Hope in the Cesspit - Easter 4
Revelation 7: 9 - 17
I cannot claim to be a regular preacher on the Revelation to John. I have often thought of this book which concludes the Bible as being something of a happy hunting ground for cranks, the sort of people who see it as telling us exactly what the future holds - those who see it as some see the writings of Nostradamus.
I am not helped by the fact that it is a type of literature which is somewhat alien to me. It is part of a type of literature that is often described as “apocalyptic.” Such is a type of literature that was popular a couple of centuries either side of Jesus amongst Jewish people - a type of literature that is full of visions, beasts and symbols. It is not the sort of communication with which I am familiar although I have to confess that when several years ago at the time of the 1992 General Election, my wife and myself were staying at my in law’s home whilst I was doing teacher training, Revelation provided me with a moment of joy. You see, my mother in law’s polling card number was 666 which is the anti Christ in Revelation. Needless to say, as we arrived at the polling station, I ensured that the matter caused her maximum embarassment. What a rotter I was!
Anyhow, these things tend to cause me to draw back from Revelation. And in that I am not alone. For even Martin Luther with his emphasis of Scripture alone, made an exception for Revelation about which he wrote;
“My spirit cannot accommodate itself to this book. I stick to the books which present Christ to me clearly and purely.”
And yet, I think Luther was wrong. My reason is one of the things concerning which Revelation is often criticised, namely its allegedly excessively negative view of the world. Now please don’t get me wrong. There is much that is good in the world and sometimes Christians are far to slow to recognise the many good things in life. But at the same time, I shiver when I hear that hymn which proclaims;
“And now I am happy all the day.”
Every time I hear it, I want to ask what those singing it are on. For the reality is that there is a shadow side of life, a side of life in which there is great suffering. Only a few weeks ago, I did a google search on a woman who had been a fellow student with me at Southampton University over a quarter of a century ago. I remember as a vibrant personality whose friendship was very precious to me. She had gone on to have a distinguished academic career. Yet as I looked her up on the internet wondering how she was doing, I met a story that shocked me. For having reached great pinnacles in her career, she had struggled to cope with certain things, had got stressed out. And so this woman, beautiful on both the inside and outside had hanged herself. And I don’t suppose that story is particularly unique for our country and doubtless many others has an epidemic of people who struggle to cope with forces they feel to be beyond their control. And I suspect that much of the increasing dependencies on addictive substances is about trying to cope, to hold on to a sense of worth.
And then if we look to a bigger scale, we see in our world so many places where life is revealed in allits tragic reality. Look to the ethnic cleansing of Darfur, or the wretched violence that continues to afflict Iraq turning lives upside down so that one young woman who writes from that land says of her families decision to leave;
“It's difficult to decide which is more frightening- car bombs and militias, or having to leave everything you know and love, to some unspecified place for a future where nothing is certain”
And then there is Zimbabwe where a tyrant’s rule has savagely reduced life expectancy and ensure that life is lived against a backdrop of fear.
Such stories could go on and on. All manner of human rights abuses and the continued toleration of extreme poverty in so many corners of the world can draw our attention. So much so that ultimately, we find ourselves crying out;
“When will God do something about it? When will God put an end to the night of wrong?”
And that is precisely the sort of questions that were being asked in the world which first saw the Revelation of John. For this was a world of cruel emperors who were devoid of justice, who practised cruelty as routine and who were terrorising the early Christian communities. No wonder John’s Revelation is filled with anger towards the powers of Rome whom he describes as “Babylon the great, mother of whores and of earth’s abominations” - language stronger than this preacher would dare to use in the pulpit!
And yet despite the dark and deathly terrors around him, John’s Revelation is a message of hope. Because scandalous as it would have seemed to many of his contemporaries, John dares to offer a vision of a Kingdom that is much greater than the decadent Empire that had and expected to go on dominating the world. John points instead to the Kingdom of God and for him just as for Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount, this Kingdom transforms that which we see in our world. For here he sees those who have suffered now experiencing a joy in the presence of God. God is healing the sores and humiliations that have been heaped upon people in this world.
