A New Kind of "Normal"

(Revelation 13.11, 14-18; 19.11-15; 22.1-5)
A sermon preached by Dave Shull
Spirit of Peace United Church of Christ
Sammamish, Washington
The 25th Sunday in Ordinary Time: September 20, 2009

The eleventh and final in a summer series on topics church members asked to hear sermons about.
This morning's is the third to address the question: What is the Revelation to John about?

Three weeks ago during the sermon talkback, Dorothy asked, "What in the world is the Book of Revelation about?" This is the third a final sermon on that question . . . at least in this incarnation. I've spent this amount of time on Dorothy's questions because I think it raises two key issues for Christians.

First, how do we interpret the Bible – specifically those parts of it that seem so violent? Last week I talked about how some rabbis in the first century, and St. Augustine in the fourth century, came to the same conclusion. The sacred stories of our faith have one message: God's compassion for creation, and God's call for us to respond to the compassion God gives us by loving creation and loving ourselves. So for Christians, that means every verse of the Bible sings God's love for us. Every verse of the Bible calls us to sing God's love back to all of creation and to ourselves. So we even try to hear those parts of the Bible that seem to justify violence, cruelty, and dividing the world between insiders and outsiders, the saved and the damned, as a song about compassion. And what these rabbis and St. Augustine tell us is that even if the original intention of the authors of these stories was to say God blesses violence or bigotry, we must change what that story says. Because God is not served by anything but a people who is shaped by compassion. And a people who shapes others in compassion.

The second issue a study of Revelation brings up is this: Christians need to know enough about this book so we can respond to people who know we go to church and who ask us what Revelation is about. And we need to know enough about it so, if we hear a Christian assert that it justifies violence or bigotry or self-righteousness, we can offer a different picture of what the Revelation to John is about. No longer can Christians surrender the interpretation of this book to conservative Christians just because we don't like much of what it seems to say. We need to know it so we can share what we believe it means.

So this morning, I'd like to share three specific ways we can talk about Revelation.

The first has to do with the symbols Revelation uses, and a way to understand and talk about them. For centuries, Christians have seen this symbols as coded predictions of actual events in the future. So Christians have spent a lot of time and energy looking for what they call "the Anti-Christ" because they hear in John's book a prediction that such a servant of the devil will show up at some future point in history. When the images and symbols John uses address specific people at the time he wrote to seven churches in western Turkey. So we need to look at these images as images from John's world. And then look for ways his message about these images speaks to us today.

Listen for a word from God.

I saw a second beast come out of the earth. It had two horns like a lamb, but it spoke like a dragon….It deceived the inhabitants of the earth with the miracles it was able to work.
And it ordered them to set up a statue in honor of the beast who had been wounded by the sword and revived. It was given permission to breathe life into the statue, so that the statue could speak and cause all who refused to worship the statue to be killed. It forced anyone – small and great, rich and poor, free and oppressed – to be branded on the right hand or on the forehead. No one could buy or sell without the mark – that is, the name of the beast, or the number that stood for its name.
Wisdom is required here. Let those who have insight figure out a number for this beast – a 'human' number: 666 (Revelation 13.11, 14-18; the verses from Revelation quoted throughout this sermon are adapted from The Inclusive New Testament, Priests for Equality, 1994).

If George Lucas were putting this scene on the screen, he'd have a Darth Vader kind of beast who terrorizes the people into submission. But John's audience wouldn't see that kind of character in what John as written at all. Most Bible scholars believe John has created these creatures to represent specific people in his world. And his readers and listeners know who he's talking about (Craig Koester, Revelation and the End of All Things, Eerdmans, 2001, p. 134).

The beast with the 666 was the Roman Emperor Nero. Nero was the poster boy for embodied evil; he's like Adolph Hitler is today. Nero had committed suicide by the time John wrote Revelation around 100CE. But everyone knew about Nero. He'd tortured and killed thousands of Christians. The relationship between 666 and Nero works like this. Every Hebrew letter had a numerical value attached to it. It's like 'a' is 5, 'b' is 10', 'c' is 15. The numerical value of the Hebrew letters for "Emperor Nero" add up to 666 (Koester, p. 133).

