May 18, 2025
Revelation 21.10, 22-22; John 13.31-35
+Last Wednesday, after the Wednesday evening Eucharist, at supper at the
Rustica Tavern, the St. Stephen’s group had a discussion about the so-called “Last
Times.”
Kristine in particular was sharing some
interesting things from her own religious upbringing about this.
No doubt, you too have encountered other
Christians who have told you things like this:
“You know we’re in the last times, right?”
Or,
“When the Rapture comes, you want go with it,
because to be left behind is terrible.”
I personally never understood these comments
until I later heard that they come from some Evangelical churches that have
found these interpretations of the Book of Revelation to mean that what is
written in that book is happening right now.
And with the popularity of such awful books
as the Left Behind series (which I
personally find to be major manipulations of scripture, not to mention very
badly written books), we have seen even more clearly some Christian’s ideas of
how the Book Revelation somehow is interpreted in the light of current events.
Later, as I sort of studied it a bit, I found
a big problem with such teaching:
Almost every Christian since the time of
Jesus believed they were in the “end times.”
People thought it was the end times when the
Black Death rolled through Europe.
People thought it was the End Times when the
Protestant Reformation raged, or when the Turks invaded Europe or when the
French Revolution happened.
People thought it was the end times when
World War I came.
People thought it was the End Times during
the 1918 Flu Epidemic.
People definitely thought it was the end
times when Hitler rose to power.
People in the 1950s were saying it was the
end times with the Communist threat from Russia and China.
Or they were saying it was the end of times
when kids started listening to Rock and Roll or the Beatles came to the U.S, or
anytime during the very tumultuous 1960s.
Back in the 1980s, I remember my aunt, who
belonged to the First Assembly of God Church, saying it was the end times
then.
This was also the height of a thing called
the “Satanic panic.”
People of my generation definitely remember how
we were told by some groups of evangelical Christians that all the rock music
we listened to had hidden satanic messages, or if you played a record backward
it would reveal some demonic message.
I even remember my aunt saying that we should
not have VISA cards because VISA was a clever guise for the Mark of the
Beast—the numbers 666.
Certainly, people thought it was the end of
the world five years ago when the Pandemic was at its worst.
I remember everyone playing “It’s the End of
the World As We Know It” by R.E.M.
If we were to believe everyone who cried it
was the end times, we could honestly say that the end times have been happening
for at least 2,000 years.
I solved my confusion about this issue by doing
the only thing I could do in the face of all that confusion:
I simply re-read the Book of Revelation from
beginning to end.
And you know what happened?
I was able to claim—or re-claim—it, and
helped me to
read it anew.
And
I was able to see that the Book of Revelation really isn’t about “End Times”
There
is no Rapture in the Book of Revelation.
Still,
I think there are a lot of us who feel very differently about the Book of
Revelation.
Revelation
is a strange book.
It
can be a frightening book.
It’s
certainly not my favorite book of the Bible.
But—and
I know this might seem strange to many Christians— I don’t see it as a book of
prophecy, as many Christians do.
I
don’t see it saying anything definitely about future governments or some
messianic Anti-Christ in our midst or that we are living in the so-called “last
days” or what have you.
Mind
you, I do believe “anti-Christs” come and go through history.
I
do believe that powerful people who represent every anti-Jesus, anti-Christian
ideals which are opposite of the Christian express of loving God and loving
others and respecting the worth of dignity of all peoples are real, and those
people are, by definition, the anti Christ.
But,
for that matter, anytime any of us run counter to these Christian ideals, we
too become kind of “anti-Christs” to those around us.
Still,
what I do see the book of Revelation doing is speaking to us through some
beautiful and powerful poetry on what is happening in our lives, right
now, as Christians, and about how, in the end, Christ is victorious.
I
think it is important for us to re-claim Revelation in this way —and, in doing
so, re-read it with a new lens.
In our reading this morning from Revelation, we find some very strange esoteric
images—not an uncommon thing when we read Revelation.
We
find this morning these images of a new heaven and a new earth, of this new
Jerusalem, where death is no more or tears or crying.
It
is a place of beauty and glory.
It
is a place of unending life.
And
it is here that I think the Book of Revelation speaks loudly to us.
Even
we, as Christians, sometimes struggle with the reality of death in our lives.
Even
we fear it at times.
And
that is all right.
That
is normal.
Of
course, death is a part of life, and certainly it’s part of my job as a priest.
I
knew that going into it.
But,
let me tell you: it still is hard, often.
And
for people who have to deal with this mystery of death on a regular basis,
there have to be ways to find strength and comfort in the midst of death.
One
of the ways I find my way through this sometimes constant dealing with death is
by turning to the scriptures.
There
is a common theme we find through all Scripture.
And
that common theme is this:
the
defeat of death.
Or
as the great Episcopal theologian William Stringfellow (one of my favorites!) called
it: “authority over death.”
I
agree with him 100%.
I
think he is absolutely right about that.
