Revelation Chapter 10

Pentecost 10 year C Sermon 

In last week’s episode…
Chapter nine of the book of Revelation

we’ve had just about as much horror as we can take…wouldn’t you say?

And if we have any sense at all… we’re now in despair
and ready to repent of our complacency…and complicity…
with the anti-creation powers and principalities
emerging from the Abyss

The angel with the key to the abyss…
has now exposed the monsters that eat away at love in the world …the ones that destroy us… and God’s good earth.
And maybe even our family…and community.

But it’s important we remember…John’s vision is given…
one…to bring comfort…to first century followers of Jesus… suffering oppression persecution and death at the hands of the Roman and Parthian Empires.

And two…for evil to be defeated it must be named for what it is …cast out of the Abyss… and exposed to the light…
and when it is…through the smoke and fire…
spewing from the Abyss…emerge our worst nightmares

Locust slide

Horrible creatures…with power so destructive
people long for death… as a release from the torment.

Though created good and loved by God…we see clearly …
that the world now harbours…deeply anti-creation forces...
Whether collective or personal…the abyss contains… everything opposed to God’s loving purposes

Black hole

Like a black hole in space… the abyss hides everything that is anti-creation…anti mercy…anti justice and anti-peace.

And sadly…most of the time… until the monsters are exposed…
we don’t even know they’re there.

And to make matters worse… in chapter nine we discover…
just as in ancient Egypt…
instead of repenting of our collusion with these monsters…
people just harden their hearts.

So… in last week’s episode… what happens……..
even more monsters…are disgorged from the abyss.

Horses slide

Horses with lion’s heads… and tails like snakes…
spewing smoke and fire and sulphur …

their riders in heavy armour…
and what harm do they bring in John’s vision?[pause]

drought slide

…the death… of a third of humanity … [pause then slowly]

And the most alarming and depressing thing is…

those who survive…still won’t repent of the work of their hands. They continue to worship idols of gold and silver…
continue to objectify others for their own sexual gratification… and take for themselves what rightfully belongs to others… [pause]

So at the end of Chapter 9 last week… we saw once more…
the enigma of evil…… how God brings it out in the open
to deal with it.

And we are left breathless…and exhausted…
and hopefully… repentant of our complicity.

Chapter 10 slide

And suddenly…in a blaze of light… as Chapter 10 begins…

as we wait anxiously for the seventh trumpet to sound…

suddenly comes…. a moment of respite… [pause… then softly]

hand slide

John sees… in the divine dimension…
an angel bursting through the gloom clothed in a cloud…
rainbow round his head…face shining like the sun…legs…
like pillars of fire…holding a little scroll.

And we remember the rainbow over the throne in Chapter four
and the pillars of fire that guided God’s people in the wilderness.

Everything in the vision…a symbol and a sign of God’s presence
and God’s purposes for the earth…

This is no ordinary angel…this one stands one fiery leg on the sea and one on land and raises his right hand to heaven. And in a voice like a lion’s roar…this angel swears by the one who lives for ever and ever…the one who created heavens and earth and sea  all that’s in them,

And this angel proclaims…

Slide words

‘There will be no more delay!’
For in the days the seventh angel will sound his trumpet…
the mystery of God will be accomplished…
just as God told his servants the prophets.’

And a voice from the divine dimension speaks directly to John…

Slide words
‘Go…take the scroll that lies open in the angel’s hand.’

Well I guess you do as your told under these circumstances wouldn’t you…and what does the angel instruct John
to do with the scroll?

[ask and wait…..]

Eat it slide

Eat it…that’s right

And then what…

Digest it slide

Digest it…

Huh?...

Well that’s not really so surprising…
when we remember the ancient Hebrew people
regarded the word of God… as the bread of life…and why we refer to Jesus as the Word of God…capital W.