So Nero is the beast with the 666, which Christians since Revelation call the Anti-Christ. Now the beast who comes out of the sea that Gloria just read about – this beast with the horns like a lamb who talks like a dragon – that beast work for Nero. John's audience would recognize that beast as all of the government officials who implement Nero's orders. They were the ones who did the actual torturing and killing of Christians and other enemies of the Empire.

So in talking about the beast from the sea, and Nero, who is portrayed as a beast from the land, John isn't predicting that in some specific point in the future, a figure whose name can be contorted into a connection to 666 is going to come to try to convince all the Christians in the world to worship the devil. He's referring to specific people everyone he's writing to would recognize.

But he's doing it in a way that shows us he is a true student of human nature. Tyrants are able to hold onto their power as long as they can keep people afraid of them. Fear keeps people from resisting their oppressors. One of the ways we can lessen the amount of fear we have is by learning how to laugh at what we fear. And John has created a symbol of these government officials who do whatever Nero tells them in ways that can help his listeners laugh at these people who have the power to hurt and kill them.

The beast has two horns like a lamb. Up to this point in this story, the only lamb John has mentioned is Jesus. John talks about Jesus as the sacrificial lamb – the one who was willing to die rather than stop being who God called him to be. Jesus is the lamb. So here's this beast who has two horns like a lamb. And John's readers laugh. Does this beast think we're so gullible, that we'll follow this beast just because he's pretending to be Jesus, the Lamb?

Then John adds the fact that this beast talks like a dragon. A chapter earlier, we learned the dragon stands for the devil. Talk about a wolf in sheep's clothing! The beast pretends to be a lamb, but it talks like a dragon. If it talks like the devil, it is the devil. So John's listeners aren't going to go anywhere near it.

Then John says the beast has the power to make a statue talk. That would send his listeners into hysterics. Because everyone in the Roman Empire knew the story of Alexander the False Prophet. Alexander built a little chapel. Then he made a statue, and put it in the chapel. He put hinges in the jaws, so he could move the jaws with levers. Then he stuck a tube from the mouth through the back of the statue's neck. So someone hiding behind the statue could speak into the tube. And Alexander could work the levers that move the mouth. And it would look like Alexander had made the statue talk (Koester, pp. 130-31).

By describing this beast like he has, John has helped free his people from some of their fear. For they are laughing at the government officials who do the Emperor's dirty work. And that helps them imagine being able to resist the efforts of the Empire to convince them to worship it instead of worshiping God.

Next is the stuff about the beast with the 666. John is most likely talking about Emeror Nero. But a lot of Christians have spent a lot of time trying to figure out who in the present this Anti-Christ might be. Throughout history, popes, presidents, kings, computers, and various international organizations have been accused of being the Anti-Christ. The most ridiculous candidate for the beast I've come across deals with the purple dinosaur Barney. He's the one with that giggle that makes me want to hurt somebody.

Take the phrase 'CUTE PURPLE DINOSAUR'. Change the U's to V's, so they appear like they did in Roman times. Get rid of all the letters that aren't Roman numerals. Covert them to Arabic numerals and add them up. And, lo and behold, look what you get:

C + V+V+ L + D + I+V
100+5+5+50+500+1+5 = 666 (Koester, p. 133).

It would be utterly laughable if so many Christians didn't take this stuff literally. In the case of Barney, I remember hearing that some Christians didn't like the fact that some of Barney's lessons led kids to do un-Christian things like think for themselves. If kids do that, what happens to parental authority? So they decided Barney was the anti-Christ.

John's images speak to real people known by him and his community. But what these people represent is universal. These people try to scare people into submitting to cruelty and tyranny. They are trying to get the people to turn away from God and worship a nation, an institution, an ideology, a person. Don't fall for it, John says. God is the only being worthy of worship. Worship God. No matter how much those in power try to scare you. Worship God. And no one can destroy you. Even if Rome kills you, God will raise you to eternal life.

The second and third ways we can talk about Revelation will take much less time to explain.

We can tell people that Revelation calls Christians to be non-violent. Even though the book is filled with violent images, Revelation does not give Christians permission to be violent towards others. Listen for a word from God.