And the extent of this change is absolutely breathtaking Oh what a change! Hunger and thirst shall be no more. The extremities of climate will no more destroy. For after the great sufferings, there is the great healing in which;
“God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”
And the scale of it! John, the Jew, sees that the presence of God is on such a wide scale. It is for the outsiders, those who have not grown up with Israel’s history. For here in the multitude are people of every nation, tribe and language. And their numbers - so great! For here is a number so great that it cannot be counted. So often we have tended to put limitations on the scope of God’s grace but here comes the message to prepare to be blown away in wonder at the sheer scale of God’s amazing grace.
And does not the transformation fill you with wonder. For now the rejects, the nobodies, the victims of cruelty are caught up in the incredible dynamic of God’s unending circle of love. And now all their pains real as they have been, are diminished by the breathtaking of wonder of the presence of God. And for John at the heart of the transformation is the blood of the lamb. For whilst, we can quibble about theories of how the death of Jesus brings us to God, we can rejoice that bring us to God it most certainly does.
Several years ago I visited Coventry for a wedding. It turned into a pretty miserable weekend for reasons that have long ceased to matter. Yet I do regret that I failed to visit the inside of its beautiful modern cathedral. Built in the aftermath of the bombing by the German luftwaffe in 1940 which devastated the cathedral, the new cathedral emphasised the message of “resurrection through sacrifice.” In it is a glass wall with happy pictures of Saints and angels upon it having quite a party time. The joy is unmistakable. And at first it might seem quite unrealistic. And yet if one looks through the glass, one can see the sad ruins of the old cathedral. So in a moment, the visitor encounters a vision of the sorrows that are all too prevalent in the world and at the same time, the glorious hope for the future which we owe to the sacrifice of Christ.
But as we look at this vision of hope, a vision that reminds us that this world is not all that there is, we need to beware of a temptation to speak only of, to borrow a trite phrase, pie in the sky. The awareness of the greatness of God and the offer of grace in a sense helps to set us free from being dragged down by the happenings of this world. But our learning of these things surely tells us of a higher vision that offers “abundance of life” so that we can not be content with the violence and injustices of this world. For surely as we gaze at the loving wonder that is God, we can be content with nothing less than the signs of God’s Kingdom. And so we dare to look and to participate in the signs of God’s city being built upon the ruins of our present day Babylons.
This sermons was preached at Gammaton on Sunday April 29th 2007
I cannot claim to be a regular preacher on the Revelation to John. I have often thought of this book which concludes the Bible as being something of a happy hunting ground for cranks, the sort of people who see it as telling us exactly what the future holds - those who see it as some see the writings of Nostradamus.
I am not helped by the fact that it is a type of literature which is somewhat alien to me. It is part of a type of literature that is often described as “apocalyptic.” Such is a type of literature that was popular a couple of centuries either side of Jesus amongst Jewish people - a type of literature that is full of visions, beasts and symbols. It is not the sort of communication with which I am familiar although I have to confess that when several years ago at the time of the 1992 General Election, my wife and myself were staying at my in law’s home whilst I was doing teacher training, Revelation provided me with a moment of joy. You see, my mother in law’s polling card number was 666 which is the anti Christ in Revelation. Needless to say, as we arrived at the polling station, I ensured that the matter caused her maximum embarassment. What a rotter I was!
Anyhow, these things tend to cause me to draw back from Revelation. And in that I am not alone. For even Martin Luther with his emphasis of Scripture alone, made an exception for Revelation about which he wrote;
“My spirit cannot accommodate itself to this book. I stick to the books which present Christ to me clearly and purely.”
And yet, I think Luther was wrong. My reason is one of the things concerning which Revelation is often criticised, namely its allegedly excessively negative view of the world. Now please don’t get me wrong. There is much that is good in the world and sometimes Christians are far to slow to recognise the many good things in life. But at the same time, I shiver when I hear that hymn which proclaims;
“And now I am happy all the day.”
Every time I hear it, I want to ask what those singing it are on. For the reality is that there is a shadow side of life, a side of life in which there is great suffering. Only a few weeks ago, I did a google search on a woman who had been a fellow student with me at Southampton University over a quarter of a century ago. I remember as a vibrant personality whose friendship was very precious to me. She had gone on to have a distinguished academic career. Yet as I looked her up on the internet wondering how she was doing, I met a story that shocked me. For having reached great pinnacles in her career, she had struggled to cope with certain things, had got stressed out. And so this woman, beautiful on both the inside and outside had hanged herself. And I don’t suppose that story is particularly unique for our country and doubtless many others has an epidemic of people who struggle to cope with forces they feel to be beyond their control. And I suspect that much of the increasing dependencies on addictive substances is about trying to cope, to hold on to a sense of worth.
