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Recovering the Lost Blessing |
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© John Ewing Roberts |
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REMARKS PRIOR TO PRAYER This is a teachable moment in our nation's history, an occasion to make sure we know where we stand on biblical principles. My calling as your pastor is to be a prophet, that is, a forth-teller, and a priest, a healer. I recognize that some ministers act also as political pundits and would-be editorialists, suggesting how parishioners should react to political events. I also realize that there are many people in many churches who welcome such instruction. You are not such people, and this is not such a place. Paul the apostle is an instructive example of how perilous it is for a religious leader to pontificate in public affairs. In Romans 13 Paul suggests cooperation with the Roman government. Scholars tell us he based his optimistic view of the state on the early promise of the new emperor, an up-and-coming young man named Nero! By the time Revelation 13 was written Christians had formed a very different notion about the Roman Empire, comparing it to a great beast and later to a great whore (Revelation 17). Instead of political punditry, at this time when in the words of today's New York Times we are people of "heavy hearts and churning emotions," we need no more defenders or detractors, but rather people who live by some words from the Bible which speak for themselves. "Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord..." (Psalm 33: 12) "Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people." (Proverbs 14:34) "Thou shalt not commit adultery." (Exodus 20: 14) "Thou shalt not bear false witness..." (Exodus 20: 16) "Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us." (Matthew 6: 12) Since I was a bit hard on Paul and his venture into political science at the outset of these remarks, let me give him the last word in two final texts. "Love does not rejoice in evil..." (I Corinthians 13: 6) "Finally (a word we long to hear!), beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. What you have learned and received and heard...do; and the God of peace will be with you." (Philippians 4: 8-9) Let us pray for all branches of our government and for our country. INTRODUCTION TO SERMON We begin today a series of sermons on the first three chapters of Revelation. Earlier in the service you received a translation by Eugene Peterson of chapters 1-3. We have sung hymns about the reign of God in Jesus the Christ and his coming among us. When the school year begins, articles appear on all the events which happened before the birth of the current crop of college freshman, articles which cause us to feel both nostalgia for what has been and panic over changes. The freshmen know little or nothing of these changes we have lived through, changes which more than not create fear of what else may happen. From the newsletter of David Hughes, the father of a member of the class of 2002, I found this information compiled by the Leadership Network for NetFax. Most of the freshmen were born in 1980 and have few meaningful recollections of the Reagan era. They were pre-teens when the Persian War was waged. "Black Monday, 1987, is as significant to them as the Great Depression. There has only been one Pope in their lifetime. They were 11 when the Soviet Union broke apart and do not remember the Cold War. They have known only one Germany. They were 6 when the Challenger space shuttle exploded, and 9 when the events of Tienanmen Square took place. The Vietnam War is as ancient history to them as WW1 or WW2. "Their lifetime has always included AIDS. Bottle caps have not only always been screw off, but plastic. The expression, `you sound like a broke record' means nothing to them since they never owned a record player. They may have heard of an 8-track player but have never likely played one. The Compact Disc was introduced when they were 1 year old. Chicago and Alabama are places, not musical groups. "They have always had an answering machine. Most have never seen a TV with only 13 channels, nor a black and white TV. They have always had cable and a VCR and cannot imagine life without a remote control. They were born the year the Walkman was introduced, and roller-skating means in-line. They have never seen Larry Bird play basketball (a fact I find particularly sad-JER), and the Kareem Abdul-Jabar they know is a football player." A lot has changed. Many changes, particularly those we have had in recent days in the political and economic arena, are frightening. When people get frightened, sooner or later someone turns to the book of Revelation. With the year 2000 barreling down on us, the book is very much on the minds of many. It is worthwhile for us to study a portion of this book that we may not be overwhelmed by those often noisy folk who turn to Revelation and retroject all sorts of weird and scary stuff into it. Their interpretations have less to do with the text and are of interest mainly as a kind of Rorschach text of their fears and fantasies. Did you notice that there is a blessing mentioned in Chapter 1, verse 3, for those who read aloud this book? I hope you will take Peterson's translation and read aloud these three chapters at one sitting. You will find the text to be fresh, compelling and puzzling. MISUSING THE BOOK AND MISSING THE BLESSING Revelation is often misused for two reasons. 1. Revelation is Respected but Inaccessible First, it is daunting, remote, inaccessible, rather like Michelangelo's painting of the Last Judgment above the altar in the Sistine Chapel in Rome. It is hard to make out exactly what is going on as you look at the picture before you. Even if we were in Rome, to make sense of what is reputed to be a masterpiece, most of us would benefit mightily by having a good guide to tell us who's who and what's happening and why. Often Revelation is like this painting, something to be respected and appreciated from afar but seldom understood and appropriated into our experience. Revelation sadly stands admired but unused, admired for its reputation but not understood. 2. Revelation is the Happy Hunting Ground of the Lunatic Fringe The second reason for the misuse of Revelation is its abuse by what a splendid old Methodist preacher named Clovis Chappell called "the lunatic fringe."