Last night I wrapped up my first time through this series with a group at the congregation I serve. For a Lutheran Bible Study, having 40-50 people show up on a regular basis was a bit mind-blowing. Clearly the topic is one of interest.
Many have wondered about my strange "obsession" with teaching Revelation and wanting to find accessible ways for individuals and church leaders to be able to engage this final, yet enigmatic, book of the Bible instead of choosing to just ignore it and throwing out reasons like, "Well, Luther didn't even want it in the Bible." Initially, no he didn't, but later he began to see its value.
That has been my goal as well—to help others see its value, and not in a "let me scare you about all the horrible things that God is going to do to this earth," way. But rather, see that Revelation can be used as a part of the Good News of Jesus Christ that we proclaim to the world every day. That as God's Word, it is relevant and that it is useful in our daily lives—and it can be transformative.
I have to share the story that one of our participants shared with the group last night. The woman was raised Catholic but now attends a local Evangelical Free church. She had a friend from our congregation invite her to attend, so she did. What a blessing to our study she was as well! Inquisitive and not afraid to challenge or voice her thoughts.
At the end of the final night, she chose to share with everyone what has been going on in her life.
Amidst tears, she began explaining that she has a brother who has not attended church in over 25 years. She shared the online videos with him and cross country, they began watching and discussing the videos together every week. Today he was going to be having surgery, and over the weekend, for the first time in 25 years, he finally felt he needed to connect with a priest.
What caused the change of heart? His sister says that this study has changed his entire outlook on faith and religion, and for the first time in his life—he heard the Gospel.
I had several other people come up to me afterwards and say how much they appreciated this perspective and how it finally makes some kind of sense and doesn't seem so daunting and scary to them anymore.
This is why I made this series. There is a message within Revelation that has the power to transform lives—it's called the Good News of Jesus Christ. It's not a new message. It's not a different message than what you find throughout the rest of the Bible (in fact, Revelation pulls on references to the Old Testament promises all over the place. I call Revelation 21 and 22 the "cliff notes version" of God's promises throughout scripture.)
Why Do I Care if People's Lives Are Transformed?
I don't do what I do because I feel the need for people to believe what I believe. Most of the time, I really don't care what differences in theology they might have from me. I know I do not have all the answers, I know I don't have this whole God thing totally figured out and never will.
But when people are able to know and feel the love of God's promises in their lives, that's worth something to me. Because I do find people important. I want people to find wholeness and comfort in this life that IS so filled with pain and hurt. I find our creation important. I think how we behave toward one another and what we do to this earth are important matters. How we grieve and handle death is also equally important. There's many an atheist who would say we invent such things just to make ourselves feel better and are living in the midst of a delusion.
Well, ok, but here's the thing. We all end up the same way: dead. Regardless of our beliefs of what comes next, that is our reality. In the minds of many—that's it. It's the end. There is no more. "Eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die." (Which, btw, is a quote from Isaiah 22 and 1 Corinthians 15) Yet, how we approach death many times dictates how we approach life.
I have found that hope is in short supply in our world today. People are negative. They are bitter. They want to see things changed, sometimes at any cost. Many are despondent and looking for a way to blame all our problems on this group or that group. Many thus turn to their faith, they turn to their scriptures and they look for "guidance" on what they can do to try and control things in order to make life better for themselves so that the world falls into their category of how things "should" be. Or they look to escape this life, figuring that next one is going to be better, so what does this one even matter?
This absolutely can get played out in horrific ways. It can get played out in us thinking that since God has some other "place" for us, who cares what happens? That God wants to destroy all the wicked people, so killing the people we've decided fit that description is justified. God has a plan for a particular group of people so matter what they do, we stand by and condone atrocities. It can cause us to sit back and just gleefully watch chaos unfold because "that's how it's supposed to happen."
This to me is not a transformed life, however. It's simply doing what humans do best when they're at their worst: create death and destruction and finding reasons to validate it.
A transformed life is able to say because God has this vision and plan for redeeming the world and ushering in his kingdom—why on earth would I not want people to live and experience at least some little piece of that RIGHT NOW? Yes, there are things like sin, death, war, grief, pain, sorrow, etc. that only God can put an end to and only God is capable of destroying once and for all. Yet knowing that this is the promise, knowing that an end to these things is what God DOES want, why for the love of everything would I not want others to know and experience that same sense of hope that would cause them to live their lives that is always looking toward ushering in those promises in their fullness?
