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

Birthdays in Heaven

Do you think we celebrate birthdays in heaven?  Do we celebrate the day of our physical birth, spiritual birth, or conception?  Do we celebrate the day God imagined our days?  If birthdays are a way of marking our passage through time, how does that work out in eternity?

And do such mind games matter when what you really want is to celebrate the birthday on this earth, in this reality, at this time?  And isn't that, after all, why we celebrate birthdays...because we survived another year.  Because we are still together another year.  Because I still have you this year.

I am working on a sermon this week called A Day Submitted.  It is from the fourth chapter of James.  James is really giving the church a tongue lashing at this point regarding their treatment (or mis-treatment) of others.  He challenges their "control issues" by making the point, "You should know better than to say, "Today or tomorrow we will go into the city. We will do business there for a year and make a lot of money!" What do you know about tomorrow? How can you be so sure about your life? It is nothing more than mist that appears for only a little while before it disappears. You should say, "If the Lord lets us live, we will do these things.
          
I am trying to let this word challenge my schedule.  It has helped that I keep forgetting my calendar at home this week.

This prayer by Ken Gire has also helped: Forgive me, Lord, for being so concerned about my other commitments that I am unconcerned about my commitment to others. Help me to realize that so much of true ministry isn't what I schedule but what comes as an intrusion to my schedule. Keep my schedule flexible enough, Lord, so that when my path comes across someone in need, I would be quick to change my plans in preference to yours.

It has also helped that I am preparing for a wedding for a bride who won't have her mother there because her mother wasn't given another year on this earth.

It has also helped that I went to lunch to celebrate a friend's birthday...only she wasn't there because this year she celebrates at the Lord's table, at the wedding feast of the Lamb.

Which begs the question, do we celebrate birthdays in heaven? Maybe we celebrate the day we arrive home.

What do you know about tomorrow?
I know we make a lot of assumptions when we plan for it.  I don't think that's sinful.  But I don't think it's fruitful when we forget Who causes the sun to rise on our world, Who puts the breath in our lungs or the beat in our hearts.

Teach me to count the days...teach me to make the days count.

What would you do with one day left to live?  Not a very original question...it has been fodder for books, movies, blogs, songs.  What is moving is watching someone with one day left to live.

She brought them in, one at a time, and she told them how much she loved them.  She told them how much they meant to her, all she had learned from them, gained from them, grown from them.  She summoned strength from heaven knows where to wrap tired, thin limbs around each neck, to place dry, cracked lips on each cheek.  She spoke words that each of them needed to hear.  She knew her children needed her to say, "It will be okay.  I'll be with you.  I have everything worked out for you."  She knew her mother needed her to say, "Thank you.  I need you so much.  You taught me to be strong."  She knew her friends needed her to say, "I have loved being your friend.  Thank you for being mine."  She knew her pastor needed her to say, "I have learned so much from you.  Thank you for the faith you've taught me.  You have comforted me and my family so much."  She knew her husband needed her to say, "I love you.  You are my soul, my heart.  You have faithfully loved me, fought for me, done everything you could do.  I know I am loved by you."  How did she know to say all those things?  Because she lived all the days beforehand loving, listening, serving.

A few days before she died, she and I retold the story of Jesus's words to his friends the day before his death.  How he pulled them all around one table.  How he told them that he was praying for them, how proud he was of them...of all that they had done, of all that they would do.  He told them he wouldn't leave them, not really.  He told them he loved them.  He told them that if they ever struggled to remember, to celebrate this way:

Share a loaf of bread. 

 Remember the way he gave himself.  Remember the way he fed their hungry mouths, their hungry souls.  Remember the way he so easily brought up the nets, lifted their heads.  Share a loaf of bread...with each other. And then with someone hungrier.  And He would be right there.

Share a cup of wine. 

 Remember the way he poured himself out. Remember the way he gave water. Remember the way he redeemed water.  Remember the way he controlled the water, walked on water...trampled on fear.  Share a cup of juice...with each other.  And then with someone thirstier.  And He would be right there.
How did he know what they needed to hear?  Because he had been there, the day before and the day before that.
He was there when they decided to follow.  He was there when they turned away. He was there when childish imagination gave yield to adult anxiety. He was there when the first breath of oxygen was inhaled.  He was there when the first kick against warm womb was given. He was there when the first beat of the heart screamed LIFE! He was there then, loving, listening, serving.

Which leads me to think, He celebrates when we get home.  Who knows, maybe we celebrate lots of birthdays in heaven.  Maybe there are all kinds of "births" that God has noted in our book of days, proud of the passages we have braved, trusting the shepherd that has guided us through the valley of the shadow.  Jesus does make heaven sound like one huge celebration.

I guess I'll have to wait to find out.  And that's ok.  I have a lot to celebrate here in the mean time.