As I mentioned in my previous post, I'm teaching a Sunday School class on Revelation. The class is being recorded for the sake of those who can't join us every Sunday. I don't know if anyone else is interested in listening in but I thought I would put the first couple recordings on here just in case.
You can find the recording to our first week here.
You can find the recording from yesterday here.
You can also find a document with my notes on Revelation 1 here.
Showing posts with label Revelation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Revelation. Show all posts
Monday, September 15, 2014
Friday, June 27, 2014
Reading Revelation
The folks in the Sunday School class I teach have asked to study the book of Revelation starting in the fall. I doubt I'll be posting as regularly as I did with Romans but I at least wanted to jot down a few of my basic assumption in how I approach this very unusual piece of Scripture.
So here are a few things I find helpful to keep in mind as you read the last book of the Bible.
1. Revelation is a prophetic book but that doesn't mean its primary purpose is to make predictions about the future. Think about the prophetic books in the Old Testament. They have predictive elements to them. But those elements are more like the "If...then..." predictions I make with my children when they are misbehaving. As in "If you can't listen and follow directions, then there will be consequences." While there is a kind of prediction and future-telling in that statement, we certainly wouldn't see that as being the emphasis of such a statement. Instead, the clear purpose of a statement like that one is to reveal to or remind my children of a certain aspect of my character as their father and the nature of our household.
Most of the prophecies in the Old Testament follow this same pattern. "If you don't stop worshiping other gods and practicing injustice, Babylon will come to destroy you." Again, there is a predictive element involved but the real emphasis of these statements is to reveal something about God, the nature of God's relationship with Israel, and how God is working in the world.
John very much stands in this prophetic tradition. In fact, he eats, sleeps, and breathes it. It seems John can hardly write a line of Revelation without echoing the Old Testament in one way or another. So we should expect then that his prophecy will be very much like the prophecy we find in the Old Testament; that's its purpose would be the same.
John tells us as much with the opening phrase of his work: "the revelation of Jesus Christ." That is, the purpose of this book is to reveal Jesus. The primary purpose of prophecy is to reveal God so it makes sense that the only piece of explicitly Christian prophecy we have in our Scriptures would have as its goal to reveal Jesus; who he is, the nature of our relationship with him, and how he is at work in our world. You can read Revelation as a blueprint for the future, a cataloging of church history since Christ, or a prediction of the end-times if you like. Many Christians have read the book in those ways over the centuries. But to do so is to ignore the nature of Biblical prophecy and what John himself tells us about his writing. Like the rest of Scripture, the purpose of Revelation is to reveal Jesus to us.
2. Revelation is a letter addressed to seven churches in Asia Minor at the end of the first century. It is not a letter written to 21st century American Christians. Yes, it was written for us. At least, that is the faith claim we make when we regard it as Scripture. But it was not written to us. And that should make a difference in how we read it. It was written to people who lived under Roman rule and proclaimed that a Jew crucified by the Romans was the one true ruler of the world. It was written to real people who lived in the real cities of Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea. As such, it had to make sense to them in some way. It had to speak to their situation. It had to reveal Christ to them, in their world, in their going to the market, in their decision making, in their family life and the life of their city. If we want this book to make sense to us, we must first learn all that we can about their world and how it made sense to them. If we want it to reveal Jesus to us, then we must first make every effort to understand how it revealed Jesus to them.
3. Revelation is an apocalypse. In fact, the Greek word translated as "revelation" is apokalupsis (Ἀποκάλυψις). In our culture today, when we here the word "apocalypse" or "apocalyptic", we probably begin to envision the latest science fiction blockbuster movie. For us, apocalypse usually means robots or a killer virus or nuclear war wiping out most of humanity. Individuals trying to survive in a "post-apocalyptic" scenario has become a whole movie genre unto itself. The very name of the book of Revelation has become synonymous with the kind of terrible, end-of-the-world-as-we-know-it scenarios it portrays.
As I mentioned above, the actual meaning of the word "apokalupsis" has little to do with these scenarios. It means an uncovering, a revealing, a disclosure, making fully known. John's purpose in writing Revelation is to pull back the curtain and show us that there is a lot more going on behind the scenes than we might normally observe in our everyday reality.
However, the way in which John goes about pulling back that curtain is what is known as apocalyptic literature. That is, John has chosen a particular way of communicating this disclosure of truth to us and it is not one that he simply created. He is borrowing one of the literary techniques of his time. John's writing seems strange and unique to us because there is nothing like it in the New Testament and for the most part only Daniel and parts of Ezekiel resemble it in the Old Testament. But there were many other apocalypses written in the centuries immediately before and after Christ and as a rule they are highly symbolic writings full of other worldly images like those we find in Revelation.
This is significant because understanding how someone intends to communicate to us deeply impacts how we understand what they are communicating to us. Think of how you might read poetry as compared to a legal document or fiction as compared to a science text book or satire as compared to a newspaper article. Each of these categories of writing can communicate truth but they are each suited to deliver a certain kind of truth. There are different rules for the ways we read and write each of these forms of literature. Most of the time we pick up on those rules intuitively without thinking about them. But when we encounter a form of literature with which we are unfamiliar, say for example the apocalyptic literature like we find in the book of Revelation, it is easy to make a category mistake. As a result, it is important to recognize that extreme, other worldly, life or death images packed with symbolic meaning are the usual tools of the apocalyptic writer in the same way that irony and a dead-pan delivery are the tools of a satirical writer.
Revelation is prophecy. Revelation is a letter. Revelation is apocalyptic literature. Three important things to keep in mind as you read Revelation.
Oh, and one more thing. You'll notice there is no s at the end of that word. And that is not theologically insignificant. John does not see his Revelation of Jesus Christ as one among many possible revelations. It is the definitive revelation - no s - of who Jesus is and how he is at work in our world.
May the Spirit reveal Christ to us as we read the prophecy, the letter, the apocalypse that is Revelation.
So here are a few things I find helpful to keep in mind as you read the last book of the Bible.
1. Revelation is a prophetic book but that doesn't mean its primary purpose is to make predictions about the future. Think about the prophetic books in the Old Testament. They have predictive elements to them. But those elements are more like the "If...then..." predictions I make with my children when they are misbehaving. As in "If you can't listen and follow directions, then there will be consequences." While there is a kind of prediction and future-telling in that statement, we certainly wouldn't see that as being the emphasis of such a statement. Instead, the clear purpose of a statement like that one is to reveal to or remind my children of a certain aspect of my character as their father and the nature of our household.
