The Last Letter: Revelation’s News for Today’s Congregations Blair G. Meeks About the Sessions These sessions are designed for small group study in adult education classes or more informal settings. They can be used at any time but may be of particular interest during Advent 2000 or Lent 2001. Four sessions are outlined, followed by suggestions for two additional sessions of further study. A leader is needed to make preparations for a comfortable room with a worship center and to take responsibility for distributing materials, making assignments, and guiding the reflection. All participants should prepare for the discussion by reading the introductory materials and assigned Scriptures. The suggestions in “Connections” can be adapted to fit the needs of the group. A list of suggested commentaries and other related books follows. Introduction The Book of Revelation is always controversial, but interest in its claims increases as the millennium approaches. Some interpretations, often featured on TV reports of cults or fringe churches, take frightening images, tie them with great certainty to specific dates and events, and use them as signals of the end of time. The futility of this view is that the predicted ominous dates pass without fulfillment, and the grim reckoning of destruction and suffering, whatever its validity, causes people to look the other way. The fascinating strangeness of Revelation is too often dismissed, and the book does not receive the attention it rightly deserves in our churches. How do we read Revelation responsibly then? By listening for God’s Word; by exploring the historical events of the era in which the book was written and the situation of its author; by opening our minds to what it says to us about God’s intentions for the church today and God’s promised future. Revelation is a letter to several particular churches and speaks to specific situations at the end of the first century; in that sense it is like other New Testament epistles. But Revelation fascinates and puzzles because of its strange and beautiful language and because it unveils startling images of the future. To its first readers, living in fear of persecution and death, it was also underground protest literature. Revelation is difficult because it was written in a sort of biblical code. In times of oppression, writers often use metaphors to offer comfort and to provide information; e.g., some writings of churches in Eastern Europe during the days of Soviet domination used biblical narratives to parallel their own situation. Revelation was meant to be understood only by insiders because it talks about things that needed to be kept hidden from the operatives of the Roman emperor. But we cannot try to decode Revelation today as if the places and characters also have exact modern equivalents. I remember as a teenager in the ‘50s listening to my father and uncle discuss Revelation, their favorite topic. They were convinced that the battles and destruction described in Revelation would have literal fulfillment in the Cold War setting of that time. They identified each place name with the contemporary maps of Europe and Asia, and the beasts with rulers of the day. They saw the downfall of the Soviet Union foretold in Revelation. Neither of them lived to see that downfall, and it did not happen at all as their interpretation of Revelation had reckoned. They were not wrong, however, to turn to the Book of Revelation for comfort and assurance in that frightening period when we seemed to live every moment on the edge of nuclear holocaust. Revelation was first written to encourage people living through crisis. And looking now at the crumbling of the Soviet empire with hindsight, we can find many correspondences between biblical prophecy and events that led to the end of the Iron Curtain. We can see, in fact, more evidence than any painfully literal rendering would allow that the Bible, and Revelation in particular, does prophesy that tyrants will be toppled from their thrones, economic oppression of the people will not be tolerated forever, and the witness of the churches can bring about change. There is much about Revelation that relates to contemporary situations and much that today’s churches need to hear, but to listen, we must first enter a world where God speaks in imaginative language. God’s words often surprise us, coming to us in visionary and innovative ways. In George Bernard Shaw’s Saint