and offers a spring of living water to those who thirst and repeats the earlier condemnation of those who were enemies of Christ’s church.

   John then reveals more details of the vision of the new Jerusalem. And though it’s intended to be symbolic, it’s nevertheless pictured very precisely. The city measures, we’re told, fifteen hundred miles in length, in breadth, and in height. That is, it’s described as a cube. 

“But how can a city be a cube?” Metzger asks. 

“The description,” he says, “is architecturally preposterous and must not be take with flat-footed literalism. In ancient times the cube was held to be the most perfect of all geometric forms. By this symbolism, therefore, John want us to understand that the heavenly Jerusalem is absolutely splendid, with a harmony and symmetry of perfect proportions. Furthermore, [John] says, the street of the city is pure gold. In ancient times, of course, streets were not paved. In the wet season streets were mud; in dry times they were dust. What a contrast to that is the new Jerusalem, where the redeemed walk on streets of gold!”

   The new city has twelve gates, as the old one did, each made from a single pearl - extravagant symbolism to reveal the created glories of God in all of nature. And while normally the gates of ancient cities were closed during the night for security purposes, the gates of this city are never to be closed, they are always open, because “there will be no night there,” John tells us.

   Likewise, John writes, “I saw no temple in the city.” And Metzger offers, “There is no temple or sanctuary in the holy city, for, in one respect, the city itself is all sanctuary. Its dimensions, being in the form of a cube, are like the Holy of Holies in the Mosaic tabernacle of old. The presence of God is no longer in a reserved place, entered only by the high priest, and only once a year; God is now accessible to all.”

   And like the Garden of Eden at the beginning of the Bible, the garden here at the end also contains the tree of life, the word translated as the singular “tree,” actually is a plural, or collective word, suggesting “trees.” 

And besides bearing twelve kinds of fruit to be eaten, notice the symbolic twelve here, they also have leaves that “are for the healing of the nations.”

   And Metzger points out another link to the account in Genesis, when John says in 22:3 that “Nothing accursed will be found there any more.” “After Adam and Eve had sinned by eating of the tree of knowledge, they were banished from Eden by the Mercy of God, [get that, banished ‘by the mercy of God,’] lest they eat also of the tree of life and become immortal in their sin. Now that redemption has been accomplished, it’s safe to eat from the tree of life. Paradise lost is now paradise regained.”

   And Metzger reminds us, “There is an old saying that in heaven everyone’s cup of joy will be full, but some cups will be larger than others.” 

That is, the degree to which we shall be able to see, to know, to be near God will depend in part on the perfecting of our spiritual vision here and now. 

That is why the Bible exhorts Christians to “grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” As we make progress in the Christian life, as we grow in our faith and our discipleship, through study, prayer, service, generosity, and worship, we gain greater capacity to know and understand God. As Paul said, “Now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face” (1 Cor. 13:12).

   So, as we conclude our study, I hope that you’ve taken from this first of all, that Revelation, read in the context in which it was written, as a pastoral letter, as early Christian prophecy, and as apocalyptic literature, is a book, not to engender fear, but to inspire hope.

   Second, I hope it guides you to read Revelation

in a very different way from those who read it as a road map for our future or as a countdown to the end. Read in context, Revelation challenges us to examine the situations of the seven churches addressed by John so that we can discover what practices within the churches were objectionable, how they did or didn’t live under the Lordship of Jesus Christ, and how they could have lived more fully in line with God’s purposes, seeking justice and wholeness for all people. This, then, gives us a basis from which to discern what questions and challenges John would pose to our church, living in the midst of our contemporary social, political, economic, and global orders. Understanding how John brought the resources of Scripture, prayer, and worship to bear on the situations of his congregations gives us direction for our own process of discernment and our task of proclamation.

   Ultimately, this enables us to better see our world as God sees it, and to know how to respond to its challenges and entanglements in a way that reflects our primary allegiance, not to empire but to Christ, who came among us in order to redeem us, and who taught us to pray for God’s will to be done here, on earth, as it is in heaven. Revelation, in the end, is a book whose message is hope. When all the frightening images are cast aside, when all the symbolic beasts and battles are understood in their context, the bottom line message of Revelation is that regardless of the hell that this life might send our way, God is with us, God will have the last word, and God’s love will win. Amen? Amen. 

