Tag: Revelation

Revelation Remix

kewalkerLeave a comment

Sunday’s sermon at DPUMC included a paraphrase of the Revelation to John. Here is the text of that letter with scripture references.

“The Revelation was not written without tears; neither without tears will it be understood.”

John Wesley, Notes on the New Testament

Dear Church,

(Chapter 1: Greeting)

Don’t give up.  I know things are difficult but do not be afraid. All of this present moment, all that ever was, and all that will be is held in God’s hands. So be a light in the darkness and look to Jesus as your guide.

(Chapter 2 & 3: Letters to 7 churches)

Do not fear death even when it seems the world is trying to kill you. It is the way of the world to destroy what it does not understand. And cannot control.  But Christ died and is now alive.  And Christ holds the keys to death and the grave. Don’t give up, for we who follow Christ will not only survive but have the glory of abundant life; Life now and for eternity.

I know it’s hard. To those who are uncertain, do not waiver. Remain firm in the commitment you made at your baptism. Confess Jesus as you lord and recognize no other. Resist evil, injustice, and oppression, wherever you find them. This is the way that leads to life.

To those who are firm in the faith, blessings to you; continue in this hope, for it will give you the strength to endure any challenges.  I know some of you are deeply challenged because you will not bow to the empire around you.  You know that even if you die,  you will still be greatly rewarded.

Do not trust in earthly leaders or wealth. Pray for those who do, and pray for those who persecute you. For Christ is king, and when he returns, he will bring justice. He will set right all that is broken.

(Chapter 7: The People of God gathered)

When Christ returns, he will gather all God’s children. From every corner of the world, he will gather us. Not just a tribe or a generation but an innumerable multitude. He calls us out of hardship even now to the waters of baptism. Our Good Shepherd leads us to life-giving water.

(Chapter 8:6-9:21: The seven trumpets)

Church, we need the shepherd and the water of life for the world is a broken place, and brokenness leads to death. Fires often rage and destroy. Volcanoes create but also kill. Sea creatures and ships are harmed by storms and pollution.  Mosquitoes, roaches, rats, scorpions, and all manner of pests plague people around the world. And when these things happen, people do not turn to God. They put their trust in idols; in gold and silver, bronze, stone, and wood. In pseudoscience, and violence, drugs and pleasure, and hoarding treasure.

(Chapter 10: The scroll of prophecy)

But God’s promises remain true. God’s grace that has flowed from Creation, from the times of Eden and Noah rolls across time and space. In every age, God sends servants to proclaim the good news. And the good of God shall come to each of us. The Good News is both sweet and hard to swallow. And it is ours to proclaim.

Proclaim everywhere the good news that Jesus Christ is Lord; that no trial or tribulation can separate people from his love. Proclaim that God who created the world, is setting it right. 

(Chapter 11: The fate of prophets)

Proclaim it. And be fully aware of what it may cost you. When you tell the truth to Emperors and governors, to Queens and lords, to barons and power brokers, presidents and moguls, they will not thank you for it. They will come against you. They will mock and kill true prophets.

But even death cannot silence the word of God, and the spirit of God will keep raising us up again and again.

(Chapter 12: The woman and the dragon)

For the church has a spirit of life. Each of her generations gives birth to the next. When violence and chaos rage, they cannot harm her, for God prepares a refuge for her. When the church is in the wilderness, she is not lost.  The wilderness is where God cares for her: The wilderness is where she gives birth to new things.

(Chapter 13:1-14:13: Those of the beasts and those of God)

Chaos and brokenness will take many forms. From land and sea, from every corner, they come in every era and raise up systems, empires, and nations. Every time they seem powerful, monstrously great.

Beware where you put your allegiance Church. You can only serve one master. You can only worship one Lord. What you follow, you things you put your trust in, it marks you. It marks your words, your actions, your very being. Do not be marked by greed or hate or any of the ways of this world, for they bring suffering. Instead, let faithful endurance be the seal on your life.

