World Without End

Christian Time and the End of Times

I took this picture earlier in the year of my favorite prayer shack at the Abbey of Gethsemani in Bardstown, Ky.  Famous as the monastery of Thomas Merton, I can completely lose track of time during my retreats there.  This particular Rosary Hut is my favorite place to forget about things and concentrate on prayer. I leave behind the time that often rules me and enter into the liminal space of eternal time.

In my studies on the book of Revelation, I am coming to the growing conviction that the book is less about a linear dating of a dramatic close of life and instead that it is a narrative of Christians living inside the world.  How we further identify our own dwelling place, either in the city of God or in Babylon, Revelation speaks to the timeless breadth of the Church. 

I have been surveying what others think about this idea and I have found some very interesting thoughts.  In the book Narrative Reading, Narrative Preaching: Reuniting New Testament Interpretation and Proclamation,Stanley P. Saunders writes a chapter titled Revelation and Resistance: Narrative and Worship in John's Apocalypse. Saunders quickly sums his reading of Revelation in this quote;

Revelation was created for oral performance amid the eucharistic gatherings of the early Christians.

Saunders trots this out by dealing with the linear structure of the way that we assume narrative generally takes place, and explains it as only making sense inside a non-linear "imaginative participation".  I have also been listening to lectures by Thomas Hopko's Apocalypse: The Book of Revelation Within Orthodox Christian Tradition. This series outlines the book of Revelation within an Orthodox framework.  The Orthodox lectionary doesn't have a single reading from Revelation, it is the only NT book left out of their reading cycle.  Hopko goes on to teach that its inclusion is not necessary because Revelation is woven throughout the Orthodox liturgy as a foundational principle.

Christian time differs from earthly time.  It is caught up in the idea of time being something that is conceded to man so we can better understand who God is. Worship is then an active rehersal of the world according to God.  To think of time being final to God is quite silly.  Revelation as scripture is highly illogical in the most rational sense, because it must be read in relation to the entire canon. By removing the fairly recent interpretation of Revelation being a calender and instead integrating it within Christian time gives us a better reading, and a truer one to the larger tradition of Christian history.

Doing this isn't easy, and it takes stretches that might need a generation.  Revelation must be preached, and not just to ease congregational concern.  It is like remolding play-dough, and even having to add some water to it in the process.  Revelation is a book of worship acted out in participation.  It is an apostolic narrative of resisting the world.  The 7 churches in chapters two and three set the stage, and the rest of the book is a culmination of biblical idolatry and the consequences of it. 

In the end (no pun intended), we live against the idea of the end of times and actually think of the book as the entirety of time.

Glory be to the Father, Son and Holy Spirit:
As it was in the beginning, is now, and shall ever be, world without end.

 

St. Augustine on the Lion and the Lamb

I am preaching from Revelation 5 this weekend, and in my prep I was reading through the Revelation (Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture) volume on Revelation.  This is a great series highlighting Patristic writing on the Bible.  Below is an extended quote from St. Augustine on viewing Christ as the Lion and the Lamb in chapter 5.

"Like a sheep he was led to be slaughtered, and like a lamb in the presence of the shearer he was without voice, thus he did not open his mouth." Who is this? Obviously the one about whom he goes on to say, "In humility his judgement was taken away. His generation, who shall relate?" I can see this model of humility in a  king of such power and authority. Because this one, who is like a lamb not opening its mouth in the presence of the shearer, is himself "the lion from the tribe of Judah."

Who is this, both lion and lamb? He endured death as a lamb; he devoured it as a lion. Who is this, both lion and lamb? Gentle and strong, lovable and terrifying, innocent and mighty, silent when he was being judged, roaring when he comes to judge. Or perhaps both in his passion lamb and lion, and also in his resurrection lion and lamb. Let us see him as a lamb in his passion. It was stated a moment ago: "Like a lamb in the midst of his shearer he was without voice, thus he did not open his mouth." Let us see him as a lion in his passion: Jacob said, "You have gone up, lying down you have slept like a lion." Let us see him as a lamb in his resurrection.

