First Presbyterian Church
“What's a Presbyterian to Do with Revelation? Part 15 and 16”
Sermon for June 12, 2005
by Pastor Susan Barnes

Children's time: A place called Megiddo.

(Before church, I told the children the answer to all my questions was going to be Megiddo.)

I'm going to ask you some hard questions about the Bible that most of the adults here won't know the answer to, but you do.

What ancient city in Palestine had a strategic location and good water supply, where two important trade routes 1 intersected?   Megiddo.

Name an ancient city on the plain of Jezreel in Palestine. Megiddo.

What city did Egypt defeat in the fifteenth century bce? Megiddo.

What city did Joshua defeat and give to Manasseh? Megiddo.

Where did King Ahaziah go to die? Megiddo.

What was the capital of an Assyrian province in the 8 th century bce? Megiddo.

According to the Song of Deborah, where did the kings go to fight? Megiddo.

Where was King Josiah assassinated by the Egyptian pharaoh? Megiddo.

How did you know the answer was Megiddo?  

An awful lot happened in Megiddo, didn't it? It's not a city anymore. It's a ruin that people are learning about. Here's a picture of what's left. Archeologists are digging it up, trying to look for evidence of who lived there and what they did.     

Prayer: Holy God, help us learn about the Bible, and help us learn about the world. We thank you for showing us what is important. Amen.

Megiddo was a place of great battles, great trade, great economy, and great catastrophe. I was there over fifteen years ago, and it's a pile of rocks and dirt, slowly and carefully being excavated. It wasn't always carefully excavated. A hundred years ago, archeologists tried to dig straight through the top layers; but that was too hard and expensive so they had to stop. Stopping was good; digging through layers destroys a lot of evidence.   Nowadays they dig in trenches, so they can see the layers and date them better. A hundred years ago they used shovels; now they use brushes and dental picks.

I wanted to talk about Megiddo because it has to do with the name ‘Armageddon.' In Hebrew, the word for mountain is ‘har.' So ‘har-megiddo' means Mount Megiddo. But in Greek, there is no letter for ‘h.' I know it looks like there is, since the capital letter eta looks like a capital H, but it's really a capital eta, pronounced ā, not /h/. For the /h/ sound, Greek has what's called a rough breathing mark. It looks like a backwards apostrophe. Sometimes the apostrophe is left out, so the word ‘har' is written just ar alpha-rho in Greek. That's a-r to the rest of us. I'm not even going to try to explain why the vowels change. And Megiddo is sometimes written Meggidon. I'm not sure why. So that's how ‘Har – Megiddo' ends up ‘Armageddon.' New translations of the Bible have replaced the ‘H' sound, so that's why our pew Bibles have ‘Harmageddon' instead of the name ‘Armageddon' most of us are familiar with from the King James Bible.

Here's a limerick about the popular view of Armageddon.

At the end of the world, as we know,
Armageddon will come, the last blow.
No one will survive,
No creature alive,
'Cept the roaches in nuclear snow. 2

And another one about Armageddon, the movie.

Armageddon's a thought that can chill us.
It's the end of the world; it will kill us.
Earth might be destroyed
By a large asteroid,
Or might not, if we're saved by Bruce Willis. 3

As we'll see today, Harmageddon has been misunderstood. This part of Revelation is about justice and hope, not gloom and doom.

All along in Revelation, John has quoted from the old testament, and other Hebrew writings, and made allusions to ancient events and people and places. He's writing to the early Christian churches, undergoing persecution from local leaders as well as imperial Roman rulers. John refers to Rome as Babylon. It was probably safer, and his readers would have made the connection between imperial Rome of the first century and the Babylonian empire during the exile seven hundred years earlier. John uses phrases from Isaiah and Jeremiah about the punishment of Babylon, and reminds us of the promise in Isaiah that God's people will not have to drink anymore from the bowl of God's wrath 4.

Last week we read some gruesome verses about blood flowing as high as a horse's bridle. Christians were being put to death in the first century for not denying their faith. Anytime blood flows in Revelation, it's a reference to the deaths of Christian martyrs.