(Chapters 14:14-16:21: Two Harvests)

A heart for god yields a harvest of glory. But when we sow violence and vice, we reap suffering and death. Chaos carries the seed of its own destruction. Selfishness festers like a disease. Greed leads to waste and sickness. Anger ignites wrath, and hatred. False prophets incite idolatry and war. Together they stir up plagues that shake the foundations of everything humans build.

(Chapters 17 & 18: fall of Babylon)

This is how empires full. They consume themselves with vice, and when they are gone, they leave behind desolation.  But the powers of this world won’t last forever. Yet the steadfast love (hessed) of God endures. God works salvation. God holds all true power and glory. Christ will always show up to restore the people and banish the doubt and chaos that threaten them. 

(Chapters 19-22: Vision of Restoration)

Don’t give up Church. In the end, all shall be well. So if things are unwell in these times, it is not the end. God is with us now. God desires to dwell with us fully. To dry our eyes and heal our hurts. To set aside forever mourning and pain and sorrow.

In the end, it will be like the beginning. The gates will be thrown open to all. The city and the garden will be one. The fruit of life will nourish all, and the river of life will flow everywhere. And then all that will be left is to worship.

Live that life of worship now. Christ is coming very soon. And Christ is already here. The Spirit of the Lord is with us now. Don’t give up. Yes, right now is difficult. You don’t have to pretend that here and now is perfect. It isn’t. But here and now looks very different when seen through the lens of eternity. Through darkness and chaos threaten, Christ has the final authority.  Jesus will not fail you and will not let you fall. These words have been trustworthy and true from the beginning of time till now. They will be true until the end. Don’t give up.

The grace of the Lord Jesus be will all.

Sources and further reading

Reading Revelation with the Surrealists: Part 5- All Things New

kewalkerLeave a comment

The Allegory of Silk (Salvador Dali)

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.” 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.  Those who conquer will inherit these things, and I will be their God and they will be my children.  -Revelation 21:5-7

God is the God of new beginnings. After all the violence, all the turmoil there is new life. Here is the core of Revelation, John’s ultimate message: “Whatever you have to endure, however you are persecuted, terrorized, whatever disasters you encounter, the world is God’s and God will make it new.” In the end there will be no more pain, no tears, no fear; only joy and the worship of God.

All who resisted the beast are welcomed into the presence of God. Over and over God has called us to live lives characterized by baptism and worship. This is why, in this vision of eternity all our existence is worship. As it was in the beginning is now and ever shall be.

Reading Revelation with the Surrealists: Part 4-There will be blood

kewalkerLeave a comment

 And he said to me, “The waters that you saw, where the whore is seated, are peoples and multitudes and nations and languages. 16And the ten horns that you saw, they and the beast will hate the whore; they will make her desolate and naked; they will devour her flesh and burn her up with fire. For God has put it into their hearts to carry out his purpose by agreeing to give their kingdom to the beast, until the words of God will be fulfilled. The woman you saw is the great city that rules over the kings of the earth.”  – Revelation 17:15-18

Guernica (Pablo Picasso)

Beginning with the wine press in Chapter 16 going through to the binding of satan in 19, we are met with images of horrific violence. Perhaps more than any others, these passages are difficult for me to honor as scripture. Yet it is important that we wade through them; that we neither turn away, nor give into the temptation to merely skim them. Even though they are bitter we must drink deeply here, or risk missing one of the greatest lessons of Revelation.

When John first sees the woman, the whore Babylon, he is “amazed”. Earlier the same amazement led others to worship effigies of the beast. There is something attractive about this woman. She bears all the markings of wealth and trade, education and culture. She is all that is best in Roman civilization–all the art and accomplishment the security of empire makes possible–and there is something attractive about her.

But she rides upon the beast– upon power and force and corruption and deceit–on all the things that keep an empire going. That beast will inevitably turn on her; it will destroy her. John shows us that, all that is good and attractive in an empire will eventually be stripped and devoured by the violence that sustains it–that is empire at its heart.