[1] A slide of a booklet entitled, "Are You Ready for the Rapture? Jesus Is Finally Coming!" reminds us that many were convinced that Jesus would come in 1992, as the book cover avows. If he did, and if he "raptured" or took up to heaven all the true Christians in 1992, then you are left. Clark Riley wisely reminded the boys and girls in his Message to the Young Worshippers that no one really knows when the second coming will be. Jesus told the disciples, "But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only." "It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has fixed by his own authority."[2] The poor soul who wrote this tract believed that Jesus would come in 1992. Why he thought he knew something that Jesus, the angels and the apostles did not know is beyond me! I know there is a standard way to slip out of this embarrassment. It goes like this: "It is all right to predict the year since Jesus didn't say anything about the year; he only said he did not know the day or the hour. And if we got the year wrong, let me get back to you with some new numbers." This next slide shows a tract referring to something mentioned later in Revelation: a reference to the mark of the beast.[3] If you don't know what that is, keep coming - it may well come up before we're through! This author is convinced that the beast has to do with computers and money - notice the subtle computer chip on the wrist of the hand holding the dollar bill! (The slides you are seeing were prepared on a computer - consider yourself warned!) Consider this slide of a Revelation coffee mug. It comes from an unsolicited mail advertisement which encouraged me to buy one mug for each of you. Notice the skyline of a typical city. But add coffee or hot tea, and voil, Jesus appears in the clouds, looming over the city. Folks, I'm only showing you the milder stuff! THE NEED FOR THE BLESSING This sort of stuff leaves us either in the position of staying away from Revelation because it sometimes is seen as daunting and distant as a masterpiece or because it has become the happy hunting ground of the religious lunatic fringe who trivialize Jesus' teachings. What are we to do? The sermon title is Recovering the Lost Blessing. Who can deny that we need blessing profoundly? Our popular culture reveals how needy we are. The two most popular and acclaimed films of the year are Titanic and Saving Private Ryan. Both seem death obsessed. 1,500 people go down on the Titanic. I do not know how many people die in those terrible opening minutes of Saving Private Ryan. A serious commentator on our culture, the Catholic priest Andrew Greeley, warned against Hollywood's merchandising of violence, our tendencies to voyeurism, and the pornography of violence.[4] The Book of Revelation with all of its talk of judgment and destruction may seem at first glance to be as violent as these two films. But it is not. Clovis Chappell wrote that Revelation is the "most daringly hopeful, the most dauntlessly optimistic book to be found in the New Testament."[5] Let us be clear that we turn to Revelation as a reason for optimism and hope, a way to recover blessings we have lost by our neglect of this treasure. DISCLOSURES The word "revelation" means "disclosure." As an introductory overview of Revelation let me draw on Chappell again for a list of five great truths disclosed in Revelation. 1. The Truth of the Church There are seven letters to seven churches in Revelation 2-3. The author knew these congregations, their strengths and weaknesses, their imperfections and their possibilities. He knew the most important thing of all about them - in spite of their deficiencies they were lampstands of pure gold.[6] There is great hope for Woodbrook in that truth. We have our weaknesses, but God has entrusted us with the golden message of the gospel, grounds for optimism and hope. 2. The Foe of the Church The great foe of the Church is Rome, secular power. Earlier in the service I referred to Romans 13, when Paul in effect said of Nero, "He just may be o.k. Let's root for this guy. Let's see if we can work with him." (Quite a paraphrase, I grant you.) By Revelation 13 (and 17), almost an answer to Romans 13, Domitian is the emperor, and the Bible compares him to all that is evil in secular power, a beast, the great whore of Babylon. The shift from Romans 13 to Revelation 13 is what we today call "a sea change." Revelation discloses all the worldly power that is corrupt, intimidating and adversarial to the Church. 3. The Conflict Between the Church and the World The first auditors of Revelation knew who their enemy was. Sometimes we do not. We accommodate, we assimilate, we get used to things. An Iranian who worships here from time to time was surprised that so many Americans were shocked at the behavior of our president but we express no shock at what is on network television in prime time. We have gotten used to such material; we accept it; we have forgotten who the enemy is. Revelation discloses the Christ-culture conflict. 4. The Identity of Our Great Ally Revelation reminds us that when we are on God's side, God is our great ally. Revelation reveals what kind of God he is - an all powerful God, a holy God, an ethical God, a God who suffers (the Lamb who was slain), a loving God. 5. The Victory One day "the kingdom of this world will become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign for ever and ever. Hallelujah! For the Lord God omnipotent reigneth."[7] (It takes Handel to do justice to such language.) Over the next seven Sundays we will study these seven churches to see what we can learn about their time and our time. We will see what we can learn about the Church, the foe of the Church, the conflict of the Church, the ally of the Church, and the sure victory of the Lord of the Church. CONCLUSION During the darkest days of the second World War, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill said, "We are not fighting by ourselves alone, but we are not fighting for ourselves alone."[8] The book of Revelation when properly studied will give us a sense of our fight, our struggle, the reason for the struggle, and who is struggling with us and for us. The book of Revelation when properly studied will help us recover the lost blessing. The book of Revelation when properly studied will give us a fresh sense of the blessed truth that one day the kingdom of this world will become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign for ever and ever. Hallelujah! [This sermon is for circulation within the Woodbrook congregation and may not be reproduced without permission.] Notes: [1] Clovis G. Chappell, Sermons from Revelation [New York: Abingdon-Cokesbury Press] 1943, "The Lost Blessing," p. 10 [2] Matthew 24: 36; Acts 1: 7 [3] Revelation 16: 2; 14: 18 [4] Andrew Greeley, "Saving Private Ryan and the Pornography of Violence," Religious News Service, August 14, 1998 [5] Chappell, op. cit., p. 11 [6] Revelation 1: 20 [7] Revelation 11: 15; 19: 6b [8] Chappell, op. cit., p. 21 |