The Revelation: Hope for the Beginning and the End

Revelation 1

Justo Gonzelez, contributor to Disciple Bible Study* suggests that it is important to know what kind

of book we are reading when we read the Revelation.  He said some people read it like a good mystery novel, wanting to outpace the author, collect the clues, and figure it out before the culprit is revealed: Professor Plum, in the library, with the candlestick!  But the problem with reading the Revelation like a mystery novel is that we view it like a riddle, and it’s not a riddle, it’s a revelation.  It’s meant to bring understanding to our faith, not mysteries.  He said some people read it like TV Guide.  Now that made me laugh.  First off, does TV guide even still exist?  I vaguely remember that TV Guide had articles about new programs or about TV stars, but I can’t remember actually using TV Guide as a source of inspiration.  Appropriately named, it was just a guide for our TV viewing.  I knew how to turn to exactly the page I needed and read the codes on the page for discovering when my favorite shows were airing or to offer suggestions when I didn’t know what to watch.  It’s crazy to think of equating the Revelation with a TV Guide, until we realize that’s exactly how we are tempted to view it: a map for what comes next.  I can turn to chapter 13 and learn what is going to happen when the 5^th portent is opened.  Rather, Gonzalez recommends (as do I) that we read Revelation for what it is: a poetic re-presentation of the presence of God in world, as He was, as He is, and as He is to come.  The Revelation employs imagery that reveals the glory of God and the depth of humanity and how that relationship is meant to exist for eternity.

So, while portions of the Revelation are puzzling and mysterious, and while portions of the book do reveal what to expect, that is not the primary purpose for the book.  Jesus and John have a conversation here in the first chapter that explain the book’s purpose and how we are supposed to receive it.  Jesus appears to John and tells John to write these things down with the understanding that the churches will read aloud these letters and so hear the Word of God, that is the Living Eternal Word made Flesh, Word of God revealed to the people of God.

And the singular message is this: Jesus is coming back as the King of Glory to get the Church, his Bride.  So be ready.  That’s it.  That’s the message.  Now, we can take a little more time looking more closely at that message, and just as important, what that message does for us.  Because the next question we ask when we get this message is very, very important to our faith. 

Often we are tempted to ask, “When?”  It’s a natural question.  And it almost seems like John wants to address the “when” throughout the book.  But that’s not the purpose of the Revelation.  The better question for us to ask is, “So now what?”  And that’s the question that is going to direct our conversation this summer.  Jesus is coming back as the King of Glory to gather his Bride to himself and to reconstitute the cosmos (heaven and earth).  So, now, what?

So is this important?  So are we supposed to talk about this?  So who is the bride…and for that matter who are all the other people in the book; that is, so who is who?  So now?  So this is important now?  So we are supposed to be doing something now?  So is this happening now? So now that we know, what do we do now?  So what?  So what is so important?  So which parts are important and which parts are just weird?  So what, if anything, can we do about any of it?  So what does this mean for me and my family, or families in any place?  So, now, what?

Sometimes we can get so overwhelmed by the questions and the mystery and the “not yet” feel of this book, that we do just feel like shrugging our shoulders and saying, “So now what?”  And left without an answer, we continue to just go about our every day existence, not paying any mind to the message of this Revelation.  Or we worry that we will misunderstand or miss some sign in the Revelation and we stew and fuss and poke our family and friends to be worried too.  The point of the Revelation, ironically, was to avoid both of these responses. 

We are to avoid complacency.  We are to avoid fear and paranoia.  We are instead to have a sense of urgency, but a sense of excitement too.  Kind of like the couple the week before their wedding day.  I have been invited to officiate 7 weddings this year.  Seven!  That’s a lot for me.  Each one has been unique to the couple: big church wedding, small church wedding, family elopement, off site party.  But the one common denominator so far has been the glazed look in the eyes of the couple when I meet with them the week before.

I meet with couples 3 times before their wedding.  Once a month or 2 before just to get to know them better and for them to get to know me.  Once to really dig in and talk about their relationship.  And once to go over the order of worship.  It’s at this final meeting that every one of them, bride and groom, say, “We’re just ready to get this done!”  Amen and hallelujah!  That’s where I want them to be the week before the wedding.  You see that tells me two things:  One it tells me that they are finally bored with all this party planning and we can actually talk about being married (which the tough news I have to break to every couple during pre-marital counseling is that the marriage lasts a lot longer than the wedding, hopefully!).  Two, it tells me they are not afraid to get married, but rather, quite ready to get on with it.

