The Uncovering- Apocalypse. Rev. Sarah Campbell. July 29, Revelation 8:1-8:13, 22:1-9.

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1 The Uncovering- Apocalypse Rev. Sarah Campbell July 29, 2018 Revelation 8:1-8:13, 22:1-9. No one who believes in the rapture should be elected to public office, that is, to create laws and to serve the public good. My hand hovers over the key board as I write this. I don t take the freedom of this pulpit lightly. Christian preaching should be about building bridges, not adding fuel to the fire. But the more I studied the word apocalypse for this Sunday, the more I became convinced of the truth of this. We will soon be vetting candidates for our vote. It s fair to ask whether and how their faith motivates them. If they have an apocalyptic belief system, and more specifically, if they believe in the rapture, avoid them as candidates. This is a dangerous and alarming theology. They may see the front page news, almost daily now, of record high and unlivable temperatures in parts of the world, of the melting of the ice sheets of Antarctica, and of the bleaching of coral on the Great Barrier Reef, and think inwardly: it s happening it s beginning They may see the news of massive migrations, of people trying to cross borders, cross the desert, cross the Sea, the dramatic demographic population changes and think: it s happening it s beginning Now there has always been apocalyptic, dualistic thinking-- the belief that this world is irretrievably evil and that one day it will end and God s world will break in. Apocalyptic visions are as old as humankind and they usually arise from threatened, oppressed, marginalized communities who have lost hope in this world but cling to hope of a better world someday. These apocalyptic visions, not to be taken literally, but rather as important, provocative literature, pepper our Bible-- the book of Daniel, parts of Isaiah, a chapter in Mark, the book of Revelation. But the theology of Rapture, one kind of apocalyptic thinking, is neither ancient nor biblical-- it began in the 19 th century and is, as I say dangerous and alarming. For millions of American Christians today, the rapture is an essential part of their faith. For these Christians, the rapture refers to an event when true Christians will be raptured, that is, taken up to heaven, before Jesus second coming. Those who are raptured will be spared the tribulation the horrific suffering, wars, and devastation that face those who are left behind. (Borg) Have you heard of the left behind series? A New York Times best seller, it has sold 60 million copies. One hopes, but one doesn t know, that most readers are clear that this is simply pop sci fi. Marcus Borg writes about how this utterly pessimistic belief about the present irretrievably evil age distorts Christianity. He writes:

2 This world doesn t matter very much, (to these people). What matters is being ready for the rapture and the judgement. If everything might end in the next fifty years, why work to improve political and economic structures? They re all going to end soon. How much does the environment matter? It doesn t have to last much longer. And peace? Rapture theology portrays the end times as marked by wars and rumors of wars. Working for peace might actually get in the way of the rapture and the second coming. At the very least, it is an illusion to think there can be peace on earth. Rapture theology and the Left Behind novels are filled with violence not just the violence of the forces of the Antichrist, but divine violence. God and Jesus are violent, involved in the destruction of the world and evildoers. Jesus s followers are violent; they war against the Antichrist. The climax of history is a great battle Armageddon. Rapture theology is also not about the common good, it is self-interested. It is all about being right with God when the rapture occurs, so that you will be taken up to heaven to escape the suffering of the world. Borg concludes with this clear, firm statement of his own. There will be no rapture. Christianity s goal is not to escape from this world. It loves this world and seeks to change it for the better. So much more could be said about this theology of the end times, especially as it relates to our current tragically misguided policy with the modern state of Israel, but that must be the subject of another sermon. Now here s the twist. Though we must not elect law makers with apocalyptic beliefs, it is beneficial for us to be affected by art with apocalyptic themes, the left behind series, if you call that art, notwithstanding. And there is a renaissance of apocalypticism in art these days in film, music, literature. Artists provoke thought. They don t make laws. Yes, there is now a flowering of apocalyptic art about climate change, about race, about the flow of humanity across borders The word apocalypse in Greek means the uncovering. It is the calling of the arts to uncover the truth, to lay bare the fault lines, to spotlight the jarring changes in history, to pierce the denial, to afflict the comfortable, to name the unanameable, to wake everyone up to the brutality and exploitation, to unmask the evil systems, to expose our complicity, to assert that we are inescapably communal creatures. Public artists will penetrate the consciousness, or the unconscious mind, of everyone including those of us who seek to live in gated communities and behind walls. Apocalyptic art acknowledges that we are at the end of the world as we know it. Did we ever imagine in our lifetime, we d see such realities as the melting of ice caps?, the separation of parents and children at our border? This art is not a detailed prediction of the future, nor an invitation to withdraw from the concerns of the world. Rather, it is a wake-up call, one that uses intense poetic language and imagery to sharpen our awareness of God s presence and promise for the world. It is not defeatist. It is about possibility. (Norris)

