Reading Backwards
June 15, 2014 | Patrick Preheim
One of our blessed elders called the church office on Tuesday asking about the specific scripture passage for Sunday— amidst the wild visions and confusing numbers in John’s Revelation she wanted focus. Another elder confided in me that she had been reading the Revelation of John in preparation for Sunday and it was giving her nightmares. Alas, it gives many of us nightmares.
But we don’t need to read John’s Revelation to experience nightmares do we? Yesterday we heard again that as a result of natural disasters and ethnic tensions MCC has more need than ever for relief kits, school kits, health kits. Daily we learn of burglaries and violence in our neighbourhoods. Mounties are shot and buried in Moncton. Disease, death, dysfunction dwell in many of our homes. In the midst of all this nightmarish stuff we, like those two elders who spoke to me mid week, are trying to make sense of it all. Where is God? What is the Christian hope amidst all the tragedy of life? Such a sentiment is no different than that carried by the audience who first received John’s Revelation.
The Revelation of John was given to comfort a beleaguered church. It was written to a persecuted people who needed all the imagination possible to endure the worst an empire could dish out. The beasts and bloodletting in John’s Revelation was their frightful reality. God saw fit to strengthen them with a vision from the island of Patmos. To find meaning in the madness of John’s Revelation, or our world, I suggest reading backwards.
When we start at the end of John’s Revelation we find that the end is not really the end. That, my friends, is really good news. Beyond the loss of property and the loss home and the loss of loved ones and the loss of life there is a place where trees of life grow, rivers flow, choirs sing, the Lamb shines forth. It is such a peaceful image when compared to the tension of earlier chapters of the Revelation or our lives. The peaceful vision of our future after death ought to strengthen our Christian resolve and permit us to make peace here and now. How might this look? The story which came to my mind was that of Mary Magdalene (Gospel of John chapter 20).
Mary had lost someone very important to her. She had lost Jesus. According to Luke (8.2), Jesus had liberated her from seven demons. He had given her life direction and meaning. Now he was gone. In the aftermath of this crushing disappointment she goes to the tomb. In this place of ritual impurity she began to weep uncontrollably for even the body of Jesus was gone. The dream of relative peace had been stolen; the promise of a new life had been stolen; and now even the body of Jesus had been stolen. It was simply too much. So she wept. A gardener, she supposed, approached her. The gardener called her by name. The gardener was no gardener at all. He was Jesus. The tragic end was not the end. Jesus sends her to the disciples to share the Good News that the end is not the end. She became an apostle to the disciples.
I am not suggesting it is a light thing to have peace is stolen, to watch dreams evaporate, to abide alongside loved ones who are suffering and die? These are hard circumstances. These are hard circumstances, however, made easier when we read our Christian story backwards.
I see the way in which the Spirit has watered the seeds sown by Archbishop Oscar Romero and, therefore, do not believe martyrdom is the end. I know refugee families sponsored by MCC who have lost everything and yet built an amazing new life in this country, and therefore do not believe state sponsored violence to be the end. I have seen marriages gone up in flames only to behold beautiful new relationships spring up from the ashes, and therefore, do not believe the end of covenants is the end. When we read the gospels and the Revelation of John backward we find that the end is not the end, and that is good news. Not just for us, but for “the Kings” as well.
The presence of the Kings in our scripture text today (Rev 21.24) is most curious. According to John’s Revelation nothing unclean or false or impure is found in the divinely ordered New Jerusalem. Only those inscribed in the “book of life”, in fact, are allowed on the property (21.27). And yet the Kings of Earth are there. They have brought their glory into the New Jerusalem. Now these Kings have a seriously checked past. In 6.15 of John’s Revelation the Kings of the Earth cower in caves for their coming judgement. In 17.2 it reads the Kings of the Earth have committed fornication with the great whore Babylon, Rome. In 17.8 the text clarifies that Babylon / Rome rules over the Kings. In 18.3 & 9 it states again that the Kings have had illicit relationship with Babylon / Rome. And finally in 19.19 the Kings of the earth join in war against the agents of God. What are these Kings of the Earth doing in the New Jerusalem? A story…
Living on the streets, he got into drugs, alcohol, criminal activity, and finally murder, eventually landing him in Saskatchewan Penitentiary. Broken, lonely, socially awkward, and recluse, Mike signed up for Person-to-Person, a prisoner visitation program where visitors came once a month to spend two hours, listening, talking and becoming friends him.
In Mike’s first visit, he entered the room with his hat over eyes, mumbled for a bit, and that was it. A month later, the same thing. But [a couple] kept coming, month after month, and over time the hat slowly began to rise and the mumbles turned into discussion, even sharing his dream to one day own a house, grow a large garden and have a pet cat.
