Sermon 19th February 2012

Today, our Vicar, Cameron Barker, preaches based on the reading from Revelation 1, verses 4 - 20.

And now for something completely different! You don’t need to be of an age to recall that Monty Python catchphrase: all you had to do was listen to that vision described by St John the Divine. This is not what we expect to find in the Bible, now is it. There was John: in the Spirit; and he heard a voice that sounded like a trumpet; or a waterfall; he saw golden lamp-stands; and someone who looked like a son of man; with eyes like blazing fire; feet like glowing bronze; holding stars in his hand; with a sword coming out of his mouth; his face shining like the sun; saying he carried the keys of death: make sense of that lot, then! Little wonder that John fell at the feet of this person as though he was dead: what else would you do if it were you?! This is quite literally mind-blowing stuff; and it is deliberately meant to be.

Now my task today is not to explain all of that imagery, its meaning or significance. That’s not because I’m ducking it. I have done it here before, and could do it again – just like you also could, by reading the sorts of books that I have. In all fairness I should say that there are many parts of the book of Revelation where that’s not so. No matter: the point of this series has not been to unpack the specific passages that we’ve read each week. Unusually, but deliberately, we have focused on the bigger Bible picture. In this single-book library, that’s made up of 66 books, are 8 distinct forms of literature. That’s what we have been looking at so far this year: sample passages that illustrate a particular Bible literature type; and today is no different, as this series ends.

So, this passage, from Revelation 1, is illustrative of the Apocalyptic form of Bible literature, then. That’s probably not a word that many of us often use – unlike those for the other types of Bible literature, like history, law, or poetry, say. Even if we use it, it’s likely that the meaning in our head for ‘apocalyptic’ isn’t the same as this use of it in the Bible. There are plenty of passages in the Bible that do describe apocalyptic events. Think, for example of when the gospel writers record Jesus’ vision of the end of time. Jesus said that when he returns, on the clouds, in glory, with his angels, there will be earthquakes, eclipses and abominations. Such images should still be relatively fresh in our minds from Advent Sunday. But those are events, not a Bible literature type.

It’s not too neeky to say that our word ‘revelation’ comes from a Latin root. That word in Greek – the language that the New Testament was written in – is, wait for it: apokalupto. This type of Bible literature is all about revelation then. It does often happen to be full of what we’d see as apocalyptic images, in true 9/11 fashion. But that’s actually not the main point of this literature type, or why it’s in the Bible. Those are ‘only’ tools, which are used to reveal the same key message of God’s salvation to us afresh, in new and different ways. We are being invited to open our hearts, minds and imaginations, to enter into spiritual realities in ways that we have never even dreamed of. Welcome to God’s apocalypse, where all is revealed!

This type of literature may have more appeal to those in dire circumstances than to those in safe, comfortable 21^st-Century Britain. It’s based very much on the idea that God is coming to sort out all the current mess and the pain and trouble. Biblical Apocalyptic literature urges God’s people to hold on until that time, in faith and hope and trust. The writing of it peaked in what’s known as the inter-testamental period. The 400 years between the last book of Old Testament and the recording of Jesus’ birth that marks the start of the New Testament were especially tough times in Israel. God appeared to be silent through wave after wave of occupation and oppression that bit ever deeper. As we might expect, people searched the scriptures for signs of what God must surely be about to do. They wrote whole book of this type in faith and expectation in the God who does not remain silent or inactive while His people suffer. However earnestly all that was done, none of it added to what God had already said He would do. The birth of His Son, Jesus was the next step in God’s plan to communicate the good news of his salvation for all people. So none of those books made it into the Bible: and there is ‘just’ the one apocalyptic book in each Testament.

Both Daniel in the Old and Revelation in New are markedly different from the non-biblical apocalyptic books that still exist. What doesn’t exist any more, though, are records of the codes that these books all used. There were – apparently – set forms and conventions that writers used to convey particular messages. Not having those now means that we can’t be sure today of exactly how to interpret such literature. We know that they are a form of biblical prophecy. As we have heard, they tell how God sees the present, and they also describe what His future will be – but how? It doesn’t take much to work out that we can’t read them too literally: how can Jesus hold 7 stars in his hand, and put that same hand on John for example; or speak with a sword in his mouth? But that just eliminates one possibility: it doesn’t tell us how to understand these books; and we do need to, because they are just as integral to God’s word as the history books.