And the angel warns… ‘It will turn your stomach sour, but ‘in your mouth it will be as sweet as honey.’”

blank slide

again John does as he is told…and the Angel promised is true… this little scroll of God’s purposes…God’s very word…
does taste as sweet as honey…
but it can not be kept down…it’s got to come out…it’s got to be shared…   

And John consistent with this symbolism…John is instructed to prophesy again…concerning many peoples, nations, languages and kings. To tell the truth… to power…

Remember what we heard just before…

when the seventh angel’s about to sound his trumpet …the mystery of God will be accomplished…
just as God announced to his servants… the prophets. [pause]

The word of God is ingested…but cannot be kept inside…
it’s intended for everyone…
some action must follow it’s eating…the truth must be told and acted out…
[pause…softely]

and somehow…the very speaking and acting out
of the truth of God’s purposes…by a human being…
helps bring about… their completion. [pause]

Now the very idea of speaking words which create a new reality…is an ancient one…classically expressed by the Hebrew prophets. Not only are they given visions…
revelations of things to come. But somehow…
their very speaking…actually generates… a new reality.

God spoke and it came to be…God commanded…and it stood firm. By the Word of the Lord… the heavens were made
and all their hosts… by the breath of his mouth…

And when God puts words into the mouths of prophets
the same thing happens. A prophet doesn’t just describe
what’s going to happen…like a newsreader in reverse…

but in the very speaking of God’s word…
a prophet helps bring it to pass.

Now this kind of puts John… in the hot seat doesn’t it?
It’s no wonder prophets… often try to hide from their calling…
But something new is going to happen
and John’s words… are going to play a part in it.

Seals slide

The Lamb of God has broken the seals…that prevent God’s purposes from being completed
now the little human sized scroll can be read…

This is the reason…John was invited into the heavenly throne room. And this…my friends…is the logic of divine prophesy…
God’s words are to become John’s words…
so they may become reality.

Hand slide

Like the prophet Daniel…given a vision of God’s sovereignty
to warn and to comfort the exiles
under Babylonian and Persian rule…John is assigned the prophetic task… of speaking the truth to power…and like Daniel it’s revealed to John… how God’s kingdom is everlasting
and sovereign over all rulers…

And like the prophet Ezekiel…John is given God’s prophetic word to eat…and to digest…but its truth must be acted on.

Like Daniel…John’s vision is born… out of tribulation and uncertainty…as God prepares and encourages His people
for the future.  [pause then lightly]

And for you and me…it’s good to be reminded…
that as for every gift of God…the scroll is sweet as honey to the taste…though it’s message may be bitter…
particularly in relation to monsters from our own abyss.

‘Eating the scroll’ is a vivid metaphor…
for prophets of any age…called to speak the truth to power…
we can only speak God’s word of truth as it becomes part of our own lives…in our families…in our church and community and in our nation…

As our own demons are brought to light and cast out...
we may find our stomach does ache…
but we have been nourished all the same. [pause]

In the first century as for now…
it seems God desires to act in the world…
in some part at least…through God’s own people.

And all this takes place… as we wait with baited breath…
for the seventh trumpet to sound…

Yes says the angel…it’s coming…soon…and when it comes ‘God’s mystery’ will be complete. …
‘time will have run out’ for all who presume on God’s patience.

In a cosmic sense beyond the dimensions of time and space…
the sequence of the seven trumpets…
stands well outside the other sequences of seven…
the letters to the seven churches, the seven seals and the seven bowls of God’s wrath.

And lest we lose heart…it could hardly be made clearer in John’s vision

 that the message the angel brings comes from the one who has made all things good…

so any suggestion…God would collude with the forces of destruction… 

emerging from the Abyss... by declaring creation a piece of rubbish

 to be thrown away and replaced …is ruled out.

No…when God’s mystery is complete…
it will be the fulfilment of creation…not its abolition.

And as we come to the end of Chapter ten…
once more we brace ourselves for the seventh trumpet…
But before it sounds we must ask ourselves…two questions this week…

as did Jesus’ frightened followers in the first century…

As individuals and as the body of Christ…

Slide words

are we simply spectators

or do we have a role to play… a prophetic role…
of speaking the truth to power.

