The Reverend Catriona Cumming

Sunday 13 May 2018 – 11.30am Matins

Rev. 14. 1-13

Several years ago, I visited an old friend in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, in the United States. It’s a pretty town, with lovely Georgian buildings, and plenty for tourists to do. One of the things you can do is go on a narrated harbour cruise, where a guide tells you about the historic coastal properties, lighthouse, and fort.

As the only British person in a group of Americans it was an odd experience. I was surrounded by citizens of the most powerful country in the world, viewing evidence of my own country’s colonization of another nation’s birth right. Within the history of that place is the displacement of people who had lived there for who knows how long, the enslavement of countless others, and a war fought to gain independence from a tiny island thousands of miles away. It was a strange experience, and I found myself helplessly, and haplessly apologising for what my country had set in motion when British explorers first made landfall in the early 17^th century.

This memory surfaced this week as I read of the fall of Babylon, and the fate of Rome – two great Empires – superpowers if you will – of the ancient world.

In John’s vision, the hour of judgement has come, and those who have chosen their sides must face the consequences. John is clear that what puts people in danger is Worshiping this superpower. It is, for some, a kind of madness, like being drunk.

‘Those who worship the beast and its image, and receive a mark on their foreheads or on their hands, they will also drink the wine of God’s wrath, poured unmixed into the cup of his anger, and they will be tormented with fire and sulphur in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. And the smoke of their torment goes up for ever and ever. There is no rest day or night for those who worship the beast and its image and for anyone who receives the mark of its name.’

Rev 14.9-11

Which all makes me feel rather uncomfortable – for all sorts of reasons – but partly because the problem with worldly power is that it is incredibly seductive.

Seduced by that power, one can find oneself rationalising all sorts of behaviour, because we – the powerful – are bringing enlightenment, democracy, or religion, to these poor benighted souls. It is particularly difficult, when one is living in the midst of… well, life, to be objective. We grow up, and live in a particular context, and with a particular cultural bias.

So it might be tempting on hearing the apocalyptic reading this morning, to throw up our hands, or throw in the towel. How are we to step out of a cycle which goes back to ancient Babylon?

Discouraging as these reading might appear, there is definite good news in there. Even at the hour of judgement, an angel of the Lord still proclaims a message of hope – and not just to those who are marked out as belonging to the Lamb. Even at this late hour, God wants salvation for all peoples:

“Then I saw another angel flying in mid-heaven, with an eternal gospel to proclaim to those who live on the earth—to every nation and tribe and language and people. He said in a loud voice, ‘Fear God and give him glory, for the hour of his judgement has come; and worship him who made heaven and earth, the sea and the springs of water.’”

Rev. 14. 6-7

God does not give up on God’s creation – on any of us.

Our place in this world, the damage we do – even inadvertently to one another – is complex, and difficult to untangle, but let us be clear: God does not give up on us.

And nor should we give up on each other. Imperfect as we are, our worship, and our love, for God, and for God’s creation, is treasured in heaven. We can only direct our lives and worship towards the one whose kingdom is justice and peace, rather than ambition, and economic might: towards Jesus.

We will not do so perfectly, not this side of heaven. And we must still be wary of complacency, and of trying to convince ourselves and others that we have all the answers. We don’t, and neither do they. But if this scripture tells us nothing else, it tells us that God will not give up on this world. Thanks be to God.