8-27-17 Sermon “You Say You Want a Revelation?” Part 3

8-27-17 Sermon “You Say You Want a Revelation?” Part 3

   At this point we’re halfway through our study of the book of Revelation. We've discussed a lot of the early symbolism, how this apocalyptic literature is much different than other kinds of writing that we’re used to, even vastly different than the rest of the Bible, and that we can’t read it in the same way we read other kinds of literature - if we do we miss the point.

   And remember I said last week that the book feels like it could have concluded after chapter 11 - that what follows serves largely as a flashback of sorts. Well, our staring point today in chapter 12 can and has been characterized as a flashback, telling the story of the birth of Jesus and the attempt of King Herod to kill him shortly after his birth. John of Patmos, the author of Revelation, doesn’t tell the story in the straightforward, no-nonsense way that Matthew’s gospel does though, instead using vivid imagery and wild symbolism, portraying a heavenly oriented representation of a nearly century old event - the birth of Christ. And in doing so he employs some of those traditional apocalyptic literary motifs we talked about in week 1:  great symbolism, dualistic representations of good versus evil, etc. And Metzger points out that there are what he calls “striking parallels” to these stories that have been found in Babylonian, Persian, Egyptian, and Greek mythology, and especially in astrological lore and mythology. 

   So chapter 12 opens with a big to-do in heaven. 

John sees a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars, about to give birth to a child. John also describes a great red dragon, with seven heads and ten horns. This dragon is huge - it’s size suggested by the fact with a swipe of it’s tail one third of the stars are swept away. So, this BIG dragon is poised to devour the child as soon as it’s born. The woman gives birth to a son but before the dragon can get to it, God intervenes, saving the child.

   So what are we to make of this? Well, remembering that these images are symbols and are not real, we know in part because John tells us that the dragon represents Satan. And we understand that the child represents Christ because John identifies him as “the one who is to rule all of the nations with a rod of iron,” words taken directly from Psalm 29 describing Jewish understanding of the role of the Messiah as a great warrior.  And Metzger suggests that “the dragon’s eagerness to devour the child explains the violent opposition that Jesus met during his earthly ministry. It began with the slaughter of the children (Mt 2:16) and culminated when he was crucified…” 

   Satan is thwarted, though, when the child is “snatched away and taken to God and to his throne” - perhaps a non-chronological reference to Christ’s ascension. 

So John presents an almost unimaginably condensed version of the gospel - from birth to crucifixion to ascension in a few short verses - as though John wrote a Cliff’s Notes version of the gospel. But he achieves his purpose of showing the deadly enmity of the dragon/Satan, it’s defeat, and the exaltation of Christ to the throne of God.

   The symbol of the woman clothed with sun, standing on the moon, and wearing a crown of twelve stars has been the subject of many different interpretations. The easiest interpretation is to assume that John means Mary, the mother of Jesus. Others though, pointing to the crown of twelve stars, have suggested that she represents the Christian church - the stars being the twelve apostles who began it post-resurrection. Still others, also referencing the crown, have suggested that she represents the Jewish people giving birth to the Messiah - the twelve stars symbolizing the twelve tribes. Metzger proposes an amalgam of those images - the ideal community of God’s people, first in Jewish form and then in Christian form, which was then persecuted by a political power as evil as the dragon.

   The dragon then, having missed out on the child, 

takes its anger to heaven and battles the archangel Michael, the heavenly patron of Israel according to the book of Daniel. The dragon is defeated and cast down to the earth, after which God’s people celebrate, the words of their victory song recalling Christ’s victory over sin and death celebrated in the preaching of the gospel. The chapter concludes with the dragon pursuing the other children of the woman, that is the church, and is symbolic of the ongoing persecution of the church that began at the time of Christ’s birth and continued beyond John’s day - saying it was initiated by Satan.

