First Presbyterian Church
What's a Presbyterian to Do with Revelation Part 14
Sermon for June 5, 2005
by Pastor Susan Barnes

Children's time:

Before we look at our text today, I want to recap what's happened in the first 13 chapters. To really understand Revelation, we have to pay attention to what happened in every chapter. The book of Revelation is a warning that bad things have happened because people disobeyed God. (I distribute signs to the children). Please hold these up.

1. Arrow. John pointed out a problem that Christians needed to know about. Many Christians focused on surviving, and collaborated with the Romans. This kept them from following Jesus.

2. PG-13/GGG Revelation is full of dramatic action and symbols to help us remember we're supposed to seek God's guidance. The action can be scary, so I gave it a PG-13 rating. Then I realized the guidance everyone needs is from God, so I changed it to GGG – God's guidance for general audiences.

This is the part where John writes letters to seven different churches, calling each church a lampstand. So I brought out this candelabra with seven candleholders, kind of like a lampstand. Each candle holder has an envelope on it. What do you suppose is inside the envelopes? Yes, letters! I used Greek letters, since that's the language John wrote in.” E - Ephesus , S - Smyrna, P - Pergamum , Q - Thyatira.

3. chapter finishes up the letters to the churches : S - Sardis, F - Philadelphia, L - Laodicea. The sign says “state (does not equal) God. Some Christians were trying to stay safe by worshiping the state gods, instead of worshiping God. Being a good Roman citizen meant going to a Roman temple; but that kept you from following Jesus.”

4. pictures of eyes and wings. “When John wrote Revelation, Christians were being persecuted by the Romans. There were lots of holy beings, God's messengers, who saw the problems happening on earth. They praised God.”

5. Scroll. Chapter 5 uses the book of Daniel, and Daniel talks about a scroll.

6. 4 horses. Terrible things come along with 4 scary horses: white, red, black, and green.

7. 12x12x1,000 and tissue. 12 is a complete number of the twelve tribes of Israel and 12 apostles. 1,000 means a lot. So 12x12x1,000 means a really completed big number. And no matter how terrible it gets, God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.

8. Fire and a skull over water. Fire and poisoned water happened.

9. yellow traffic light. Revelation is a warning to love God and your neighbor

10. scroll: tell God's words

11. crown God reigns, even when 1/10 of people die

12. evil: 24/God infinity. Evil's power is great, but God's is greater

13. 666 the number of the beast. Might be a really mean emperor named Nero, or it might just be an imperfect number. 7 is the perfect number, and 666 misses being perfect three times.

Thanks for helping. Let's pray. Holy God, help us learn from each other, and do what we can where we are to teach your words of love and hope. Amen.

This summer we finish up the book of Revelation. I'll take a chapter a week. We won't finish until the second week in August, what with my conferences and vacations. So you'll hear two or three weeks of Revelation, and then we'll all get a break with pulpit supply or a holiday sermon.

I really want to finish up this book, because I've been tired of not knowing what Revelation is about, especially when it seems like so many other Christians are so confident of what it's about. But the truth is, it's a confusing book because it refers to ancient writings we haven't read as well as to old testament verses we aren't familiar with.   In my sermon series, I've tried to make the connections.

Revelation was written when the Christian church was persecuted in the late first or early second century. Christians and Jews worshiped God, not the emperor, and so they were suspect inhabitants of the empire. Sometimes Jews had special legal protections, but Christians did not. Roman rulers sometimes had Christians killed unless they recanted.

Chapter 13 ended with the second frightening beast animating images of the first beast, and forcing everyone who wanted to buy or sell anything to be marked with the beast's mark. Listen for the word of God as it is found in Revelation 14.

1 Then I looked, and there was the Lamb, standing on Mount Zion! And with him were one hundred forty-four thousand who had his name and his Father's name written on their foreheads. 2 And I heard a voice from heaven like the sound of many waters and like the sound of loud thunder; the voice I heard was like the sound of harpists playing on their harps, 3 and they sing a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and before the elders. No one could learn that song except the one hundred forty-four thousand who have been redeemed from the earth. 4 It is these who have not defiled themselves with women, for they are virgins; these follow the Lamb wherever he goes. They have been redeemed from humankind as first fruits for God and the Lamb, 5 and in their mouth no lie was found; they are blameless.

