Throughout the year, the Southern New England Conference of the United Church of Christ reproduces the Daily Lectionary for use by churches.  These are the suggested readings for March 31st:  Job 13:13-19; Psalm 31:9-16; and Philippians 1:21-30.  I would encourage you to read these short selections as part of your Lenten practice.

Today is the sixth Lenten Friday, days of heightened solemnity during the already solemn Season of Lent.  Fridays are times when we are called to especially meditate upon the meaning of the cross and of the crucified Saviour of us all.  There are often two theological terms associated since early Christianity with the cross.  One is more familiar than the other.  The more familiar term is redemption.  This is the theology that Jesus redeems us from our sins through His sacrificial death.  Jesus paid the price for our sins by dying for us, in other words.  I imagine this must have been an almost immediate theme of justification among believers who were struggling to explain the public execution of Jesus. 

The three Synoptic Gospels present Jesus at the Last Supper on Passover, which means that the Passover lambs have already been sacrificed.  A generation later John shares a different tradition.  Jesus is on the cross a full day earlier than in the Synoptics as the Passover lambs are being slaughtered in the Temple (cf. 19:14, 31,42).  The Passover meal has not yet been eaten.  For John’s theology this change is warranted.  From the very beginning of his Gospel, Jesus is acclaimed by John the Baptist as he declares, “‘Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!’” (1:29) 

The blood of the Passover lamb in the Exodus story was smeared on the doorposts of the homes of the Hebrews in Egypt.  The blood alerted the angel of death to “pass over” those homes as the rest of Egypt suffered through the death of their first born.  The blood of the sacrificed lamb saved the people of God.  It is not difficult to see the immediate connection between this well known and beloved tradition and Jesus on the cross.  It must have been comforting and clarifying to equate Jesus’ death as sacrificial, as the perfect sin offering to God on the altar of the cross. 

In the Epistle to the Hebrews, Jesus is referred to as both the High Priest making the offering and as the offering itself:  “This [Jesus] did once for all when he offered himself.” (7:27)  Jesus the High Priest is the only biblical reference to a Christian priesthood.  Those first Christians were confronted with the scandal of the cross and the theology of redemption akin to the Passover lamb was an obvious and dignified response.  Jesus is both the singular High Priest and the perfect offering.

Another biblical theme resulting from the crucifixion is what is termed regeneration.  The cross serves to regenerate us, renew and refresh us.  The cross is not so much about taking away sins as it is about regenerating our spiritual selves.  As one example, in Romans we read, “For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, much more surely, having been reconciled, will we be saved by his life.” (5:10)  What this means is that the cross’ salvation is not through the death of Jesus in isolation.  It is through the cross as the final statement of Jesus’ life’s ministry and message.  We are “saved by his life” writes Paul, and the cross is not Jesus’ death per se, but the climactic, conclusive final act of Jesus’ life.  We are reconciled by living like Jesus, by having our faith regenerated by such a love as is manifest by the life of Jesus including the end of that holy life on the cross.

There is much to ponder in the cross of Christ, its scandal and its sacredness, its forgiveness and its regeneration.  And the cross is also a challenge and this is what we read today in Philippians:  “For he has graciously granted you the privilege not only of believing in Christ, but of suffering for him as well.”  How will the cross affect the way we live?  I hope these six Lenten Fridays and all the other Lenten days as well have provided us the opportunities to think more deeply about what Jesus, and He crucified, means to us today, and also what it implies for how we live today.
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If you’d like, here is the link to the Southern New England Conference’s daily reading schedule:  www.sneucc.org/lectionary.

Throughout the year, the Southern New England Conference of the United Church of Christ reproduces the Daily Lectionary for use by churches.  These are the suggested readings for March 30th:  Psalm 143; Jeremiah 32:1-9, 36-41; and Matthew 22:23-33.  I would encourage you to read these short selections as part of your Lenten practice.

Let me begin by apologizing for my mistake.  I copied the readings intended for today but used them accidentally in yesterday’s Lenten Blog.  So now I am copying yesterday’s biblical selections for today’s post.

Jeremiah is confined “in the court of the guard that was in the palace of the king of Judah.”  This was a rather practical decision on the king’s part.  The Babylonian army had already marched through the lands of Israel and Judah and were now besieging the capital city of Jerusalem.  The situation was obviously dire.  The city’s defenders did not need to have a prophet running around Jerusalem telling everyone that their cause was hopeless, that the city would fall to the Babylonians and the king would be dethroned and taken away captive.

Neither did Jeremiah relish this task of preaching defeat and destruction.  The Book of Jeremiah is probably the most psychologically revealing of any in the Bible.  Jeremiah gives utterance to his internal conflicts that arise as he remains faithful to God’s word while simultaneously regretting what is revealed.  In today’s passage, however, there is a prophetic compromise between the two.

Jeremiah’s nephew asks him to purchase a field that he owns.  The field is already within the control of the occupying Babylonian army and yet Jeremiah buys it.  This is testimony of future restoration.  Yahweh has revealed through Jeremiah that the nation will collapse, but through this act Yahweh also promises that this destruction is not final.  There will be a time of return and Yahweh promises, “They shall be my people, and I will be their God.”

In today’s Gospel passage, Jesus shares the extraordinary message of restoration.  Death is not final as the Sadducees believed.  Death’s destruction would give way to eternal life.  Death would not only be defeated by life’s restoration, but death would be a passage to an entirely new existence.  Physical descriptions will become inadequate.  Social conventions will no longer suffice.  Rather, says Jesus, “For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven.” 

Jeremiah’s prophecy brought hope to people under siege by allowing them to believe that they would someday return.  Jeremiah’s purchase of his nephew’s land gives evidence of a return to normalcy.  Jesus’ prophecy, on the other hand, is a radical departure from the normal.  Jesus’ promise is a revelation of an entirely different existence. 