Most of the prophecies in the Old Testament follow this same pattern. "If you don't stop worshiping other gods and practicing injustice, Babylon will come to destroy you." Again, there is a predictive element involved but the real emphasis of these statements is to reveal something about God, the nature of God's relationship with Israel, and how God is working in the world.
John very much stands in this prophetic tradition. In fact, he eats, sleeps, and breathes it. It seems John can hardly write a line of Revelation without echoing the Old Testament in one way or another. So we should expect then that his prophecy will be very much like the prophecy we find in the Old Testament; that's its purpose would be the same.
John tells us as much with the opening phrase of his work: "the revelation of Jesus Christ." That is, the purpose of this book is to reveal Jesus. The primary purpose of prophecy is to reveal God so it makes sense that the only piece of explicitly Christian prophecy we have in our Scriptures would have as its goal to reveal Jesus; who he is, the nature of our relationship with him, and how he is at work in our world. You can read Revelation as a blueprint for the future, a cataloging of church history since Christ, or a prediction of the end-times if you like. Many Christians have read the book in those ways over the centuries. But to do so is to ignore the nature of Biblical prophecy and what John himself tells us about his writing. Like the rest of Scripture, the purpose of Revelation is to reveal Jesus to us.
2. Revelation is a letter addressed to seven churches in Asia Minor at the end of the first century. It is not a letter written to 21st century American Christians. Yes, it was written for us. At least, that is the faith claim we make when we regard it as Scripture. But it was not written to us. And that should make a difference in how we read it. It was written to people who lived under Roman rule and proclaimed that a Jew crucified by the Romans was the one true ruler of the world. It was written to real people who lived in the real cities of Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea. As such, it had to make sense to them in some way. It had to speak to their situation. It had to reveal Christ to them, in their world, in their going to the market, in their decision making, in their family life and the life of their city. If we want this book to make sense to us, we must first learn all that we can about their world and how it made sense to them. If we want it to reveal Jesus to us, then we must first make every effort to understand how it revealed Jesus to them.
3. Revelation is an apocalypse. In fact, the Greek word translated as "revelation" is apokalupsis (Ἀποκάλυψις). In our culture today, when we here the word "apocalypse" or "apocalyptic", we probably begin to envision the latest science fiction blockbuster movie. For us, apocalypse usually means robots or a killer virus or nuclear war wiping out most of humanity. Individuals trying to survive in a "post-apocalyptic" scenario has become a whole movie genre unto itself. The very name of the book of Revelation has become synonymous with the kind of terrible, end-of-the-world-as-we-know-it scenarios it portrays.
As I mentioned above, the actual meaning of the word "apokalupsis" has little to do with these scenarios. It means an uncovering, a revealing, a disclosure, making fully known. John's purpose in writing Revelation is to pull back the curtain and show us that there is a lot more going on behind the scenes than we might normally observe in our everyday reality.
However, the way in which John goes about pulling back that curtain is what is known as apocalyptic literature. That is, John has chosen a particular way of communicating this disclosure of truth to us and it is not one that he simply created. He is borrowing one of the literary techniques of his time. John's writing seems strange and unique to us because there is nothing like it in the New Testament and for the most part only Daniel and parts of Ezekiel resemble it in the Old Testament. But there were many other apocalypses written in the centuries immediately before and after Christ and as a rule they are highly symbolic writings full of other worldly images like those we find in Revelation.
This is significant because understanding how someone intends to communicate to us deeply impacts how we understand what they are communicating to us. Think of how you might read poetry as compared to a legal document or fiction as compared to a science text book or satire as compared to a newspaper article. Each of these categories of writing can communicate truth but they are each suited to deliver a certain kind of truth. There are different rules for the ways we read and write each of these forms of literature. Most of the time we pick up on those rules intuitively without thinking about them. But when we encounter a form of literature with which we are unfamiliar, say for example the apocalyptic literature like we find in the book of Revelation, it is easy to make a category mistake. As a result, it is important to recognize that extreme, other worldly, life or death images packed with symbolic meaning are the usual tools of the apocalyptic writer in the same way that irony and a dead-pan delivery are the tools of a satirical writer.
Revelation is prophecy. Revelation is a letter. Revelation is apocalyptic literature. Three important things to keep in mind as you read Revelation.
Oh, and one more thing. You'll notice there is no s at the end of that word. And that is not theologically insignificant. John does not see his Revelation of Jesus Christ as one among many possible revelations. It is the definitive revelation - no s - of who Jesus is and how he is at work in our world.
May the Spirit reveal Christ to us as we read the prophecy, the letter, the apocalypse that is Revelation.
Monday, December 20, 2010
Two Kingdoms
In Matthew 2:13-23, we are given a story that none of the other gospel writers tells. It is the story of Jesus, Joseph, and Mary fleeing to Egypt and it gives a unique window into Matthew's understanding of Jesus right at the beginning of his gospel.
Matthew tells us that an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and told Joseph to flee to Egypt because king Herod was about to search for Jesus to destroy him. Joseph obediently follows the command and flees to Egypt and remained there until the death of Herod. Matthew then adds the comment that "This was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet 'Out of Egypt I called my son.'"
This quotation comes from Hosea 11 and in that context has nothing to do with Jesus or the expected Messiah. In fact, the "son" that God speaks of in Hosea is Israel whom God delivered from Egypt in the Exodus. In Hosea 11, God speaks through the prophet about how he delivered these people and how he loved them. God loved Israel like his own child but the more that he loved them the more they turned away from him. In fact, they kept turning away from God so much that just like a father would discipline a child he loves so God also has to discipline Israel to get their attention. So God allows them to be defeated by Assyria and to be made slaves once again.
Not coincidentally, the other Old Testament quotation in this passage in Matthew comes from precisely that time period in Israel's history. Jeremiah 31:15 speaks about the people of Israel weeping over the destruction of their land and their families. They have been laid waste by Assyria and Babylon. All God's people have been taken into captivity and they face a hopelessness in their exile, a fear that they will cease to exist as a people. And in that circumstance, God comforts them and says that he will one day restore them and not only that but he will one day make a new covenant with them where he will write his law on their hearts so that they won't be rebellious any more.