   In chapter 13 then, two beasts appear - one from the sea and one from the land - and these, together with the dragon, Metzger suggests, “comprise a counterfeit trinity.” And he continues, “One is a frightful beast, rising out of the sea, who is given power by the dragon. This beast symbolizes the Roman Empire, which in John’s day was the embodiment of Anti-christ, a world power in opposition to the reign of Christ.” Anti-christ, by the way, is a term found nowhere in the book of Revelation. It is referenced only in the letters 1 and 2 John. This symbolism, in context, makes more sense if we remember from mythology or geography, that Rome is a city built on how many hills? Seven. And Metzger says, “The beast, we are told, ‘opened its mouth to utter blasphemies against God,’ reviling his name and his heavenly dwelling. We know what this means. Beginning with Julius Caesar Roman Emperors had been deified, that is, given the status and worship due to a god, the early ones after their death, but later emperors even during their lifetimes.” And I shared with you in week one that the emperor Domitian had even required people to address him as “our lord and God.” Remember also, as we were describing the cities to which John wrote the letters in chapters 2 and 3, most of them had built temples to these false “deities.” More on this shortly as well.

   So, while the policy of requiring emperor worship came from the emperor himself, it was enforced by local officials. These political underlings, Metzger suggests, “could be aptly represented by the second beast that John saw rising out of the earth and whom he later calls the false prophet. This is personified paganism itself. With a grim parody,” he says, “John describes the beast as having ‘two horns like a lamb’ - that is, it has taken on the guise of God’s chosen one…” (picture a wolf in sheep’s clothing maybe?)…”yet it spoke like a dragon.” And this beast, acting on behalf of the dragon, promoted and enforce emperor worship by any means possible, including trickery.

   The most helpful way to think about the word pictures in this passage is by comparing them to the word pictures used in political cartoons. I reminded us in week one that in American media we find an elephant and donkey representing political parties, a bull and a bear representing the stock market trends. 

In Revelation we find two beasts, one from the sea and one from the land representing a political authority that has become as destructive as a beast. 

The dragon is set up as the ultimate authority, a power to be worshiped above all else.

   One of the ways that an emperor enforced his sovereignty onto the minds and lives of his people was by issuing coins bearing his image and his title, and requiring that only imperial currency could be used in commerce. And we remember stories from the gospels where Jesus was either confronted with coins bearing Caesar’s image and asked about paying taxes to the Roman Empire, where he said famously “give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and give to God what is God’s,” or at the cleansing of the temple when he overturned the money-changers’ tables because people were being cheated when they tried to exchange their Roman imperial money for currency that could be given in the temple as their offering or sacrifice. Throughout the Roman Empire, every transaction of buying and selling with money meant handling imperial coins. And on the coins, around the image of the head of the emperor, were titles that often included “Our Lord and God.” “It is such coins as these,” Metzger says, “that John refers to as bearing the mark of the beast, without which “no one can buy or sell.” Consequently, resistance by Christians to the cult of the emperor would entail the very worst consequences - being subject to economic hardship as well as to persecution.” Other sources have suggested that under some of these officials, there was an actual mark, like a stamp or even a tattoo, that without it, one could not conduct business in the marketplace at all, and that that mark was given only when allegiance to the emperor was sworn in public by swearing to one of these public officials, “Caesar is Lord,” or “Caesar is our Lord and God.” Metzger doesn’t cite that example, but does remind us that the details of John’s vision are symbolic and that the “mark” on the right hand or forehead are meant figuratively. Those who conform to the demands of the state are given means to identify themselves, so that they can claim the benefits to which they are due. And we might also consider the conflicting images that these “marks” present - in earlier chapters the people of God also receive a mark on their foreheads. The imagery challenges people to ask to whom they truly belong: to the forces that destroy or the Lamb who liberates?