As always...my thanks to NT Wright for his commentary Revelation for Everyone, Knox Westminster 2011

Revelation Chapter 9

Pentecost 9 year C Sermon 

The fifth angel… sounds his trumpet…
and John of Patmos sees a star…fallen from the sky
with the key to the shaft of the Abyss.

And when he unlocks the Abyss…smoke rises
as from a giant furnace… darkening the sun and the sky.

Did you notice this very week in 2013… how the fifth angel …
the one with a key to the abyss…opened it again…

exposing yet another veiled and evil power…
when a terrible monster…
was spewed out of the abyss…
writhing and screaming into the purifying light
where everyone on earth could see…

The 2013 angel… paid for it with his life… [pause]

Street march slide

The first turn of the key to the shaft of the abyss was this …
a man named George…whose ability to make good decisions was crippled by fear…

well…George…shot and killed a beautiful boy…
named Trayvon

riot slide

The second turn of the key…
the one that actually opened the Abyss…
was when a jury acquitted the shooter …
because the boy’s hoodie… and colour …
would have scared them too…

Trayvon slide

The boy who died… was part of the youth group
of the Antioch Missionary Baptist Church in Florida…not far from where my mother lives…

He was a volunteer of over six hundred hours of
service to his community. At college he was an honours student with an A average…
about to go to uni on a scholarship…
he was friend and a beloved son… [opening the Abyss]

Opening the Abyss… this angel paid for it with his life…
and his killer…though acquitted…and free
will pay for it… for the rest of his life…

Both of them…victims of the monster...which emerged from the Abyss…one of the many powers and principalities normally hidden deep in the abyss of the human heart…
and now unleashed across a continent

What is the monster…this evil… do you suppose…
how would you name it?

[ask]

Blank title slide

In the Revelation of John of Patmos…
a vision is given
to bring comfort to those suffering oppression and persecution and death… at the hands of the Roman and Parthian Empires

and today in Chapter nine we’re reminded once again…
that for evil to be defeated…it must be named for what it is …cast out of the Abyss… and exposed to the light…

and in John’s vision…when the monster emerges through the smoke of the Abyss…it’s our worst nightmare…

Horrible creatures…
with the power to torment human beings so terribly …
they longed for death… as a release.

John knows we’re created in the image of God…
to reflect our wise and loving creator…
and that somehow… in our desire to play God …
our hearts are full of rebellion
and now he sees…it’s is true at a cosmic level…as well.

Though created good… and loved by God…
the world now harbours such anti-creation destructiveness...
that in order to be dealt with…sooner or later…
it must be allowed to come out in the open…
to show its true colours.

Black hole

The Abyss…
like a black hole in modern astrophysics …
is a place of anti-creation, anti-matter…
destruction and chaos.  And our collective and personal abyss… contains everything opposed to God…
to love and compassion and mercy and justice and peace…

And most of the time we don’t even know it’s there.

Didn’t Jesus teach us… that all kinds of wickedness…
come smoking from the depths of the human heart…
… to the surprise and horror… of those who would be ritually and religiously pure?


didn’t he tell us in the book of Mark…
it’s what comes out of us that defiles us.
when he said For it’s out of a person’s heart…
that evil thoughts and actions come—sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. All these evils come from inside and defile a person.

And so in John’s vision…out of the abyss
these torturing creatures are released…

Locust slide

It’s the stuff of horror films.

We can only assume John’s revelation was given to produce in his readers and in us…our worst nightmares.
And John lavishes more detail…on the super-locusts in Chapter nine…than any other creature in his vision.

And many modern readers…struck by the almost
mechanical appearance of these locust-like creatures…
see in them… a modern military machine.

Helicopter slide

Like a helicopter…

And this is so typical…of trying to tie down John’s symbolism
and domesticate it.

