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United Church of Paducah
4600 Buckner Lane
Paducah, KY 42001
(270) 442-3722
Worship Times
Sunday Service: 10:00a
Refreshments &
Fellowship: 11:15a
Christian Education
For All Ages:
11:20a - Noon
Nursery Services Provided Handicap Accessible
All Are Welcome!
A Congregation Of The
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From April 29, 2007
Every Tribe, Every Tear
Rev 7: 9-17
Do you have a
favorite scripture? I love asking people this question.
Can I let you in on a secret? In all the times I've
inquired, no one has ever quoted anything from Revelation,
even though it features some of the most exquisite passages
in all the Bible, something hymn writers have known for
ages. Check the index of any hymnal and you'll see what I
mean.
Most of us don't keep company with Revelation. Its mystical
end-times imagery not only confounds us, it also terrifies
us. Part of what makes Revelation so scary, it seems to me,
is that it points away from what we know to a future where
the familiar, the same ol' same ol' isn't anymore. A future
that so defies description that it can only be expressed in
images earth-bound minds can scarcely comprehend: winged
creatures and mounted riders with sapphire breastplates and
angels with faces like the sun and pillars of fire for legs.
If Revelation gives us a glimpse of a future inhabited by
beings unlike any we have ever encountered, then it also
discloses a future in which the incomprehensible happens:
war breaks out in heaven and chaos is unleashed and spills
out onto the earth for a thousand years.
When the spiritual dust finally settles, Revelation tells
us, everything old will have passed away. And a new heaven
and a new earth will come into being, and God's own will
spend all eternity in worshipful praise of God.
On dull trips home from seminary, religious radio is what
kept me awake. Programs devoted to Revelation were as every
bit as effective as double shots of espresso!
I always found it interesting that program hosts who
ordinarily insisted on a literal reading of scripture were
not afraid to dive into the detailed symbols in the
apocalyptic vision disclosed to John of Patmos and recorded
in Revelation.
The interpretive confidence of those radio hosts did nothing
to ease my uneasiness. If anything their remarks only
heightened it. Why? Nothing they said ever hinted at God's
immeasurable grace or incredible mercy. Instead, their
comments only succeeded in nurturing a fear of God and the
future, and had me question my spiritual well-being along
with everyone else's.
If you and I have a hard time knowing quite what to do with
The Book of Revelation, we're not alone. In fact, no other
book in the Bible has produced more controversy,
speculation, or misunderstanding, says Christian writer Dan
Clendenin.
Early on in the life of the church, Clendenin tells us,
well-respected scholars and leaders in the faith argued to
keep Revelation out of the canon.
This was in the fourth century. A dozen centuries later
Christian reformers John Calvin and Martin Luther both had
issues with this book and weren't afraid to say so. Even
today in the Eastern Orthodox church, Revelation is the only
book in Holy Scripture not included in public worship.
If throughout the ages people haven't known quite what to do
with Revelation, others have known exactly what to do with
it. Throughout Christianity's long history, Revelation has
been used to justify violence and instill fear; it has also
served as a manual to be scoured to help hasten the end of
the world. (Jan Richardson, Weavings, XXI: 6, p. 14).
For a select few, Revelation has even been used to bring
fame and fortune. Following in the footsteps of Hal Lindsey
(who made a name for himself writing and lecturing on end
times scriptures back in the 1970s), the authors of the Left
Behind book series have made millions upon millions of
dollars with their elaborate--and horrific - descriptions of
Revelation's prophecies.
Although I am by no means an expert on the subject of
mystical writings, they do fascinate me even as they perplex
or, in the case of Revelation, frighten me. In my studies of
Christian and non-Christian mysticism, what I've come to
understand is this: holy visions often occur as an outgrowth
of a person's intimate experience of God and make sense on a
purely personal level, much like dreams do.
Other times, however, spiritual visions arise during periods
of considerable social, political, or religious turbulence
and instability, and so speak out of and to that chaos.
Lakota Sioux holy man Nicholas Black Elk, for instance, had
a vision every bit as profound and elaborate as the one
Revelation; his occurred right as the United States
government was bearing down hardest on his people. It was a
vision that gave hope, help, and direction to Black Elk and
those with whom he shared it.
In understanding Revelation, context is everything.
Revelation's author, John of Patmos, was a Christian living
in Asia Minor. His vision came at a time when believers
throughout the Roman Empire were being actively persecuted
for refusing to worship its emperors. To call this climate
tense is an understatement. Torture and even martyrdom were
very real prospects for Christians then.
