Resisting Trump with Revelation (27)
Reelation 141:5 and 15:1-4 – Character of resisters
A
t-shirt I saw in the mall read, on the front, “Fool for Christ,” while on the
back it asked “Whose Fool are You?” And that’s the question Revelation places
before us too. As Bob Dylan sang, “You’re gonna have to serve somebody. It may
be the devil or it may be the Lord. But you’re gonna have to serve somebody.”
Whose fool? Who do we serve?
These
prefaces to ch.14 and 15 offer a chance for us another way to stand back and
take a look at who we are and need to be to enact faithful resistance to
beastly orderings of life that foster injustice and oppression of the haves
over the have-nots. We can hold these two passages up as a mirror to reflect on
where we are in our growth as “resistical” believers.[1]
Revelation 14:1-5 and
15:1-4
1.
Resistical believers know who they are. They have God’s name and the Lamb’s name written
on their foreheads (14:1). This sign of ownership defines who we are in Christ.
This is the sign of baptism.
2.
They know
what they are to be about. They are “redeemed . . . as first fruits” for
God (14:4). To be the change they want to be is to live out of the reality of
the change God has made them. Integrity flows out identity. So it is here. And
who we are, “first fruits,” is a demonstration of the new reality, new
creation, resistance by positive presentation, even if the result is negative
for them. This demonstration is the destiny of the world in Christ. We prefigure
where and the way the world is going.
3.
They
refuse intimacy with the Beast and his way. They have not “defiled
themselves with women” (14:4). This is symbolical not sexist. “They” are both
men and women and the imagery here suggests those engaged in active military
engagement with the enemy who do not allow the comforts and conveniences of “home”
to divert their attention or intention from the struggle at hand.
4.
They
want to be like the Lamb. Resistical
Christians tell the truth and are authentic (“blameless”).
(often attributed to George Orwell though not found among
his works)
5.
They
are followers (14:4). Too often the church buys into the myth of the “great
leader” and we long for the Man or Woman who will lead us to the promised land.
But in the church it’s followers who are needed. One leads, the risen One, the
rest follow. Followership rather than leadership is the coin of the realm in
the church.
6.
They
conquer the beast (15:2). Conquer, conquer, conquer. But many of these
folks died! How conquer? Because like the One they follow they learned that
with God things are not what they see. Winning is losing. Death leads to life. These
folks died for the truth from which they believed came life. And it did! And
here they are in heaven before the throne of God – victorious!
7.
They sing
a new song. Remember Brueggemann’s “dangerous songs” here. A new song, the
song of Moses and of the Lamb. The two great redemption hymns performed after
the Exodus and the Resurrection. The former now in light of the latter, greater
exodus. Both are finally about God’s great intention for both Israel and the
world – to worship him (15:4). Exodus from Egypt freed the people to worship God
on Mt. Sinai as a prelude or prefiguring of the world coming to worship God
after Jesus’ resurrection. In a broken and dangerously fragmented world to
proclaim and live a unifying way of life can be a dangerous thing. And was for
many of these folks and other through the centuries.
8.
These
people sing the Lamb’s new song standing on the sea. The sea was a haunt of
evil and abode of sea monsters. Resistical believers perform their ministry in
the real world of trouble and distress. No isolated, armchair witnesses here! Rather,
they are bold to brave the truth of their witness in trust that Jesus Christ is
indeed the “faithful witness” we follow.
These are the kinds of “Fools in Christ” we are, and must
become, to resist the imperial overreach that in our day bears the name Trump.
May it please God that we become more and more “foolish” every day!
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