Sermon: "Rescuing Revelation" (Revelation 21:10 - 22:5)

Look at this picture. It’s a political cartoon expressing the cartoonist’s views of this election season. It shows a donkey on the left and an elephant on the right.

Now, you know that a donkey is the symbol of the Democratic party, and an elephant is the symbol of the Republican party. But how? And Why?

Well, it started with an insult. In 1828, Andrew Jackson was running for president, and one of his opponents called him a “jackass.” Not a very polite thing to say.

Jackson responded by putting pictures of donkeys on all his campaign posters. There aren’t many things I like about Andrew Jackson, but this was actually quite clever of him. Eventually the donkey came to symbolize not only him, but his party.

It wasn’t long before political cartoonist Thomas Nast started using the donkey in his drawings to represent the Democrats. In 1874 he added an elephant to represent the Republicans. The rest, as they say, is history.

But imagine that an alien from outer space came to earth and the first thing this alien saw was this cartoon lying on the ground. Or, imagine that an archaeologist 2,000 years in the future found this cartoon, and other similar images, but knew nothing of the context. What would the alien or archaeologist think was going on in our society? All these images of donkeys and elephants, often accompanied by flags and stars and stripes and other obscure symbols…

The book of Revelation is like a political cartoon. All these strange beasts and symbols, fantastical images, bizarre creatures… We look at them today, 2,000 years after the book was written, and it all seems so strange. And like anything that’s strange or different, it scares us.

But it all made sense to first century Christians. They were familiar with the imagery, and knew what it meant.

To understand Revelation, you have to know the Hebrew Scriptures. A lot of people read Revelation without connecting it to the rest of the Bible, and they get it completely wrong. What Revelation is about has its roots in Genesis and Exodus, and really gets developed in the writings of prophets like Isaiah, Ezekiel, Zechariah, and Daniel.

And the overriding vision that extends throughout all these scriptures is that of a new creation. A transformed creation. A new heaven and earth.

In Genesis, we have the story of Creation, but it’s not long until we have the story of Noah and the Great Flood; the point of that story is that the world had become broken and sinful, and a new start was needed, a new creation.

Then we have Exodus. Again, creation is broken. Nations are enslaving nations. So God leads the people to the promised land, where they will get a new start.

When we read the prophets, we read of oppression, injustice, economic inequality, and how offensive all this is to God. Creation is once again broken. The wealthy care only about adding to their wealth, and ignore the growing number of impoverished people in their midst; and the rulers do nothing.

So the prophets describe their vision, their dream, of a new creation, a new world, in which there is peace and harmony and an end to oppression. Enemies come together as friends, with even wolves and lambs living together in peace. It is, once again, a new creation, a new world, a new start.

In his teachings, Jesus also made use of this desire for a new creation. He called it “the Kingdom of God.” It is the world as it would be when all people live according to the ways God has taught them, showing kindness and love to one another.

The book of Revelation just continues with this same idea. In today’s passage we are presented with an image of the city of Jerusalem as we’ve never seen Jerusalem before, with walls of jasper and streets of gold, and foundations built of twelve different types of precious jewels.

Actually, the number twelve appears a lot in this description. There are twelve types of jewels. There are twelve gates and twelve angels and twelve pearls. The scripture says the city measures fifteen hundred miles, but in Greek that is twelve thousand stadia.

The number twelve connects this vision to the twelve disciples and the twelve tribes of Israel. In other words, although this is a whole new creation, it is connected to the vision that has been presented throughout history. The prophet Ezekiel even presents a very similar vision which he describes in great detail in Ezekiel chapter 40.

Obviously, this is an idealistic utopia. It’s not literal. Gold, for example, is not a very suitable building material.

But the vision of a world where all is as it should be is true. It is the epic myth of the future that scripture presents. Remember what I said last week about the word myth? Last week, I said that contrary to what we think when we hear the word myth, the word actually means an epic story that gives meaning to a culture. Creation stories are myths about our past. The shining city of gold is a myth about our future. It is an epic story that gives us meaning and purpose, a story that shows us who we are and who we hope to become.

Literally speaking, streets of gold are not a practical reality, but a city of perfection and beauty symbolizing a world where God’s love washes over everything and all people recognize the beauty in the world and in each other – that is very true. That is powerful, and meaningful. That is an epic story, a myth, that we need to hear again and again and again, a vision of the future toward which we strive.

