Second Monday in Advent

Amos 7:1-9; Rev. 1:1-8; Matthew 22:23-33

Did your heart sink a bit when you saw that we’re starting to read Revelation?  We just read it during the weeks before Advent; wasn’t that enough?  This book, so disliked by so many in the U.S. for its violent images and language of revenge; what is this book doing messing up our lovely Advent?

It’s right where it belongs.  As an apocalyptic book it is all about the coming of Christ.  Its visions speak hope to oppressed people around the world.  In Latin America, in Asia, in Africa, Revelation holds out the hope that injustice will end, the order of the world will be overcome.  It’s good for those of us in the global North to remember that.  For millions of faithful Christians, the United States is the new Rome; global capitalism is the contemporary face of Babylon.  When it seems there is no hope, when God is delayed, apocalyptic visions become a means of maintaining hope.

And in the midst of the terrors, John wishes grace and peace to those who are faithful.  He writes to seven churches to warn and to correct them, to admonish them in love.  

In our privileged position in the global order, it’s confusing to read this.  Are we part of the churches, to be corrected but saved?  Are we part of Babylon, to be cast into outer darkness?  Can we be both?  How might we live in Babylon and be faithful?  Can we not only survive Babylon, but transform it?  Can we be part of the healing of the nations?  Where will you stand?

That is a question worth wrestling with.  Compared to that, debates about marriage and the resurrection are simply interesting.  This is the question confronting us.