   Chapter 13 ends then, by mentioning the famous "number of the beast” - six hundred and sixty six. And Metzger explains, “the number [666] is, in the first place, a symbol of the greatest imperfection, for it is the sacred number seven less one, repeated [three times]. John says it is a human number, that is, it is the number of a person’s name. Now, in both the Greek and Hebrew alphabets, the letters also served as numerals, and it was a well known technique to add up the letters that comprise a proper name.” It doesn’t work the same way in English because our letters don’t also serve as numbers, but we do sometimes correlate a number with a letter, A with 1, B with 2, and so on. If we did that in English, then my name would break down as J = 10, A = 1, and Y = 25, which could either be written out as 10125, or added together to total 36. 

   In the ancient Hebrew numerology system, that cryptogram probably works out to the name of Emperor Nero. In the Hebrew alphabet, which has only consonants and no vowels, the numeric values of the first ten letters progress by 1 each time, the next ten letters progress by ten - so the eleventh letter is valued at 20, the 12th at 30, and so on to 100. Thereafter they progress by hundreds.  So in this system the numeric value of the name “Neron Caesar,” Nero’s full name and title, equals 666. So, John could, this implies, be naming the emperor Nero, under whom the persecution began, as being represented by the beast. Now, a complicating factor to all of this is that in other ancient copies of the book of Revelation, the number is recorded, not as 666, but as 616, which would alter the symbol, or which could simply suggest an editorial or copying error. At the same time, if the last “N” of Neron is left out, which is commonly done, and with the value of N being 50, then the number of the names works out to be…616. And Metzger posits, “There doesn’t appear to be any other name, or name with a title, that satisfies both 666 and 616.” John points directly at the Roman Emperor here.

   So, as has been the case throughout, John’s images and scenes alternate back and forth between turbulence and peacefulness and in chapter 14 we return to a scene of peacefulness. John sees the Lamb standing on 

Mt. Zion, with the 144,000 of the redeemed. And as we mentioned last week, this is a symbolic number, representing all of those who remain faithful. But then he adds this comment, “It is these who have not defiled themselves with women, for they are virgins.” So are we to understand that the only ones who can “follow the Lamb wherever he goes,” as John puts it, are men who’ve never had sexual intercourse? If we read Revelation literally, that is EXACTLY what that would mean. But, we know - or I hope we know - that this book is not to be taken literally, this is a book of symbols, so what is John suggesting here? Well, since the rest of the Bible sanctions and commends marriage (and with it, intercourse if for no other reason than procreation) then it’s hard to understand this as a sudden condemnation of marriage, or a demand for celibacy. Rather, Metzger suggests, “John appears to adopt the imagery found frequently in the Old Testament where any contact with pagan worship was called ‘fornication’ or ‘adultery.’” And I would add here, often in scripture when we hear these words, “fornication” and “adultery,” the writer is suggesting, not physical sexual intercourse, but idolatry, suggesting “sleeping with another god,” or placing someone or something at the center of our lives instead of God. Regardless, Metzger says that the 144,000 about whom John writes refers to those “who have not defiled themselves by participating in pagan worship,” which you’ll remember was one of the chief complaints leveled at many of the seven churches in the seven letters that began Revelation.

   Then John envisions three angels, one at a time. 

The first announces the time of judgment and calls the people to come to worship God. The second announces the fall of Babylon, a theme that John will take up in chapter 19 but that references the most recent empire before Rome that occupied and ruled over Israel and her people. And then the third angel predicts eternal damnation for those who persist in worshiping the beast and its image, saying that those people will “drink the wine of God’s wrath…will be tormented forever…and will have no rest, day or night.” Now, the symbolism of fire and sulfur, or fire and brimstone, are, Metzger reminds us, “traditional symbols for the fate of those who persistently reject God. Since [throughout] the book of Revelation the author uses metaphors and symbolic language, it would be quite unfair to take him literally here. Now throughout Revelation,” he writes, “we have seen that if people persist in living contrary to the structure of God’s universe, they suffer. John’s words here mean that the most terrible thing that a person can do is deliberately to turn away from the living God.” Such torment, says John, is ‘forever and ever.’ This is so, because God respects our free will and will never force us to turn to [God]. So this picture of wrath… [with which John concludes chapter 14] means nothing more or less than the terrible truth that the sufferings of those who persist in rejecting God’s love in Christ are self-imposed and self-perpetuated.” And he says that the inevitable consequence is that if they eternally persist in such rejection, God will never violate their freedom to choose. Now, whether anyone could or would eternally resist a love so great, so universal, so all-encompassing, so utterly irresistible, is the stuff of an ongoing debate within Christianity throughout it’s history. We simply do not know. But these solemn thoughts are followed by words of comfort. John hears a voice from heaven declaring, “Blessed are the dead who…die in the Lord.” “Yes,” says the Spirit, “they will rest from their labors, for their deeds follow them.” And these words of comfort and promise are familiar to us part of our funeral liturgy.