Remember what we learned last week…
three things to help keep…our heads and our faith strong…
as we read this part of revelation
one… the seriousness of sin…
two… never mistake symbolism for reality…
and three… remember the purpose of the plagues of Egypt …when God calls for repentance…
from those who oppress and exploit
God’s people in slavery

Locust slide

But now in John’s vision…the locusts are torturing and eating human beings … heavily armoured…striking under strict limitations…
not to harm the earth’s vegetation… as they normally would …nor those with God’s seal…just every one else.

In Hebrew…the name of the locust king means
place of destruction… and in Greek…the destroyer…

But there is no death for those who are attacked…
that would be too easy… it seems only suffering…
will bring about the rock bottom of repentance
that God requires.

And here in chapter 9 of Revelation…just as in Egypt…
instead of repenting… the people harden their hearts.

And more monsters… are disgorged from the abyss.

Horses slide

Horses with lion’s heads… spewing smoke and fire and sulphur with tails like snakes…

with riders in heavy armour… [pause]

drought slide

a third of humanity dies at their hand… [pause]

And still the rest….will not repent
of the work of their hands;

They continue to worship demons… and idols of gold, silver, bronze, stone and wood—idols that can’t see or hear or walk. Nor do they repent of their killing…
their magic arts, their sexual objectification of others…
nor taking what doesn’t belong to them… [pause]

And once more the inscrutability of evil
and how God exposes and deals with it…
leaves us breathless… and perhaps dismayed… [pause]

But in chapter eight…we already learned
not to down-play… the seriousness of sin.

Nor make the same mistake as those in John’s vision…
who refuse to repent… [pause]

Seven seals

Like the first Christian’s…we too have seen terrible
things in our day…monsters designed to kill...
and destroy and strike terror in the human heart.

My favourite Biblical Scholar Tom Wright suggests
‘perhaps such machines do come from the bottomless pit under the direction of Apolyon the destroyer’

In the first century and today…
one way the powers and principalities opposed to God operate… is to play on people’s fears…
their king is the father of lies…
Christian’s are not deaf to their whispers…

They work to stimulate jealously and envy…hatred and suspicion… to arouse in us a constant sense of threat…
…they encourage us… to see others
who are made in the image of God… as our enemy….

some of you experienced this…in the first world war
with the holocaust…and the demonization of the Jews…others of us who grew up during the cold war…heard our leaders demonise the Russians and the communists…we saw in the war in Iraq…in such a way that a burka causes us to  pass to the other side of the road.

We see it right down through the idolatries of history…
Whenever people worship power over compassion,
war over peace,
and greed over economic and environmental justice. [pause]

You know my friends…it seems we only repent of the things we don’t worship. And in John’s vision…
what the unrepentant worship…only brings them torment
…in the end.

Revelation slide

If the book of Revelation teaches us anything…
for evil to be conquered…whether it’s our own petty jealousy or the ravaging of creation by greed…
sin must be exposed for what it is…
so God’s will to be done on earth.

And terrible though these monsters are…
throughout John’s vision…we see the power of the abyss
is limited…The lion and the lamb remain sovereign…

Two questions for us this week…

Are we willing through prayer and surrender…
to allow God into our own abyss…
to expose our idolatries and our self-deceptions and repent of them.

And are we willing as Jesus followers…
to name and expose…those unjust and bloodthirsty
anti-creation…powers and principalities

that hold our world in bondage?

Revelation Chapter 8

Pentecost 8 year C Sermon 

Cast your mind back two weeks…

Remember how in John’s vision…six of the seven seals… on the scroll of God’s purposes…
are opened by the Lamb of God…the only one worthy

Remember how Jesus’ breaks the seals… not only exposing the evil powers and principalities of this world…but the things which prevent you and me… from fulfilling God’s purposes in our own lives …

And remember how the earth is momentarily protected
as angels hold back the four winds…

And how… before the seventh seal is opened…
a voice from the throne declares…

Don’t harm the land or the sea or the trees…
until we put a seal on the foreheads of the servants of our God.