And Matthew tells us that this prophesy from Jeremiah was fulfilled when Herod ordered all the children in Bethlehem under the age of two to be murdered. We can see in both the quotations from Hosea and Jeremiah that Matthew does not use these prophecies in a merely predictive way. Matthew is not saying that Jesus meets some kind of prophetic checklist for what it means to be Messiah. Instead, he is saying "Look, this story is like that story. What God is doing in Jesus is like what God did in those times." In other words, by telling us that Jesus' family fled to Egypt and that God called his Son out of Egypt, Matthew wants us to see a parallel between the Exodus, the great deliverance of Israel, and what God is going to do in this child Jesus. And by quoting Jeremiah's words about the exile, words which are followed by God's promise of deliverance from that exile, Matthew wants us to see a parallel between what God did in the deliverance of Israel from exile in Babylon and what God is going to do in this boy Jesus. Matthew is hinting to us right here at the beginning of his story that this new born child is going to deliver Israel from its slavery just as God did in the Exodus and the return from Exile. This infant is going to be the new king of a new Israel.
There is just one problem with all of that. There is already a king in Israel. His name is Herod and he doesn't think Israel needs delivering. In fact, he is quite happy with the way things are since he is the one in power and he would like to keep it that way. The last thing Herod needs is some upstart kid trying to step in on the power that he has worked so hard to gain and keep. Herod will do whatever is necessary to hold on to the power that he has... even ordering every male child in the little town of Bethlehem to be murdered in cold blood. In fact, other historical records tells us that Herod even had three of his own sons killed so as to insure his continued reign as king. Of course, Herod was not especially unusual for his time. Many in the Roman Empire acted this way, doing whatever they had to in order to insure that they kept the power they had.
And so, right here only two chapters into Matthew's gospel, before Jesus has even had a chance to grow up, we find that his kingdom is already in conflict with, already threatening the kingdoms of this world. Matthew presents to us these two kingdoms and we must choose one or the other. On the one hand, we have Jesus and his kingdom which stands for all of those things that we talk about this time of year; peace, love, joy, hope. And all that sounds very nice and appealing to us. But on the other hand, we see that there is this other kingdom. The kingdom of Herod, the kingdom of this world. Matthew lays bare for us that this kingdom is built on nothing other than fear, violence, greed, and power lust. This kingdom is built on the murder of innocent children. We are repulsed by this kingdom and yet part of us finds it necessary, pragmatic, realistic, whatever you want to call it because we can see that this kingdom holds all the weapons, all the power, all the influence. So we are confronted with a choice: the kingdom of the helpless infant or the kingdom of the savage Herod?
From any rational, human perspective, it seems absurd to pledge or allegiance to anything other than the Herod kingdom. As much as we are repulsed by its method, we know that it holds all the power in this world. After all, how can you possibly build any kind of kingdom on an infant who himself is fleeing from Herod? In fact, I think John describes the situation well for us in Revelation 12. There John describes a sign he sees in heaven: a pregnant woman giving birth to a male child, "one who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron". And there standing before the woman is a great dragon who is waiting to devour the child the moment the woman gives birth. Undoubtedly, this imagery in Revelation is multifaceted in its meaning but at the very least we can hear the parallel between the dragon who wishes to devour this woman's child and Herod who hopes to devour Jesus by the sword.
John and the churches to which he was writing knew this tension between these two kingdoms well because they constantly lived in the war between them. They had pledged their allegiance to Jesus, to the kingdom built on this male child who would rule the nations but on the other hand they had to continue to make a living in that other kingdom, the Roman Empire with its Herods and Red Dragons and all the violence they could create. I'm sure there were times when these early Christians felt like they were the child about to be swallowed by the great red dragon; that Israel their mother had given birth to the Church only to have them gobbled up by the power of the Roman empire.
The truth is, we face the same dilemma, the same tension. While we may not face the persecution that John's church's faced, we certainly face the same pressure to compromise with the kingdoms of this world. We see the kingdom of Jesus and we want to follow that way. Maybe we have even pledged our allegiance to it but then we see all the power that Herod and his kingdom hold and we feel like our faith is about to be devoured by a great red dragon.
Or to bring it back to our story in Matthew, we find ourselves in a position like that of Joseph. I have to imagine that Joseph must have said "You want me to what?!" more than once to the messenger of the Lord that appeared to him repeatedly. It wasn't enough that Joseph was instructed to take responsibility for a child that he knew wasn't his own, now he had to flee all the way to Egypt to protect it and he could only come back when God told him it was safe? Have you ever thought about how differently this story could have gone? Joseph could have reasoned this wasn't his kid anyway, taken him to one of Herod's men, said here is the one you are looking for, just take him and you don't have to kill all the other male children in Bethlehem. Not only would Joseph no longer have the social stigma of having a child that everyone else thought was illegitimate, he would also have the continuing gratitude of all the other mothers in Bethlehem for saving their sons and maybe Herod would have even thrown him some kind of reward for being such a loyal subject. Instead, Joseph repeatedly trusts God even when it sets him at odds with the vast might of the Roman Empire. Joseph chooses the kingdom of this helpless little boy over the kingdom of this world. God calls us to this same radical trust. He calls us to pledge our allegiance to the kingdom built on Jesus even while the Herods of the world do all the destruction and violence they can. As I said before, from a merely human perspective this call will always seems like a foolish and naive one. But in the rest of Revelation 12, John gives us the heavenly perspective on the matter. There John tells the churches of Asia Minor and tells us that the dragon and his angels have already been defeated. A loud voice in heaven proclaims
Matthew tells us that an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and told Joseph to flee to Egypt because king Herod was about to search for Jesus to destroy him. Joseph obediently follows the command and flees to Egypt and remained there until the death of Herod. Matthew then adds the comment that "This was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet 'Out of Egypt I called my son.'"
This quotation comes from Hosea 11 and in that context has nothing to do with Jesus or the expected Messiah. In fact, the "son" that God speaks of in Hosea is Israel whom God delivered from Egypt in the Exodus. In Hosea 11, God speaks through the prophet about how he delivered these people and how he loved them. God loved Israel like his own child but the more that he loved them the more they turned away from him. In fact, they kept turning away from God so much that just like a father would discipline a child he loves so God also has to discipline Israel to get their attention. So God allows them to be defeated by Assyria and to be made slaves once again.