Maybe part of what they need to say to us in particular is that God is so much bigger, and other than we are. Because of His great love that longs to bring us into a relationship with Himself, it’s easy to think of Him as our friend. How often do you hear, or even say, that He’s there for you when you need Him? Well, I’m reminded of the Narnia books, when the children ask Mr Beaver if Aslan is safe. “Safe? He’s a lion!” Mr Beaver replies, “But he’s good, I tell you”. In their own ways Daniel and John were people who knew what God is truly like. They were given special revelation of Him, His nature, His reality, and of His plans – in a way that was almost beyond words. Note how the most common word in Revelation is “like”. These writers had somehow to find words to describe their experience, in order to invite others to enter the same amazing, majestic, mind-blowing reality where they had been taken.

Such is the place of apocalyptic literature in the Bible: it’s there to appeal to lesser used (though also in some ways over-used) parts of our being, to grapple with the mystery and the wonder of the God who loves us. It invites us also to engage with our limitations in seeing and believing in spiritual reality. I’m reminded of an incident in the life of Elisha the prophet, another man around whom apocalyptic events happened. Read the short story in 2 Kings 6 of when Elisha and his servant were surrounded by an army trying to kill them. Seeing the servant fearing for his life, Elisha prayed that his servant’s eyes would be opened. They were, and the servant saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all round Elisha; as you’d imagine, they didn’t die!

The Bible’s apocalyptic books are the place where such encounters and realities are revealed. They have been described as like where the curtain that separates heaven and earth has been ripped aside. It’s all based on the ancient Jewish belief that God’s sphere and ours aren’t separated by some vast gulf. Rather, they meet, merge and meld, in all sorts of ways; most notably in the person of Jesus, of course – as we explored at Ashburnham. This literature describes how God communicates His revelation directly with people; and not ‘just’ the people like Daniel, Elisha, Isaiah, Ezekiel or John who experienced it, but through them with all God’s people. As the voice said to John here in Revelation 1: [GNB “Write, then, the things you see, both the things that are now and the things that will happen afterward / NIV Write, therefore, what you have seen, what is now and what will take place later”]. The book of Revelation then became another letter; not ‘just’ written to 7 particular 1^st-Century churches in ancient Asia, but to all God’s people any time. All who have ears are to hear what the Spirit says to the church.

In that sense Revelation is like any other of the New Testament’s 22 letters. We’ve not had time to examine those as a Bible literature type in this series. We have also not approached the 4 Gospels in that way. We’ve taken much of that for granted in this series, for 2 main reasons. The fact is that we do spend most of our time as a Bible-believing church studying the stories of Jesus’ life on earth and of the church that he left to carry on his work here. So in this bigger-picture view we have instead tried to put the rest of the Bible into its most useful context. Our aim has been to help us to hear better God’s communication with us. We are sure that He still speaks to us through the Bible today: if we will but listen to Him.

The Apocalyptic literature sits alongside all the rest of it: Law, History, Wisdom, Poetry and Prophecy, with Gospels and Epistles. It’s all here to get us to hear and engage with the good news of God’s love in the person of His Son, Jesus, who died to save us. As we’ve seen from the start of the series, he, Jesus, is the central, focal point of the Bible. He is God’s living Word to us, the one who it’s all about: the visible face of the invisible God. What was written in the Bible before his birth points on to Jesus; what was written after him in it tells us about his life here and beyond. It’s all present, in all its variety, so that we might come to know the good news of God’s love in his person; and be for ever changed by it.

The series summary needs now to be very brief. We have covered much ground in it, but don’t worry if you missed anything. It’s here on our website to visit any time, or do ask for copies. What you need to know from it above all is that it’s all God’s story. All these forms of literature, be they Law, History, Wisdom, Poetry, Prophecy, Apocalyptic, Gospels or Epistles, in their own ways tell that story of His love for us. It’s a story that we are meant to read, explore, and know, for ourselves – and be radically changed by. This book does not just change us; it changes communities, the world even. God does that through ordinary people like us joining in His story by hearing, believing, living and telling that good news. As we enter Lent, where we prepare to celebrate the story that’s at the heart of God’s story, are you ready and willing to join in? Will you hear, believe, live and tell that good news of God’s love for us through Jesus’ death for our salvation? Let’s pray ...