Joan, Joan of Arc is accused of hearing God’s voice only in her imagination. She replies, “Of course. That is where the messages of God always come to us—in our imaginations.” Our imaginations, if they are grounded in study, prayer, and careful thought, can open new channels for God’s revelations. The author of Revelation, known as John of Patmos, exiled to an island in the Aegean and separated from his beloved community of faith, is agitated and anxious. His imagination is filled with figures from the Hebrew scriptures, the Jewish apocalyptic writings of his time, and Greek mythology. Sometimes he seems to be dreaming; sometimes he is comforted by remembered snatches of worship services from his congregation. He is worried about the persecution of his friends back home. The Emperor, possibly Nero or Caligula, but more likely Domitian (81-96 C.E.), is determined to eliminate these Christians who refuse to recognize him as their lord and god, and he makes a sport of it, entertaining the Roman elite by inventing new methods of torture. Through John, God conveys words of assurance—not a promise that there will be no suffering, but that God’s reign is at hand and that God’s intentions for earth will be fulfilled. There will be “a new heaven and a new earth.” The fantastic images that move through Revelation are a hindrance to modern readers, but the structure of the book is also confusing. All attempts to impose a linear time structure and an orderly narrative flow on these writings will fail. Revelation is composed more like a great symphony. A theme is introduced and repeated until it becomes familiar (e.g., “seven seals, seven trumpets”); then a new theme is introduced and sandwiched in between the repetitions of the familiar one. The writing spirals and reaches for one crescendo after another; we might as well relinquish our preconceived notions and go with the flow. This is poetry and we are invited into its highly charged, imagistic world. There is a beginning and an end, however, and that is made clear in the first and the last chapters. The same saying begins and ends the book: “‘I am the Alpha and the Omega,’ says the Lord God, who is and who was and who is to come” (Rev. 1:8); “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end” (Rev. 22:13). “The end is near,” reads the sign carried by the prophet of doom in the cartoons. For us that is very good news indeed because the end is not an event; the end is God, who is always near. SESSION I: THE END OF TIME Opening Prayer God our creator, you make your home among us. Teach us to watch for your coming by feeding your people, comforting those who mourn, and bringing your justice to all. Guide our thoughts and lead us to your truth, through Jesus Christ, who reigns with you, now and forever. Amen. At the end of the first millennium, European Christians expected the return of Jesus, perhaps at the stroke of midnight on New Year’s Eve. Since they believed Jesus would come as judge, there was terror and a rush to clear the record. At the time Revelation was written (ca. 90 C.E.), the church leaders believed that Christ would return in their lifetimes, a belief that was a great comfort since it held the promise of rescue from the persecutions of that era. Today we hear many predictions about the end time, but the Bible specifically warns against trying to predict the day or the hour: Mark 13:32 says that not even the angels or the Son knows. Some biblical prophecy uses images of destruction, aberrations of nature, and upheaval; e.g., parts of Daniel and “the little apocalypse” of Mark 13. This literature is usually associated with the terror of invasion by a conquering army and with specific historical events and tyrants; the anguish is seen as the consequence of the people’s turning away from God. Other prophecy offers assurance of life in God’s future, using images of deserts in bloom, streams of living water, predators living peacefully together, feasts spread on God’s holy mountain, the gathering of the nations to worship God, and a holy city. Revelation has both kinds of images; it speaks of a particular political situation but invites us to take the warning as a word against the powers of evil in our own time and to draw comfort from the assurance of God’s ultimate rule already at work and brought to completion with the destruction of death and evil in God’s promised future. Read Mark 13:24-37; Isaiah 11:6-9; Revelation 21:1-7.