That is the urgency that John tries to convey to the churches as we writes the Revelation that Jesus gives him*:  First, we can’t live life like we always did before Jesus was raised from the dead.  Everything has changed.  Life without Christ should at the very least bore us.  We have this new relationship and it’s time to live into that!  Second, we don’t need to be afraid of what happens next.  If I have confessed that Jesus Christ is Lord, then I don’t have to worry about the unfolding of the future because I trust that my future is in God’s hands.  But the other thing the urgency does, in addition to squelching same ole same ole and eradicating fear, is that urgency compels me to tell others the message.  Now, if we use the metaphor of the bride and groom, we can see this as a guest list.  It happens so often that a wedding that started as a “small family affair” nine months ago has grown into a party for hundreds by the day of the wedding.  Why?  Because they are excited and they want to tell everyone and share with everyone and they want all the place settings of their china!  In the case of the Revelation, it’s not just that Jesus wants everyone to know that we are invited to the party, Jesus wants everyone to realize we are invited to be the Bride.  It’s not an invitation to attend a party for someone else.  It’s an honor to be at the side of the One for whom the party exists. 

That’s the drama of the message.  The characters are Jesus and the angels who bring the message from Heaven, John who reports the message to the Church, the Church or the saints or believers who believe the message, the rest of humanity who doesn't believe the message, and the Enemies of Jesus who oppose the message.  We will meet each of them in turn, and yes we will run into ourselves.  Hopefully we learn more about ourselves as we witness ourselves in this drama.

In this opening scene, John is exiled to the island of Patmos (Rev. 1.9) because of his unrelenting testimony as a follower of Jesus.  The Jews couldn't shut him up, so they put somewhere that they didn't have to listen to him.  Ironically it is from this place that he delivers the loudest message of all!  John is writing from the place of a disciple of Jesus and witness to the Living Word.  So as we hear phrases and see images in this drama, we need to be mindful that John is speaking both out of a Jewish heritage and a personal encounter with Jesus.  The Gospel of John begins “In the beginning was the Word…” (John 1.1) which takes us back to Genesis.  The Revelation of John begins, “behold a lamb slain…” (Rev. 5.6) which takes us back to Exodus.  And we are to think, I've heard this story before…*

Jesus reveals himself to John not as the lowly carpenter of Nazareth but as the King of Glory.  He tries to use human language to describe what human eyes have never seen.  Or maybe they have…for the prophets have tried to use the same words: Son of Man (Daniel 7.13), long white robes (Daniel 10.5), hair like wool (Daniel 7.9), skin like bronze (Ezekiel 1.7), voice like waters (Ezekiel 1.24), face like the sun (Matthew 17.2), words like a sword (Hebrews 4:12).  We know the feeling.  Trying to explain a funny moment or a delicious meal or a beautiful scene to someone who wasn't there.  “You had to be there,” is our default.  But John doesn't get a default button because Jesus says, tell the church what you've seen.  Jesus doesn't tell John what to write, he tells John to write down what John has seen.  There is a difference.  And it requires our imagination.  Not to imagine something fantasy.  But to imagine something more real than we've ever known.  Like imagining cells before there were microscopes or black holes before there were telescopes.  But it’s the task.  Tell the churches…the seven churches, that is the complete Body of Christ, my bride.

Tell them what?: “Do not be afraid. I am the first and the last, and the living one.  I was dead, and see, I am alive forever and ever; and I have the keys of Death and Hell.”  It's as if Jesus is saying, with hands outstretched, if this is the beginning of your life (waving his right hand) and this is the end of your life (waving his left hand)

then I'm here 

(waving both hands across the imaginary timeline).  And whatever comes against you here, here, and here (demarking spots with his right hand across the line), I have the keys to that.  Because I've got you, right here in the palm of my nail-pierced hand.  So, don't be afraid.

* With reference to Disciple: Under the Tree of Life video series.

*With reference to Wright, NT, Revelation for Everyone. Westminster John Knox Press, Lousville, KY. 2011

Pick up your mat!

John 5:1-18

8 Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” 9 Immediately the man was well, and he picked up his mat and walked. Now that day was the Sabbath.10 The Jewish leaders said to the man who had been healed, “It’s the Sabbath; you aren’t allowed to carry your mat.”

11 He answered, “The man who made me well said to me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’”

12 They inquired, “Who is this man who said to you, ‘Pick it up and walk’?”13 The man who had been cured didn’t know who it was, because Jesus had slipped away from the crowd gathered there.
14 Later Jesus found him in the temple and said, “See! You have been made well. Don’t sin anymore in case something worse happens to you.” 15 The man went and proclaimed to the Jewish leaders that Jesus was the man who had made him well.16 As a result, the Jewish leaders were harassing Jesus, since he had done these things on the Sabbath. 17 Jesus replied, “My Father is still working, and I am working too.”

