Revelation 3:14-4:11
“To the angel of the church in Laodicea write: These are the words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the ruler of God’s creation. I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth. You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see.
Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest and repent. Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me. To the one who is victorious, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I was victorious and sat down with my Father on his throne. Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”
After this I looked, and there before me was a door standing open in heaven. And the voice I had first heard speaking to me like a trumpet said, “Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this.” At once I was in the Spirit, and there before me was a throne in heaven with someone sitting on it. And the one who sat there had the appearance of jasper and carnelian. A rainbow that shone like an emerald encircled the throne. Surrounding the throne were twenty-four other thrones, and seated on them were twenty-four elders. They were dressed in white and had crowns of gold on their heads. From the throne came flashes of lightning, rumblings and peals of thunder. In front of the throne, seven lamps were blazing. These are the seven spirits of God. Also in front of the throne there was what looked like a sea of glass, clear as crystal.
In the center, around the throne, were four living creatures, and they were covered with eyes, in front and in back. The first living creature was like a lion, the second was like an ox, the third had a face like a man, the fourth was like a flying eagle. Each of the four living creatures had six wings and was covered with eyes all around, even under its wings. Day and night they never stop saying: “ ‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty,’who was, and is, and is to come.”
Whenever the living creatures give glory, honor and thanks to him who sits on the throne and who lives for ever and ever, the twenty-four elders fall down before him who sits on the throne and worship him who lives for ever and ever. They lay their crowns before the throne and say: “You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being.”
Last week we started our study of Revelation with some background information, and a very brief overview of approaches to it and themes running through it. If you weren't here, or if it all still feels a bit of a whirlwind, I recommend taking a look at the write up on the blog, because I think it will be helpful in getting our heads into the book. We also heard chapter one, in which John has a vision of Jesus standing among seven lampstands and holding seven stars in his right hand. We cut off the final verse because it really leads us into chapter two, but that tells us that the lampstands are the seven churches to whom the letter is addressed, and the stars are the seven angels of those churches. We might understand them as guardian angels, set to watch over or bring messages to the churches, but theologian Walter Wink has another idea. He suggests that the angels are spiritual representations of the congregations, the totality of their “aspirations and grudges, hopes and vendettas, fidelity and unfaithfulness”. We might say they embody the essence or character of the community, being the spirit of the church in the same way we might talk about the spirit of the age.
Which leads me to ask, what is the spirit of this church? Last week we took time to express our gratitude and our hope for the church, and I wasn't looking ahead to this week at all when I set up that prayer activity, but I think some of what was shared offers us the beginning of an answer. In giving thanks for the church, people used words like welcoming and kind and inclusive and friendly and loving. There was also appreciation for how reflective we are and the way it feels like there is no pressure. I certainly think there is an openness and a thoughtfulness here, that I recognise and value as part of the spirit of this community. And I heard another bit of the answer earlier this week, when a fellow Baptist minister commented on a photo I shared of our affirming witness at Leicester Pride, saying how much she loves our church and our conviction, and the way we “deeply and faithfully share our hopes for the world”. I want to put that on our noticeboard and print it on t-shirts. “Deeply and faithfully sharing our hopes for the world.” What a spirit to live up to!
Chapters two and three contain letters which are dictated to be sent to the seven churches. They are a mix of praise and criticism, although the letter we heard is admittedly rather short on praise. The church in Ephesus is praised for its perseverance but criticised for forsaking the love it had at first. The church in Smyrna is encouraged to endure through the trials that are to come. The church in Pergamum is praised for its faithfulness but criticised for the fact that some have accepted false teaching. The church in Thyatira is praised for their love and perseverance but criticised for tolerating a false prophet who is leading believers into wrong practices. The church in Sardis is exhorted to wake up and strengthen itself. The church in Philadelphia is promised protection because even though it has little strength it has not denied Christ. And we have already heard that the church in Laodicea is called to repent of its ambivalence and ignorance, although it is also encouraged that Christ is standing at the door and waiting to be let in. Each letter ends with the words “whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches”, so even though the letters are personal to each congregation, there is a sense that they are all intended for all the churches to hear, perhaps out of a recognition that they are are all part of one universal church, and perhaps so that they can learn from one another.