The book of Revelation, when it was talking about the eternal glory of virgins, "They follow the lamb, it is said, wherever he goes." The same book of Revelation says, what I mentioned just now, "The lion from the tribe of Judah has conquered, to open the book." Why a lamb in his passion? Because he underwent death without being guilty of any iniquity. Why a lion in his passion? Because in being slain he slew death. Why a lamb in his resurrection? Because his innocence is everlasting. Why a lion in his resurrection? Because everlasting also in his might" Sermon 375 A.I."

I love how the Fathers are able to explain scripture from what is called "the mind of scripture", being that they were so read in the scripture that they are able to explain things from the entire canon, reading the Christ event across the whole text.

Glory be to the Father, Son and Holy Spirit;
As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be

Worship, Eschatology and Sacramental Imagination

I teach people about blogging and social media alot (its one of the main topics I hit on at the other blog outsideisbetter.net).  In keeping up with my hits from search engines on this blog I notice that I get alot of inquiries regarding sacraments and eschatology.  I have referenced this paper before, but I wanted to put it up in the embedded format.  I wrote this for a Sacraments class a couple of years ago and I think it answers alot of questions.  I will warn that this is an academic paper-so it gets heady, but I still like it and have sent it to folks that have emailed me with questions.  Enjoy

Glory be to the Father, Son and Holy Spirit;
As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be

Worship, Eschatology and Sacramental Imagination

The power of story and apocalypse

A sampling
Originally uploaded by chadbrooks

I have been on vacation for a couple of weeks and today is my first full day home. I wanted to watch a movie for a little while just to lay low. Out of 5 DVDs randomly on top of the player...these three were found. The others were some of Meredith's marathon documentaries.

Most of my friends laugh at my collection, because I have a thing for post-apocalyptic movies. Funny thing is, most of our culture (especially the younger folk) do as well. In a secular culture that has no narrative of a beginning... a narrative regarding the end has to be made up. Consider it the joy of living in a postmodern matrix. Our reaction of some random scientific situation beginning our world means that some other random moment will end this world.

These movies provide a secular prophetic narrative, hopefully showing the woes of societal disintegration and causing the viewer to beware of what led to it. Whether it is the war machine, a random zombie virus, or the aftermath of a culture barely functioning and feeding off itself, these three movies provide just a hint of the story that folks and trying to write. By pointing out what could happen....the hope is that we now will change to avoid it.

The genre is one of my favorite (trust me...Zombieland is very entertaining) because it is sometimes humorous, but more in how it tells the story a world without the Triune God is hoping to avoid. It is our culture trying to imagine how a world that was never created can implode.

This is why I think about these things so much. As a church, we should be telling our story...from creation to end.

Glory be to the Father, Son and Holy Spirit;
As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be

Baptism and Zombies

After a conversation with a friend yesterday, I remembered this sermon I wrote and preached for a class on mystagogical preaching.  Mystagogy is an ancient style of preaching that centered around the sacraments and explained them using everyday materials as well as a wealth of biblical metaphors.  While it sounds serious, it was also very playful and was used more as instructional than evangelistic.  These sermons where heard in the 3-5th century during the time of preparation of baptism.  When I thought sacramental as well as playful......why not zombies and baptism?

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There are two things in life that I fear. One of them is rational and the other is very irrational. The first fear is of fish, and I think given circumstances that we cannot get into today, it is a completely rational fear. This second fear has nowhere near the level of explanation needed to justify it. It has only entered my life in the last few months and over-takes me in my sleep at times. I am deathly afraid of Zombies. That’s right, zombie’s.
 
Zombie’s have recently entered pop culture again in may area’s. If anyone here is part of the social networking website Facebook.com, no doubt you have grown tired of invites to play the zombie game. Look at the Zombie movies that have come out in the last few years, even the legendary George Romero (writer and director of “Night of the Living Dead”) has come back into the spotlight by directing and writing Zombie movies again. Max Brooks, son of satirist Mel Brooks, has written a book entitled “The Zombie Survival Guide”, that is listed at #466 overall, and at #1 in satire, #4 in Foreign Languages, and # 15 in Nonfiction education. Brooks goes through everything you need to know in a situation ranging from a level 1 attack, with 1-5 zombies, and level 4, what he calls a zombie apocalypse. Inside the book are instructions to fortifying your home, evading zombie hordes while on the run, setting up a large scale zombie fortress in a prison and finally restarting civilization after the zombies are destroyed. Our society is clearly fascinated with the undead!!!
 