Picaso knew this. He painted it. There is a great story about Guernica. When Picasso was living in Nazi occupied Paris, a German officer was inspecting his studio, as they did from time to time. On the table were post cards of what was by then his most famous painting–post cards of Guernica. The officer picked on up and thrust in Picaso’s face. “Did you do this?” he asked. “No,” said Picaso, “you did. Have one. As a souvenir.”

Guernica is Picaso’s remembrance for a Basque town massacred, at the request of Spanish Fascists, by a German air raid. It is not easy to look at, no it is utterly disturbing. But even though it is bitter, we should look on it and take it in deeply. It is Picaso’s echo of John’s warning: This is what violence does. It may sustain an empire for awhile, but all violence eventually destroys.

That is not to say that our only valid option is quitism. I’m sure even Picasso was quite thankful for the tanks that eventually liberated Paris. And One of the most violent figures in Chapter 19 is indeed Christ, but though an army gathers behind Him, only Christ is said to slay. Vengeance is mine saith the Lord. In this life, it is inevitable that there be world powers, we are one now, as Babylon and Rome, and Spain, and Turkey and England were before us. And it is perhaps inevitable that such powers are violent. But we must be careful. Where the empire becomes an object of worship, where violence is as much an end as a mean, where power and corruption run amuck…there is Guernica.

Reading Revelation with the Surrealists: Part 3- In the wilderness

kewalkerLeave a comment

 A great portent appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. She was pregnant and was crying out in birth pangs, in the agony of giving birth…And she gave birth to a son, a male child, who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron. But her child was snatched away and taken to God and to his throne; 6and the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, so that there she can be nourished for one thousand two hundred sixty days.  -Revelation 12:1-2,5-6

Landscape with Butterflies (Salvador Dali)

I think one of the most misunderstood symbols in the Bible is “the wilderness”. Which is a little sad because it is also one of the most common. Jacob passes through the wilderness, so does Joseph. Moses is called there; the Israelites spend 40 years there (infact “Numbers” is named “In the Wilderness” in Hebrew). David hides out in the wilderness, so does Elijah. Ezekiel is taken there. Isaiah’s prophesies reference it over and over. Even Christ spent time there.

Actually I blame that last one for the trouble. Matthew leads with “Jesus was lead into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.” but Mark is more ambiguous. In both cases Jesus is in the wilderness 40 days before anything happens with Satan. Most readings seem to miss that (i know mine frequently do), and so miss the real purpose, the real power of being “in the wilderness”.

The wilderness is not a place of trial and temptation. It is not to be endured, it is not where we get lost (thank you very much Dante) The wilderness is where we end up when we are already lost; when the trials have been too much or will be too much. We come to the wilderness when it most reflects our spirits: dry, barren, lonely, quiet. The wilderness does not sap us or challenge us, it mirrors what we already are.

Wilderness is liminal space. It is the space, the time in between. Something has come to an end when we arrive in the wilderness; but something is also about to begin. Again an again the wilderness is a place God takes people to prepare them for what comes next. For new relationships, for new roles. For difficult callings, and new realities. God shelters and cares for us in teh wilderness and shows us the possibilities to come. God makes new things spring spring forth like rivers in the dessert.

So it is in Revelation, there is new life, new beginning in the wilderness and that’s why I find Dali’s landscape most appropriate.

After the seven scrolls and the seven trumpets, before the seven bowls, there is (what some translations call) a parable. More often than not, when we come to this section we focus on the Beast and its number, or the dragon who calls it.

But we shouldn’t forget the woman, the pregnant woman. Like creation she groans for the coming of a new thing, a new life, a new kingdom. The child is born, and she is taken to the wilderness where she is sheltered and cared for. I believe John here claims the paradoxic nature of the Kingdom of God. It has come–the child is born–but it is yet to come–the child is taken up to heaven to come again. In the mean time we live in the wilderness–sheltered, cared for, and being prepared for the new thing that is coming.

