Revelation 7:9-17
9 After this I looked, and there was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, robed in white, with palm branches in their hands. 10 They cried out in a loud voice, saying, "Salvation belongs to our God who is seated on the throne, and to the Lamb!"
11 And all the angels stood around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, 12 singing, "Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen."
13 Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, "Who are these, robed in white, and where have they come from?" 14 I said to him, "Sir, you are the one that knows." Then he said to me, "These are they who have come out [who are (still) coming out] of the great ordeal; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. 15 For this reason they are before the throne of God, and worship him day and night within his temple, and the one who is seated on the throne will shelter them.
16 "They will hunger no more, and thirst no more; the sun will not strike them, nor any scorching heat; 17 for the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of the water of life, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes."
Good Shepherd Sunday
Easter 4 is Good Shepherd Sunday in all three lectionary years, so the responsive psalm is…23. In this second reading from Revelation, the Lamb is the Shepherd, the Shepherd is the Lamb.
Genesis 1 and 2 are the first books in the biblical canon; a garden with a tree of life and a river of life belongs with the original creation. Revelation is the last book in the bible; it reveals the new creation with the garden of resurrection grown into a city – the "new Jerusalem" – that like the old Jerusalem, forms an axis mundi to connect earth and heaven. This city has life-giving trees and a river of life but unlike the old Jerusalem, it has no temple. The one who is lord reigns from the throne of God —from the cross.
Revelation is not chronologically the latest book of the bible; Genesis 1 and 2 are not chronologically the earliest.
Author and Context
Tradition says the author "John" wrote from the Roman prison island of Patmos in present-day Turkey, although recent scholarship suggests John could have been an itinerant preacher who made Patmos a regular stop on his circuit. Revelation's author definitely is not John the Evangelist whose community brought us the 4th gospel.
Written between 90 and 100, during the reign of Roman Caesar Domitian, Revelation shows us how empires operate, and provides subversive, counter-cultural ways to resist. Rome was one in an endless series of empires that continues globally through this twenty-first century. Revelation is a liturgical, political, counter-imperial text, a guidebook for living out our baptism into Jesus' death and resurrection as an alternative to violence and death in the midst of any empire.
Revelation Is Not
An indecipherable collection of strange sayings or predictions of events future to when John the Revelator recorded it. Just as with a lot of literature and conversations, Revelation includes symbols, code words, and figures of speech. The book opens with the author telling us it's an apocalypse that uncovers, unveils, reveals: The apocalypse [revelation] of Jesus Christ, which God gave…
This is the Feast
From verse 12 in today's second reading we get "This is the Feast," the hymn of praise we often sing during festival seasons. It brings us seven – the number of completion and perfection – words of praise to God and to the Lamb:
1. blessing 2. glory 3. wisdom 4. thanksgiving 5. honor 6. power 7. might
The liturgical song announces, "This is the Feast of Victory for our God," but verse 10 proclaims God's salvation and not God's victory. In Revelation: Vision of a Just World Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza reminds us in that culture the concept of salvation (brought by a Savior, of course) was synonymous with the fullness of God's reign described in verse 16 as no hunger or thirst, no scorching heat (or icy cold), no sorrow or tears—essentially Shalom. She points out how close this was to the supposed Pax Romana of the Roman emperor that instead of peace dealt out cruelty, death, and devastation.
Note to self: I bought and read the book, but I've yet to review and blog it. I'll add the old Proclamation commentary series from Fortress Press are skinny (less than 200 pages!) books and each provides an excellent and accessible overview of the scriptural book in its title. They're out of print, but look on eBay.
And More
"After this" at verse 9 refers to 7:4-8 and their description of the 144,000 plus tribes of Israel along with ethnicities, nations, languages, and cultures that fulfill God's promise to Abram of faithful descendants greater in number than stars in the sky, more than grains of sand. Some of those faithful descendants include us, the church! These people still stand solidly on earth and have not been raptured.
Verse 14 Those who have come out of the mega ordeal – in the Greek – still are coming out. The church lives out its baptismal call and identity in Jesus' death and resurrection alongside the pain and suffering in the world. God in the Spirit calls and enables us to be a counter-force to the deadly violence of empire.
Verse 15 The Shepherd-Lamb on the throne will shelter us with a dwelling, booth, tent, tabernacle. This is the same word as in John 1:14 that tells us the pre-existent word became flesh and lived in our midst, literally "pitched a tent," a portable structure (ramada?) that would go with us wherever we journeyed. There are many fine articles online and in print where you can read more about God's presence in the Ark of the Covenant /Tabernacle and the Festival of Booths /Succoth.
Every week during the liturgy we pray the counter imperial: "Our Father, who art in heaven… for thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory, forever and ever." Authority, power, and glory belong to God. Not to Caesar. Not to any national government. Not to any global corporation.
Postscript
Roman Catholic and mainline Protestant Christians have been very cautious about public reading and interpretation of this book. I've read that Orthodox Churches don't include Revelation in their lectionary schedule of scripture readings. Continental European Reformers Martin Luther and Ulrich Zwingli famously did not believe Revelation belonged in the bible; John Calvin wrote a commentary on every NT book except Revelation. However, you've likely heard of the Left Behind and Late Great Planet Earth books that flooded best seller lists a few decades ago and still have currency and clout in certain circles.
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