The vision of the prophets. The kingdom of God described by Jesus. The city described in Revelation. These are all different ways of saying the same thing, that there is an alternative to this world of pain, this world of sorrow, this world where people fight against one another, oppress one another, steal from one another. There is an alternative to this world of brokenness. There is an alternative to the selfishness and greed and individualism and consumerism of this world.

And when will this alternative world be realized? When will the wolf and the lamb live together in peace?  When will the mountains be made low and the valleys raised up, so that the road to peace will be easy and smooth? When will all people benefit from their hard work, and be able to sit under their own fruit trees beside a flowing stream and eat the fruit and harvest for which they worked? When will the kingdom of God come on earth as it is in heaven? When?

On the one hand, this is a vision of a world so perfect, so good, that it will never be a reality. As long as there is sin in the world, it will never come true.

But on the other hand, this is a vision of a world that is so easily accessible, a vision that can and does come true in the simplest of acts that we do.

Someone once asked Jesus when the kingdom of God was coming. Jesus answered: “The kingdom of God is in you and among you” [Luke 17:21].

What Jesus meant was that every time you show love to a neighbor, this kingdom is a present reality. Every time you show kindness, this kingdom is a present reality. Every time you work to end oppression or hunger or injustice, this kingdom is a present reality. Every time you hunger and thirst for righteousness, every time you strive to make peace… this kingdom, the kingdom of God, is a present reality.

There are many reasons to admire Martin Luther King, Jr. For me, I think the most admirable thing is that he truly grasped the concept of the kingdom of God. He truly understood the vision of the prophets and of Revelation.

And he had his own name for it. He called it the beloved community. Actually, it was Josiah Royce who came up with the term.

For King, the Beloved Community was a “realistic, achievable goal.” According to the King Center website, the Beloved Community “is a global vision, in which all people can share in the wealth of the earth. In the Beloved Community, poverty, hunger and homelessness will not be tolerated because international standards of human decency will not allow it. Racism and all forms of discrimination, bigotry and prejudice will be replaced by an all-inclusive spirit of sisterhood and brotherhood. In the Beloved Community, international disputes will be resolved by peaceful conflict-resolution and reconciliation of adversaries, instead of military power. Love and trust will triumph over fear and hatred. Peace with justice will prevail over war and military conflict.”

Is that not a vision of a new heaven on earth, a new city of God?

You may know that in the book of Revelation, there are beasts. There is also “the” Beast.

Well, guess what? The Beast is that which works against the vision. The Beast doesn’t care about equality. The beast doesn’t care about peace. The Beast doesn’t care about love. The Beast doesn’t care about creating a world of abundance, a world of sharing, a world where there is no hunger, no pain, no prejudice or discrimination.

If you want to know where the Beast is – who the Beast is – I’ll show you. Look at how the wealth of the extremely rich continues to grow while at the same time more and more people in this world go hungry, and you’ll see the Beast.

Look at how we are building walls that divide rather than bridges that connect, and you’ll see the Beast.

Look at how we’re relying on weapons of violence and destruction for security and safety, and you’ll see the Beast.

Look at how we are spewing toxins into the air and the water of this beautiful earth, and you’ll see the Beast.

Look at how we continue to treat victims as scapegoats, blaming immigrants and homosexuals and transgender people for what’s wrong with society, and you’ll see the Beast.

Look at how discrimination and hate crimes against Muslims are up, and you’ll see the beast.

Look at how we in the richest country in the world fail to provide basic social services and health care for poor and working class citizens, and you’ll see the Beast……

I came across a comment while doing research for this sermon, and I’m sorry, I don’t remember who said it, but the comment is that “A Christian cannot read Revelation faithfully and remain silent about these evils in our society today.”

This is what Revelation is about. The vision of Revelation is a vision that is present from one end of the Bible to the other, from the beginning to the end. There are certainly some variations along the way; different words are used, different images represent the new, transformed creation. But at its core, the vision is consistent. The theme of the story is consistent.

And it’s up to us pay attention to the vision, and to re-present that vision to the world. We can’t lose sight of that vision. Without the vision, we will perish.

We are called to pay attention to the vision. As God says through the prophet Isaiah: “I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth. Do you not perceive it? Can you not recognize it?”

And as God said to the prophet Habakkuk: “Write the vision; make it plain on tablets, so that a runner may read it. For there is still a vision!”

There is still a vision. That’s the message of Revelation. God’s vision for a better world is still very much alive and present. When we allow the Spirit to dwell in us, we will know that vision. The vision will guide us. It will be made real through us. And the kingdom of God will come on earth, as it is in heaven.