Revelation
Revelation 7:9-17 (NRSV)
9 ... I looked, and there was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, robed in white, with palm branches in their hands. 10 They cried out in a loud voice, saying, “Salvation belongs to our God who is seated on the throne, and to the Lamb!”
11 And all the angels stood around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, 12 singing,
“Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom
and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen.”
and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen.”
13 Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, “Who are these, robed in white, and where have they come from?” 14 I said to him, “Sir, you are the one that knows.” Then he said to me, “These are they who have come out of the great ordeal; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. 15 For this reason they are before the throne of God, and worship him day and night within his temple, and the one who is seated on the throne will shelter them.16 They will hunger no more, and thirst no more; the sun will not strike them, nor any scorching heat; 17 for the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of the water of life, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”
Revelation 21:1-6 (NRSV)
21 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. 2 And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “See, the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them; they will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them; 4 he 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.”
5 And the one who was seated on the throne said, “See, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this, for these words are trustworthy and true.” 6 Then he said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give water as a gift from the spring of the water of life.
Through the Easter Season this year the Lectionary has us reading from Acts and Revelation. The first reading above is our Revelation reading for yesterday, the Fourth Sunday of Easter. The second is our Revelation reading for next week, April 28th, the Fifth Sunday of Easter.
Read through start to finish, Revelation with its violent, graphic imagery can seem frightening, but it isn’t really. It is not a prediction of what’s going to happen to us at an imminent end of time; and if it were, we could laugh, scoff and toss it aside, because any amateur astronomer doing a bit of scientific reading and looking out into the heavens could see that it’s completely unreal, overactive imagination, stars falling and all that is not the way the universe works, it isn’t compatible with creation and nature, our earthly notion of time and space is laughable compared to the expanse of galaxies and suns. And from our religious viewpoint it is not consistent with the ways of the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ; even though, as William Cowper wrote in 1774, “God moves in a mysterious way,” it isn’t that mysterious or peculiar or vengeful or violent; indeed in that faith is chosen, who could worship such an angry deity!
Revelation is a “literary genre” that was not uncommon in its day, with a specific agenda for the hearers for whom John Patmos wrote it. There was a persecution going on in the Roman Empire, officials were tormenting Christians because they would not practice the lawful and mandatory religious rites of the empire. Christians had a choice of staying in the faith and being persecuted even unto death, or sacrificing to Caesar as the law required and being left alone. That may be oversimplified, but that’s how it was. John Patmos (or we can call him Johann von Patmos if anyone prefers) was a Christian leader whose agenda was to prevent Christians under persecution from abandoning Christ and the Church no matter how horribly they were treated. His method is to both encourage and intimidate by saying that the persecution is terrible, conducted by evil ones; it will get worse, you will be tormented, tortured, even killed, but the persecution will culminate in battle between forces of evil and forces of God; God will win and for the victors there will be a wonderful eternal kingdom ruled by Jesus Christ. Everyone who remains faithful to Christ during the persecution, whether living or dead, will be included in the kingdom. Everyone who succumbs to the persecutors and falls away from Christ will be thrown into the lake of fire.
John Patmos‘ descriptions of the battle are violent, graphic, frightening, not a good bedtime story for children. He borrows most of his imagery from Old Testament apocalyptic writings, especially Daniel chapters 7-12 and Ezekiel, but others too. His battle is fierce and his punishments of evil doers and unfaithful Christians are unspeakably cruel and unusual -- which is common in apocalyptic writing.
On the other hand, for those who remain faithful, John’s encouragements and promises are wonderful. And this is what we see, read, hear in our lectionary readings during the Easter Season this year. In yesterday’s Revelation reading (7:9-17) John Patmos has been lifted into the throne room of heaven where he sees multitudes of happy souls. An elders asks, “John, do you know who these folks are?” John admits that he does not. The elders tells him that these are the people who have remained faithful to Christ in spite of the persecution. That’s what it’s all about. It’s part of John Patmos’ agenda of encouragement and promise.
In next Sunday’s reading above (21:1-6) the persecution is finished, the strife is o’er, the battle done, the victory is won as the hymn says, and this is John’s description of the wonderful reward for the faithful. We’re reading the promises.
With all the above, other than an exciting adventure story, Revelation wouldn’t be much use to us today if we only viewed it from a historical-critical perspective. So we take the promises, we accept them, bring them into our own lives, incorporate them as part of what we believe. We look at the suffering and sadness that goes on in our lives and in the lives of those we love and our neighbors and the world, and we bring out of our sacred Scripture the promises of God. In that Revelation is prophecy, it’s a basis of our hope that all will be well in the end, or after the end, and we acclaim this as the Word of the Lord.
TW+