The two chapters we read today sound very similar to earlier parts of Revelation itself. We've had the seven seals (chapters 6&7) and the seven trumpets (chapters 8&9), which heralded all kinds of destruction. The destruction reminded us of the plagues on the Egyptian pharaoh in Exodus. Today we have seven bowls, which are also similar to Egyptian plagues: there are frogs, boils, darkness, hail, and water turning to blood. The Euphrates, the one river that never dries up, dries up, a reminder of the Red Sea.

And John tells of armies of the world assembling at Harmaggedon – the mountain of Megiddo. There's no mountain by the city of Megiddo. The city's on a plain, with a view of the Carmel mountain range. So Harmegeddon isn't a real place. It's a symbolic name. It would be as if we composed a mythic epic about our country and wrote that a victory celebration was held at Mt. World Trade Center. We would know the name was symbolic of terrorism, defeat, grief, and hope. We wouldn't go looking for evidence of a mountain in New York City.

John of Patmos has seen two portents already. One was of the woman who gave birth to a son and flew to safety with the gift of eagle wings. The second was the seven-headed ten-horned dragon, which the woman escaped. In both these portents, or signs, evil was defeated (Revelation 12). The third portent is in our reading today. Listen for the word of God as it is found in Revelation 15 and 16.

15:1 Then I saw another portent in heaven, great and amazing: seven angels with seven plagues, which are the last, for with them the wrath of God is ended.

2 And I saw what appeared to be a sea of glass mixed with fire, and those who had conquered the beast and its image and the number of its name, standing beside the sea of glass with harps of God in their hands. 3 And they sing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb:

“Great and amazing are your deeds, Lord God the Almighty!
Just and true are your ways, King of the nations!
4 Lord, who will not fear and glorify your name?
For you alone are holy.
All nations will come and worship before you,
for your judgments have been revealed.”

5 After this I looked, and the temple of the tent of witness in heaven was opened, 6 and out of the temple came the seven angels with the seven plagues, robed in pure bright linen, with golden sashes across their chests. 7 Then one of the four living creatures gave the seven angels seven golden bowls full of the wrath of God, who lives forever and ever; 8 and the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God and from his power, and no one could enter the temple until the seven plagues of the seven angels were ended.

16:1 Then I heard a loud voice from the temple telling the seven angels, “ Go and pour out on the earth the seven bowls of the wrath of God.”

  2 So the first angel went and poured his bowl on the earth, and a foul and painful sore came on those who had the mark of the beast and who worshiped its image.

  3 The second angel poured his bowl into the sea, and it became like the blood of a corpse, and every living thing in the sea died.

  4 The third angel poured his bowl into the rivers and the springs of water, and they became blood. 5 And I heard the angel of the waters say,

“You are just, O Holy One, who are and were, for you have judged these things; 6 because they shed the blood of saints and prophets, you have given them blood to drink. It is what they deserve!”

7 And I heard the altar respond, “Yes, O Lord God, the Almighty, your judgments are true and just!”

8 The fourth angel poured his bowl on the sun, and it was allowed to scorch them with fire; 9 they were scorched by the fierce heat, but they cursed the name of God, who had authority over these plagues, and they did not repent and give him glory.

 10 The fifth angel poured his bowl on the throne of the beast, and its kingdom was plunged into darkness; people gnawed their tongues in agony, 11 and cursed the God of heaven because of their pains and sores, and they did not repent of their deeds.

12 The sixth angel poured his bowl on the great river Euphrates , and its water was dried up in order to prepare the way for the kings from the east. 13 And I saw three foul spirits like frogs coming from the mouth of the dragon, from the mouth of the beast, and from the mouth of the false prophet. 14 These are demonic spirits, performing signs, who go abroad to the kings of the whole world, to assemble them for battle on the great day of God the Almighty.

15 (“See, I am coming like a thief! Blessed is the one who stays awake and is clothed, not going about naked and exposed to shame.”)