   So, as we’ve seen, the writer of Revelation tells of this vision in ever-progressing ways, backing up, looking from different perspectives, and displaying what he understands as God’s plan from different vantage points. The overarching truth within all of them is that God’s will will be done.

   Chapters 15-18 describe the struggles of the church in its conflict with hostile world powers. Earlier in the book we had the opening of the seven seals, followed by the sounding of the seven trumpets and the woes that followed both of those. Now we have an account of the seven bowls full of God’s wrath poured out on all the earth - described as “seven plagues” - and which signify the last of God’s wrath that has been exemplified in all of these events. After this, a song of praise and joy is sung, expressing confidence that all nations will be led to worship God because God’s restorative justice will vindicate all people. So, the symbolism of the pouring out of the bowls is not to suggest an orgy of violence and retribution - as Revelation is so often interpreted when read literally - but more as symbolizing the process of God’s justice being worked out through the consequences of people turning away from God to other idols or gods. To continue to subvert God’s justice, to continue to misuse the power God has entrusted, is to set one’s self up for disaster - sometimes personally and other times globally. Whether that misuse is intended for personal gain, or whether it is more systemic and results, for example, in climate change that destroys life, this is what we see playing out here. So we must remember that the descriptions we read are descriptions of symbols, not of the reality or situation conveyed by the symbols. And like a good teacher who reiterates a point in different ways to accommodate the different learning needs of their students, John makes this point again and again for his readers.

   However, the way John presents them suggests a desire to prepare the Church of his day for a period of suffering. Although he’s confident that the Lord will come soon and bring deliverance, he doesn’t want to delude his readers with premature hopes. If we look beyond the grim symbolism, we find a grim reality that the writer, and the Church, faces in his time. He desires to bring them comfort, but not with false hope. Fully conscious of the struggle that awaits it in the midst of an empire that seeks to crush it, the Church must be prepared to meet these challenges - even with their lives if necessary.

   It is in the midst of this section that the author refers to what is commonly called the battle of Armageddon. Through a complicated vision of frogs and spirits, John sees an assembly of the kings of the whole world preparing for a battle that is to occur at a place called Armageddon. “Armageddon, like the number 666, has been magnified in popular thinking,” Metzger writes, “out of all proportion to its significance as a word. Curiously enough, no one knows for certain what the name Armageddon means.” And he points out that there’s not even one broadly accepted spelling for it, some begin the word with an “H” and the number of m’s, g’d, and d’s varies from place to place. And he goes on, “In spite of the difficulty of knowing how to spell the word, and consequently what it means and where the place is located, most scholars suppose [or suggest] that it alludes to the mountain of Megiddo. The difficulty with this, however, is that there is no “Mount Megiddo”; Megiddo was the name of a city that gave its name to the pass between the coastal plains of Palestine and the Plain of Esdraelon. Because this had been the scene of frequent and decisive battles in ancient times,” as described in Judges and 2 Kings, “it would appear that John is using familiar language to symbolize a final great conflict between the forces of good and evil, a battle in which evil will be defeated scripture says - not by armaments or armies, but by God’s incarnate Word, Jesus Christ.” And then, with the subsequent pouring out of the seventh bowl, a mighty voice cries out, “It is done!” and we’re told that Babylon falls. And we wonder, Babylon? What does Babylon have to do with it?