Reading Revelation with the Surrealists: Part 2- Perspective

kewalkerLeave a comment

Son of Man (Rene Magritte) At least it hides the face partly. Well, so you have the apparent face, the apple, hiding the visible but hidden, the face of the person. It’s something that happens constantly. Everything we see hides another thing, we always want to see what is hidden by what we see. There is an interest in that which is hidden and which the visible does not show us. This interest can take the form of a quite intense feeling, a sort of conflict, one might say, between the visible that is hidden and the visible that is present.

Then one of the elders said to me, “Do not weep. See, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered, so that he can open the scroll and its seven seals.”  Then I saw between the throne and the four living creatures and among the elders a Lamb standing as if it had been slaughtered, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth.  He went and took the scroll from the right hand of the one who was seated on the throne. When he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell before the Lamb, each holding a harp and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. They sing a new song:  – Revelation 5:5-9

Perhaps Revelation confounds us because it gives us exactly what we want, but not what we expect. By its very nature, John’s vision presents both what is visible and present and what is visible and hidden. It seems intended to to resolve our internal conflict, to satisfy our curiosity. But from the moment we develop a sense of object permanence, we live in the tension Magritte depicts. We don’t know how to live outside of it; we, like John, are ill equipped to perceive within a state of full revelation, and so the results are true and enlightening, but also strange. John hears the one who is worthy called the lion of Judah, but sees a slain lamb. He hears 144000 of Isreal called, but sees an unending multinational gathering. Three times 7 terrors are unleashed on the earth and the result is profound and unending worship.

As we move through the middle chapters of Revelation it is easy to be distracted by images of terror and violence. It is easy to be distracted, to be afraid, to become lost in the form of John’s vision. But always visible, though sometimes hard to see, is the glory of God. The call of Revelation is not fear and judgement, its worship. We should always hold Chapter 4 and 5 before us, viewing all that follows from the foot of the throne. Only from the perspective of glorious, unending worship, can we endure what is to come; both in the book and in our lives.

Reading Revelation with the Surrealists: Part 1-Assumptions

kewalkerLeave a comment

I was in the spirith on the Lord’s day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet saying, “Write in a book what you see and send it to the seven churches, to Ephesus, to Smyrna, to Pergamum, to Thyatira, to Sardis, to Philadelphia, and to Laodicea.”  –Revelation 2:10-11

Things are not what we perceive them to be, they are what they are. Or maybe better said, “Toto, I don’t think we’re in Kansas anymore.”

We are not in Kansas (well most of us aren’t) Nor are we in 1st century Smaryna, Ephesus or Sardis. That doesn’t mean John’s Revelation has nothing to say to us, but as we read, we should be aware of some things.

John writes to and for particular people at a particular time in particular places with particular internal and external problems; problems he seeks to address. He addresses them in a medium they were comfortable with (more comfortable than we are), drawing upon scriptural language and symbols they know well. This is a vision, the normal rules of time, physics, and sensory observation may or may not apply. John sees a voice, is transported to heaven and to Jerusalem, figures have more than one appearance simultaneously. Things are certainly not what they seem, they are what they are; they are truths that transend (and transgress) our normal perceptions.

John’s vision can be utterly strange and even frightening. This is impart, because we are not his intended audience. The ancient fathers were quite confident that John wrote about things immediately past and present for them, as well as about things to (quickly) come. Yet John also writes for the whole Church, including us today. The symbols of his vision are strong enough to bear interpretation, and re-interpretation. We must just be aware that we are re-interpreting, and must strive to do it faithfully. As we read our new context and its assumption should never obscure the core of John’s vision, for that is still true.

Even in all that has changed, from John’s time to now, God is still glorious, still with us, and still calling us into new life in God’s present/coming kingdom.

“This is not a pipe”
The Treachery of Images (Rene Magritte)