Sunday, May 26, 2013
Battles; archangels fighting satanic
hordes; wrath poured out like bowls of wine that is blood that runs through the
streets and floods the world; four horsemen bringing economic collapse, war,
disease, and death; this is Revelation.
No more weeping or loss or sorrow or
grief; all pain is gone and replaced by joy and love and peace; a Heavenly
city; free, limitless access to the river of the water of life; a welcome into
the city, where we look God in the eye and receive His smile, and eat from the
tree of life; this also is Revelation.
We have come to our final Sunday in
this wonderful, awesome, ominous, joyous book.
If we overdo it with the adjectives they lose some punch. The end is Revelation 22, the final
chapter. It closes not only this most
unusual book, but the entire Bible. It
is the final word in what we call holy writing.
I wonder what the final word is.
I wonder … what am I to take from it?
See,
I am coming soon. Three times - verses 7, 12, and 20; Jesus says he is
coming. Cool. But soon?
This was written in 96AD. I don’t
know about soon. I know the Bible says a
day and 1000 years are the same to God (2 Peter 3:8). From God’s view, words like ‘soon,’ might be
irrelevant. From my view, well, I would
not use the word ‘soon.’
I am though convinced that Jesus
lived, was God in the flesh, rose from death, and is coming again. I believe every bit of that quite
literally. In these final verses in
Revelation, Jesus is Alpha and Omega, first and last, beginning and end. Bible writers and anyone in antiquity would
only write such things about God. Hence,
Jesus is God. When he comes, and I
believe He will, that will be good for all who put their trust in Him whether
it is in my life time or later.
These closing words assert his
coming. But what’s this in verse
15? Heaven and Earth have joined. The New Jerusalem is the holy city, the bride
readied for Christ, the home of all who have ever put faith in him. It comes.
We are invited. But, verse 15
says, “Outside are the dogs and sorcerers and fornicators and murderers and
idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.” At the heart of all this good news, evil
outliers seem to lurk beyond the city walls.
What gives? Why is ugliness and
evil mentioned in proximity to all this good?
I don’t understand.
I am reminded of the most favored of
all Psalms, Psalm 23. The Lord is my Shepherd. I shall not want for anything. And the Psalm continues with the poet
lying down in green pastures and being refreshed from clean waters and walking
in paths of righteousness. Ahh, this
Psalm is a breath of fresh air.
And yet …
I
walk through the valley of the shadow of death … . Why
is death in the middle of the most wonderful Psalm, Psalm 23?
You
prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies … . Why
are enemies in my favorite Psalm and why am I eating with them?
A tension runs through scripture that is unavoidable from
the very first word to the very last chapter.
When God created the heavens and the earth, Genesis 1:1, the earth was a
formless void and the breath of God hovered over the waters. Primordial chaos was under God’s control but
it was there.
God brought Adam and Eve into being
– autonomous, creatures with free will, created to choose relationship with
God. And they did choose to love God,
except for the lapse when they chose to disobey and eat forbidden fruit. In Eden there is sin, the God of perfect love
has enemies even in Psalm 23, and in the
Heaven-talk that closes out Revelation, sorcerers, fornicators, and murderers
have a presence.
Thus, the warning. John has written Revelation so that the
church, and by the evangelistic work of the church then the world would hear
it. This is not secret knowledge that
only the initiated can access. “Do not
seal up the words of the prophecy of this book,” says chapter 22, verse
10. This is to be opened and read and
heard and heeded. It is salvation, God
come to live with us, and it is Heaven-talk, but, with a warning.
“To everyone who hears the words of
the prophecy of this book: if [they] add to the words [here], God will” impose
plagues on that person. “If anyone takes
away from the words of this book of prophecy, God will take away that person’s
share in the tree of life and the holy city.”
Why is the warning so crucial? The promises written in Revelation have not
yet come about. We read it and
anticipate Heaven, but we read in a time where the sorcerers and fornicators
and murderers lurk not only outside the city.
Sometimes, in our time, they sneak into the church. Sometimes the evil grabs a hold of us. The warning evil doers that God sees. God is Lord of the church and also of the
world including the darkest places in the world.
That phrase “sorcerers, fornicators,
murderers,” is a way of referring to all
who rebel against God and eat the forbidden fruit and sin in word, in thought,
in deed, and in the heart. We’re all, in
one way or another, “sorcerers, fornicators, and murderers.” This points to every one of us. But we have been washed in the blood of
Christ, freed from sin by his forgiveness.
We are admitted to the Holy City because we have put our trust in Jesus. The warning sits in the midst of the God talk
because we serve Jesus in world full of people who have not submitted to
him. As long as the end has not yet
come, evil is here. In Revelation, the
author, John had to name that evil. He
had to remind his readers how vulnerable they were. They might even become evil.
The very end of Revelation is the
very best news, but there is bad in the midst of the good. The flipside is also true. In the darkest places, good shines. John was imprisoned because he followed
Jesus. Last week, we talked about an
American man who right now is imprisoned in North Korea. He is a Christian. I have a friend who evangelizes in a country
that is governed by Muslim extremists.
Her activities, sharing Jesus with those who do not know him as savior,
could get her arrested or killed.
