On the book of Revelation Sunday, September 3, 2006 Daniel 7:1-10 Revelation 13:1-10. Mt. 24:34-36.

When I was a boy, I was devoutly religious, and I was a reader. In time I found a few stories written by twentieth-century Christians that helped me endure years that seemed endlessly hostile to my faitha time in my life that I still look back on as one of desperate, almost hopeless endurance. I want to talk to you today not about the difficulties of my adolescence, but about the strange stories that Christians have written to help people see what their faith is about and so to endure. The books that I (and many other Christian kids of my generation) discovered were the Narnia Chronicles by C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkeins great trilogy. Both these authors were Christians. It was no accident that their stories nourished my faith: They were meant to. To a certain kind of reader (the sort who doesnt read much and doesnt really slide into a story when he does), these books were just plain not true. Lewis book had talking animals, a great lion who represented our Lord, witches, giantsall kinds of silliness. Tolkein had wizards, dwarves, elves, evil rings that threatened to enslave all life. A certain kind of reader might think that Lewis and Tolkein must have been mad or astoundingly ignorant to believe that animals can talk, that a lion can be lord over humans, and that elves, wizards, and hobbits must destroy the great ring of power that threatens to enslave all men. But those of us who loved Lewis and Tolkein knew that they were neither ignorant nor mad. They didnt really believe in hobbits and talking lions as newspaper facts, and yet they knew that most people believed in things even more silly: that money and power are stronger than good; that we are failures if our society considers us failures; that we are weak and helpless; that our lives do not matter; that joy is unattainable. And in some amazing fashion those of us readers who really entered into these crazy worlds of talking animals and hobbits with rings came to see our own world in a different way. We ceased to see the rich, popular, and powerful people in our schools and our world as truly great and powerful. We came to understand that it was right for ordinary people like us to stand for something higher than popularity, wealth, and power. The stories encouraged me, at any rate, to stand for what was good and right and to pursue God and Truth even when the journey felt crazy and very, very lonely. These strange, imaginative storiesapparently so full of nonsensesomehow managed to convey an alternate vision of the world that helped sustain my faith. Spending a few hours as a citizen of Narnia, obedient to the lion king Aslan, who loved me, somehow made it easier not to be frightened of school bullies and somehow made a bottle of vodka and a cheerleader in a short skirt less compelling. I was not the first religious kid to be encouraged by fantastic stories. Even Jesus grew up with fantastic stories that helped refocus the eyes of the faithful when the world pressed very hard and it became very difficult to trust in the goodness and power of God. One kind of story that was told among the Jews of Jesus day is a kind that scholars call apocalyptic. If you have read chapters 8-12 of Daniel recently, you will be familiar with one major example of apocalyptic: stories that present themselves as visions of beasts with heads and horns representations of rich and powerful nations. Stories like this were told in Israel, which was neither rich nor powerful, among people who found themselves constantly under the power of other bigger nations, bullies, beasts with many heads and many horns. There are other examples of apocalyptic stories from this period: the Book of Enoch; the Apocalypse of Baruch; and (a bit later and written by a Christian writer (the book of Revelation). I want to talk this morning about the book of Revelation because it is so often and so dangerously misinterpreted in our time. When I say it is misinterpreted, I do not mean that I can offer a proper explanation of every detail in the story. I cant
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anymore than I can explain all the details in the tales of Narnia and Middle Earth. What I mean by misinterpreted is that popular interpretations of Revelation present a view of God that is outrageously discordant with the view of God presented by Jesus, Paul, and other Christian authors. Revelation has become the stuff of horror movies. In these movies Revelation is some kind of secret code that reveals how and when God is going to strike out in anger and destruction against the world. In these movies the God of our Lord Jesus Christ is nowhere to be seen. In popular thought the God of Revelation does not love like the perfect father; he does not notice every sparrow who falls. The god of Revelation as it is popularly interpreted is obviously not the same God as the God of our Lord Jesus. And so, its popular interpretation must be a wrong interpretation. The early Christian church would never have included Revelation in the New Testament if Revelation had preached a completely un-Christian view of God. Now it apparently is true that there was opposition in the early church to the inclusion of Revelation in the New Testament, and (if my memory is accurate) important Christians of more recent centuriessuch as Martin Lutherhave expressed the belief that it doesnt really belong in the New Testament. The reason these people would have argued against