Here's my sermon on the book of Revelation, with a huge tip of the hat to Magdelene's Musing for the inspiration and great introduction.
Revelation 21: 1-6
It sometimes seems like the book of Revelation has been “captured” by the end-of-the-world folks, who read John’s vision as part of a biblical blueprint for the final days of life on earth, which are understood to be close at hand. I am asking you however, to let go of everything you have heard about the book of Revelation. Images of Armageddon, the anti-Christ, the four horsemen of the apocalypse, planes falling out of the sky, automobiles being left driverless, all the books with flames and titles such as “Left Behind.” Put all these things away for just a little while and entertain the possibility that the book of Revelation was written for a young Christian Community dealing with struggle and unspeakable loss.(1)
The text of the book of Revelation was a pastoral letter written by a prophet whose name is John (not to be confused with John the author of the gospel) while he was in exile on the island of Patmos. Many believe that the book of Revelation was written in the last days of Emperor Domitian 95 years after Jesus’ life and ministry on earth. That John wrote this text 20 years after the Roman armies destroyed the Temple and the Holy City of Jerusalem, the center of life and worship for the early Christian community. History tells us that the Roman Empire ruled the world through a system of domination and that the homeland of the early Christian community the land of Israel was under the tyranny of Roman imperialism. Scholars note that in the first century under Roman rule, a small elite class controlled all the production of wealth, resources and land. Those who were not of the elite class, which was most of the population of Israel, lived in wretched poverty. The majority of the people living in under the Roman Empire lived in misery, danger, fear and despair. (2) For the oppressed who saw the destruction of all they held dear, John’s message in the book of Revelation was comforting because they could very clearly hear his message of hope throughout the text.
Now taken literally, the book of Revelation is hard for us to understand to us in our modern day setting. We are taken aback by the images of the four white horsemen beasts rising out of the sea juxtaposed with the fall of Babylon. We struggle with the book of Revelation because we are unfamiliar with the entire genre of writing known as apocalyptic. Apocalyptic writing by Jews and Christians in the first century was common, indeed more common than the genre known as the gospel. The writers of apocalyptic literature sought to “lift the veil” to reveal something that is hidden from a majority of humankind. They wanted to reveal the world as God sees it. This form of literature and imagery, so strange to us, was commonplace for the audience who first heard the book of Revelation. It was as familiar to them as the imagery of our political cartoons are to us in which we see our government depicted in images elephants and donkey’s struggle for power.
The book of Revelation addresses the harassment and distress that the early Christian community was dealing with as a marginalized people living counter-culturally in the Roman Empire. John is a part of this community describing himself as “’your brother who shares with you in Jesus the struggle and the kingdom and the faithful resistance…’ He was an ordinary disciple, sharing with his peers the struggle to be faithful amidst the seductions and the threats of the Roman Empire.” (3) Some note that John was not giving his readers a fantasy of the future, rather he was recognizing the struggle of his time and giving us a portrait of life as God intends us to live. “It is a world of great natural abundance, of flowing water and ripe fruit. In other words, it is our precious planet as God created it, apart from human sinfulness that has marred so terribly its divinely made beauty.” (4) In the midst of loss and tears John preaches the promise of a new thing, a new heaven and a new earth, a new Jerusalem. He unveils for all who hear his message “worship God alone and become the people of freedom and joy that God has been calling throughout history.” (5)
The book of Revelation comes alive for me whenever I attend the annual May Day celebration in the south side neighborhood of the city of Minneapolis. Once a year on the first weekend in May, the Heart of the Beast puppet theater along with a variety of peace and social justice groups organize an annual May Day celebration. The day begins with a parade of ten foot high puppets, adult and children dancers, and a live orchestra. The parade is a form of street theater that tells a story visually and musically of the social justice struggles of our day, be it the burdens of poverty, war and isolation. As the parade progresses signs of the work of peace and justice appear and in the end the oppressed are set free and the world is made whole again. The parade ends with a May Day ceremony at the park where it culminates with a Tree of Life Ceremony: “to the steady beating of drums, a resplendent red Sun Flotilla paddles the Sun from across the lake to the shore where the Tree of Life sleeps, waiting to be awakened.” (6)
What is more amazing than the parade and the ceremony is the crowd of 50,000 people that gathers to participate in the festivities. For one afternoon rich and poor, white people and people of color, gang banger and police officer, politician and anarchist, gay and straight, immigrants and American born citizens all share in a springtime celebration in a park located in an economically challenged neighborhood in inner city Minneapolis. I wonder at all the people and realize the veil has been lifted that what I am witnessing is the revelation of the kingdom of God here on earth. In a small park in Minneapolis is born a new Jerusalem and indeed God is dwells there. Through the hope of justice and peacemaking, God has made all things new-the former things are passed away. No longer do our labels divide us because “it is done! [God] is the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. To [we who are] thirsty, God will give water as a gift from the spring of the water of life.”
May it be so.
Amen.
(1) http://magdalenesmusings.blogspot.com/2009/11/do-this-in-remembrance-sermon-on.html
(2) Bridges, Linda McKinnish, "Preaching the Parables in Matthew's Gospel in Ordinary Time: The Extraordinary Tales of God's World," Review & Expositor (2007): 325-362.
(3) Wes Howard-Brook, “Living in New Jerusalem, the Bibles celebratory vision of what the church is to be.” Seasons of the Spirit Congregational Life Lent, Easter RCL Year C (2007), 114.
(4) Ibid., 114.
(5) Ibid., 114.
(6) http://www.hobt.org/mayday/cere/index.html
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