It was a time that felt like a full-on battle between good
and evil, with Rome representing evil, of course. And for
good reason. Rome had a well-polished, highly effective
system of domination and oppression, one that relied upon
power, wealth, seduction, intimidation, and violence to
accomplish its goals. (Clendenin).
Certainly the Roman Empire and its ways stood in stark
contrast and opposition to God's kingdom, God's way.
Contrast and opposition that was neither theoretical nor
remote, as it might be for us thinking about it today. For
Christians in John's age, this war was immediate and
pervasive. Everything was felt to be at stake.
John's visions reflect this. They reflect the profound clash
of the two most powerful entities of his day: God's kingdom
and Caesar's. More than that, John's visions supply the
answer the question on the each Christian's mind: who in
this conflict is destined to win.
Revelation makes it more than clear: No matter how awful
life gets, no matter how gruesome and vile things become,
God will rule. God will reign. God will be victorious. In
fact, God will so completely vanquish evil, will so
thoroughly conquer whatever stands in opposition to God that
everything that was before will be destroyed and done away
with. God will make everything new: heaven, earth,
Jerusalem. Even time will be created anew. Death, mourning,
crying, pain - it will all disappear, defeated by a God who
can never be defeated.
To anyone living under the thumb of an oppressor, to any
group experiencing domination by forces too great to
overthrow, then visions like John's reassure, inspire, and
give strength.
Then and now. So for those living with the threat of
mutilation or murder in the Sudan or who live in fear of
IEDs and suicide bombers, for those overwhelmed by evil's
grip on the inner city or meth-addled rural America, for
anyone who cannot imagine how in the world things will ever
change for the good, then something as potent as John's
Revelation can come as good, even great news.
Even for those whose oppression is private, John's visions
can come as good, even great news. Not long ago I spoke with
someone caught up in so much pain that he truly saw no way
out. A man of faith, he called on God day and night for
relief. But there seemed to be no end to his tears, even
nearly a full year later. "I pray for the Rapture, for God
to rapture me. I want the end times to begin." A bit of hope
broke through as he spoke these words.
This man's only relief came from envisioning a complete and
utter end. And an entirely new beginning, one governed not
by the tears and sorrows of this world but by God and God's
glory.
When our grief is too much to bear, when evil seems to have
permanently gained the upper hand, when realities beyond our
control overwhelm us, when the human family seems to have
reached the point of no return, then John's Revelation can
bring comfort, give strength, and impart hope. Gifts I would
never want to take away.
That said, I believe it is a dangerous thing to believe that
God's means of accomplishing ultimate good ever can or will
be accomplished through violence and destruction. Rather
than put my faith in the mystical revelation of John of
Patmos, when it comes to imagining how God's love will rise
victorious over earthly powers and principalities, I put my
trust in the revelation we know as Christ Jesus.
Think about this with me. At every turn, Jesus revealed
God's will, God's way, God's conquering love. Even when
Jesus went to Jerusalem to go toe-to-toe with the powers
that so oppressed his people, Jesus marshaled no army,
rallied no troops, relied on no stockpiled weapons. Even in
the Garden of Gethsemane when soldiers came to arrest him,
Jesus insisted that his disciples put their swords away.
In his confrontation with the evil in this world, Jesus was
and is and will always be the ultimate revelation of God's
love. Jesus neither fled nor fought. Instead, he revealed a
third way: the way of the cross. Which is also,
paradoxically, the way of victory.
What authority are we to give The Book of Revelation? You
will have to pray over this yourself. But as you do,
remember that in addition to the example Jesus leaves us, he
had precious little to say about the future.
Instead of being preoccupied with tomorrow, Jesus' focus was
on the present. A present he inhabited with a fierce
commitment. A fierce commitment to the very things Abba God
is eternally committed to: compassion, forgiveness, healing,
wholeness, reconciliation, peace.
As you continue to think and pray about Revelation, think
also about Jesus' highest priority following his
resurrection. Dispelling fear and imparting peace.
"After this I looked," John of Patmos tells us, "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."
How will God accomplish this? Through conflict? Through the
promulgation of fear? Through a thousand-year war with the
forces of evil?
If every tribe is gathered around God, if every tear is
wiped away, if hunger and hardship are no more - all of which
I believe is God's goal and our destiny - then surely this
will come by and through and on account of love.
A love we experience not as a mystical vision but in the
words and ways of the only revelation we will ever need:
Jesus the Christ.
Amen.
© 2007 Rev. Karen Winkel
United Church of Paducah (UCC)
I am indebted to Dan Clendenin for his scholarship and
compelling remarks on Revelation, found at
www.journeywithjesus.net. Even the title of his online essay
inspired this sermon title. |
"Never place a period where God has placed a comma." - Gracie
Allen
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