6 Then I saw another angel flying in midheaven, with an eternal gospel to proclaim to those who live on the earth-- to every nation and tribe and language and people. 7 He said in a loud voice, "Fear God and give him glory, for the hour of his judgment has come; and worship him who made heaven and earth, the sea and the springs of water."

8 Then another angel, a second, followed, saying, "Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great! She has made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication."

9 Then another angel, a third, followed them, crying with a loud voice, "Those who worship the beast and its image, and receive a mark on their foreheads or on their hands, 10 they will also drink the wine of God's wrath, poured unmixed into the cup of his anger, and they will be tormented with fire and sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. 11 And the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever. There is no rest day or night for those who worship the beast and its image and for anyone who receives the mark of its name."

12 Here is a call for the endurance of the saints, those who keep the commandments of God and hold fast to the faith of Jesus.

  13 And I heard a voice from heaven saying, "Write this: Blessed are the dead who from now on die in the Lord."

"Yes," says the Spirit, "they will rest from their labors, for their deeds follow them."

  14 Then I looked, and there was a white cloud, and seated on the cloud was one like the Son of Man, with a golden crown on his head, and a sharp sickle in his hand! 15 Another angel came out of the temple, calling with a loud voice to the one who sat on the cloud, "Use your sickle and reap, for the hour to reap has come, because the harvest of the earth is fully ripe." 16 So the one who sat on the cloud swung his sickle over the earth, and the earth was reaped.

             17 Then another angel came out of the temple in heaven, and he too had a sharp sickle. 18 Then another angel came out from the altar, the angel who has authority over fire, and he called with a loud voice to him who had the sharp sickle, "Use your sharp sickle and gather the clusters of the vine of the earth, for its grapes are ripe." 19 So the angel swung his sickle over the earth and gathered the vintage of the earth, and he threw it into the great wine press of the wrath of God.   20 And the wine press was trodden outside the city, and blood flowed from the wine press, as high as a horse's bridle, for a distance of about two hundred miles.

This ends our reading of God's word.

Apparently that was a common image of a great military victory, that blood would be as high as a horse. For a people who had seen their communities of faith decimated, this is hopeful imagery indeed. For the rest of us, not so much.

What can we take out of this chapter?

In response to the fire and brimstone and scary beasts in chapter 13, we have the 144,000 with the mark of God on their foreheads and hands. These are the redeemed ones, singing a new song. These are all the true believers. Remember, this number is symbolic of everyone who is redeemed. It's not a literal number.

In the bible, a new song is one that is sung after a military victory. So far chapter 14 is looking good. But then sex comes into it.

What about this part about the 144,000 who haven't defiled themselves with women? Laws and customs for soldiers forbade them from having sexual relations, even with their own wives, a week before they had to fight a battle. Priests also had to be ritually clean to serve on a holy day. But I think this line refers to Babylon being a prostitute, who makes “ all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.” In Revelation, Babylon is the word for Rome. Much of the imagery in Revelation describes the history of oppression in the Roman empire.  

So I am persuaded by the argument that the chaste 144,000 “is a metaphor for all true saints who have not compromised in various ways with the world because they have remained loyal as a virgin bride to her betrothed (G.K. Beale, The Book of Revelation, p. 741). The Bible speaks of the church as Christ's bride. John tells us these people don't lie; they have followed the lamb.

Isn't it interesting here that the Christ figure is a lamb, and not even a shepherd? The symbol of the lamb who was slaughtered contrasts with the two horrible huge beasts full of power in the previous chapter.

And the people are called the first fruits. That idea comes from the language of sacrifice. People brought the first of their harvest, the first offspring of their domestic animals, to the temple, as a way of redeeming all their produce to God. They remembered God was the source of their gifts, and returned some back to God. But first fruits weren't always literally the first; sometimes they were simply the best of the harvest or the pick of the litter.   Eventually, the first fruits described anything good enough to offer to God. And so these redeemed 144,000 were good enough to offer to God, simply because they kept the commandments. They told the truth and did not lie.

This truth was told to the whole earth by an angel, not just to one special select group.

The sickle and the harvesting, are all about the divine judgment. Here, John does not concern himself with God's grace at all, he just talks about God's judgment. He knows the persecuted church needs to hear endure, stand faithful, your heroic deeds will be remembered..

