Resisting Trump with rRvelation (10)
Our Resistical Worship Service So Far
We have been called to Worship in a responsive way by John
(1:4-8). John has introduced himself as Jesus’ interpreter (1:9-11) and Jesus
as the Guest Preacher for the day (1:12-20). Jesus has greeted his churches
with a message directed to each of the seven. We are ready to sing and sing we
will with the two hymns in Revelation 4 & 5.
In a world of pervasive and intensive indoctrination into the
worldview of the Empire this worship service is a counter-blast challenging and
correcting its mistakes and errors by casting Jesus Christ as the world’s
rightful and true Emperor before whom the Roman wannabe is revealed for who he
really is and whittled down to size.
The vision of Christ John crafts to introduce him provides
basic elements of the seven messages Christ delivers to his churches. That
there are the symbolic number “seven” of them shows us that these messages
offer insight for all of Christ’s churches today.
The Seven Letters
Five Ways the
Empire Corrupts the Church
Ephesus -
turns us into culture warriors, anger
Pergamum – invites us to religious syncretism (whatever religion you
chose + worship of Rome)
Thyatira – entangles us in consumeristic/materialistic ways, envy Sardis –
sloth, inattention to the things of God
Laodicea – pride, a country club church
Ways the Church
Resists Empire
Patient
endurance (2:2, 3, 10, 19; 3:10)
Accountability (2:2,3)
Steadfast
faith (2:13, 19; 3:8, 11)
Love
(2:19)
Healing and invigorating ministry (3:15)
humility (3:17)
It would not be hard at all to
identify groups of churches that demonstrate the corrupting presence of
imperial thoughts and ways. More churches receive mixed reviews than total
affirmation or warning which is not surprising. Most of us and our churches are
a mixture of faith and faithlessness. That’s why we need this book.
These items, both the ways the
Empire corrupts us and the ways of faithful resistance, form the table of
contents (as it were) for the rest of the book.
”Patient
Endurance”
“Patient endurance” jumps out from
this list as Christ’ most commended and recommended virtue for resisting
Empire. In 1933, after the Nazi’s had recently taken power in Germany, Karl
Barth wrote a famous (or infamous) essay in the journal Theological Existence Today! In this essay Barth wrote[1],
“I endeavor to carry on theology, and only theology, now
as previously, and as if no- thing had
happened. Perhaps there is a slightly increased tone, but without direct allusions: something like
the chanting of the hours by the Benedictines nearby in the Maria Laach, which goes on undoubtedly without
break or interruption, pursuing the even tenor of its way
even in the Third Reich.”
That’s the kind of “patient endurance” John has in mind.
Barth describes it even further later in the essay. He wanted Hitler gone as
much as anyone. He realized, however, that for a theologian, for a church,
entrusted with God’s gospel, the logic of resistance ran in a different channel
than most political resistance. Paul Dafydd Jones[2]
explains:
“Barth favored a different approach: a style of
theological writing that, in refusing to es-
teem that which is ethically
and politically inexcusable, in declining to “normalize” the new status quo,
focuses attention on the future that God promises, and provides a thick
description of what it means for human beings to turn their backs on sin and
commit themselves to realizing the “two commandments” on which “hang all the
law and the prophets”: love of God and love of neighbor (Matthew 22:34-40).”
-Refusing to esteem or normalizing
the evil,
-focusing on the
promised future God gives up, and
-giving
detailed attention to the lives has called us to live in following Jesus –
this is a “patient endurance”
suited to resisting the tyrannies and oppressions the church faces on its
journey through history. There’s much wisdom in Barth’s approach, I think.
-The first item he
lists taken by itself becomes just political rabble-rousing like all other
political forms of resistance. Not unimportant but not a specifically Christian
form of resistance.
-focusing on the
promised future God gives us outside a context of the other two ways Barth recommends
distorts this emphasis such that it often ends up sanctioning the status quo, and
-focusing on
Christian living apart from the other two of Barth’s recommendations tends to
become an end in itself and legalism.
And as we will see when we get to
Christ’s breaking open the seven seals in ch.6 and 7, they unfold in just this
fashion.
But next up the part of worship for
hymns. And hymns we will have!
[1] Cited in Paul Dafydd Jones, “Patience, Impatience, and Political Life
Today,” at http://enhancinglife.uchicago.edu/blog/patience-impatience-and-political-life-today.
[2] Ibid.
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