Not coincidentally, the other Old Testament quotation in this passage in Matthew comes from precisely that time period in Israel's history. Jeremiah 31:15 speaks about the people of Israel weeping over the destruction of their land and their families. They have been laid waste by Assyria and Babylon. All God's people have been taken into captivity and they face a hopelessness in their exile, a fear that they will cease to exist as a people. And in that circumstance, God comforts them and says that he will one day restore them and not only that but he will one day make a new covenant with them where he will write his law on their hearts so that they won't be rebellious any more.
And Matthew tells us that this prophesy from Jeremiah was fulfilled when Herod ordered all the children in Bethlehem under the age of two to be murdered. We can see in both the quotations from Hosea and Jeremiah that Matthew does not use these prophecies in a merely predictive way. Matthew is not saying that Jesus meets some kind of prophetic checklist for what it means to be Messiah. Instead, he is saying "Look, this story is like that story. What God is doing in Jesus is like what God did in those times." In other words, by telling us that Jesus' family fled to Egypt and that God called his Son out of Egypt, Matthew wants us to see a parallel between the Exodus, the great deliverance of Israel, and what God is going to do in this child Jesus. And by quoting Jeremiah's words about the exile, words which are followed by God's promise of deliverance from that exile, Matthew wants us to see a parallel between what God did in the deliverance of Israel from exile in Babylon and what God is going to do in this boy Jesus. Matthew is hinting to us right here at the beginning of his story that this new born child is going to deliver Israel from its slavery just as God did in the Exodus and the return from Exile. This infant is going to be the new king of a new Israel.
There is just one problem with all of that. There is already a king in Israel. His name is Herod and he doesn't think Israel needs delivering. In fact, he is quite happy with the way things are since he is the one in power and he would like to keep it that way. The last thing Herod needs is some upstart kid trying to step in on the power that he has worked so hard to gain and keep. Herod will do whatever is necessary to hold on to the power that he has... even ordering every male child in the little town of Bethlehem to be murdered in cold blood. In fact, other historical records tells us that Herod even had three of his own sons killed so as to insure his continued reign as king. Of course, Herod was not especially unusual for his time. Many in the Roman Empire acted this way, doing whatever they had to in order to insure that they kept the power they had.
And so, right here only two chapters into Matthew's gospel, before Jesus has even had a chance to grow up, we find that his kingdom is already in conflict with, already threatening the kingdoms of this world. Matthew presents to us these two kingdoms and we must choose one or the other. On the one hand, we have Jesus and his kingdom which stands for all of those things that we talk about this time of year; peace, love, joy, hope. And all that sounds very nice and appealing to us. But on the other hand, we see that there is this other kingdom. The kingdom of Herod, the kingdom of this world. Matthew lays bare for us that this kingdom is built on nothing other than fear, violence, greed, and power lust. This kingdom is built on the murder of innocent children. We are repulsed by this kingdom and yet part of us finds it necessary, pragmatic, realistic, whatever you want to call it because we can see that this kingdom holds all the weapons, all the power, all the influence. So we are confronted with a choice: the kingdom of the helpless infant or the kingdom of the savage Herod?
From any rational, human perspective, it seems absurd to pledge or allegiance to anything other than the Herod kingdom. As much as we are repulsed by its method, we know that it holds all the power in this world. After all, how can you possibly build any kind of kingdom on an infant who himself is fleeing from Herod? In fact, I think John describes the situation well for us in Revelation 12. There John describes a sign he sees in heaven: a pregnant woman giving birth to a male child, "one who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron". And there standing before the woman is a great dragon who is waiting to devour the child the moment the woman gives birth. Undoubtedly, this imagery in Revelation is multifaceted in its meaning but at the very least we can hear the parallel between the dragon who wishes to devour this woman's child and Herod who hopes to devour Jesus by the sword.
John and the churches to which he was writing knew this tension between these two kingdoms well because they constantly lived in the war between them. They had pledged their allegiance to Jesus, to the kingdom built on this male child who would rule the nations but on the other hand they had to continue to make a living in that other kingdom, the Roman Empire with its Herods and Red Dragons and all the violence they could create. I'm sure there were times when these early Christians felt like they were the child about to be swallowed by the great red dragon; that Israel their mother had given birth to the Church only to have them gobbled up by the power of the Roman empire.
The truth is, we face the same dilemma, the same tension. While we may not face the persecution that John's church's faced, we certainly face the same pressure to compromise with the kingdoms of this world. We see the kingdom of Jesus and we want to follow that way. Maybe we have even pledged our allegiance to it but then we see all the power that Herod and his kingdom hold and we feel like our faith is about to be devoured by a great red dragon.
Or to bring it back to our story in Matthew, we find ourselves in a position like that of Joseph. I have to imagine that Joseph must have said "You want me to what?!" more than once to the messenger of the Lord that appeared to him repeatedly. It wasn't enough that Joseph was instructed to take responsibility for a child that he knew wasn't his own, now he had to flee all the way to Egypt to protect it and he could only come back when God told him it was safe? Have you ever thought about how differently this story could have gone? Joseph could have reasoned this wasn't his kid anyway, taken him to one of Herod's men, said here is the one you are looking for, just take him and you don't have to kill all the other male children in Bethlehem. Not only would Joseph no longer have the social stigma of having a child that everyone else thought was illegitimate, he would also have the continuing gratitude of all the other mothers in Bethlehem for saving their sons and maybe Herod would have even thrown him some kind of reward for being such a loyal subject. Instead, Joseph repeatedly trusts God even when it sets him at odds with the vast might of the Roman Empire. Joseph chooses the kingdom of this helpless little boy over the kingdom of this world. God calls us to this same radical trust. He calls us to pledge our allegiance to the kingdom built on Jesus even while the Herods of the world do all the destruction and violence they can. As I said before, from a merely human perspective this call will always seems like a foolish and naive one. But in the rest of Revelation 12, John gives us the heavenly perspective on the matter. There John tells the churches of Asia Minor and tells us that the dragon and his angels have already been defeated. A loud voice in heaven proclaims
"Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God. And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death."John goes on to tell us that when the dragon saw that he had been thrown down to the earth he pursued the woman who gave birth to the child and when he is unable to capture her he goes off to make war against the rest of her offspring, "on those who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus." John acknowledges that in this world the dragon has power to inflict all kinds of pain and violence on the saints of God but John is in essence telling us that all the pain and violence Satan can bring is actually good news for us. It is good news because it represents the death throes of his kingdom. Satan thrashes about so violently in our world because he knows he has been defeated and wants to inflict whatever damage he can in the short time that he has left. In John's view, things like Herod's slaughter of innocent children, things like the holocaust, things like the genocides of Rwanda, Congo, and the Sudan, tragedies like Haiti, the pain we feel in our bodies, the illnesses and deaths of loved ones that we so painfully mourn, while undeniably tragic are also sure signs of Satan's defeat. They are signs that the days of the dragon, of the Herods, of the kingdoms of this world are numbered because the kingdom of that baby boy born in a manger has already prevailed.