Then I saw heaven itself standing open, and a white horse appeared. Its rider was called Faithful and True – a warrior for justice, a judge with integrity. This warrior has eyes like a blazing flame, and is crowned with many crowns, inscribed with a name no one else has every known. The warrior wears a cloak dipped in blood, and is known by the name "The Word of God".
The armies of heaven were following the warrior, also riding on white horses. They were dressed in dazzling white linen. Out of the warrior's mouth comes a sharp sword to strike down the nations (Revelation 19.11-15).

The rider of this horse is the Risen Jesus Christ. And what is his weapon? A sword that comes out of his mouth. Not a sword that pierces bodies and leads them to bleed. But a sword that is the Word of God. A sword that convicts the nations of refusing to show compassion and refusing to practice justice. That is the sword Jesus wields. (Koester: p. 174). The pastor I quoted last week who uses this text to say that the Jesus of Revelation "is holding a sword in His hand and wants to make someone bleed" is not being faithful to what this text says. Jesus holds no sword in his hand. He is just speaking God's compassion, calling people to repent, calling people to love more radically – especially to love their enemies.

And what about the army of saints? The ones who are clothed not in armor but in linen? What weapons do they carry? None. And who do they attack? No one. They do nothing. They just follow Jesus. They take up no arms.

This image of Jesus on the white horse was used to justify the Crusades – the wars Christians waged against Muslims. But this story justifies no war-making. It justifies no violence. People might use other sacred texts to argue Christians can fight in wars. But they cannot use Revelation.

Third: Revelation calls us to commit our lives to create a new kind of 'normal'. Revelation paints a picture of God's dream for this world. And Revelation says, This is how the world's supposed to be. This is the new picture of what's normal. Normal isn't violence. Normal isn't fear. Normal isn't poverty. Instead this is normal:

The angel then showed me the river of life-giving water, clear as crystal, which issued from the throne of God and of the Lamb, and flowed down the middle of the streets. On either side of the river grew trees of life which produce fruit twelve times a year, once each month; their leaves serve as medicine to heal the nations. There will no longer be any curse.
The throne of the Almighty and of the Lamb will be there, and God's subjects will serve faithfully. They will see the Most High face to face, and bear God's name on their foreheads. Night will be no more. They will need no light from lamps or the sun, for Our God will give them light, and they will reign forever (Revelation 22.1-5).

That is not what's normal in our world. Everyone having just enough of what they need isn't normal in our world. In our world, 26,000 children under five die each day, largely because they don't have enough food and clean water (UNICEF website). In this country, 81 people die every day from gun-related deaths; 25 of these deaths are suicides by white men 40 and over (Bill Marsh, "An Accounting of Daily Gun Deaths," The New York Times, April 29, 2007).

Allan Boesak is a black South African pastor who with Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu fought for equal rights against the white minority government in their country. He describes what passes as the normal way of life for many of God's children in our world:

There must be a new earth. This earth – raped, robbed, torn, filled with anger and revenge, with hurt and pain – cannot and should not remain. This earth had been the dwelling place of the Beast, the false prophet of the Beast who came out of the sea…. This earth had given refuge to the murderers of the saints of God [and] became…the arena of the suffering and death of God's children. It was never "home" for them….Indeed, in the experience of the little people of God, the earth belonged to the mighty and the powerful who claimed it for themselves, and they were the enemies, the killers of those who sought to remain faithful to Jesus Christ. So this earth should be no more….Normal is no longer hiding in the night, leaving loved ones behind and fighting with wild Beasts for the enjoyment of the Beast. What is normal now is walking in the light of God and living from the fruits of the tree of life (Allan Boesak).

Revelation shows us the new kind of 'normal' Jesus calls his followers to create.
Normal is people living without fear.
Normal is using only the word of God as our weapon, and not believing God blesses bombs and bullets.
Normal is people living free from the night of shame and fear; free from the terror of separation from loved ones; free from being treated with contempt and callousness by the powerful of the world.
Normal is people living in freedom. Free for life in community. Free to live in safety. Free of want. Normal is no one having too much or too little. Normal is everyone having enough. Enough food, enough water, enough joy, enough hope, enough compassion.

This is what Revelation calls us to. To see this vision of God's new kind of normal. And to say 'yes' to making it real. Revelation calls us to walk in the way of Jesus, open to the compassion and correction of God. And live the words we pray: Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.

Amen.