And then if we look to a bigger scale, we see in our world so many places where life is revealed in allits tragic reality. Look to the ethnic cleansing of Darfur, or the wretched violence that continues to afflict Iraq turning lives upside down so that one young woman who writes from that land says of her families decision to leave;
“It's difficult to decide which is more frightening- car bombs and militias, or having to leave everything you know and love, to some unspecified place for a future where nothing is certain”
And then there is Zimbabwe where a tyrant’s rule has savagely reduced life expectancy and ensure that life is lived against a backdrop of fear.
Such stories could go on and on. All manner of human rights abuses and the continued toleration of extreme poverty in so many corners of the world can draw our attention. So much so that ultimately, we find ourselves crying out;
“When will God do something about it? When will God put an end to the night of wrong?”
And that is precisely the sort of questions that were being asked in the world which first saw the Revelation of John. For this was a world of cruel emperors who were devoid of justice, who practised cruelty as routine and who were terrorising the early Christian communities. No wonder John’s Revelation is filled with anger towards the powers of Rome whom he describes as “Babylon the great, mother of whores and of earth’s abominations” - language stronger than this preacher would dare to use in the pulpit!
And yet despite the dark and deathly terrors around him, John’s Revelation is a message of hope. Because scandalous as it would have seemed to many of his contemporaries, John dares to offer a vision of a Kingdom that is much greater than the decadent Empire that had and expected to go on dominating the world. John points instead to the Kingdom of God and for him just as for Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount, this Kingdom transforms that which we see in our world. For here he sees those who have suffered now experiencing a joy in the presence of God. God is healing the sores and humiliations that have been heaped upon people in this world.
And the extent of this change is absolutely breathtaking Oh what a change! Hunger and thirst shall be no more. The extremities of climate will no more destroy. For after the great sufferings, there is the great healing in which;
“God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”
And the scale of it! John, the Jew, sees that the presence of God is on such a wide scale. It is for the outsiders, those who have not grown up with Israel’s history. For here in the multitude are people of every nation, tribe and language. And their numbers - so great! For here is a number so great that it cannot be counted. So often we have tended to put limitations on the scope of God’s grace but here comes the message to prepare to be blown away in wonder at the sheer scale of God’s amazing grace.
And does not the transformation fill you with wonder. For now the rejects, the nobodies, the victims of cruelty are caught up in the incredible dynamic of God’s unending circle of love. And now all their pains real as they have been, are diminished by the breathtaking of wonder of the presence of God. And for John at the heart of the transformation is the blood of the lamb. For whilst, we can quibble about theories of how the death of Jesus brings us to God, we can rejoice that bring us to God it most certainly does.
Several years ago I visited Coventry for a wedding. It turned into a pretty miserable weekend for reasons that have long ceased to matter. Yet I do regret that I failed to visit the inside of its beautiful modern cathedral. Built in the aftermath of the bombing by the German luftwaffe in 1940 which devastated the cathedral, the new cathedral emphasised the message of “resurrection through sacrifice.” In it is a glass wall with happy pictures of Saints and angels upon it having quite a party time. The joy is unmistakable. And at first it might seem quite unrealistic. And yet if one looks through the glass, one can see the sad ruins of the old cathedral. So in a moment, the visitor encounters a vision of the sorrows that are all too prevalent in the world and at the same time, the glorious hope for the future which we owe to the sacrifice of Christ.
But as we look at this vision of hope, a vision that reminds us that this world is not all that there is, we need to beware of a temptation to speak only of, to borrow a trite phrase, pie in the sky. The awareness of the greatness of God and the offer of grace in a sense helps to set us free from being dragged down by the happenings of this world. But our learning of these things surely tells us of a higher vision that offers “abundance of life” so that we can not be content with the violence and injustices of this world. For surely as we gaze at the loving wonder that is God, we can be content with nothing less than the signs of God’s Kingdom. And so we dare to look and to participate in the signs of God’s city being built upon the ruins of our present day Babylons.
This sermons was preached at Gammaton on Sunday April 29th 2007
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