REFLECTION QUESTIONS The Bible offers a kaleidoscope of images about the end time. Who is speaking in each of the scripture readings above? Ask (ahead of time) three participants to prepare brief reports on the circumstances that led to these three prophecies, using commentaries and s tudy Bibles. Read the scriptures aloud and make a list of the images. Why are some comforting and some frightening? Which would you choose to read to someone struggling with a difficult issue today? The word “end” has two meanings: ‘termination point’ and ‘goal or purpose’, so “the end of the journey” can mean our destination, when we will arrive, and why we are going there. Discuss how “end” as “goal or purpose” relates to the biblical understanding of the “end of the age.” The old catechism question asks , “What is our chief end?” And the answer is “to glorify God and enjoy God forever.” What do you think this means? Ask someone to bring to the group definitions of “apocalypse” and “eschatology,” preferably from a theological dictionary. What is the significance of these concepts in discussing our beliefs about the future? The scriptures we are examining during these sessions are often read during Advent, Lent, and Easter. How do the readings above relate to the Advent theme of Christ’s coming? What do they say about Christ’s reign and when it begins?

CONNECTIONS What novels or movies can you name that deal with apocalyptic themes (e.g., A Clockwork Orange, Apocalypse Now)? Relate the image in Rev. 6:8 to the pale green horse in the movie Life Is Beautiful. Can you think of other movie images that might have come from Revelation? Political leaders talk about “end-game strategies.” What are some of their meanings? Does the church have an “end-game strategy”? Mark 13 tells us to live as if the end is near: “Be alert. . . .Keep awake!” Name specific ways we can demonstrate in our community that we joyfully await God’s coming. Closing Prayer Sing or read together “Love Divine, All Loves Excelling,” UMH #384. Allow time for silent or spoken prayers, and use the final stanza as a closing. SESSION II: HOPE FOR THE CHURCH Opening Prayer God our hope, your Son gives life to the church, making us his own body. Teach us to love the church as Christ loves us, to know its faults and its strengths as our own. May your Spirit guide us to become salt and light, justice and truth, through all the earth. We pray in the name of Jesus Christ our cornerstone. Amen. Read Revelation 2-3; Ezekiel 11:14-21, 18:21-32, 37:1-14. Revelation 2–3 addresses seven named churches located in Asia Minor (Turkey). The words refer to specific situations, but the use of the number 7, which is symbolic for wholeness, implies that these words of encouragement and judgment are also meant for the whole church. The messages to the churches offer harsh criticism, placing responsibility on the congregation for missed opportunities and for departing from the mission’s goal; but the words also offer hope and praise. John calls the church to endure and remain victorious in the midst of hardship and persecution, in a society hostile to the church’s new way of life. The final coming of Christ is used as an image to communicate that Christ comes at any time to anyone who wants to live in his presence.

Reflection Questions Summarize the messages to each of the seven churches. What problems do these first-century churches have that parallel problems in present-day churches, including ones in North America that are protected from political persecution? What admonitions are relevant for today’s congregations (or denominations)? What words of encouragement are offered for Christians in places where they are persecuted today? In what ways is the church in North America put in jeopardy today (e.g., by cultural and economic pressures)? Each message begins by stating who is the source of the words: “the first and the last, who was dead and came to life” (Rev. 2:8), for example. Read each of these statements about Jesus Christ and reflect on what aspects of his work they lift up. How do they provide a basis for hope? In the verses from Ezekiel, the prophet has harsh words for God’s people. They have turned away and failed to reflect God’s presence in the world. Yet there is hope. What is the role of confession and repentance for individuals and for the church as a body? Reflect on the phrase, “I will give them one heart, and put a new spirit within them” (Ezek. 11:19). Discuss your hopes for the possibility that the Spirit will breathe new life into the church. What will it take for that to happen? What is the church’s role in bringing God’s reign on earth? What does the promise of Jesus’ returning in glory mean for the church?

CONNECTIONS Write a poem or short essay on the difference between “wishing” and “hoping,” or bring to the group poems and hymns on the theme of hope. (For example, read Emily Dickinson’s “Hope is the thing with feathers”—online at www.emule.com/poetry.) What are your hopes for the church in the new millennium? Write a letter in the style of Revelation 2-3 to your congregation expressing these hopes. How does your congregation witness in your community concerning God’s intention for the earth to become a place where all people have access to life in abundance? What other things should we be doing? Closing Prayer Read or sing together “O God, Our Help in Ages Past,” UMH #117. Allow time for silent or spoken prayers, and close with the final stanza. SESSION III: JUDGMENT & JUSTICE Opening Prayer God our judge and protector, you have chosen us and made us your people. Give us the joy of knowing that you are present in those around us who must be fed, comforted, and freed. Teach us to remember the mark of our baptism as our sign of belonging only to you. Bring us into your gates with thanksgiving and into your courts with praise. Through Jesus Christ, who reigns with you and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Read Isaiah 25:1-9, Matthew 25:31-46, Revelation 20. Biblical pronouncements of judgment are often directed at nations and communities of people. They declare God’s intention to rescue the needy and restore the earth. They contain promises of an end to the reign of evil and death, using metaphors of a banquet, a garden, or a city of light. They expect that, as part of their restoration, the people will share in God’s work of healing, feeding, overturning, and building. Revelation 20 has puzzled generations of Christians. Today’s biblical scholars avoid emphasis on deciphering the numerology in Revelation, which in some cases—e.g., the number 666—may refer to people in John’s time whose names are no longer known. The number 1000—like 7, it implies completion or wholeness—reflects God’s way of keeping time, not ours (see Psalm 90:4), and therefore should not be tied to any human dating. In any case, the 1000 years is for binding Satan to allow the perfection of the saints and not, as some interpretations would have it, intended as a limit to the duration of Christ’s reign. You may want to note that there is no mention of “the rapture” in Revelation; in fact, a reverse journey is depicted: God comes to earth.

