Sermon thoughts and other musings

This is a well-known passage where Jesus speaks of the fact that "my sheep hear my voice." But the simple question is: when did we first decide that we heard the voice of Christ leading us? Do we still hear that voice today and follow it, or do we hear it and pretend that we didn't?

On this Mother's Day, the situation bears a striking resemblance to motherhood (though the only thing I know about parenthood comes from having parents, not being one!). Children seem to go through three phases with regard to their parents: the blind obedience of the young child, the open rebellion of adolescence, and finally an adult appreciation for their parents. I think we tend to go through similar phases with regard to God.

Sheep are notorious for following the herd. When we hear God's voice call to lead us, are we willing to follow the voice, or would we rather follow the herd?

If any of you actually follow the Revised Common Lectionary, you'll notice that I am swapping the May 2 and May 9 weeks. This was a practical decision having to do with the music for the band. I'm sure you don't care!

On the subject of preaching Revelation... what can I say? First, it's really important to me to stress that most of the popular readings of Revelation, namely the "Left Behind" books, represent a theology that is foreign to most Presbyterians. The flaws are almost too numerous to mention, but let's begin by rebutting the idea that Revelation is only about the "end times." Treating it like some coded message is pure hubris; it presumes that everyone else was too stupid to break the code, but now some TV evangelists understand what escaped everyone else for 2,000 years? Religious conservatives have hijacked Revelation to make it a political text in opposition to things such as the United Nations and the Euro. They see any attempt at unifying the nations to be contrary to Scripture. That just baffles me.

By the way, I watched the "Left Behind" movie. It's just a bad movie. Very bad. You know how a high school play is often brutal to watch - except for the parents of the kids who are in it? Well this movie features high school acting in a script that could only be loved by someone who already buys into their theology. It doesn't stand a chance of convincing someone.

Anyway, Revelation, like all Biblical texts, has to have significance to all people in all places at all times. It loses its meaning if we try to say that it's only about the future. What about the present? What about the past?

What did it mean in the past? Even this is subject to considerable debate. After all, we don't know for sure who wrote it, when, or why. The consensus appears to be that it was written during the time of the Emperor Domitian, ca. 95 A.D. Domitian has a reputation as a brutal dictator who persecuted Christians, but modern scholarship suggests that this aspect was overblown; he probably didn't persecute Christians as Christians. This fact (if it's true) dents one of the common scholarly perspectives on Revelation; namely, that it was written to provide solace to persecuted Christians of his time. But regardless, a reading that leaves Revelation purely in the past is as unsatisfying as a reading that leaves it purely in the future.

But what of the present? In any present time, Revelation gives us a message that calls us to re-envision what the world can be like. Through fantastic imagery, Revelation gives us a glimpse of how different the world looks when viewed from a different perspective. It tells us that God understands how messed up our world is; it tells us that God cares.