16 And they assembled them at the place that in Hebrew is called Harmagedon.

17 The seventh angel poured his bowl into the air, and a loud voice came out of the temple, from the throne, saying, “It is done!”

18 And there came flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder, and a violent earthquake, such as had not occurred since people were upon the earth, so violent was that earthquake. 19 The great city was split into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell. God remembered great Babylon and gave her the wine-cup of the fury of his wrath. 20 And every island fled away, and no mountains were to be found; 21 and huge hailstones, each weighing about a hundred pounds 5, dropped from heaven on people, until they cursed God for the plague of the hail, so fearful was that plague.

This ends our reading from the word of God.

Did you notice that there was no war at the place called Harmagedon? The temple's voice said “It is done!” and there was a violent storm and earthquake, and the cities fell. The islands and mountains disappeared. This is a reference to verses like these in Isaiah “ Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain.” (40: 4) “For the mountains may depart and the hills be removed, but my steadfast love shall not depart from you, and my covenant of peace shall not be removed, says the LORD, who has compassion on you.” (54:10)

All of these terrible plagues are good news for “ those who had conquered the beast and its image and the number of its name, standing beside the sea of glass with harps of God in their hands.” Those who killed the saints and prophets, who made the waters run red with the blood of martyrs are avenged. Their killers are killed. It's the law of lex talionus : an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.

Many of us will want to say, “but Jesus said, ‘You have heard that it was said, “An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.” But I say to you, Do not mirror evil.'” 6 And Paul said “Do not return evil for evil.'”

Revelation is not giving advice on moral behavior. It identifies what is evil and what is good.   Did you notice that after the fierce heat, darkness and pain, the people who worshiped the beast did not repent? They didn't realize they were on the wrong road, even after they experienced such plagues.

Like the pharaoh in Egypt, they do not repent. Their world is being destroyed, and still, they worship the beast. They do not see that they are perpetuating evil. They are a part of the empire that dominates, oppresses, and persecutes.

And so the cities fall. Cities are where power is concentrated and records are kept. If the cities fall means, the laws against Christians can't be enforced; the debt records were destroyed so taxes and tribute would not be collected. Hail fell, and the people cursed God - they did the opposite of repenting, unaware of the evil of evil.

One theologian says Revelation is about “engendering an ethic of consistent resistance.” 7 I love that phrase. It means working on the discipline of knowing and resisting evil, assured and encouraged that God will judge, and that each death matters to God.

I found a few examples of this kind of resistance to evil.

In the civil war in Rwanda in 1994, the majority Hutus tried to wipe out the minority Tutsis. In a book about the genocide in Rwanda in 1994, the author tells this story: “During the attack on the school in Gisenyi, as in the earlier attack on the school in Kibuye, the students, teenage girls who had been roused from their sleep, were ordered to separate themselves – Hutus from Tutsis. But the students refused. At both schools, the girls said they were simply Rwandans, so they were beaten and shot indiscriminately.” The author says, “Mightn't we all take some courage from the example of those brave Hutu girls who could have chosen to live, but chose instead to call themselves Rwandans?” 8

And here's an earlier one, from the Jewish holocaust fifty years earlier, written by a concentration camp survivor. “The loaf of camp bread, always the same shape, was supposed to be cut into four pieces, one for each prisoner. It was never that way. We never got more than one slice. All the rest vanished on the way to us. Many hands grabbed their share as the bread rations were distributed to us; the kitchen kapo and company, the barrack kapo with his court, the room supervisor and his pals. Only at the end of the line, we, the prisoners, with our primitive scales made with a stick weighed those slices, and even then we divided up the bread crumbs so that every thing was equal. That was our internal justice.' A simple act of sharing crumbs of bread with equity becomes a witness to an order of justice that challenges the dominant order.” 9

  These are examples of small groups of people acting to withstand evil together. It becomes a little harder, I think, to withstand evil when you are a part of institutional bureaucracy, like a nation, and you have so many constituencies to think of, so many problems to anticipate, and so much trouble to avoid. When you have a lot of power, one little mistake, or a bad guess, or a moment's inattention can impact a lot of people in a short time.   And this happens even if you have good intentions. If greed and stupidity and corruption are added in, you get a terrible mess.

