Forever and Ever
“Forever and Ever” by Pastor Rosanna McFadden
Good morning, and happy New Year’s Eve! Today is the last Sunday of the Christian year. While many of us in the US are thinking about Thanksgiving and harvest and gathering together to ask the Lord’s blessing, churches around the world are celebrating Rein of Christ, Christ the King, or Eternity Sunday. Those of us who served on worship team with Marilee Gilliland remember her affection for this Sunday and all the great “power hymns” which characterize Christ as King. If you lose track of this structure of the Christian year, that calendar is embedded in the structure and sequence of our stained glass windows. If you look at the back right hand corner, there is the image of a cross and a crown and the suggestion of gathering in people from all nations; and then the next window as you keep moving to the right across the Worship Center and to the opposite corner is the star of prophecy and Jesus’ nativity. Next Sunday, December 1 is the first Sunday of Advent and the first Sunday of the Christian year. Jesus goes from being king of creation and time itself to being born as an infant in Bethlehem. It is a cycle which the Church remembers and repeats every year.
I’m sure some of you remember Torin Eikler’s sharing two weeks ago, anticipating some of the end-of-the-world stuff which you are going to hear today. His texts were from the prophet Isaiah and the gospel of Mark; our text this morning is from the book of Revelation, which is the place to go in the Bible if you want a dose of the end times and some pretty wacky imagery. Although I’m not a huge fan of either of those things, I have some affection for Revelation and how it can inform our understanding of the times we’re living in today.
Revelation is the most sustained biblical example of an apocalypse. We get glimpses other places like passages in Isaiah, the books of Ezekiel and Daniel and Jesus’ teaching from Mark, but in Revelation it’s the entire book. Apocalypse has come to be understood as an epic battle between good and evil at the end of time — this understanding is due in large part to this book of the Bible — but it’s original meaning was more humble than that: apocalypse means uncovering, finding out something secret, revealing. Which is why this book is called Revelation.
So what does this book reveal about Jesus Christ and his coming kingdom? Crucially, Revelation states — over and over again — that Christ’s kingdom is not of this world. Because all the kingdoms and governments and states we know, and have ever known, are of this world, we lack the understanding and even the vocabulary to describe what Christ’s kingdom will be like. King and Lord may be titles of honor and respect which Christ deserves, but they may also carry overtones of domination and corruption and abuse of power which don’t apply to Christ at all. Christ is also the Lamb that was slain, and the firstborn of the dead; titles no earthly ruler in their right mind would claim. The author of Revelation, quoting Christ as Christ’s return uses the phrase, “I am the Alpha and the Omega, who was and who is and who is to come.” And that pretty much covers everything — A to Z, past, present, and future. Everything for all time. Amen.
Another significant part of Revelation is that it is a deeply political book. This is partly because of the subject matter: the fate of kings and rulers and earthly power, and also because of the circumstances at the time Revelation was written. Although Revelation was likely assembled over a period of time, scholars agree it was completed before 100 AD; the church is only a few generations old, and Christians are being persecuted and even martyred by the forces of the Roman Empire. Citizens of Rome were being forced to take a public oath of allegiance by saying “Ceaser is Lord!” and burning a bit of incense. To not take that oath, or worse, to say, “Jesus is Lord!” instead could cost you your life. So you can see that the statement “Jesus is Lord” is simultaneously deeply subversive — it goes completely against the government of the time, because if Jesus is Lord, Ceasar is not — and it is also troubling, because Jesus is not just a bigger, badder Roman Emperor; Jesus’ rule is nothing like Ceasar’s rule.
A third significant thing to keep in mind about Jesus’ rein is that it is not temporary: it is eternal. Every government and every kingdom on earth has ended or will end. Every king, governor, president, dictator has died or will die. Jesus died and was raised to life, the first-born of the dead, and he is not going to die again. He will reign for ever and ever.
Knowing this biblical context has made me uncomfortable with the rhetoric and intent of a rising trend in this country, Christian Nationalism. Here’s an excerpt of a definition of what that is:
American Christian nationalism is based on a worldview that America is superior to other countries, and that such superiority is divinely established. It posits that only Christians are “true Americans.” Christian nationalists believe that the US is meant to be a Christian nation, and that it was founded as a Christian nation, and want to “take back” the US for God.
You probably know that Anabaptists, part of the heritage of the Church of the Brethren, have long been suspicious of earthly governments. Probably because Lutheran and Catholic governments alike hunted and killed them for being baptized as adults into a community of believers, rather than as infants into a nation state. It is not that being a Christian nation or kingdom has never been attempted; it has, for hundreds of years in Europe and elsewhere, and somehow the Christian part of that equation has always gotten the short end of the stick. The values of Jesus Christ–self-sacrifice, treating others as you want to be treated, love for neighbors and even for enemies — those values have not meshed well with earthly power: influence, revenge, greed, and corruption. I am not completely cynical: I think there are important roles for human government, such as making laws and maintaining transportation, monitoring trade — big and small tasks which make everyone’s lives run more smoothly. I believe there are honest and hard-working people in positions of government, and in almost all cases, I am willing to comply with laws even if I do not fully understand or agree with them, for the sake of the whole operation running smoothly.
I whole-heartedly believe in Christian values and think American society would be well-served if more people subscribed to those values and lived them out. But I’m not sure that is the goal of Christian Nationalism. Gaining and using political power in the name of Jesus Christ is not the same as being a disciple of Jesus Christ. And that’s the rub for me. Christianity doesn’t happen by exposure. Displaying the Ten Commandments in public school classrooms or on federal property is not going to change anyone’s life unless that person makes the commitment to follow them. And if the folks who are advocating for displaying the Ten Commandments are lying, cheating, and taking God’s name in vain, that isn’t a very compelling argument for the power of Christianity — in fact, that reduces Christianity to the rubber stamp of approval for doing whatever we want. And that is a dangerous manipulation of Christianity, because doing whatever we want has never ended well.As we come to the end of this year, I invite you to consider or re-consider your commitment to Jesus Christ. The baby Jesus of Advent invites our love and adoration; the Alpha and Omega of eternity demands something else: our allegiance. Not just the statement that “Jesus is Lord,” but the commitment to follow Jesus — first and foremost. We must acknowledge that the statement “Jesus is Lord”, whether it is made by an individual, faith community, or nation, is meaningless and even destructive unless it is accompanied by a commitment to follow Jesus, and an acknowledgement that that commitment will mean humility and sacrifice on our part. Jesus is the beginning and end; it is Jesus’ reign, and no other, which will last forever and ever; and only Christ can flood the nations with grace and mercy. May Jesus shine in our hearts and in our lives. Amen.