REFLECTION QUESTIONS Participants in this study will want to consult commentaries for a discussion of the questions raised in Rev. 20. Who are the martyrs and why are they singled out? What is the “first resurrection” (v. 6); is it the resurrection experienced in baptism by all or a privilege extended only to martyrs? Does the binding of Satan begin with Jesus’ ministry (see Matt. 12:26-29) or later? Who or what does “the prostitute of Babylon” represent? Does this chapter resonate with our experience of cycles in history when the power of evil seems to be controlled and then experiences a resurgence? What do Isa. 25:1-9 and Matt. 25:31-46 say about judgment? What do they say about justice? In Comfort and Protest, Allan Boesak compared the oppression of Rome in the time of Revelation to apartheid in South Africa in the ‘70s and ‘80s. In Apocalypse: A People’s Commentary, Pablo Richard sees in Revelation hope for the oppressed in Latin America who believe in a “God who does justice now in history.” Why do you think Revelation is often a favorite book of oppressed people? Does it offer more than “pie in the sky”? God’s special blessing in Revelation 20 is for those “who had not worshiped the beast and had not received its mark on their foreheads or their hands” (v. 4). These were Christians in John’s churches who had refused to worship the Emperor as a deity and had resisted the values of imperial Rome. Dietrich Bonhoeffer saw the beast in Hitler and regarded those who resisted the Nazi system as martyrs—he himself became a martyr. In our society, what powers demand our “worship” and allegiance? What stories in the media, popular culture, and advertising compete with God’s story for our hearts and souls?

CONNECTIONS Collect and display prints or museum postcards of great artists’ renditions of scenes from Revelation, e.g., William Blake and Albrecht Dürer. Listen to recordings of the African-American spirituals “My Lord, What a Morning” and “Ride the Chariot.” (An excellent new recording, “The Promise of Living,” for example, is available from Foundry United Methodist Church, 1500 16th St., Washington, DC 20036.) Reflect on the joy associated with judgment day in these songs. Some congregations call their social action committees “The Matthew 25 Society.” What activities would a group by that name be involved in? Closing Prayer Sing or read together “For All the Saints,” UMH #711. Allow time for silent or spoken prayers, and use the final stanza as a closing. SESSION IV: “WORSHIP GOD!” Opening Prayer God of mercy and might, we come rejoicing in the day that you have made. Teach us to praise you with our lives, to worship you in the beauty of holiness, in city streets, hospital rooms, desert places, and behind prison walls. Guide us with your Spirit, and grant that we may be holy and acceptable in your sight. Through Christ our Lord. Amen. Read Isaiah 55:1-13; Revelation 4:8; 5:13; 7:14-17; 19:1-3, 16; 22:17, 20, 21. What will we do in God’s marvelous city? We will engage in what should be the primary activity of the church in every age: We will worship God. John received this instruction in 22:9, and indeed, much of the Book of Revelation is about worship. John, separated from his congregation on the island of his exile, hears hymns and liturgies in his imagination, and they become part of the revelations. This worship that John remembers and continues to engage in is not passive or unrelated to life in the “real world.” It is alive with possibility; it is all about feeding the hungry, giving living water to the thirsty, and shaking off the yoke of oppression. For John’s community, worship was a political act and a dangerous one. Paul says that our “spiritual worship” is to present ourselves as “a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God” (Rom. 12:1). For all people of all time, the worship of the holy God is an act of defiance against the powers that serve death and evil in our world. It is also a joyous act of remembering who we are and whose we are. “When we’ve been there ten thousand years, bright shining as the sun, we’ve no less days to sing God’s praise than when we’d first begun.” (“Amazing Grace,” UMH 378)

REFLECTION QUESTIONS Isaiah 55 speaks of the restoration of earth and the time when food and water will be freely available to all. God counts time not in months or hours but in sabbaths; and sabbath days and sabbath years are for resting and restoring minds and bodies, for letting the land lie fallow, for canceling debts, for freeing slaves, for glorifying God. “Proclaim liberty throughout the land,” is the watchword for the sabbath year proclaimed in Lev. 25. Those same words are engraved on the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia. What would it mean for our church and our nation to take God’s creation of the sabbath seriously? How can we live out the spirit of sabbath in our family life, in our communities, and in our obligations to the earth and its peoples? Read aloud the texts from Revelation for this session. Which ones might have been used in baptism or communion liturgies? Which ones are heard in familiar hymns? Which one sounds like a prayer for Advent? What does it mean that God is holy? What does it mean for us to be holy? Why might the use of these liturgies have disturbed the Roman authorities? Like the exiled writer of Revelation, political prisoners sometimes survive anxious solitude by remembering parts of worship books: Terry Waite, held hostage in Iran, said prayers from The Book of Common Prayer; American missionaries in Chinese prisons during the Korean War recited the psalms. What hymns, prayers, or scripture would you rely on if you were separated for a long period from your worshiping community? What is your definition of worship? How can worship encompass the whole life and ministry of the church? How does it speak to our hopes for life in God’s reign? Reflect on the meaning of baptism and eucharist for our ministry in the world. Revelation speaks of the priesthood of all God’s people (Rev. 1:6, 5:10, 20:6). What authority are we given by our baptism, and what is our responsibility for worship in our congregations?