This leads me to another question, which is what would Christ write to our church? Last week, as I drew our gratitude and hope together in prayer, I recalled that four years ago three guest preachers brought us the parable of the mustard seed, in which the kingdom grows like the tiniest of seeds into the largest of plants, becoming a tree in which all kinds of birds can perch. I felt certain then that this was a particular word for us, and I believe now that we have already begun to see it realised. We are growing, and we have been a safe home for those who have flown from other nests. I don't make any claim to have a definitive message for us like those given to the seven churches, but I do believe that God wants to encourage us to keep nurturing all that we are and all that we are doing. I think we can also listen to the letters to the seven churches, remaining firm in our convictions, and daring to be more than lukewarm, even if it sometimes feels we have little strength.
Chapter four sees John taken into the throne room of God. He sees a door open into heaven, and it feels like the back of the wardrobe opening into Narnia, or the rift opening underneath Cardiff, if you're more into Doctor Who than CS Lewis. It seems to me that he isn't travelling to another physical place, but rather stepping into another reality, one which exists alongside ours and could break through at any time. As we said last week, one of the themes of this book is that things are not only as they seem. John seems to exhibit a very Jewish reluctance to describe God, but he does attempt to capture something of God's brilliance. The figure on the throne is like jasper, a stone which can be as clear as crystal and flash with light and colour, and carnelian, a deep red stone which when held in the hand looks like it has a fire smouldering inside. The throne is encircled by a rainbow and is the epicentre of earthquakes and thunder and lightning, and in front of it are seven blazing lamps and a sea of glass. It is both vividly described and impossible to imagine, which in all fairness seems pretty standard for God, who once appeared in a bush which was aflame but did not burn up, and became fully human while remaining fully divine. There is a mystery to God which is not fully resolved even in heaven.
It is not just God that John sees, but a host gathered around the throne. The twenty four elders dressed in white with crowns on their heads could be intended to recall the twenty four bodyguards who protected the emperor, emphasising that it is after all God who is supreme, or they could be representatives of the twelve tribes of Israel alongside the twelve apostles, symbolising the people of both covenants joined in adoration. The four living creatures who never stop worshipping evoke those that appear at the beginning of Ezekiel's vision, although the creatures he saw each had four faces, rather than each of the four having a different face. Tradition has associated each creature with one of the four gospel writers, but there is no sense of that meaning here, and it has been suggested that the lion and the ox and the man and the eagle represent the noblest and the strongest and the wisest and the swiftest of beings, or that they represent the created order of wild animals and domesticated animals and humans and birds. Either way, they seem to imply that the whole of creation will stand before God in praise.
I said last week that Revelation offers us heaven’s perspective, and I subtitled this week “heaven's perspective on the church”, so I want to close by reflecting on what the chapters we have considered this morning might have to say on that. Something that comes through to me quite strongly from the letters is that heaven is most concerned with the church’s faithfulness to God and love for one another. There is nothing about numbers or finances or buildings or events, the things which take up so much of our concern for the church. I'm very aware that we will be talking about most of those things at our church meeting next week, and I don't think it is wrong for us to consider them, but I do think that when we do, we need to be keeping faithfulness and love at the front of our minds and the centre of our conversations. The thing that comes through most powerfully from the throne room is that we are breath and a heartbeat away from another reality, in which the elders and the living creatures lead an eternal worship service. It is quite thrilling to me to think that in some way we step into that throne room and join in with that worship when we gather here as the church. But most of all, I think heaven's perspective on the church is summed up in Jesus' words to the congregation at Laodicea. “Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me.” The church is many things, but above all else, it is called to be the dwelling place of Christ on earth. May it be so.
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