Revelation is that it can easily be read to suggest precisely that God is full of wrath and violence. My guess, though, is that Revelation was included in the New Testament because some people who were careful readers of it successfully argued that, properly interpreted, it really is a Christian book one that presents God as a god of love and mercy rather than violence. More specifically, my guess is that the Greek thinkers in the early church found this apocalyptic book freakish and unclear, but that they included it in the canon because churches in the Jewish and Middle Eastern tradition loved the story and assured the Greek Christians that it really was an expression of the goodness of God. It is not surprising that early Christians unfamiliar with apocalyptic stories found Revelation violent, angry, judgmental, and terrifying. Most apocalyptic stories in the Jewish tradition were. They were written by pious religious people who were angry and frustrated by the injustices in the world. The people of God, the Jewish nation, was small and relatively powerless, and so the powerful peoplethe military and political super powers of the ancient world constantly oppressed the one nation that tried to live in faithfulness to God. Generation after generation, century after century pious Jewish kids were beaten up, humiliated, sneered at, and slaughtered by people who didnt care about God or justice. Why? they wondered. Why doesnt God do something to help his people, Israel. Why doesnt he destroy its constant oppressors: Egypt, Babylon, Alexanders Greece, Rome? And the answer in Jewish apocalyptic was, He will. Those nations are rich and powerful. Everyone wants to be friends with them, and no one wants to be friends with you. Even so, God is on your side. He is a just god. He sees all the wrongs they are doing against you, and their injustices are making him angry. Someday God will have enough. He will be so full of wrath that he will erupt in wrath against those evil nations and destroy them and elevate Israel. Then people will realize that God really is a god of justice and power. These Jewish apocalyptic stories promise that God will work his wrath through real armies, real wars. People will know that the day of Gods wraththe day of justice and reckoninghas come because the corpses of Gods enemies will lie thick on the battlefield. Can you imagine some old guy who had grown up a good Jewish kid nourished on this kind of story, and who had then spent a lifetime following Jesus teachings? Can you imagine that at some point he might decide to tell the people he loved a Christian version of these apocalyptic stories. He would, of course, use many of the same elements and focus on the same basic issues, but he would have to change many of the specificsbecause his story would be a uniquely Christian story, not a pre-Christian Jewish story. That, I think, is just what John does in Revelation. Johns purpose is essentially the same as the writers of Jewish apocalyptic stories. When he writes in the 90s A.D., Christians have been subjected to considerable persecution. Good Christian kids are wondering just as good Jewish kids so often had, Where is God? Why do the unjust prosper and the just die young? Why does Rome with its wealth, power, and arrogance get to judge us and kill usand God does nothing to help us? The basic answer has to be the same as it always has been, of course: Hang on, endure, dont give up. But the
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expectation of what God is going to do is different. If this is really a faithful Christian story, it cannot teach that God will win by means of violent war because Christians do not believe that violence ultimately wins. We believe that love wins. That is the message everywhere in the New Testament. That is the new thing in the Christian gospel. In Johns story, God is surrounded by all the powers of heavenjust as in the Jewish stories. But there is something new in heaven: a Lamb (chap.5) who has been sacrificed and so is worthy to open a new future (a sealed scroll) that no one else could open. And so, the eldersthe earlier generations of the faithfulbegin to sing a new song. The process of breaking the seals, of revealing the new story, is old: violence, slaughter, war, death, hunger (chap 6). As these age-old catastrophes and violence continue, all the people of the earth fear the worst: They hide themselves in caves and cry to the mountains, Fall on us, hide us from the One who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb. But hear how silly their fear is: the wrath of the Lamb?! As Paul says, He died to deliver us from judgment. Do we now have to fear that he will condemn us? Then (chap 7) John sees that a countless throng of people from all over the world have become Gods people. This is different from Jewish apocalyptic in which the faithful are just Jews. These people are a new kind of peopleneither Romans nor Jews. They are citizens of heaven. They have their dwelling place in heaven even as they live on earth. Their loyalty is to God and to the Lamb. They suffer terrible things from the inhabitants of the earth the people who think that power, money, and pleasure are what life is about. But they remain loyal to God: They continue to believe in love, goodness, and right. In chapters 8 and 9 there is even more destruction, but the inhabitants of the earth did not repent of their murders, their sorcery, their fornication, their robberies (9:21). In Jewish apocalyptic all this destruction is Gods way of making the