The incarnation of God through Jesus Christ brought us a glimpse of the Kingdom of God. God's Kingdom "came near" in the person of Jesus so that we were able to see what that vision entails: people being brought to wholeness. It is transformative because we know that we can experience in smaller ways that Kingdom when people and communities act like Christ and behave in a manner that reflects Christ in our world. When this happens we truly can make our world a kinder and better place. (Call me an idealist.)
Not surprisingly, then, this is exactly what Revelation is telling us! When we follow God's will and act accordingly—we are brought closer to the heavenly vision. When we act selfishly and put worldly endeavors of power and wealth ahead of concerns for our neighbor and those around us, then we partake in the beastly systems that oppose God and take us further away from that vision...and violence and oppression are the result.
Thus experiencing the presence of God in the here and now can change how we live in the here and now. When we show love and compassion for our neighbors, when we care for the world we live in, we may still be imperfect and are not capable of ushering in paradise on our own, but it brings us a little closer to that vision. And that simply makes the world a better place for us to live out our lives while we wait for God to fully usher in heaven on earth.
And yes, when we know that the promise God has given us is to "wipe every tear" so that there is no longer mourning, or sorrow or pain, and that God promises he has destroyed the power of death, it does give us comfort knowing that death is NOT the end. In fact, it is just the beginning. Revelation is usually described as a book about "the end times." And yet, that's not the case. Yes, it describes AN ending—how God will bring an end to war, violence and all the things we do to one another as sinful human beings, but more importantly it describes a beginning of something new—it describes the beginning of God's full and visible reign that is eternal. Not the end, but the beginning of true life in community with God and one another. The full and complete presence of God dwelling on earth with his people, where the nations are healed by the leaves of the Tree of Life. Where death is overcome, and we are resurrected to a new life with God and one another.
This is why sharing that good news with people, wanting transformation of how we live our lives now is what drives me to share the Gospel with others, to want to share the wondrous promises of what Revelation is conveying to others. To want others to know God. It's not to save them from the fires of hell in the after life (though, you know, that's not a bad end-result either), but it's so that they can know and live in hope and peace in the here and now. This isn't "all there is" and when we live knowing that this is not the end, but just the beginning, it changes everything. It changes our lives, and it changes our world.
Many have wondered about my strange "obsession" with teaching Revelation and wanting to find accessible ways for individuals and church leaders to be able to engage this final, yet enigmatic, book of the Bible instead of choosing to just ignore it and throwing out reasons like, "Well, Luther didn't even want it in the Bible." Initially, no he didn't, but later he began to see its value.
That has been my goal as well—to help others see its value, and not in a "let me scare you about all the horrible things that God is going to do to this earth," way. But rather, see that Revelation can be used as a part of the Good News of Jesus Christ that we proclaim to the world every day. That as God's Word, it is relevant and that it is useful in our daily lives—and it can be transformative.
I have to share the story that one of our participants shared with the group last night. The woman was raised Catholic but now attends a local Evangelical Free church. She had a friend from our congregation invite her to attend, so she did. What a blessing to our study she was as well! Inquisitive and not afraid to challenge or voice her thoughts.
At the end of the final night, she chose to share with everyone what has been going on in her life.
Amidst tears, she began explaining that she has a brother who has not attended church in over 25 years. She shared the online videos with him and cross country, they began watching and discussing the videos together every week. Today he was going to be having surgery, and over the weekend, for the first time in 25 years, he finally felt he needed to connect with a priest.
What caused the change of heart? His sister says that this study has changed his entire outlook on faith and religion, and for the first time in his life—he heard the Gospel.
I had several other people come up to me afterwards and say how much they appreciated this perspective and how it finally makes some kind of sense and doesn't seem so daunting and scary to them anymore.
This is why I made this series. There is a message within Revelation that has the power to transform lives—it's called the Good News of Jesus Christ. It's not a new message. It's not a different message than what you find throughout the rest of the Bible (in fact, Revelation pulls on references to the Old Testament promises all over the place. I call Revelation 21 and 22 the "cliff notes version" of God's promises throughout scripture.)
Why Do I Care if People's Lives Are Transformed?
I don't do what I do because I feel the need for people to believe what I believe. Most of the time, I really don't care what differences in theology they might have from me. I know I do not have all the answers, I know I don't have this whole God thing totally figured out and never will.