Stringfellow
saw it most profoundly in the life of Jesus.
There
we see this authority over death most profoundly.
We
see it every time Jesus healed the sick, calmed the storms, cast out demons,
ate with sinners, cleansed the temple, raised the death, carried the Cross.
And
of course, in the Resurrection, which we are still celebrating in this season
of Easter, it is all about authority over death.
In
all of this, we see the God of life—God in Jesus—being victorious over death.
This view of life over death speaks to us most profoundly during this Easter
season.
We,
as Christians, cannot let the power of death control and direct our lives.
As
Christians, as followers of Jesus who crossed that awful boundary between life
and death, and came back, we must truly be defiant to death.
Of
course, that ultimate victory over death happens only when we can face death
honestly.
True
victory over death is when we can see death in the light we hear about in
today’s reading from Revelation.
Only
then do we realize that death has no victory over us.
Because
of what happened on Easter, because of the Resurrection, because Jesus did die,
yes, but God raised him from that tomb, and because Jesus walked victorious
upon the chains of death, we know now death does not have the last word in our
lives.
But,
for us Christians, we can’t be stuck in such death.
We
must live.
And
we must move forward.
We
must stand up against
death.
But,
standing up to death, even when we’re sick of it, is not easy.
Choosing
life, with all its uncertainties, can be scary.
Even
when moving forward into life and living our lives fully
and completely, we realize it can be frightening.
We
are, after all, heading into the future which is unknown to us.
But that, again, is what I love about Revelation.
What
Revelation promises to us, through all that poetry and imagery, is that death
will lose, hatred will lose, violence will lose, evil will lose, war will lose,
racism will lose, dictators and despots will definitely lose—and goodness, and
holiness and LIFE will be victorious.
That
isn’t wishful thinking. That’s isn’t being
naïve.
Rather,
this is what it means to be a Christian.
This
is what it means to believe in the God of life.
"See, the home of God is among mortals,” St. John tells us in
our reading for today.
“[God] will dwell with them as their God;
they will be [God’s] peoples,
and God…will be with them;
…will wipe every tear from their eyes.
Death will be no more;
mourning and crying and pain will be no more,
for the first things have passed away."
Those are words of absolute and glorious victory.
But
more so, they are words of life—of a life that goes on forever and ever.
As
we travel through these last days of Easter, let us do so with true Easter joy.
Let
us do so rejoicing from the very core of our bodies.
We
are alive.
This
morning, we are alive.
Life
is in us.
We
are followers of Jesus.
God’s
holy Spirit lives and breathes within us!
We
are filled with life and love.
As
we heard Jesus say in our Gospel reading for today, “I give you a new
commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you should
love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciple, if you
have love for one another.”
Those
words are our words this morning as well.
We
are filled with love and life.
We
are celebrating love and life.
And
it is all very, very good.
We
have much to be thankful for and in which to rejoice.
So,
let us be thankful for this life.
Let
us rejoice in it.
And
let us realize that in rejoicing in our lives and in the life within each of
us, God has truly prepared for us, as we heard in our collect this morning,
“such good things as surpass our understanding.”
I’m
going to close today with the lyrics to a song I heard (and saw) on Tiktok the
other day by a performer Nathan Evans Fox, who is a “leftist Christian from the
Ozarks.”
It’s
country music, and I’m not a real big fan of country music.
But
this one I like.
This
particular song, “When the Lord Comes Back,” reminds us that all those people
who look with joy for the End Times to come because they think they’re get
saved while everyone else gets sent off to hell—well, those people might be in
for a real big surprise.
I
also want to say, I don’t agree with everything in this song, but be open
minded as you heard the lyrics.
When
the Lord comes back
Aint
gonna be no cops
You
can cook your own
And
smoke your crops.
All
the boys gonna wear
The
pretty things
When
the Lord comes back
Aint
gotta prove a thing
When
the Lord comes back
I’m
gonna drive real slow
Gonna
go wherever the spirit goes
Gonna
dawdle and piddle and talk and cuss
Aint
no boss gonna make a fuss
When
the Lord comes back
I’m
gonna drive real slow
Well
every high place
gonna
be brought low
When
kingdom comes
We’ll
want for nothing
It’s
just a long table
A
mess of beans and honey buns
The
trucks are small
The
trains are late
Men
pick up their dinner plates
Aint
nobody sees that debts are paid
The
guns are all for shootin’ clays
The
guns are all for shootin’ clays
When
the Lord comes back
The
rich get scared
Aint
gotta act mean to
Be
treated fair
All
the living’s honest
And
dying too
Our
bodies return
As
heirlooms
Could
already come
A
time or two
And
they kill Him like
They
tend to do.
So
I’m praying for
The
mighty to fall
Else
aint no use
In
prayer at all
When
the Lord comes back
I’ll
do my best
To
share my okra and cigarettes
Break
every law I can’t respect
Leave
some tall grass for all the critters rest
Don’t
smoke cigarettes, but pray—pray hard!—for the mighty to fall.
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