Oh, those four horsemen!

Revelation 6: 1-17 ,7:1-17, 8: 1-5

Last night we had some interesting conversation about the seven seals…the first four were the famous four horsemen of the apocalypse.  These four point us to the challenges of history: war, famine and death.  Yet the first seal and horseman revealed a Christ-figure who did not call out these three issues for humans but illustrates that God comes before and is present with us throughout history.  These problems and more continue even to today.  We should pause and ponder if there are solutions, if they have been tried, or way none exist at all. 

The fifth seal doesn’t really give us anymore hope as all of the “souls of those who had been slaughtered for the word of God and for the testimony they had given” were revealed.  This would have been a reality for the Christian readers of this period for whom martyrdom was familiar.  And the sixth seal?  Well, no more hope here either.  Natural destruction takes place and NO ONE is safe from it!  But one question follows that seal: Who is able to stand?!

As a reader you may think that the seventh seal would come right up…but another literary license is taken here.  A whole chapter comes between the sixth and seventh seals!  And this section brings up other well-known Revelation tidbits.  The passage opens with the 144,000 saved souls.  Before you wonder whether you are in the 144,000 saved, remember that this book is all about wholeness.  This round number arrived at by multiplying the number of tribes of Israel (12) and looking at 1,000 as an Old Testament illusion to a division in the military, we realize that the actual number itself is not what we are to ponder.  Instead, it is the completeness of the whole image.  We must look at the 144,000 as well as the innumerable others in the second half of the passage.  This is really what it is all about.  The number is complete, perfect and includes every tribe and nation as a marked and sealed people. 

And finally, we get to the seventh seal after a chapter long break…and it’s silence in heaven.  It is here that people’s prayers are recieved and heard by God as illsutrated in the golden censer.  In the silence, there is listening which must happen before we act.  So wonder to yourself after getting through all of these seals, what is the purpose of silence?  What are the benefits of silence?  What, then, can you take away from the whole experience of reading these sections?

One of the things I realized throughout our conversation is that it can be quite hard to get our notions about Revelation out of our heads.  Thoughts about prediciting the eschaton (the end times) through mathematical calculations or reading the visions as illustrations of what will occur are strongly held stereotypes about the book.  But I point us back to the title of this text, Revelation.  Notice it’s not RevelationS…it’s Revelation.  One revelation.  One depiction that must be viewed in its entirety to be fully understood.  So keep on with it despite the challenging images and culturally normative understandings that can cloud our understandings.  You’re doing tough work but I hope that you feel rewarded with the fruits of your labor (if not, you should!).

Next week we will be talking about the Beast…yet another image and idea that we connect with Revelation!  Come for more indepth discussion about this book next Wednesday and learn what this might be all about!

Looking at the seven churches

Well, it was quite a whirlwind to get through those seven churches last week!  Here is a basic outline of each letter below.  If you are trying to tackle this on your own, these basic points give you a foundation to start from:
o    Address to an angel
•    There is an individual and corporate understanding here.  John sees angels as representative body of people.  In Daniel 10:13, 21 and 12:1, Michael is seen as the guardian angel of Israel but other nations have similar representative angels, too (Daniel 10:20).
o    Name of a city
•    “The order of the seven churches forms a circular route that begins in Ephesus, likely following a Roman postal route.  The revelation of Jesus Christ, though it has universal application, still addresses local needs and concerns.” (26)
o    Prophetic messenger formula
•    “Thus says the Lord…”
•     John is using this formula and these four words to highlight that these are the words of Jesus, the Lord, in his vision.
o    Christological ascription
•    “It is not just a matter of where are you from but whom you are connected with.  The recipients are more than residents of particular cities.  They are the Lord’s (which is the meaning of kyriakos, “church”).
•    Remember that Christ stood among the seven lampstands thus signifying that he was and is among them.  This is important to remember as the people connect their identity directly to their faith.
o    Divine knowledge
•    Christ illustrates (as said above) that he is among their communities and therefore knows what is going on.  He knows what is going well but also the ways that these congregations struggle.
o    Body of letter: affirmation and correction
o    Universal call to listen and obey (“Let anyone who has an ear…”)
•    What is said to one church applies to all churches.
o    Eschatological promise to those who conquer
•    There is a theme that connects each of the churches: life eternal and abundant.
•    The church should hold onto what is good in the communities.  The affirmations should not be taken lightly.
•    We observe the promise that we have through God.  This is the thing that keeps us encouraged and sustains us on the journey.
•    Therefore, even in the blessings and trials of faith, we are striving to conquer.

There are a lot of culture references within the text that you may not be able to pick up on your own.  Still, I encourage you to look at each letter and think about the overarching promise.  These promises stand true for us today as well!  Ask yourself, what can we learn from these seven letters to the churches?

If you were going to write a letter to Lake View Presbyterian Church, what would you write?

One baby step into it

So our journey in Revelation begins…with a clip from “The Simpsons.”  In “Thank God It’s Doomsday,” Homer attempts to calculate when the rapture will occur only to find that he desires to be with his family instead of in heaven on his own.  Each week we will continue to view some take on themes in Revelation, how directors and movies depict the book of Revelation, and other jumping off points for our discussion.  Stay tuned!

We marked the beginning of our study by reading Revelation 1.  Here are some basic points about the context of the book before you read it (again):

• There are 500 allusions of the Old Testament in Revelation!  In its 404 total verses, contemporaries to the text would have recognized all of these references.  But the connections aren’t as clear to us in 2009…which means we have to be careful when we read each section!  We have to have clearer understandings about the connections to see the meaning of its message.
• The narrator is identified as John; but which John?  Well, the name John was as common then as it is now which means it is hard for us to really know much about our writer.  We do know: 1) He was send to the island of Patmos 2) most likely he ended up there because of his Christian faith and 3) was probably seen as a threat to the Roman government which was why he was sent to the island in the Mediterranean.
• Many scholars speculate that the book arose during or following the rule of Domitian.  Domitian was a Roman emperor who slowly tried to move the government to absolute monarchy.  If anyone seemed to be a threat (just a slight idea or mention of the possibility), they would be persecuted, martyred and/or sent away.  Revelation is a book in response to the controlling Roman empire; this is an important point to remember.

There are several other points we touched on, but I am sure they will come up throughout our study.  So please, join us and jump into Revelation 2-3 this Wednesday when we talk about the seven churches referenced by John!

Just what is going on here?!?!

This week we will begin our journey through the Book of Revelation.  It’s hard to know where to start with this controversial final book in our Biblical canon.  So, it’s best to start at the very beginning…thinking about the context from which this text arose and some of the themes that it approaches.  In the coming weeks we will be discussing its imagery and symbolism, some of the most familiar references to us, and what it can say to us today.  There will be movie clips and current topics all interwoven within the study.

To whet your appetite, check out this study from the Pew Research Center (provided by Ashley Heher): http://pewresearch.org/pubs/1187/poll-christians-jesus-second-coming-timing

Come and join us for conversation about this intriguing book!