Perhaps a violent wind will scorch the earth,
stir up the sea and uproot the trees…but more likely…
a great shaking will pass through the world of human affairs…
as powers and principalities are exposed for the evil they do…
by the Lamb of God.

at the end of the first century…God’s suffering people
need to be reassured … yes there will be suffering…
but John’s vision reveals God’s people…

will come through this time of tribulation…

And remember how suddenly…as heaven and earth await the opening of the seventh seal…the seal of the living God…
John sees before him… in the divine dimension…

Word slide

a great multitude no one can count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb…wearing white robes…holding palm branches how the great multitude of those who had been martyred in the name of Christ …crying out in a loud voice:

Slide words

Praise and glory and wisdom and thanks and honour and power and strength be to our God for ever and ever.

Revelation 8 slide

And now…as chapter 8 begins…
as the Lamb opens the seventh seal… [pause]

White slide

there is silence  [pause then quietly]

The constant ceaseless praise… of the four living creatures
dies away. The song of the elders, the angels…
and the multitude without number falls quiet…

This…is the moment we’ve all be waiting for. And we hardly dare to breathe. The praises of heaven must pause
for a while…

why?

so the prayers of humanity may be heard.

Everything in heaven goes silent…
so the prayers of the earth may be heard. [pause]

Along with the early Christians… at the end of the first century … hiding in terror…enduring terrible persecution for their allegiance to Christ over Caesar and his empire…

in the silence we are granted … a glimpse into God’s heavenly dimension…not distant and uncaring…but listening…
and compassionately engaged…

Instead of our little bedraggled house church in Ephesus…
beaten to a pulp by vicious mobs or tortured and killed in the arenas of an oppressive regime…We can see in John’s vision thousands upon thousands celebrating their deliverance.

And as the lamb opens the seventh seal…the seal of the living God…there is silence…

Something huge…something powerful is about to happen…

but before it does… before the angel’s trumpets
can sound the alarm… something else has to happen…
heaven and earth must intersect in a new way…

Angel with censer slide

So another angel with a golden censer…comes to stand at the altar before the throne…and together with swirling smoke of incense… the prayers of God’s people rise up before God. [pause]

Every one of our senses…is engaged in the silence…
the prayers and the incense rise…

One way or another…the prayers of God’s people…not least those already martyred…are coming before God’s throne.

Their prayers have been heard…and what is God’s answer?

There are echoes here of what Paul wrote to the Romans

In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We don’t know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God.

So the prayers of God’s people rise like incense
from the golden censer…and the immediate answer is given… the same way. [pause]

Filling the censer with fire from the altar…

Earth slide

the angel hurls it onto the earth…the silence is broken…
and there is thunder and lightning… and the earth quakes.
Every section of John’s vision rumbles like this… when it ends. And we will hear this fearful noise again.

Until evil has been judged, condemned and radically uprooted from the earth…the only word the earth can hear from heaven
is a cosmic storm of judgment.

As long as earth remains the haunt of evil…
God’s answer to it must be fire.

Jesus himself declares he’d come ‘to throw fire upon the earth’ and here in John’s vision…the angel with the Golden censer continues the mysterious work of the lamb. [pause]

At now in seven angels appear…
and their trumpets sound the alarm…Be prepared…something terrible is about to unfold.

A sequence of God’s judgments… are about to be set in motion
necessary for evil to be conquered and God’s glorious new world to emerge …

…a sequence of judgments not mechanically grinding forever into the future… unrelated to human action. But in partnership with praying and faithful humanity.

Here we discover…that prayer …even the most anguished…
even from those who don’t understanding for one second
what’s happening…human prayer is a vital element in our mysterious cooperation with the purposes of God.

Sun moon and earth slide

Ok now you can strap yourselves into your seats my friends
…you have been warned…

The first angel sounded his trumpet, and there came hail and fire mixed with blood, and it was hurled down on the earth.
A third of the earth was burned up, a third of the trees were burned up, and all the green grass was burned up.

8 The second angel sounded his trumpet, and something like a huge mountain, all ablaze, was thrown into the sea. A third of the sea turned into blood, 9 a third of the living creatures in the sea died, and a third of the ships were destroyed.