I think of the economies of third world countries, especially in Africa , where dictators took out huge loans from the World Bank, pocketed the money, or used it for armaments and personal protection, and abandoned their country to huge debt. Many countries don't have safe drinking water, much less any sort of reasonable health care or enough food for their citizens, because they are devastated by debt. Debt they didn't incur nor benefit from.

Churches and human rights organizations have for years promoted the idea of debt forgiveness, or jubilee as the Bible calls it. Every Sabbath of years, or seventh year, the land lies fallow, because it belongs to God. All debts are forgiven.   Every seven Sabbaths of years, that is, forty-nine years, in addition to debts being forgiven, slaves are freed and lands are returned to their owners. It's called the year of Jubilee.

Our Presbyterian denomination has been vocal in this struggle. It seemed too big of a struggle to me. With so much evil in the world, jubilee debt forgiveness seemed unlikely. I had given up. I'm ashamed to say I even stopped praying for it.

So I was thrilled to read just yesterday that the world's wealthiest nations including the United States, Britain, Germany, France, Italy, Canada, Japan and Russia “formally agreed to cancel at least $40 billion of debt owed to international agencies by the world's poorest lands, most of them in Africa.” I am proud that this includes the United States . “This will ease 18 poorest countries' annual debt burden by $1.5 billion. They are Benin , Bolivia , Burkina Faso , Ethiopia , Ghana , Guyana , Honduras , Madagascar , Mali , Mauritania , Mozambique , Nicaragua , Niger , Rwa nda , Senegal , Tanzania , Uganda and Zambia .” Other countries are also eligible.

“Rich nations had long agreed the debt must be relieved, but the international community could not agree on a formula for tackling the problem.” After late-night talks in London on Friday, the so-called G-8 nations agreed on a formula. It isn't as much as some people hoped, but it is more than many people feared.

This debt forgiveness can enable some long term permanent changes in many peoples' lives. I agree with our US Treasury Secretary, John Snow.   “This is a historic moment. A real milestone has been reached…President Bush's commitment to lift the crushing debt burden on the world's poorest countries has been achieved. This is an achievement of historic proportions." 10

We can resist evil. We can work for justice individually, in small groups, and even in nations. We can dare to be a part of God's work for peace in the world. We can rely on God's goodness and use our blessings to resist evil.

Here's a more accurate and hopeful rhyme about what happens at Armageddon in Revelation.

Armageddon: the ultimate fight
When Darkness does battle with Light.
In lightning and thunder,
Old Satan goes under
And Wrong's finally routed by Right. 11

Amen.

1The Via Maris. It comes from Egypt , splits at Megiddo north to Phoenicia   and east to Mesopotamia .

2 By CwayneR, submitted to oedilf.com, (The Omnificent English Dictionary in Limerick Form) October 14, 2004 , #547.

3 By Jesse Frankovich, submitted to oedilf.com, April 6, 2005 , #4951

4 Isaiah 51:17,22

5 Literally, about a talent, which is 90 pounds or so

6Matthew 5:38-40, Walter Wink's translation.

7 Fiorenza, Elisabeth Schüssler. Revelation: Vision of a Just World, p. 94.

8 Gourevitch, We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Our Families: Stories for Rwanda ,( New York: Farrar Straus and Giroux, 1998) 353, quoted in Interpretation , Oct. 2003, p. 413 .

9 Marian Kolodziej, as quoted in the brochure describing his exhibition of Auschwitz , “Plates of Memory.” Quoted in Interpretation , Oct. 2003, p. 413 .

10 Cowell, Alan, “Finance Chiefs Cancel Debt of 18 Nations,” New York Times, June 12, 2005 , nytimes.com and Associated Press , “ Update 10: G8 Agrees to Debt Relief for Poor Nations" June 11, 2005 .

11 By Ross Elliffe, submitted to oedilf.com,   October 10, 2004 , #T8174