Monday, May 10, 2010
Come!
Click on this sentence and read Revelation 22:12-21.
How do you respond to that passage? How do the repeated statements concerning Christ's coming make you feel?
"Behold I am coming quickly...."
"The Spirit and the Bride say, 'Come'. And let the one who hears say, 'Come'. And let the one who is thirsty come..."
He who testifies to these things says, 'Yes, I am coming quickly.' Amen. Come, Lord Jesus."
Do your heart and voice echo those statements? Do you think to yourself "Yes, Lord Jesus, come soon! What is taking you so long?" Or is it more like "Whoa! Wait a minute! What's the rush? Jesus doesn't need to come quite yet." Or maybe it is some mix of the two.
Perhaps it is not wise to make too much of one's emotional reaction to a passage of scripture. Then again, perhaps John is trying to provoke our emotions to help us see where we really stand. Either way, I found my own internal reaction to this passage to be interesting as I read it this morning. There was undoubtedly a sense of hesitancy within me, a sense in which I did not share John's eager anticipation for Jesus to come. This was rather strange for me since I often preach about this coming kingdom, spend my life encouraging others to conform their lives to this coming kingdom, and have said on more than one occasion how painfully aware I am that our world is in desperate need of God's kingdom to come. Then why the hesitancy? If this is really my hope, why would I feel this urge to push Jesus' coming away, to hold it off for a little longer if at all possible?
The answers to that question probably require more searching than will happen in this blog post or even between now and next Sunday's sermon. Nevertheless, it at least reveals to me how much I still have my own schedule, my own agenda, my own goals that conflict with God's ultimate goal. Its not that my goals and aims are anti-Jesus or his kingdom. Of course, who ever thinks that their own goals and aims aren't God's? Most of my goals are supposed to be goals that I have because I want to serve God and his kingdom. I have certain tasks I have to get done this week in order to be a good pastor. I want to see our church grow in certain ways. I want to see my children grow up to be Christ-like. And if God's kingdom comes now, well...then what? Somehow all of that seems...irrelevant?
Still trying to figure out what it means to live in anticipation of this coming kingdom...
How do you respond to that passage? How do the repeated statements concerning Christ's coming make you feel?
"Behold I am coming quickly...."
"The Spirit and the Bride say, 'Come'. And let the one who hears say, 'Come'. And let the one who is thirsty come..."
He who testifies to these things says, 'Yes, I am coming quickly.' Amen. Come, Lord Jesus."
Do your heart and voice echo those statements? Do you think to yourself "Yes, Lord Jesus, come soon! What is taking you so long?" Or is it more like "Whoa! Wait a minute! What's the rush? Jesus doesn't need to come quite yet." Or maybe it is some mix of the two.
Perhaps it is not wise to make too much of one's emotional reaction to a passage of scripture. Then again, perhaps John is trying to provoke our emotions to help us see where we really stand. Either way, I found my own internal reaction to this passage to be interesting as I read it this morning. There was undoubtedly a sense of hesitancy within me, a sense in which I did not share John's eager anticipation for Jesus to come. This was rather strange for me since I often preach about this coming kingdom, spend my life encouraging others to conform their lives to this coming kingdom, and have said on more than one occasion how painfully aware I am that our world is in desperate need of God's kingdom to come. Then why the hesitancy? If this is really my hope, why would I feel this urge to push Jesus' coming away, to hold it off for a little longer if at all possible?
The answers to that question probably require more searching than will happen in this blog post or even between now and next Sunday's sermon. Nevertheless, it at least reveals to me how much I still have my own schedule, my own agenda, my own goals that conflict with God's ultimate goal. Its not that my goals and aims are anti-Jesus or his kingdom. Of course, who ever thinks that their own goals and aims aren't God's? Most of my goals are supposed to be goals that I have because I want to serve God and his kingdom. I have certain tasks I have to get done this week in order to be a good pastor. I want to see our church grow in certain ways. I want to see my children grow up to be Christ-like. And if God's kingdom comes now, well...then what? Somehow all of that seems...irrelevant?
Still trying to figure out what it means to live in anticipation of this coming kingdom...
Monday, May 3, 2010
Uninhibited Presence
The story of the Bible is the story of God's presence among a particular people.
God calls Abraham to journey with him. God calls Moses to deliver the people from slavery in Egypt and when Moses protests God's promise is "I will be with you." As the people wander through the wilderness and enter the promised land, God's presence among them is symbolized by the tabernacle they carry with them. God's presence with Israel is symbolized even more permanently by the Temple that is built during King Solomon's reign. Throughout Israel's story, it is God's presence which makes Israel special, which makes them holy.
However, this presence is also a fearful thing, something that had to be respected, revered, and kept separate. Even though God is present with Israel there is a sense in which God must also always be separate. His immediate presence with Israel would be too powerful, too overwhelming, and too holy so it must always be mediated and kept separate in some way. The presence of God with Israel is something like nuclear energy; it is a power unrivaled by any other but it must also be handled with the most extreme caution. In Leviticus 10, two of Aaron's sons are consumed by fire because they do not follow the priestly rules concerning the tabernacle. In 2 Samuel 6, Uzzah is struck dead by God simply for touching the Ark of the Covenant. Repeatedly, the Old Testament law is concerned is with keep the unholy separate from the holy. This concern for separation is especially evident in the construction of the Temple. While the Temple symbolized God's presence with Israel, the Temple itself was separated into inner and outer courts according to varying degrees of holiness. The Holy of Holies, the innermost part of the Temple where the Spirit of God resided, was entered only by the appropriately cleansed priest and even then only once a year. God was present with Israel and that presence made Israel holy and gave them life but it was a presence so holy and powerful that it had to be mediated and kept separate.