But when people are able to know and feel the love of God's promises in their lives, that's worth something to me. Because I do find people important. I want people to find wholeness and comfort in this life that IS so filled with pain and hurt. I find our creation important. I think how we behave toward one another and what we do to this earth are important matters. How we grieve and handle death is also equally important. There's many an atheist who would say we invent such things just to make ourselves feel better and are living in the midst of a delusion.
Well, ok, but here's the thing. We all end up the same way: dead. Regardless of our beliefs of what comes next, that is our reality. In the minds of many—that's it. It's the end. There is no more. "Eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die." (Which, btw, is a quote from Isaiah 22 and 1 Corinthians 15) Yet, how we approach death many times dictates how we approach life.
I have found that hope is in short supply in our world today. People are negative. They are bitter. They want to see things changed, sometimes at any cost. Many are despondent and looking for a way to blame all our problems on this group or that group. Many thus turn to their faith, they turn to their scriptures and they look for "guidance" on what they can do to try and control things in order to make life better for themselves so that the world falls into their category of how things "should" be. Or they look to escape this life, figuring that next one is going to be better, so what does this one even matter?
This absolutely can get played out in horrific ways. It can get played out in us thinking that since God has some other "place" for us, who cares what happens? That God wants to destroy all the wicked people, so killing the people we've decided fit that description is justified. God has a plan for a particular group of people so matter what they do, we stand by and condone atrocities. It can cause us to sit back and just gleefully watch chaos unfold because "that's how it's supposed to happen."
This to me is not a transformed life, however. It's simply doing what humans do best when they're at their worst: create death and destruction and finding reasons to validate it.
A transformed life is able to say because God has this vision and plan for redeeming the world and ushering in his kingdom—why on earth would I not want people to live and experience at least some little piece of that RIGHT NOW? Yes, there are things like sin, death, war, grief, pain, sorrow, etc. that only God can put an end to and only God is capable of destroying once and for all. Yet knowing that this is the promise, knowing that an end to these things is what God DOES want, why for the love of everything would I not want others to know and experience that same sense of hope that would cause them to live their lives that is always looking toward ushering in those promises in their fullness?
The incarnation of God through Jesus Christ brought us a glimpse of the Kingdom of God. God's Kingdom "came near" in the person of Jesus so that we were able to see what that vision entails: people being brought to wholeness. It is transformative because we know that we can experience in smaller ways that Kingdom when people and communities act like Christ and behave in a manner that reflects Christ in our world. When this happens we truly can make our world a kinder and better place. (Call me an idealist.)
Not surprisingly, then, this is exactly what Revelation is telling us! When we follow God's will and act accordingly—we are brought closer to the heavenly vision. When we act selfishly and put worldly endeavors of power and wealth ahead of concerns for our neighbor and those around us, then we partake in the beastly systems that oppose God and take us further away from that vision...and violence and oppression are the result.
Thus experiencing the presence of God in the here and now can change how we live in the here and now. When we show love and compassion for our neighbors, when we care for the world we live in, we may still be imperfect and are not capable of ushering in paradise on our own, but it brings us a little closer to that vision. And that simply makes the world a better place for us to live out our lives while we wait for God to fully usher in heaven on earth.
And yes, when we know that the promise God has given us is to "wipe every tear" so that there is no longer mourning, or sorrow or pain, and that God promises he has destroyed the power of death, it does give us comfort knowing that death is NOT the end. In fact, it is just the beginning. Revelation is usually described as a book about "the end times." And yet, that's not the case. Yes, it describes AN ending—how God will bring an end to war, violence and all the things we do to one another as sinful human beings, but more importantly it describes a beginning of something new—it describes the beginning of God's full and visible reign that is eternal. Not the end, but the beginning of true life in community with God and one another. The full and complete presence of God dwelling on earth with his people, where the nations are healed by the leaves of the Tree of Life. Where death is overcome, and we are resurrected to a new life with God and one another.
This is why sharing that good news with people, wanting transformation of how we live our lives now is what drives me to share the Gospel with others, to want to share the wondrous promises of what Revelation is conveying to others. To want others to know God. It's not to save them from the fires of hell in the after life (though, you know, that's not a bad end-result either), but it's so that they can know and live in hope and peace in the here and now. This isn't "all there is" and when we live knowing that this is not the end, but just the beginning, it changes everything. It changes our lives, and it changes our world.
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