[A sermon preached to Hinckley Unitarians on Sunday 15th of May 2022]
(Readings: Revelation 21:1-6 and John 13:31-35)
I tend not to pick readings from the Book of Revelation too often. I have a academic Bible encyclopaedia that described the Book of Revelation as a “bewildering kaleidoscope of scenes” – if this Book can come across as bewildering to Bible scholars, then I always fear how a congregation may take it. Indeed, if one reads the entirety of Revelation, one can certainly see how some people believe that John of Patmos was clearly on some sort of psychedelic drug when he wrote it – the vivid apocalyptic visions it contains are clearly evidence enough, at least for some, for there having been some sort of hallucinogenic influence upon the Book’s author.
Many theologians of the reformation where also disparaging of the Book of Revelation – Martin Luther would have preferred to remove it from the biblical cannon. For him it was “neither apostolic nor prophetic” and he confessed that, in his words, “my spirit cannot accommodate itself to this book.”
So, if the Book of Revelation proved too much for the great religious mind of Luther, why should we bother with it?
Well, one of the great minds who could be bothered with it was one German atheist philosopher by the name of Frederick Engels, Karl Marx’s collaborator. Indeed, Engels was so taken with the Book of Revelation that he even wrote a commentary on it in 1883, referring to the Book of Revelation as “the simplest and clearest book of the whole New Testament” and “worth more than all the rest of the New Testament put together.” Among other radicals who valued John of Patmos’s work however, the first that comes to mind is William Blake. Not only does Blake borrow this apocalyptic imagery for use in his own written work, but some of his great paintings illustrate the visions of the Book of Revelation.
So why has this ancient book been admired by such radicals? I think a part of the answer is that Revelation in its take on apocalypse, calls us to imagine the creation of a better world. Those who have abused Revelation by trying to calculate the date for the end of the world have got it all wrong. The point of the book is not to predict when the world will end so much as it is to look forward to when our world of suffering and pain will end and a new world of goodness and love will be formed in its place, when the words of the Lord’s Prayer will be fulfilled in its truest sense – a time when God’s will be done “on earth as it is in heaven.”
Getting its readers to imagine a better world was a radical move by John of Patmos, who incidentally, is unlikely to be the same John who wrote John’s Gospel. Church tradition taught that John had be exceled to Patmos from Rome, only when the original punishment of the Roman authorities in acted on him – throwing him into a vat of boiling oil – miraculously had no effect. I think the greater miracle still is someone, having encountered such ill treatment from his fellow humans was able to dream of a better world to come rather than simply give into despair.
In recent decades Hollywood block buster films have become obsessed with apocalyptic themes, I still vividly remember the film entitled 2012 that showed, as best it could with the glories of GCI from 2009, the horrors of the world ending due to climate catastrophe. This phenomena of the return of apocalypse to the public imagination caused a couple of philosophers to remark that “it is easier to imagine the end of the world then it is to imagine the end of capitalism.” i.e. it is easier to imagine the total destruction of our planet then it is to imagine a potentially better world. In this sense I think these films and this modern notion of apocalypse only do half the job, they show the fall of the old world but fail to show the better world that can be built in its place, a glowing Jerusalem that shell know no pain and suffering.
For me the most important aspect of theology of the Kingdom of God is that it is not just a concept of the future. Yes, the fullness of God’s Kingdom on Earth may well not be experienced by us in our lifetime. We are not master builders with the ability to see the project through form beginning till end. Yet each of us has access to the seeds from which the kingdom of God will grow and to experience the planting of these seeds is to capture a sneak peak of the Kingdom of God in action. I truly believe we see something of the Kingdom of God when we worship together here as a community. But I also believe we can catch a glimpse of the Kingdom of God when we work put the values we learn here into practice in the world.
This is the work of love that we are commanded to do and it is these actions that will help see the death of our selfish world and the coming of a better world for all.
With the sad passing of Gordon Turner recently, there was also a glimmer of happiness. This glimmer arrived to me via an article that one of you had written about Godon’s work in Nepal some time ago. The article featured the heart-warming story of a young lad coming up to Gordon while he was visiting a temple out there, this young man informed Gordon that he had recently won the opportunity to interview for a place at university in Kathmandu but could not attend said interview as there was no way his parents could afford the tuition fees. After having know this lad for next to no time at all, Gordon told this young man to attend the interview and inform the University, that he, Gordon, would be responsible for full payment of the fees.
Not only is this a brilliant example of charity but I think it is an even better example of love. This is a love that is revolutionary in its power to create change and quite countercultural. We increasingly live in a society of the individual, indeed there are those who even question the existence of society. The individual is seen as king and isolation, in the guise of self-reliance, seen as a virtue. There are many, if they had been in Gordon’s place at that temple, who might have instead argued that if only this young man’s parents had shown some initiative and pulled themselves up by their bootstraps, and planned their weekly budget better and knew how to cook more simple meals, that they could have afforded such “luxuries” as a university education for their children without having to rely on the charity of others. I wish I was wrong, and that we did not hear people saying such things, but they do, even from the green benches of the House of Commons with very week.
Fortunately, such arguments were evidently of little concern to Gordon or even that young lad who he helped. That lad, by the way, is, if my Google skills are correct, now an Asistant Professor in Language and Education! Not only that but he himself founded a school, named after Gordon, that offers full scholarships to those in need.
Our reding from the Gospel of John today says that Jesus stated, “Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
In saying this Jesus, himself makes clear that it is not creeds or dogmas that define his followers: but love. Love for one another.
In this love, we can all play a part in laying the foundation stones for a new Jerusalem. So long as we love – another world is always possible.
Amen.