It is against this background that we can understand the kind of radical statement that John is making at the end of Revelation where he describes the holy city, the New Jerusalem, the new creation. Central to this vision of the renewed cosmos are the words of Revelation 21:22; "I saw no Temple in it, for the Lord God, the Almighty and the Lamb are its Temple." In other words, in the new creation there is no need for a building or a tent or anything else to mediate God's presence with God's people. God will simply be present.
The verses just before verse 22 make this same point in a different way. In verse 16, we hear that the holy city is equal in length, width, and height. The city is a perfect cube which seems to be a rather strange detail to include until we recognize that the Holy of Holies in the Temple was a perfect cube as well. It is as if John is saying that whereas before the presence of God was confined to the smallest court of the Temple which could only be entered by one person once a year the presence of God now envelopes this entire holy city. The pure, unmediated, unobstructed, uninhibited presence of God with God's people is central to John's vision of the new creation.
God calls Abraham to journey with him. God calls Moses to deliver the people from slavery in Egypt and when Moses protests God's promise is "I will be with you." As the people wander through the wilderness and enter the promised land, God's presence among them is symbolized by the tabernacle they carry with them. God's presence with Israel is symbolized even more permanently by the Temple that is built during King Solomon's reign. Throughout Israel's story, it is God's presence which makes Israel special, which makes them holy.
However, this presence is also a fearful thing, something that had to be respected, revered, and kept separate. Even though God is present with Israel there is a sense in which God must also always be separate. His immediate presence with Israel would be too powerful, too overwhelming, and too holy so it must always be mediated and kept separate in some way. The presence of God with Israel is something like nuclear energy; it is a power unrivaled by any other but it must also be handled with the most extreme caution. In Leviticus 10, two of Aaron's sons are consumed by fire because they do not follow the priestly rules concerning the tabernacle. In 2 Samuel 6, Uzzah is struck dead by God simply for touching the Ark of the Covenant. Repeatedly, the Old Testament law is concerned is with keep the unholy separate from the holy. This concern for separation is especially evident in the construction of the Temple. While the Temple symbolized God's presence with Israel, the Temple itself was separated into inner and outer courts according to varying degrees of holiness. The Holy of Holies, the innermost part of the Temple where the Spirit of God resided, was entered only by the appropriately cleansed priest and even then only once a year. God was present with Israel and that presence made Israel holy and gave them life but it was a presence so holy and powerful that it had to be mediated and kept separate.
It is against this background that we can understand the kind of radical statement that John is making at the end of Revelation where he describes the holy city, the New Jerusalem, the new creation. Central to this vision of the renewed cosmos are the words of Revelation 21:22; "I saw no Temple in it, for the Lord God, the Almighty and the Lamb are its Temple." In other words, in the new creation there is no need for a building or a tent or anything else to mediate God's presence with God's people. God will simply be present.
The verses just before verse 22 make this same point in a different way. In verse 16, we hear that the holy city is equal in length, width, and height. The city is a perfect cube which seems to be a rather strange detail to include until we recognize that the Holy of Holies in the Temple was a perfect cube as well. It is as if John is saying that whereas before the presence of God was confined to the smallest court of the Temple which could only be entered by one person once a year the presence of God now envelopes this entire holy city. The pure, unmediated, unobstructed, uninhibited presence of God with God's people is central to John's vision of the new creation.
Friday, April 30, 2010
New
Few things could represent all that is wrong with our world more than what happened on October 2, 2006. A man, a father of two children himself, walked into an Amish schoolhouse in Lancaster, PA with a bag full of weapons. By the time police got into the schoolhouse, the man had shot ten Amish school girls between the ages of 6 and 13, five of them died. The man had also killed himself.
Obviously, to say that this Amish community was grief-stricken is an understatement. This was exactly the kind of thing that their lifestyle was supposed to avoid. Instead, an outsider had come in and in just seconds destroyed the peace they had worked so hard to maintain. One might have expected that this was a chance for the Amish to denounce the evils of the rest of the world. This was a chance to point out the value of their own way of life and how backwards the dominant culture was in allowing something like this to happen. It was exactly the kind of time in which many people would point fingers, place blame, and demand justice.
But instead of demanding justice, these people who had lost so much spoke only of forgiveness. On the same afternoon that the shooting took place, the grandfather of one of the little girls who was killed was already speaking words of forgiveness about the man who had murdered his granddaughter. That same day some from the Amish community went to the family of the gunman to comfort them in their loss. Later that week, there were more Amish than non-Amish at the shooter’s funeral.
It’s almost as if those in the Amish community were playing by a completely different set of rules, as if they lived in a different world than ours. Instead of perpetuating the cycle of violence, hurt, and grief by hurting those who had hurt them, they took the pain upon themselves and suffered it out of existence. Whereas the rules of this world dictated that they should have exacted revenge, the Amish saw a world in which forgiveness was more powerful than pain, love more powerful than a gun.
Of course, violence is not the only cycle that threatens to perpetuate itself through our world and thereby wreak havoc and destruction. There are other destructive cycles in our world that may not get as much news coverage but are just as corrosive; the kind of cycles of poverty and brokenness that exist in Kansas City’s urban core. There, a mother works two jobs, neither of which pays enough, but she keeps working them both just to be able to provide for her children. She can’t get a better job because she never finished high school. She never finished high school because her dad split when she was younger and her mom had to work two jobs just like she is now. So she didn’t have any parents around to make sure she did her homework or stayed out of trouble. She didn’t have anyone to teach her how to make good decisions in life. So she repeated the same mistakes her mother made. Now she can see the same thing happening with her own children. She has to work so much that she can’t be home enough to help her children do their homework or learn how to make a future for themselves. They will likely grow up to make the same mistakes and put their children in the same position and so on and so on down through the generations. And none of this is due to laziness or lack of hard work. The truth is this mother works twice as hard as most who live twice as well but she is paying for the mistakes of her parents and she knows that her children will do the same unless someone intervenes to help her break this hopeless cycle.
She finds out that there are people offering help in the basement of her apartment building so she goes to check it out. She is hesitant at first. She’s not sure why a bunch of wealthy, well-educated, white folks are so eager to help mostly poor black kids who are struggling in school. Her experience has always been that the wealthy, well-educated, and white usually leave town when things start to get tough but here are some who are intentionally coming back into the city to try to make things right. She begins to trust them. Her kids begin to talk about this group as their family. In a school system where black males are more likely to be arrested than to graduate, these kids are going on to college and talking about how they plan to give back to others some day because they have been given so much. And somehow, in the basement of an apartment building in a rough part of Kansas City, something new and different has been created. In the very midst of the old and tired ways of this world with all its brokenness and pain, a little colony of new creation filled with hope and possibilities has been born.