Interestingly, John goes into a lot of explanation about the location of this miracle.  The number of colonnades, the size of the crowd, even the myths surrounding the location. It was a pagan temple and some translations of the Bible include this explanation in the 4th verse: “They waited for the moving of the waters. From time to time an angel of the Lord would come down and stir up the waters. The first one into the pool after each such disturbance would be cured of whatever disease he had.” 

Most translations omit this fourth verse because not enough of the ancient biblical manuscripts include it.  So while it may not be truth, it was true that the myth existed.  And that was enough to convince the guy in this story that he was an outsider.  Born lame, the guy had never been given a fair shake in life.  When the story opens, he is 38 years old.  We don’t know how long he’s been laying on a mat at the pool, or how he got there.  We don’t know if he has a home to go to at night or if someone brings him food.  We only know the desperation of his situation—he hangs out among the blind, the lame, and the paralyzed and among this crowd, he is singled out by Jesus as “one who had been in this condition a long time.”

See the contrast that John is making here.  The pool is beautiful, so beautiful in fact that it has inspired myths of supernatural healings, so beautiful that even the ugliest people can’t stay away.  And that is who they are.  Regardless of the compassion you and I may want to extend to them, in their day in their condition, they are the ugly.  And if you’ve been told every day for 38 years that you are ugly, you believe it.  So here in this most beautiful of places are the most degraded of society.  “The place spoke of the possibility of miraculous healing, of the remote chance of divine healing; but it was at best spasmodic, and at worst an idle dream.” (Tom Wright, John for Everyone)

But if we are really going to picture this scene with the eyes of our hearts, we must visit our pools. Your pool.  Your last ditch effort.  One more opinion.  One more counseling session.  One more pill.  One more lottery ticket.  One more drink.  One more attempt to fix you with your effort.  Hope stirs. Hope lifts.  Hope disappoints.

Hope. Lost.

Then the hope of the world walks onto the scene. The pool still reflects your distorted visage, but another kinder, gentler face appears just over your shoulder.  “In a flash, he does what the pool stood for but what it hadn't been doing very successfully.  And just like the official’s son, and the storm, a word is all it takes.  A command.”  The command to get up is the same word that means resurrection.  One by one, Jesus is resurrecting the cosmos. (Tom Wright, John for Everyone)

Today, the lame get up and walk.  Don’t miss the sign.

And don’t miss the signs all around us.  Beautiful sanctuaries, distorted souls. We are the blind, lame, and paralyzed.  Jesus, his Holy Spirit, is asking each of us a very important question today:

Do you want to be made well? 

Bill Myers supposes the following about miracle working: “But on more than one occasion he discovered people really didn’t want to be healed. Oh sure, they said they wanted help, but those were merely words. In reality, their crippledness had become their identity, the trademark of who they were. And for those afraid of losing their identity, who in their heart of hearts really didn’t want to be changed, the infirmity won’t leave.”  Even if the physical is healed, the physical breaks again because the soul is still sick. (Fire of Heaven)

Now we may each have a physical infirmity that we want God to heal.  And He may yet, for he is able.  But my concern as I type this is the condition of our souls, for Jesus warned, do not fear those who can kill the body, but fear that one who can kill both body and soul.  Our flesh will fail.  But if we have placed our life in Christ, we will live, body and soul.  So, it is important, says the sign of the miracle at Bethesda, that we allow Jesus to heal the inner brokenness, or as he said, “something worse may happen to you.” Maybe what Jesus is asking is, “Will you walk away from your bitterness, your resentment, your hurt?”

And that may hurt our feelings.  It may seem like Jesus is testing us.  Or it may seem like Jesus doesn't want to heal our physical problems.  Maybe this doesn't fit our notion of what God ought to be doing for us.  This action from God typically upsets religious folks like us.  The religious leaders in the book of John are mad because Jesus healed on the Sabbath (a questionable violation..is commanding healing work?) and then the man walked with his mat (a clear violation of the Sabbath code).  To which Jesus simply explains, “My Father is always at work.”  Jesus wasn't acting the way they thought a proper Jew (never mind Messiah) ought to be acting. 

That doesn’t seem to bother Jesus.  Jesus explains that he can’t be worried about their incredulities and insistence upon the letters of the law.  He has work to do. 

Could it be that the reason God created space for us to rest, that is Sabbath, was so that he could come to us and heal us and put us on the path to whole living.  Are there times, even as we sit in our sanctuary and hear the Holy Spirit speak to us, that we leave choosing to do nothing about it because…(it would be a lot of work). 

