From the Lectionary for Independence Day, Saturday July 4
Revelation 21:1-7 (The New Jerusalem Bible)
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; the first heaven and the first earth had disappeared now, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride dressed for her husband. Then I heard a loud voice call from the throne, “Look, here God lives among human beings. He will make his home among them; they will be his people, and he will be their God, God-with-them. He will wipe away all tears from their eyes; there will be no more death, and no more mourning or sadness or pain. The world of the past has gone.” Then the One sitting on the throne spoke. “Look, I am making the whole of creation new. Write this, ‘What I am saying is trustworthy and will come true.’” Then he said to me, “It has already happened. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. I will give water from the well of life free to anybody who is thirsty; anyone who proves victorious will inherit these things; and I will be his God and he will be my son.”
This passage from The Revelation to John is the office reading listed in the lectionary for Independence Day (As an aside, the second General Convention of the newly-formed Episcopal Church called for observance of Independence Day in 1786, ten years after independence from British rule was realized on July 4th of 1776. This day was to be observed throughout “this Church, on the Fourth of July, forever.” The observance was discontinued only three years later, because the majority of the Church’s clericals remained loyal to the British government. It was not until 39 years later in 1928 that provision was made again for the liturgical notice of the day. But I digress!). The book of Revelation is often called “John’s Apocalypse,” from the Greek word apokalypsis, meaning “revelation, disclosure, unveiling.” This genre of literature, where found in the Bible, describes the end of the world and of human history, revealing what the eschaton (“the last thing” or end of time) will look like. It is a book full of mystery including fantastic visual imagery and bizarre symbolism, and is difficult to interpret. Approaches to reading and interpretation have included the historical, the prophetic-predictive, and the symbolic. For those who interpret it historically, Revelation describes events during the first century CE. Prophetic-predictive interpretation looks for clues about the future. Those who focus on a symbolic interpretation see the book as a work that gives readers of every time and place a vision of all of creation symbolically transformed. It has been a problematic book for several theologians including Martin Luther, who admitted “My spirit cannot accommodate itself to this book.” Those who interpret it prophetically as a prediction or roadmap of what the end of time will look like include “evangelical” Christians and authors Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins of the controversial fictional Left Behind series written starting in 1995. They interpret the symbolic visions of the book as literal descriptions of what is going to take place in our own day and age. In my opinion they have missed the point of the book.
So, who wrote this book, and what’s it all about? The author was not Jesus’s apostle John, but rather another prophet named John, who wrote it during the last half of the first century, somewhere between 60 and 95 CE. The book is a revelation of God to John, who is on the island of Patmos off the coast of Asia Minor (now western Turkey), through a heavenly messenger or angel. Among other things, it describes the end-of-time conflict or battle (the Armageddon) which culminates in the definitive victory of God and the final defeat of all evil. The “new heaven and a new earth” reflects the renewal of all creation, freed from imperfection and transformed by God. As an aside, I think it is important to point out that in John’s words “the holy city, the new Jerusalem” comes “down out of heaven from God”, and then “See, the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them…and God himself will be with them.” What this tells me is that heaven or union with God is not “somewhere up there,” but rather is and will be here on our home where we live now. The implication here is important, specifically that we are called to love, protect, and care for the earth. It is not a place we can recklessly abuse and ultimately destroy because we will ultimately move on to some other place anyway. God lives with us and in us and all of creation, including our home Earth.
Back to the Revelation of John! What is the relevance of this rather complicated and bizarre book for us today? To answer this question I think it is best to approach its interpretation from the historical perspective, in other words by putting it in its own historical context, to the time and place in which it was written. Using this approach its main purpose was to disclose the truth about what was happening in the world at that time. Elsewhere in the book the occupier Rome, considered by most Jews to be the chief political enemy of God, is referred to as “the whore of Babylon,” in stark contrast to Jerusalem which is the “bride” and the City of God. Revelation is then a strong negative political critique of society during the time of the New Testament, a society which, in the words of New Testament scholar Mark Allen Powell, “used its power to enslave others, made itself prosper by making others poor, reveled in self-adulation, was cavalier about justice, ignorant about the suffering of the innocent and allowed and perpetrated violence against the righteous.” John is addressing the people of his time who are suffering under the oppression of the Romans in control of their lives. Does this sound familiar to you today? Think about the social unrest and the protests of late, all directed toward a power structure much like that which Powell describes back in the first century. Yes, this description is strikingly similar to what we are experiencing today.
And yet, Revelation is ultimately a book about hope. The author is writing to provide people with hope that they will not have to suffer forever, that God is in control, and that in the end God will intervene to make right all that has gone wrong. It is meant to inspire and encourage them to keep the faith and to persevere. And that is our calling too, especially now as we face our current crises. If we are truly committed to following The Way of Jesus, those of us who have for some reason been granted privilege are called to enter into this struggle in solidarity with those who suffer, to add our energy and voices and actions to those who are demanding justice, to be advocates and agents for change. I see the hope that the author of Revelation is trying to provide his people. This is a moment of opportunity and possibility, and the hope is that we will navigate our way through these crises into a new world, or in John’s words “a new earth.”
Bob Donnell
July 3, 2020
Prayer for the Human Family (BCP p. 815)
O God, you made us in your own image and redeemed us through Jesus your son: Look with compassion on the whole human family; take away the arrogance and hatred which infect our hearts; break down the walls that separate us; unite us in bonds of love; and work through our struggle and confusion to accomplish your purposes on earth; that, in your good time, all nations and races may serve you in harmony around your heavenly throne; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