One last story; this one maybe not as dramatic as the other two but no less transformative. It is the story of a boy who grew up going to church, who never knew life outside the church. He knew all the Bible stories and all the Sunday School answers. He took his faith seriously, he prayed and read his Bible regularly, was always involved in teen activities at church, and was careful not to hang out with the wrong crowd. He had plans for college and a successful future.
But then he began to get this funny notion that God was calling him to be a pastor. And implied in that notion was a question from God; “How much do you trust me?” God began to show him how much his trust needed to grow. God began to show him his own weaknesses, his insecurities, and his imperfections but God also showed him that God’s grace was sufficient for him because the power of Christ was perfected in these weaknesses. He began to see that the more he trusted in God, the more risks he took for God, the more he did what felt weak and uncomfortable for him, the more Christ shined through to others. And over time that boy learned to become confident not in himself but in God and what God could do through him.
My guess is that if you could somehow compare side by side that young man today with the boy that he once was then you would see that there was something radically different about him. Yes, you would be able to see the continuity too. You would be able to see that this was now the same boy only older. But I believe you would also be able to see that God had done something mysterious and undeniable along the way. You would see that somewhere along the way God had transformed this boy who knew about God into a young man who trusted in God. You might say that compared to that boy, this young man was a different creature, that he was a new creation, that while he had remained the same person everything about him had also been made new.
“And He who sits on the throne said ‘Behold, I am making all things new’” That is our singular hope. Not only that God sits on the throne of the whole universe as we said last week but that the one who sits on the throne love us so much and cares so much for all of his creation that He is making all things new. God began that work of renewal in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. And one day God will complete that work by making our whole world, all of creation, new.
But even today, the signs of that new creation are all around us. Even as we live in this beaten and battered world that is broken by sin, God’s Spirit is working to renew our world. We see it in stories like those that I just shared. We see that new creation taking place in every act of faithfulness by those who follow Jesus. We see it in a congregation that is willing to take risks, make sacrifices, and get uncomfortable in order to share the love of Christ with others.
Because God’s making all things new is more than just a future hope. For those who follow Jesus, it is what shapes our present reality. So much of our lives are determined by our past decisions, our past mistakes and misfortunes. But by the grace of God, we have a chance to have our lives shaped by God’s future rather than our past.
God is making all things new. God can make us new. God can use us to bring about new creation in others. The one who sits on the throne says “Behold, I am making all things new.”
Monday, April 19, 2010
True Reality
One way to approach the book of Revelation is to see it primarily as a prediction of future events. Often this approach leads to an attempt to "decode" the symbols of Revelation matching them up with certain current day events so that we can figure out who the beast is or when the end will come. The focus of such an approach to this week's sermon text, Revelation 7:9-14, would be to ask when "the great tribulation" of v.14 will be so that we can be prepared for it.
I think it is a much more faithful approach to Scripture to consider how John's original audience might have heard and understood his words. After all, Revelation is a letter specifically addressed to seven churches in Asia Minor. Certainly, it is a book for us as well since it is Scripture and we continue to look for the Holy Spirit to speak to us through it. However, I believe we will hear the Spirit's voice in this text most clearly if we consider how its first hearers might have understood its many symbols and images.
Consider what it might have been like to be part of one of these seven churches. These were probably gatherings small enough to meet in someone's home. They joined together in fellowship around a common meal, the study of Scripture, and serving others as Jesus did. It is unlikely that they would have had very much contact or even knowledge of other Christian gatherings since most of them would have been of the lowest economic class and would not have had the resources to communicate or travel outside of their own city. In other words, these Christians are the minority of all minorities. They are small in number, small in resources, small in influence and status.
At first, being a part of these gatherings had not been too costly. Perhaps some of your friends found it a little odd. If you were one of the wealthier Christians who allowed these meetings to take place in your home then your peers certainly would have wondered why you chose to lower your own status by associating with those who were of a lower class than you. But for the most part your gatherings were tolerated even if frowned upon by your neighbors or thought of as somewhat backwards.
But now things were changing. One member of your group who had been a part of the local construction guild (the 1st century equivalent of a union) his entire career could no longer find work. This was because, as in any other guild of the day, the guild members had to participate in a sacrifice to the guild's patron god or goddess, something the members of your gathering had sworn they would not do because of their allegiance to Christ. Others in your gathering had noticed that long time friends were beginning to become distant out of fear that their family's reputation or well being might be compromised if they were associated with these Christians. There were even rumors that the local government was considering some type of official action against your group because of the complaints they were hearing about your lack of support for the empire and its gods. It seemed that the hostility toward your gathering with your fellow Christians was steadily rising and that soon it could become very costly to continue meeting with this little group.
John's vision contrasts the earthly reality these Christians see on a daily basis with what he wants them to know is true reality. Where they see a small, powerless group of ten or fifteen people, John says that he saw "a great multitude whom no one could count from every nation and all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb." Where they see only great tribulation ahead, John sees those who serve as priests before God's throne day and night because they have washed their robes in the blood of the lamb. Where they see a world that offers them only rejection, John sees a world where they will neither hunger or thirst, where God himself will shepherd them and wipe away every tear from their eye. But most importantly, where these first Christians see a world where it seems that Rome is in complete control and all are at the mercy of this mighty empire, John sees that it is God who sits on the throne of the universe and it is God's kingdom which will ultimately prevail.
In what ways do we need our vision renewed so that we might see our present reality as God sees it?
I think it is a much more faithful approach to Scripture to consider how John's original audience might have heard and understood his words. After all, Revelation is a letter specifically addressed to seven churches in Asia Minor. Certainly, it is a book for us as well since it is Scripture and we continue to look for the Holy Spirit to speak to us through it. However, I believe we will hear the Spirit's voice in this text most clearly if we consider how its first hearers might have understood its many symbols and images.
Consider what it might have been like to be part of one of these seven churches. These were probably gatherings small enough to meet in someone's home. They joined together in fellowship around a common meal, the study of Scripture, and serving others as Jesus did. It is unlikely that they would have had very much contact or even knowledge of other Christian gatherings since most of them would have been of the lowest economic class and would not have had the resources to communicate or travel outside of their own city. In other words, these Christians are the minority of all minorities. They are small in number, small in resources, small in influence and status.