Growing up Baptist, the only remote liturgical element in baptism was the phrase “Raised from death into the newness of Life”. In the United Methodist Book of Worship there is a phrase “We are Incorporated into God’s mighty acts of salvation and given new birth through water and the Spirit”. These two phrases are saying the same thing. My Father baptized me, and I remember hearing the words as I came out of the water. I grew up watching him baptize people and recite these words week after week. This is a powerful thing for a young boy to hear, and a powerful thing to see his earthly father participating in. This phrase is said over you and to the entire congregation because there is power in baptism.
 

When you are baptized you figuratively die and rise again-Just as Christ literally died and rose again. In baptism you are woken up and have the light of Christ shining on you. The night is now gone and our salvation is near to us now, and we cast off the works of darkness and instead have Christ. Through Christ all things have creation and existence.

We are awakened to a new reality through our baptism being placed inside of God’s continuing action, joined with the Church and ultimately being brought into our proper place of loving union with the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
 

Where we encounter the problem is with our sin nature.
 

There is a military term, “being baptized by fire”, meaning that it is only in the action of combat that the skills needed to be a good soldier surface. What could not be taught becomes instinct. One of the parts of this is the “1000 yard stare”, a look in the eyes of the soldier that allows him function in combat at his best, it is a look of intense aggression and scrutiny of elements. Some have a problem with baptism in the Old Testament and say that the non-existence of the act in before Christ negates it’s need to us a Christians today. But I say to you Moses was baptized. He was baptized by fire, by fulfilling his calling to lead Israel out of Egypt. Just as Moses was baptized by fire so was Gideon and his 300, David and his sling, and Jeremiah in the pit. The Holy Spirit descended upon them at the appointed time and gave them the instincts to join with God in his redemption of the world. Think about what the 1000 stare Moses directed at Pharoah and said “Let my people Go”!
 

After baptism we outwardly do not look any different. John the Revelator tells us that once in the throne room of God we are clothed in pure, white robes. But as you and I walk around on the earth today, we are covered in the ever-flowing sacrificial blood of Christ, and every day as we go to the Triune God we are covered again with a fresh washing of the blood of the lamb. This is more powerful than any system of defense or handheld weapon. When Satan sees us, we resemble the slain lamb and on our forehead is the mark of his suffering, the mark of the cross.
 

The problem is that many Christians walk around un-dead, zombies in this world and the spiritual world. They have come out of the cleansing water into new birth, but are still captive to their sin, still bound to it. They are no longer standing firm inside of the mysteries. They have stopped coming to Christ, and their covering of sacrificial blood is caking up and flaking off. The cross on their forehead is no longer seen. They go through life stumbling through sin, not knowing why they have the desire to feed on it and why they seem drawn to it. Their 1000 yard stare has been reduced to inches.
 

But, we have a cure that George Romero could only dream off in his series of movies, and at first glance-it is more bloody than anything man imagined. The constant fountain of grace that flows from Christ, our great high priest who has passed through the heavens and who is the Son of God..... the source of our new life. Come back to your confession. Christ our Lord has been through temptation just like us, and has ultimately and finally defeated Satan. With confidence we come to this fountain and recover ourselves in the blood on a daily basis.
 

So friends, cover yourselves. Be not afraid of re-awakening to a new life. Our flesh is made alive in the Holy Spirit. Christ came not only by water, but by blood and the Spirit. The Spirit shows us the way to this fountain. Let the Spirit lead you today to the only source, the antidote of a truly awakened life to Christ.

Glory be to the Father, Son and Holy Spirit;
As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be

Tears in Heaven

They always say a blog post needs a catchy title, so why not an Eric Clapton lyric?