world better, but this Christian apocalyptic story realizes that plagues do not make things better or bring people to repentance. Famines, plagues, wars, all sorts of calamities come on people who believe in the wrong things, but those things do not teach them to love God or one another. In chapter 10 the story suggests the possibility that God might abandon the world to ultimate calamity and annihilation: John hears the seven thunders speaktotal thunder, total threat, total destruction. God tells him not to write down that threatbecause it isnt going to happen. Instead, the hidden purpose of God will be revealed. At this point an angel takes a little scroll and tells John to eat it. It will taste sweet, but it will burn your belly, the angel says. This little scroll is (I think) the individual believers new way of life. The Christian gets a way of life that is very attractive to talk about, but much more painful to live. In chapter 12 it has been revealed that by the actions and the sacrifice of Jesus something new has happened in heaven. The dragon, the snake, the devil has been thrown out of heaven. The victory is won in heaven! The devil has no more power over those whose dwelling is in heaventhe faithful, both living and dead. But the dragon, thrown from heaven, comes to earth in his anger, bringing trouble. He gives power to beastsnations (especially Rome) that enslave people to greed, pleasure, and power. Finally, in chapter 14 comes the great battle. All those who are faithful to the Lamb are assembled. They are described as faithful people who ready themselves for holy war. The Lamb has already fought his great battle and won. But now the 144,000 must fight their great battle. They are the first fruitsjust the beginning of the people who will be the people of God. As they prepare for their battle, an angel proclaims an eternal gospelgood newsto all people of all times and places. Now you will see what Gods judgmentthe day of wrathis like. Babylon (Rome), the symbol of power, arrogance, and injustice is going to fall. She is going to drink the cup of Gods wrath, get drunk, fall, and be destroyed. Anyone who continues to worship the beast of power, the beast of this world will share Babylons fate: drink the cup of Gods wrath undiluted. And that will be a torment. So the battle is about to beginand there are a few things to note. The gospel has been proclaimed to the unbelievers. But strangely, John says, This calls for the endurance of the faithful, and then he says, Happy are those who die in the lord from this day on
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Then he says the time of judgment has finally come. One angel says, Put in your sickle and reap, for the harvest time has come. The crop is ripe. The angel reaps the earth. Another angel takes his sickle and reaps the earths grape harvest. He throws those grapes into the great winepress of Gods wrath. The winepress was trodden outside the city, and for a distance of two hundred miles blood flowed from the press to the depth of horses bridles. If this were Jewish apocalyptic, we would expect this sea of blood to be the blood of infidels, but it is not. The grapes are the harvest of the earththe good stuff. This slaughter is ordered by an angel in the heavenly sanctuary: This is a sacrifice. The great victory in heaven had been achieved by the Lamb who bore the marks of sacrifice. And now it is the time for the army of the lamb, the holy warriors, those who (as John says at the beginning of chapter 14) follow the Lamb wherever he goes. These are the martyrsnot martyrs who die with a sword in their hand, but martyrs in the Christian sense: they die fighting with the sword of their mouths. They tell the truth about superpowers like Rome: They say that they are false gods. They point people to the true God whose great victories are won not by armies with swords and guns, but by armies of lambs who follow the Lamb wherever he goes. This is the little scroll that tastes sweet, but burns in the belly. As the great scroll (the gospel of our Lord) reveals the sacrifice of the Lamb, the little scroll reveals that destiny and calling of those who would follow the Lamb: We, too, must expect to be sacrificed. And so John reveals the great change that Christians must bring to any truly Christian apocalyptic story. The wrath of God is not an army of Christians sent to kill. Gods judgment on the inhabitants of the earth is something no one would have expected: an army of people willing to die to bring truth, good news, and healing to the inhabitants of the earth. I dont have time to take this story any further today, but I want you to get the basic point because many Christian teachers are foolishly teaching that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ will bring about his greatest victory by Armageddon in the Middle East, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ will bring good into this world by blowing up people with bombs and killing them with bullets. That is not the Gospel. That is the anti-Gospel. Those are not the teachings of the Christ, but of the anti-Christ. We must not believe them. He has told us what is good: to do justice, to love kindness, to walk humbly before our God. Our way, brothers and sisters, is not to put a bullet into some child of God who is lost in the darkness, but to bring the light of Gods love to that lost child. We are the army of the Lamb. Our task is to follow the Lamb wherever he goesand we know where the Lamb went.

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