So here's my own little thought.  Jesus tells the guy to pick up his mat.  And it gets him a lot of trouble.  After all, mat-picking-up-and-walking offends sensitive religious sensibilities.   So, it must have been important for the guy to pick up the mat.  Maybe the importance of removing the mat was to solidify for the guy (and anyone else paying attention) that he wasn't coming back to the pool.

But what about us?  How many mats have left lying at our pools of desperation?  We plead, we beg, we cry, we vow.  We may even get up.  But we return to the mat because it possesses our identity.

Laura heard Jesus calling her to pick up her mat this week.  This is what she wrote to me:

I wanted you to know that I am doing better, that I am trying to stop negative thoughts / fears / anxiety from nesting.  I am trying to put everything at His feet, even though I really have no clue on how to do this... I have done the other way for so long... Try to explain why I am still at the pool, why I cannot get healed - like it was something I had tried but failed at.  I understand, between your sermon and Hunter's last week, that all I must do is ask for healing and forgiveness.  I cannot do anything to make me "deserve" it; it is a gift.  I believe that God has healed/forgiven me - maybe a long time ago when I first asked, or maybe that day in your office, when I really felt that some of my burden was lifted.  But regardless, I have been healed/forgiven.  I should get up and walk.  I should pick up my mat and head to the cross.  But I don't know how.  I am scared.  I wonder if the lame man was scared, or if he hesitated.  He didn't know how to walk, so do you think that Jesus gave him faith at the same time?  

I am ready to be healed, and I am ready to participate in a total renovation :)
I am picking up my mat, because I don't ever want to come back to this place...

Yes, Laura.  That's what healing is.  Being able to walk is temporary.  Faith to pick up your mat is eternal.  And that's what Jesus is up to.  That's the motivation behind the smile you see on his face in the reflection at your pool of desperation.  Jesus loves you and he has made your healing possible.  By grace, he is giving you faith.  

In the name of Jesus, get up.  Pick up your mat.  Don't come back to the pool.

(Thank you Laura for allowing me to use our correspondence.  I see the powerful transforming work that Jesus is doing in you.  You are radiant.)

A New Journey

Moving is a way of life for Methodist preachers, at least that's what I've been told. "Like the military," I hear people say. This is my 6th church and 8th home in 15 years of marriage/ministry. You would think I am better at packing; I am not. Upon arriving at a new appointment or station of ministry, I have learned that there are some things you simply inherit. Time may (or may not) come for you to change those things, but for now they are yours by virtue of the fact that you have arrived. At each move, we have inherited a few books, a few pieces of cast off furniture or decor, and a host of friends, relationships, stories, and life lessons. We are richer, for sure.
One of the things I have just inherited is a wonderful congregation of worshipers who call themselves Compass. I won't tell their story; maybe they will be brave enough to post it on here. But it is my inheritance this season. I receive it from other pastors who have journeyed this way and who have followed their path to other places. So now I join in with band of travellers who are finding direction in God's word. I love to travel! Compass meets on Sunday mornings at 11 a.m. in the Christian Life Center at Trinity United Methodist Church in Gulfport. Worship and preaching are the main focus, with only a minimum of liturgy. The worship style is what some would refer to as "contemporary." Overhead screens display the lyrics to praise music written in the last 2 decades versus hymnbooks containing verses and scores penned over the last 2 centuries. The worship is led by a couple of vocalists, some guitars, drums, and keyboards instead of a choir director and organ. It's a style.
My job is to preach. I went to school a pretty long time in order to get this job, but I've known for longer that preaching is what I am supposed to do. I just was wired to preach. Bishop Clay Lee says that preaching isn't just expounding on theology. Preaching says, "I'm human just like you're human and that's okay because God's plan for salvation is for humans." Preaching theologically is bringing God to humans and vice versa, and so it is a humble thing. Bishop Lee also says that the purpose of preaching is to help people understand what they believe about God. We need to acknowledge that we don't have a complete understanding of God, but that doesn't prevent us from a relationship with God. As a matter of fact, it is that relationship with the Spirit of God that gives us courage to understand God in a more authentic way. Lastly, Bishop Lee says that whatever we preach, we are to preach faith. We preachers are to lay it on the line and tell our congregations that they can lay it on the line too; bet your life that God is exactly whom God says He is as He is revealed in Jesus Christ. We preach with integrity when it is God's reputation that we stake our word on. So as a preacher, my job is to deliver a message with humility, authenticity, and integrity. My job is to reveal God to the listener as He has revealed Himself in Jesus Christ by challenging all of us to draw closer, even in our human-ness, to putting our whole trust in God. Pretty simple job description, huh?
At least I am confident there will always be a need for preachers.