10 The third angel sounded his trumpet, and a great star, blazing like a torch, fell from the sky on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water— 11 the name of the star is Wormwood. A third of the waters turned bitter, and many people died from the waters that had become bitter.

12 The fourth angel sounded his trumpet, and a third of the sun was struck, a third of the moon, and a third of the stars, so that a third of them turned dark. A third of the day was without light, and also a third of the night.

13 As I watched, I heard an eagle that was flying in mid-air call out in a loud voice: “Woe! Woe! Woe to the inhabitants of the earth, because of the trumpet blasts about to be sounded by the other three angels!”

[pause]

You know there’s a church out there somewhere with a sign out the front…that reads…

Sign slide

Many people want to serve God…
but only in an advisory capacity.

Now this is one of those moments in the book of Revelation …when some of us at least…
would like to give God some firm advice… ‘don’t do it God! How does all this destruction gel with what we know of you?’
We’ve been reassured… it’s your creation…you made it and made it good and you love it and you love us…we know that…

Sun moon and earth slide

So how then can you allow such an apparently meaningless destruction of the universe …a third of the earth…the trees…the sea and its creatures…the rivers…even the sun and the moon and the stars?

Well my favourite biblical scholar Tom Wright…
ffers us three points… that might just help us…
with our very real confusion and our very important questions?

First point: As a wise old writer put it…you haven’t yet considered

Slide words Point 1.

the seriousness of sin’.

However great the evidence to the contrary…
don’t some of us still cling to the modern myth…
that evil will be wiped out through education and enlightenment
leaving only a few mopping up operations in the world…
preferably far far away from where we live…

The very idea of God having to do anything powerful and destructive to address the problem…
is regarded as way too drastic…

but none of the early Christians and certainly not Jesus…
would have colluded with such a glossing over
of the seriousness of human sin.

Reveal point 2

Point 2 as always in the Book of Revelation…
we should never mistake symbolism for reality.

The stylised way John describes the effects of the seven trumpet blasts… ought to remind us…
what Johns first readers certainly knew …

John isn’t actually talking about a third of the earth the seas. But he is talking about God’s drastic action to purify the world.

what do you do to a dangerously diseased tree in your garden…

[wait for response]

That’s right…you cut it back…you remove the deadly cancer
so the rest of the tree may be saved…only major surgery will do.

The necessary work of radically upsetting evil human systems by which millions are enslaved and degraded

Third point: As we read about these plagues [and more to come] something stirs in our ancient collective memory…isn’t it.

[check for response]

Reveal third point

That’s right they intentionally remind us of the plagues God sends in Egypt after four hundred years of slavery for God’s people. Plagues sent as a warning to the Pharaoh
of the power of Israel’s God…

And how do the plagues in Egypt end…
Israel is saved from death by the blood of the lamb.

Already revealed in Johns vision…
the Lamb of God is the true Passover lamb…
John’s vision has a history etched deep in the psyche of Jesus’ suffering first century followers…

Just as the nation of Egypt was hit with plagues… to warn and to liberate …so the whole world will be

Maybe these three points can help us keep our heads…
and our faith…as we navigate the most difficult passages
in the book of Revelation.  As we take seriously this divine warning…meant not just for Pharoah or for Caesar’s empire but for all nations…including ours.

Blank slide

And eventually… if we have the courage and strength to read on…we will hear in chapter 15… the rescued people of God singing the song of Moses and the song of the lamb. [pause]

But for the moment in John’s vision…
following the prayers of God’s suffering people…
fire is cast upon the earth… The process of catastrophic events begins…as a warning to those who dwell on earth…

From beginning to end…the stunning sweep of John’s vision proclaims the re-establishment of the rule of heaven on earth…
a radical change of regime…is coming…and those who profit from the present one… need very dire warnings indeed
if they are to realise… in what jeopardy they have put the earth and it’s creatures.

Many live on earth… as though there is no heavenly dimension

In light of John’s vision…I’d call that fool hardy…God has always called for confession and repentance…
Next week we’ll see if we can find any.