After Mike was released on parole, he joined [a] circle of support and accountability program where, after several years of working on the outside, he earned enough to buy a small house. [He made garden in the back yard] and adopted Misty from the local SPCA.
After three years of living his dream, Mike died suddenly from a heart attack as he was preparing for worship at Grace Mennonite Church, the congregation where he was baptized and a member. This happened just over a year ago. As the church filled up for his funeral with ex-inmates, prison guards, parole officers, co-workers, other CoSA members, volunteers, friends and the congregation, I made a remark to one of our congregants, “if the world works as people say they world works, than a funeral like this should have never have happened.” In which she replied, “It’s a good thing the world doesn’t work that way.”
The Kingdom of God doesn’t work that way and it this kingdom we place our hope. The “Kings” do, sometimes, come to their senses. This is true of people like Mike in our penal system and people like Oscar Romero. Yes, I did mentioned him earlier didn’t I. In 1977 when he was selected as Archbishop of San Salvador “it delighted the country’s oligarchy and disappointed the activist clergy of the diocese. Known as a pious and relatively conservative bishop, there was nothing in his background to suggest that he was a man to challenge the status quo” (Robert Ellsberg, All Saints: Daily Reflections on Saints, Prophets, and Witnesses for our Time, p. 131). And yet this “king of the Earth” became a voice for the voiceless. It is a similar story to that of Thomas Becket back in the 12th century and countless others who have been promoted to positions of power. Kings of the Earth do convert, and that ought to guide our attitude and actions in the living of our faith.
When we choose to pray for our persecutor rather than curse them, we may be contributing to a King’s conversion. When we pray for our leaders, as the bible asks us, we may be contributing to a King’s conversation. When choose honesty over deceit, charity over greed, justice over exploitation—we may be contributing to a King’s conversion. Good news, I say.
If this is the projected end for God’s elect as well as the “Kings of the Earth” how does the Revelation of John suggest we order our lives to make it happen? First and foremost, we make Jesus our centre. Two weeks ago in my sermon on the book of Jude I spoke about two values the calendar says are at the centre of congregational life at NPMC: gathering and being sent to serve. As a faith community we need to remind ourselves that behind these two values is Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God. John is given his Revelation on the island of Patmos. If we look at the map printed on the cover of our bulletin we realize that Patmos is the center. Surprisingly both Rome, which doesn’t even make this particular map, and Jerusalem are relegated to the fringes. God gives this Revelation to John on Patmos because it is approximately the centre of the Roman Empire (they have done the measurements). And at the centre of John’s Revelation is the throne of God Almighty and the Lamb. The Lamb is the centre of this theologically designed map. The Lamb is the star of light around which all things orbit. Isn’t it beautiful!! Not Rome with its might nor Jerusalem with its rules—it is the Jesus Christ the Lamb who is at the centre of the world. And in the midst of our weariness, and in the midst of our conflicts, and in the midst of our martyrdoms there exists a lamb who gives us light and life. We just need to make Jesus the centre of our lives: the centre of our home life, the centre of our work life, the centre of our congregational life. Make time and take time to make Jesus the centre because without this centre life can spin out of control.
Secondly, we worship. Biblical scholars broadly maintain that the Revelation of John was meant for community worship. At the beginning of the book John wrote, “Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of the prophecy, and blessed are those who hear and who keep what it written in it” (1.3). To have both readers and hearers implies a congregation. In worship, then, we will celebrate God and the Lamb who are the centre of our world. In worship we will affirm the pain of life, and that it is not the end. In worship we will remember that a New Jerusalem awaits us. In worship we will learn of Kingly conversions. In worship we will hear the stories of those who have given their life to faith filled living.
Finally, we witness to our faith. Our word martyrdom comes from the Greek, “martus” which really means witness. Outside of worship, in the Revelation of John, witnessing is the only thing the people of God do. God, the Lamb, the angels, the four horsemen—they all have a part in bringing the New Jerusalem into being. Sure John gets to measure a temple in chapter 11 and tries answering a few questions along the way, but everyone else simply testifies. Or maybe not so simply. John begins his prophecy by writing that blessed are those who hear and keep what is written in it, but then goes on in chapters 2-3 to single out a number of congregations no longer hearing and living the vision of Christ. No, to testify in word and deed that Jesus is the centre of our world is not so easy. I suppose that is why worship and a close relationship with Jesus are so important.
I don’t know that my words about John’s Revelation will put an end to the nightmares and confusion we experience when open to the final book of our Bible. At very least I do not think I have done any harm. And if one can end a sermon on John’s Revelation believing such, then it could be worse. Let us maintain a close relationship with Jesus. Let God’s blessing be upon us as we speak and hear the words of our sacred text in worship. And let us not fail to keep the words we have heard. Amen.