At first, being a part of these gatherings had not been too costly. Perhaps some of your friends found it a little odd. If you were one of the wealthier Christians who allowed these meetings to take place in your home then your peers certainly would have wondered why you chose to lower your own status by associating with those who were of a lower class than you. But for the most part your gatherings were tolerated even if frowned upon by your neighbors or thought of as somewhat backwards.
But now things were changing. One member of your group who had been a part of the local construction guild (the 1st century equivalent of a union) his entire career could no longer find work. This was because, as in any other guild of the day, the guild members had to participate in a sacrifice to the guild's patron god or goddess, something the members of your gathering had sworn they would not do because of their allegiance to Christ. Others in your gathering had noticed that long time friends were beginning to become distant out of fear that their family's reputation or well being might be compromised if they were associated with these Christians. There were even rumors that the local government was considering some type of official action against your group because of the complaints they were hearing about your lack of support for the empire and its gods. It seemed that the hostility toward your gathering with your fellow Christians was steadily rising and that soon it could become very costly to continue meeting with this little group.
John's vision contrasts the earthly reality these Christians see on a daily basis with what he wants them to know is true reality. Where they see a small, powerless group of ten or fifteen people, John says that he saw "a great multitude whom no one could count from every nation and all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb." Where they see only great tribulation ahead, John sees those who serve as priests before God's throne day and night because they have washed their robes in the blood of the lamb. Where they see a world that offers them only rejection, John sees a world where they will neither hunger or thirst, where God himself will shepherd them and wipe away every tear from their eye. But most importantly, where these first Christians see a world where it seems that Rome is in complete control and all are at the mercy of this mighty empire, John sees that it is God who sits on the throne of the universe and it is God's kingdom which will ultimately prevail.
In what ways do we need our vision renewed so that we might see our present reality as God sees it?
Monday, April 5, 2010
Looking Ahead
I won't be around to preach next Sunday. We leave tomorrow to go see my dad in South Carolina. Even though I'll be on vacation, the mission of our church will still be very much on my mind. The Sunday after my return is our annual meeting and elections here at our church; the Sunday when we elect our leadership for the coming year. It is also a time to evaluate what we've been doing for the past year and where God is leading us in the year to come. I invite anyone who reads this blog to pray for our church and for me personally as I earnestly seek to hear where God is leading us as one local congregation within the body of Christ.
While my annual report is not quite like a sermon, I did take some time today to study what would have been my sermon text on April 18, Revelation 5:11-14, since it will give some shape to my report. In these verses, a great anthem is sung in heaven:
This will be a central image in the message John is communicating to the seven churches to whom he writes; Christ ironically overcame by being overcome. John invites these churches to see that their calling is the same. They conquer by being defeated. They win the crown of life by being faithful in the face of death.
What does it mean to practice this as the Church today? We seem to be so far removed from those Christians in the first century who risked so much to be faithful to Christ. What would it mean for us to orient our entire lives around the Lamb who has been slain?
While my annual report is not quite like a sermon, I did take some time today to study what would have been my sermon text on April 18, Revelation 5:11-14, since it will give some shape to my report. In these verses, a great anthem is sung in heaven:
"Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing."Just a few verses earlier in Revelation 5, John had been weeping because no one had been found worthy to open the book held by the one who sits on the throne. But one of the elders who surrounded God's throne tells John to stop weeping because "the Lion that is from the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has overcome so as to open the book and its seven seals." At this point, anyone familiar with C.S. Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia might expect his character Aslan to make an appearance in Revelation. But instead of a mighty conquering Lion, John sees a "Lamb standing, as if slain" and it this Lamb who is worthy to open the book and its seven seals and to receive power, riches, wisdom, might, honor, glory, and blessing, as the heavenly anthem says. The Lion is the slain Lamb.
This will be a central image in the message John is communicating to the seven churches to whom he writes; Christ ironically overcame by being overcome. John invites these churches to see that their calling is the same. They conquer by being defeated. They win the crown of life by being faithful in the face of death.
What does it mean to practice this as the Church today? We seem to be so far removed from those Christians in the first century who risked so much to be faithful to Christ. What would it mean for us to orient our entire lives around the Lamb who has been slain?
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
All Things New?
I feel my first post in this blog should be an explanation of the title of my blog. This title comes from Revelation 21:5 where the one who sits on the throne says "Behold, I am making all things new." It is a promise that the world will not always be as it is; that one day God will transform this world into His kingdom, His new creation. Of course, that is not to say that there is not anything good in this world as it is. Clearly, there are many good things but it is also pretty obvious that death, selfishness, pride, hatred, and violence still corrupt and distort the world in which we live in some serious ways. Any news cast, political debate, or study of history quickly reminds us of this fact.
In the book of Revelation, John paints a picture of a God who is remaking reality, a God who is working to redeem and transform our world through God's own presence among us. In many ways, I believe this idea to be the whole thrust, the broad movement of all of Scripture. The story of the Bible is ultimately the story of a God who refuses to give up on creation but is continually working to heal and restore it, even to the point of taking on human flesh in the person of Jesus Christ. I believe this mission of transformation and redemption is also the mission which Jesus has imparted to the Church to continue through the power of the Holy Spirit. God is not simply working to redeem this world in spite of us. I believe God is working to redeem this world through us; transforming the world by transforming each one of us and then using us to tranform others. So this idea of all things being made new captures much of what I believe about God, the Church, the world, and my role in it. I long to see God's kingdom, God's new creation take hold in our world.
In the book of Revelation, John paints a picture of a God who is remaking reality, a God who is working to redeem and transform our world through God's own presence among us. In many ways, I believe this idea to be the whole thrust, the broad movement of all of Scripture. The story of the Bible is ultimately the story of a God who refuses to give up on creation but is continually working to heal and restore it, even to the point of taking on human flesh in the person of Jesus Christ. I believe this mission of transformation and redemption is also the mission which Jesus has imparted to the Church to continue through the power of the Holy Spirit. God is not simply working to redeem this world in spite of us. I believe God is working to redeem this world through us; transforming the world by transforming each one of us and then using us to tranform others. So this idea of all things being made new captures much of what I believe about God, the Church, the world, and my role in it. I long to see God's kingdom, God's new creation take hold in our world.
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