A few weeks ago I started sharing some of my thoughts about tears in Revelation 7 and 21.  I have been looking at the grammatical structures in the NT Greek, but they don't have the rich theologizing that the OT Hebrew does.  There is one interesting piece, but I want to think about it some more.

Here is what I have been working through this week.  Below are the two usages of tears/δάκρυον in the verses.

Rev. 7:17 because the Lamb in the middle of the throne will shepherd them and lead them to springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”

Rev. 21:4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death will not exist any more—or mourning, or crying, or pain, for the former things have ceased to exist.”

(NET translation)

The interesting piece is that the italicized phrase in 7:17 is an allusion to Isaiah 25:8

He will swallow up death permanently. The sovereign LORD will wipe away the tears from every face, and remove his people’s disgrace from all the earth.  Indeed, the LORD has announced it!

In both our passages in Revelation, we see a theme of re-building not just the created order, but putting the earthly social structure back together in an imaginative way.  It is something fulfilling enough to not just be an individual state of bliss, but a view of heaven as an all encompassing reality in which all that is evil is broken apart and goodness is the order of eternity (Read Isaiah 25 for the full picture of the OT narrative).

I am beginning to get a better definition of tears for these 2 passages, and it has to do with the greater idea of what is contributing to the action of crying.

Glory be to the Father, Son and Holy Spirit;
As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be

Why I like The Lamb

I spent last weekend with Meredith's family, along with a real quick chance to see my kid sister graduate with her Doctorate in Physical Therapy.  One of the themes of the weekend was seeing my “big ass” tattoo that I had done this last winter.  Oddly enough, I didn’t have to explain it that much to them, but I often am asked what it means.  The Agnus Dei is a traditional image of Christ in the community of John (gospel of John, 1.2.3. John and Revelation).  I thought long and hard about this, and was excited to finally go through with it.

I did it because I like all of the “lamb” imagery in the scriptures and in Church tradition.  It is a strong image that affects our eschatological views regarding the atonement.  In first century thought, especially in the minds of the disciples, the “lamb of God” shows a paradox.  Whereas the horror of the cross would mean the defeat of a messianic movement instead death is now defeated and turned on it’s head.

It speaks of the character of Christ after the cross.  The “slain lamb” is a symbol of the defeat while still bearing the mark of the sacrifice.  The syllogism of mystical 1st century Christianity shows the radical Christology that was developing in within the first generation of the church.

Jesus is the Lamb.
Jesus is God.
Therefore, the Lamb is God.

The image of the lamb is built in mission.  When the Father places the trust of the scroll to the lamb in Revelation 5 He is placing all of history and the power that entails within the hands of Christ.  Christ is worshipped as God.  The power of future history is placed within the redemptive hope of a promised eternal fulfillment, draped in the grace of the death conqueror.  Christ appears as involved in history and not simply watching over it.

The atonement is placed in this future hope.  The death and rise of Christ was accomplished not because of legal satisfaction-but because of the gracious "fittingness" of the incarnation. Because of who the Triune God is, incarnation would happen in order to fully express gracious love to humanity.  The image of the Lamb resounds with multiple images found throughout the sacrificial system of the Old Testament, as well as parallels between Christ’s death on the cross and the instruction of preparing the Paschal lamb during the passover.

Some would prefer to imagine a literal idea of Christ with a sword in his mouth (ch 19), and this is an image shared with chapters 1 and 2, but the greater theological significance and linking across the larger story of salvation of lamb imagery teaches us about a deeper characteristic of Christ as a humble and willing sacrifice.

How do we talk about the death of Christ in places that are most lacking in hope and feel as though they are removed from the scope of God's actions?  We talk how seeing Jesus as a loving sacrifice that changed everything.  The aging primary model of penal substitution just doesn't work (and it is a dated, culture specific idea), and the idea simply doesn't function well in a world where the individual is a supreme definer of goodness.  History is held in the hands of our Lord, and he is the only appropriate one to rule over it.  This rule isn't marked by anger, rage and violence but by the exact opposite.