CONNECTIONS Using a recording of Handel’s Messiah, select portions that are based on the Book of Revelation for music to accompany a time of silent reflection. What would you recommend to your church council and worship commission as they plan worship for your congregation in the new millennium? Make a list of creative ideas based on your discussion of Revelation. Make a plan for celebrating the year 2000 as a sabbath year in your congregation. Include ideas for restoring the earth through environmental projects, visiting the sick and imprisoned, ministry to the grieving, support for families and children, breaking the hold of slavery (including the slavery of addiction and consumerism), examining economic oppression and our country’s role in it, and working for peace.   CLOSING PRAYER Sing or read together “Holy, Holy, Holy,” UMH #64. Allow time for silent or spoken prayers, and close with the final stanza. See also UMH #734, “Canticle of Hope.” SUGGESTIONS FOR ADDITIONAL SESSIONS Singing Revelation. Plan a hymn sing and study. Using the Index of Scripture in UMH pp. 924-26, select hymns based on Revelation texts to study. Assign a hymn to each participant who will make a brief presentation to the group that includes reading the particular Revelation text and leading reflection on what it teaches us about God’s promises. The Crucified and Risen Christ. What does Revelation say about Jesus Christ? Examine the references to Christ’s victory (Rev. 1:5-6, 17-18; 5:6-14; 6:1-8:1; 12:7-12; 19:9-10; 21:22). The dominant image for Jesus is the Lamb. Where else in scripture is that image used and what does it tell us about God’s redeeming work? See especially Gen. 22:1-14, Isa. 53, John 1:29-37. Watch at the World’s End. This short dramatic meditation written by Philip Turner for five actors or readers is an appropriate chancel drama for millennium celebrations. Your group might plan and produce a performance as readers’ theater or for a congregational worship service during Lent. (Available from Baker’s Plays, P. O. Box 69922, Quincy, MA 02269-9222, Fax: 617-745-9891, www.bakersplays.com.) SUGGESTED RESOURCES Commentaries Eugene M. Boring, Revelation, Interpretation (Louisville, KY: John Knox Press, 1989). Elisabeth Schuessler Fiorenza, Revelation: Vision of a Just World, Proclamation Commentaries (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1991). Christopher C. Rowland, “The Book of Revelation,” The New Interpreter’s Bible, Vol. XII (Nashville: Abingdon, 1998). James L. Mays, Gen. Ed., The Harper Collins One-Volume Commentary of the Bible (San Francisco: Harper Collins, 1988). Other Resources Dialog: A Journal of Theology, Vol. 37, No. 4, Fall 1998, St. Paul, MN. Allan Boesak, Comfort and Protest: Reflections on the Apocalypse of St. John of Patmos (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1987). Elisabeth Schuessler Fiorenza, Invitation to the Book of Revelation (Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Company, 1981). C. Freeman Sleeper, The Victorious Christ: A Study of the Book of Revelation (Louisville: Westminster-John Knox, 1996). Eugene S. Wehrli, The Shape of Hope (Philadelphia: United Church Press, 1968). Study Bibles The New Oxford Annotated Bible, NRSV (New York: Oxford University Press, 1991). The Harper Collins Study Bible, NRSV (San Francisco: Harper Collins, 1993).           -- Blair Gilmer Meeks is an educator, writer, and editor with special interest in worship and Bible study. She was the editor of the journal Liturgy and the book Landscape of Praise. She writes for a variety of church resources and is production editor for the Cokesbury newsletter PreachLink: Bridging Gospel and Culture. She lives in Brentwood, Tennessee.

| Introduction | Preface | Contents | Copyright | | Millennial Perspectives | Worship and Study Resources | | Seven Days of Praise and Prayer |Prayer and Worship for a Jubilee Week | The Last Letter: Revelation’s News | Repairing the World: God's Gift of Jubilee | Hymns | Additional Liturgical Resources | Appendix |