3 Yes, let us open ourselves to be jolted awake by apocalyptic literature and art, but let us never forget that we are a people of hope. Ours is a prophetic theology, a kingdom of God or dream of God theology, not an apocalyptic theology. We know history, that there have been dire times in the world and that people have risen to the challenge. We know that so many currents in history are going the right way, though seldom without backlash, think women s rights, glbt rights, basic health care around the world But most of all, we believe that when the better angels of our nature get organized, when God calls us out of our despair and cynicism and fear and isolation and calls us into beloved community with all the marginalized and oppressed peoples and people of all faiths and good will, the bigots and greedy ones don t stand a chance. They will be overcome with love and we all know what love looks like in public. Justice. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth is it is heaven. Thy will be done on earth, in the messiness of human history, not in some otherworldly beyond time after an apocalyptic intervention but in this world We must not allow our legislatures or congress or courts to be filled with people who believe this world is doomed, that God has washed God s hands of it We must fill our legislatures and congress and courts with those who have a deeply rooted faith that God or goodness is real, empowering humanity to the creative work for the common good, always loving no one is irredeemable., and always and ever and forever holding fast to God s dream of justice for this earth and the people of this earth and the seventh generation of this earth. (This was ever Keith Roberts dream and his life work ) We must elect people who see the truth, see the jolting changes that are happening now, whose heads are not buried in the sand, but who are awake to the creative possibilities in this time in history. Elect people who see the reality of climate change now, as a wakeup call to an all hands on deck urgency to change to renewable energy Elect people who will see the flow of people, the transgression of national boundaries, the mixing of races and ethnicities, the rapid shifting of demographics, the disruptions, in a different way, not as threat but as possibility In the apocalyptic novel Exit West, Mohsin Hamid uncovers the truth of mass migration from the point of view of asylum seekers. They don t want to leave their homeland, but they must leave in order to live. They must flee death. And they move across the planet, heading west, city by city, country by country, through secret doors despite closed borders. It is so difficult, nearly impossible for everyone involved. His is an honest vision. It is depressing. The asylum seekers end up in California Listen to this: The locality around Marin seemed to be rousing itself from a profound and collective low in those days. It has been said that depression is a failure to imagine a plausible desirable future for oneself, and, not just in Marin, but in the whole region, in the Bay Area, and in many other places too, places both near and far, the apocalypse appeared to have arrived and yet it was not

4 apocalyptic, which is to say that while the changes were jarring they were not the end, and life went on, and people found things to do and ways to be and people to be with and plausible desirable futures began to emerge, unimaginable previously, but not unimaginable now, and the result was something not unlike relief. Indeed, there was a great creative flowering in the region, especially in music. Some were calling this a new jazz age, and one could walk around Marin and see all kinds of ensembles, humans, with humans, humans with electronics, dark skin and light skin different types of music gathered different tribes of peop0le, tribes that had not existed before Mohsin Hamid s vision The vision of John of Patmos in Revelation: And I saw a holy city, the New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven And I heard a loud voice saying, See, the home of God is among mortals. God will dwell with them: and they will be God s peoples. God will be with them. God will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more And I end with this vision, this one not fiction. Some might be surprised by this vision. Some might be disturbed, alarmed, seeing it as the beginning of the end. Others might be surprised by this, but curious, hopeful, maybe relieved, and thankful Your daughter, yet in her 20s, convinces you to go. You haven t gone for years. In fact, you are usually at home watching a movie during this national celebration of independence, the 4 th of July. Not quite rejecting your patriotic duty as a citizen, but kind of at least being lazy about it So, you get on the light rail at sunset. You get off with the hoards. That s when it begins you notice that the crowd is not what you expected; you don t know what you expected exactly but not this at a 4 th of July celebration in the middle of a city in the middle of a state in the middle of the United States of America. As you head to the stone arch bridge, over the Mississippi River, one of the worlds great rivers of life, you are stunned. You get onto the bridge along with everyone else and it is crowded, very crowded. You wonder for a moment about security. It gets dark, everyone has found their spot, the fireworks begin, and everyone looks up, oohing and ahhing together This spectacle, no doubt, has drawn many. But perhaps it is not just the spectacle? Is it also patriotism? A love of this country-- not everything it has always been, but what it has always stood for, this country of immigrants and indigenous, this country of possibility for everyone And yes, everybody is looking up oohing and ahhing but not you you are looking around at everybody, seeing, when the sky lights up, all the colors of skin and fabrics and headscarves, the many diverse ethnicities, hearing different languages-- the racial and ethnic diversity is stunning and you wonder, could it be true?, it seems like it might be that your color, white, is not in the majority at that 4 th of July celebration on the stone arch bridge in Mpls MN The truth is uncovered. And you ohh and ahhh with amazement and delight, not at the fireworks but at the people together

5 The apocalypse appeared to have arrived and yet it was not apocalyptic (Hamid). Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the lamb through the middle of the street of the city Nothing accursed will be found there anymore God will dwell with them: and they will be God s peoples (Revelation) Sources Borg, Marcus, Speaking Christian, HarperCollins, Bowman, J.W., The Book of Revelation, The Interpreter s Dictionary of the Bible. Gorman, Michael, Reading Paul, Cascade Companions, Hamid, Mohsin, Exit West, Penguin, Moule, C.F.D, Revelation, The Interpreter s Dictionary of the Bible. Phillips, J.B., The Book of Revelation. Wyman and Sons, The New Interpreter s Study Bible, NRSV. Abingdon Press, Norris, Kathleen, Amazing Grace: A Vocabulary of Faith, Riverhead Books, 1988.