Yes, in the process of talking about
salvation in Revelation, John also mentions those outside the city, those who
have not accepted what Jesus gives. John
gives mention to people who reject the Lord; the bad in the good.
Revelation stands as a testimony of
the good news of Jesus Christ proclaimed in the middle of a world gone bad
because of sin. Whatever evil rains
down, we who follow Jesus understand it a little more than secular-minded people. We have a sense of the root cause of
suffering that atheists don’t have. When
someone, unprovoked shoots up a school or a crowded theater, at the core, the
issue is sin. When a husband beats his
wife, the heart of the matter is sin.
War; famine; the plague of deaths that come about when people drink and
drive or text and drive; sin is a condition that blankets humanity with
pain.
That is why I thank God for
missionaries. I thank God for people who
come to church, who pray, and who try to do the right thing. I thank God for people who love. I thank God for those attempting in countless
creative ways to share the gospel of Jesus Christ. The light of the Kingdom of God shines even
in the midst of the darkness enveloping a fallen world.
Bad mentioned in the description of
the good word; and, a good witness of the Kingdom of God in the middle of the
bad produced by sin that has filled the world.
This is Revelation. So what is
the final word?
“See, I am coming soon.”
“The Sprit and the Bride say,
‘Come.’ Let everyone who hears say,
‘Come.’ Let everyone who is thirsty
come. Let anyone who wishes take the
water of life as a gift.”
“Amen. Come Lord Jesus;” the meaning of
“Maranatha.”
The final word is invitation. To be Christian is to be inviting and to
invite. I had not thought about this
before. An exercise I do quite often is
to try to finish the following sentence.
“Essentially, the Gospel is …” and I finish that thought.
The Gospel is forgiveness. The Gospel is love.
The Gospel is life. The Gospel is welcome. These are each true
and much could be said about each word.
The last one, ‘the Gospel is welcome’ has become an important focus for
us, a community of Jesus-followers in a pass-through kind of place. Some people live in Chapel Hill 20 or 40
years, but many others, visiting students or researchers come for just a few
years. Some are just here for a
semester. Our church wants to be a
church for those who are only in town for a while.
Of course we are a home and a family
for people who spend their entire lives in Chapel Hill. All the hospital visits and pot luck suppers
and small group meetings create context for us to share life together. And a unique element of our character as a
community is the way we have developed as a safe place for people to come, come
as they are, meet Jesus here, walk away transformed by his love. For this reason, we have given much thought
to the idea of the Gospel as welcome.
Now, having spent time in Revelation
and especially looking at the final chapter we know that to welcome, we have to
add the Gospel of Invitation. This word
jumps out at us. “Come!” It is repeated over and over. Jesus, come, the world is bad and we need
you. World, come, step out of the evil
of your own sins. Come, step out of your pain and be washed in the blood of
Christ. Receive his forgiveness and
come, step into new life.
Living out the gospel as welcome, we
joyfully receive all who come to us. It
is a ministry of readiness and it requires preparation and prayer. We intentionally do all sorts of things from
stationing greeters at the front door, to repeatedly re-emphasizing how
important it is for everyone to open their hearts on Sunday mornings, to
structuring our worship in such a way that we hope will be easy for new comers
to join. We work at being ready to
welcome all who come.
The Gospel as invitation demands
that we go out and seek the world, the lost, our neighbors, strangers. And it does not have to begin with “I invite
you to church. I invite you to receive
Jesus.” Your work of invitation might
begin there.
Or, it might begin with, “I invite
you over to my house for tea and good conversation.” That step may need to be repeated 100 times
over the years, before the time is right to invite the neighbor to a
conversation about faith.” We pray
toward that faith invitation. It matters. In all
relationships, even with people in the church, we look for when it is time to
invite one another to go deeper with Jesus.
And we intentionally live in a spirit of invitation.
This is new to me. I have read and reread Revelation, over and
over. I have swallowed this word,
“Come.” Nourished by God’s invitation to
me, I have invited the Lord to come.
Maranatha. Come Lord Jesus.
Only this week, in reading again and
listening again, have I come to realize how crucial invitation. It must be en essential aspect of a
disciple’s character.
Ever eager to debate, Bible scholars
wrangle over the last word, verse 21.
“The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all the saints.” Sounds like a simple benediction. But in some ancient manuscripts, the phrase
is “The Grace of the Lord Jesus be with all.”
And it is does not include the word “saints.” Which is the better understanding? I don’t think the conclusive answer comes
from grammar, but from the church’s practice.
The earliest Jesus followers learned
directly from him that crippled people who are considered cursed by God because
of their ailments are actually welcomed.
People like shepherds whose profession actually renders them unclean are
invited to follow Jesus. Even non-Jews
can be with Jesus. In other words,
theological and missional practice show how Revelation is to end.
“The grace of the Lord Jesus be with
all” – all people everywhere. People
will only know if they are told the gospel.
They will only listen to the telling of the gospel if they want to and
they will only want to if they are invited.
Wow.
God, thank you for showing me how to live in relation to others and
thank you for showing me this in the pages of Revelation. Father God, you ended with this. I will try to live it out in my life.
AMEN