God's judgment is just. God's wrath is greater than Babylon's wrath. Babylon might kill you, but the lamb will redeem you, even in death; your deeds will not perish with you, but will follow you. Not to worry. Unless you've worshiped the beast and wanted to buy and sell so badly that you got the mark of the beast.

Biblical interpreters try to apply Revelation to our time. This has led some to speculate that the mark of the beast is about credit cards or tattoos or biometric identification. I don't think so. It is about a way of life, of choosing lies over truth and worshiping the beast of empire and economic oppression rather than the God of justice and peace.

The third angel said to keep the commandments of God and hold fast to the faith of Jesus. To say “no guile was found in their mouths” is a traditional phrase for “They told the truth.”

I thought about this text this week as I read about the discovery of Mark Felt as Deep Throat, the government source who gave information to journalists Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein about President Richard Nixon and the Watergate cover-up.

Apparently Felt anguished for decades over his decision to leak information about the investigations. When I read somewhere that he wasn't a person of faith, I wondered if he had had a faith community, if that wouldn't have made his decision easier on his heart. He had a strong commitment to the United States; but I wonder, if he was committed to a higher power, if he would have done things differently.

All of us face ethical dilemmas. What tools do we use to solve them? Some of us ask “What would Jesus do?” And some of us answer, “Well, if I knew that, I wouldn't be asking the question, now would I?”

  One doesn't have to be a Christian to behave morally. I know atheists who are good citizens, kind, moral, and loving. But following Christ gives us a ready frame of reference so some behaviors are more automatic than others.

Last month I returned eight extra boxes of ceramic wall tiles. We had ordered 128 8 inch tiles. But 128 square feet of 8 inch tiles were delivered.   That's 50% more than we ordered. Fortunately, we were billed for what we ordered, not what was delivered. I didn't open all the boxes, so I was able to return them. The dealer thanked me for being so honest. I tried to tell her I didn't have to think about whether or not I should return them. They were heavy boxes of breakable ceramic tile taking up valuable space on my garage floor. After tiling one bathroom, I wasn't prepared to tile another. Even a small one.

I wonder if it would have been a little harder for me if it was quilt fabric instead of tile. Or if it had been, say, chocolate. I'd like to think I would have returned it.

I just learned that in a recent survey of workers, 19% observed or participated in lying to employees, customers, or vendors on the job. 18% witnessed the withholding of needed information. 13% observed or participated in discrimination on the basis of race, color, gender and age. The good news is those percentages are down 4-7% from 2000. (http://www.ethics.org/releases/nr_20030521_nbes.html ) So ethics are improving in the workplace.

We're not always able to make moral choices. With children to feed and aging parents to take care of, sometimes we have to take jobs we would rather not. Yesterday I read a letter to an ethicist from a translator who worked for mail order campaigns that promised outrageous things like ‘earn money without work' and ‘lose weight without dieting.' The writer doubted anyone seriously believed the promises in the ads, but he still wondered if what he was doing was wrong. The columnist answered that sometimes, people are so peripheral to an unscrupulous business that their culpability is low. A janitor in the office building where the mail order work is housed isn't accountable for their misleading ads. But he told the translator he wasn't peripheral.   “You not only profit from these unsavory projects, but you also directly abet them… The guy who copies these pages might not know their content; the translator does.” He recommended the translator find other employment. 1

When we are used to telling the truth even in small ways, it becomes a habit we can perform when it is really important.

Revelation is about telling the truth and following Jesus even when it is difficult.

Today we sing the Battle Hymn of the Republic, or as it's listed in our copy, “Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory.” The first verse about “trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored” comes from this chapter in Revelation.   

Pressing out grapes is a symbol of judgment in the old as well as the new testament. Julia Ward Howe, who wrote the words, viewed the Civil War “as an instrument for the nations' salvation from sin and corruption.” (Clifford, Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory, p. 70-71.) After the war, the song became a rallying cry for justice in other contexts: women's suffrage, world peace, and immigrant and black suffrage.

Chapter 14 is about God's justice flowing and filling the earth. Rewards come for keeping the commandments of God and holding fast to the faith of Jesus. The early church found inspiration in it for telling the truth. May we hold to the truth also. Amen.

1 (Cohen, Randy, “Translator of deceitful come-ons is morally culpable as he aids, abets,” On Ethics,   June 4, 2005, Oregonian, p. E3.)