   Metzger describes chapters 17 and 18 as “a literary triumph of imaginative power.” John has sought to provide comfort for his readers with the ongoing assurance that Rome, the evil empire, would fall. So certain is he that he spends two chapters on an account of the crashing down of the “grandeur that was Rome.” However, to say outright that God was going to destroy Rome would have been seen as treasonous in the eyes of the imperial authorities who had exiled him in the first place, so like a prisoner writing in code, John characterizes the evil power of Rome by the name Babylon. Just as Babylon represented to the Hebrews all that was wicked and symbolized persecution during the Exile, so for John Rome was another Babylon, the source of all seductive luxury and vice and the enforcer of pagan and emperor worship. And to that end, he describes Babylon as a prostitute with a description you can read for yourself in chapter 17, but suffice it to say, after reading his words one might be inclined to ask him, “do you kiss your mother with that mouth?” He condemns Rome as Babylon not only for her pagan worship and blasphemies against God, but for her treatment and persecution of fellow Christians, begun under the crazed Nero and furthered under Domitian. The historian Tacitus comments that Nero’s persecutions of Christians in Rome were so terrible, so horrific, that even non-Christians were horrified and began to intercede on their behalf.

   So then in chapter 18, John describes the fall of Rome - clearly a vision because at this point Rome was very strong. And Metzger’s description paints an image almost as realistic as John’s, “Like the tolling of a funeral bell, we hear the repeated lamentation: ‘Alas, alas, the great city!’ Despite all of her sins and her crimes, there are many who mourn for her. The kings of the earth who had consorted with her ‘weep and wail over her when they see the smoke of her burning.’ The merchants who became wealthy because of her great commerce and trade ‘weep and mourn for her, since no one buys their cargo anymore.’” So, while those who profit from the business they do with the city that John calls “the whore of Babylon” weep, from John’s perspective, the fall of Rome is reason to celebrate.

     And Metzger writes here, “It is remarkable that when John wrote these immensely moving chapters about the fall of Rome, Rome was still very much alive, still enjoying undisputed sovereignty and undimmed prestige. So great, however, is John’s faith in the sovereignty of God and so great is his confidence that the justice of God must eventually punish [this] evil, that he writes as though Rome has already fallen. As with so many judgments of God, the fulfillment actually came slowly, but at last suddenly. For centuries Rome decayed and degenerated, moral poison infecting her whole life.” And I would interject this into Metzger’s flow of thought here - that even as the Roman Emperor Constantin made a near death-bed conversion to Christianity in the early 300s, making Christianity the official faith of the Empire, it was too little too late to save the empire from the consequences of its abuse of power. During what Metzger then describes as a “fateful week in August of the year 410 CE…northern hordes of Goth [armies] pillaged Rome and laid it waste.”

   So what are we to take from this part of the book of Revelation? Certainly John wrote in order to stimulate faithfulness and hope on the part of persecuted Christians living in the first century under the rule of a dominating and domineering power, assuring them that ultimate victory lies with Christ. But Revelation also serves as a warning for believers down through the years. Babylon is an allegory, a representation, of the idolatry than any nation, ANY nation commits when it elevates material abundance, military might or power, technological sophistication, imperial grandeur or exceptionalism, racial pride, moral superiority, or any other glorification of the creature, over the Creator. 

“In these chapters,” Metzger concludes, “we have an up-to-date portrait of what may occur when we idolize the gross national product, worship growth, and become so preoccupied with quantity that we ignore quality.  The message of the book of Revelation concerns the character and timeliness of God’s judgment not only on persons, but also of nations, and, in fact, of all principalities and powers - which is to say, all authorities, all corporations, all institutions, all structures, all bureaucracies, and the like. And to the extent that  [religious] denominations and sects have succumbed to the lure of power and prestige, the words of John are applicable also to present-day church structures.”

   So next week we’ll look at the concluding chapters; on Christ’s final victory; the last judgment; and this idea commonly referred to as the rapture. 

Let’s pray: For your presence with us, in us, and around us we give you thanks. For your inspiration in the writing, reading, and hearing of Scripture we give you thanks. For the gift of your Son Jesus Christ, the lens through which we view both Scripture and life, we give you thanks. Amen.