May Lent’s focus on Jesus’ death help us to deal with, one, our mortality, and two, the meanness and savagery of this world.  Jerusalem would fall during Jeremiah’s ministry, but it would be rebuilt.  Jesus will die on Good Friday, but it is called “Good” because His death promises eternal life and also a different life in this world.  Just as Jeremiah’s purchase of a piece of occupied land sent a message of hope so may Jesus’ life-affirming death help us to deal with yet another school shooting, yet more children sacrificed because we cannot control guns but let guns control us.  May the cross be like Jeremiah’s land purchase, a sign of a better future.  May it give us hope that those six murdered by another gun-wielding murderer, three just 9 years old, may find that other life that surpasses all our descriptions.

If you’d like, here is the link to the Southern New England Conference’s daily reading schedule:  www.sneucc.org/lectionary.

Throughout the year, the Southern New England Conference of the United Church of Christ reproduces the Daily Lectionary for use by churches.  These are the suggested readings for March 29th:  1 Samuel 16:11-13; Psalm 31:9-16; and Philippians 1:1-11.  I would encourage you to read these short selections as part of your Lenten practice.

I enjoy the lesson shared in the story of David’s anointing.  Samuel has a rather familiar relationship with Yahweh.  Just prior to today’s 1 Samuel passage, the prophet has been sent to the household of Jesse to anoint a replacement king for the discredited King Saul.  Jesse presents his eldest son Eliab to the prophet.  When Samuel sees Eliab’s appearance and the height of his stature, he assumes that this must be the one Yahweh has chosen to lead Israel.  But he is not.  Jesse processes six of his other sons before Samuel for a total of seven.  Seven is a biblical figure of completeness.  But again, none of these are Yahweh’s chosen one.

Samuel is confused because every son of Jesse, he assumed, had appeared and was rejected by Yahweh.  Samuel thought one of these must have been the one.  Yahweh needed to remind his prophet that as familiar as they were in conversation that God will always see differently than do we.  I love this message that God sees differently.  So our confused prophet asks Jesse if these are all his sons.  (How amazing it would have been if instead of sons the prophet had asked, “Are these all your children?” and how startled and affronted would everyone have been if Yahweh had chosen a daughter to rule over God’s people?  This would have amplified the message that God sees differently but to a decibel point that would have been deafening for a people of that age, and well, I guess many of this age too.)  Jesse informs the prophet that there is one more, the youngest, but he was not even invited to join the family to meet Samuel.  The youngest boy was left to his chores; he was tending the sheep.  This unexpected son, the almost forgotten one, is the person Yahweh had chosen to be Israel’s next king.

What a glorious message this is.  The fullness of seven sons had come and gone – complete, and yet Yahweh was far from done.  God sees differently than do we.  When we imagine there is no more, when we are ready to give in to hopelessness, Yahweh still sees what is possible.  This is a message of encouragement when we may feel at wit’s end.  This is also a message that we not rush toward judgment.  In the context of Lent, we are following after a Saviour who was judged an utter failure.  Jesus was betrayed and deserted, crucified as a failed insurrectionist by the Romans and rejected by most all of His people as a failed Messiah.  This is what people saw, but this is definitely not what God saw.  When we judge others, we should be warned away from superficial views by remembering how Jesus looked on Golgotha.

Paul writes to the Christians at Philippi:  “And this is my prayer, that your love may overflow more and more with knowledge and full insight to help you to determine what is best.”  Paul is asking the members of his church to lead with love not with judgment, and that this love benefit from increased knowledge and insight so that we may “determine what is best.”  What is best will not be rash or prejudiced attitudes absent love, knowledge or insight.  Lent asks us to be cautious and patient in our judgment of others, and it expects that others will do the same.  In this way, we may even begin to see as God sees, as God sees through the eyes of the one crucified.
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If you’d like, here is the link to the Southern New England Conference’s daily reading schedule:  www.sneucc.org/lectionary.

Throughout the year, the Southern New England Conference of the United Church of Christ reproduces the Daily Lectionary for use by churches.  These are the suggested readings for March 28th:  2 Kings 4:18-37; Psalm 143; and Ephesians 2:1-10.  I would encourage you to read these short selections as part of your Lenten practice.

One of Paul’s essential teachings is that salvation is granted through faith not works.  Before his conversion, Paul was trained as a Pharisee, a strict observer and teacher of the Mosaic Law.  It is said that there are 613 commandments in the Hebrew Scriptures.  Laws affected not only the spiritual and worship practices of observant Jews, but nearly every aspect of daily life, as well.  Righteousness, in a certain sense, could be gauged by how a person followed the Law, what a person did.

Paul’s conversion was a powerfully mystical encounter with the glorified Christ of heaven.  Paul had done nothing to deserve this special vision of Jesus.  As a matter of fact, Paul was working against the followers of Jesus when he experienced his conversion.  As the account is shared in Acts of the Apostles, the heavenly Jesus appears to “a disciple in Damascus named Ananias.”  (9:10)  Ananias protests being sent to Paul because of “how much evil he [Paul] has done to your saints.” (9:13)  The Lord answers Ananias saying, “‘Go, for he is an instrument whom I have chosen to bring my name before Gentiles and kings and before the people of Israel …’” (9:15)  Paul did nothing to deserve a revelation from heaven and Paul was basically named an apostle by the heavenly Jesus based on what only the glorified Christ could see as Paul’s potential, what Paul would do not what Paul had done. 

Works are completely absent from Paul’s experience of Jesus.  Rather, Paul experiences Jesus as a gift from God.  No payment is expected for a gift that is offered, but neither should it be treated disrespectfully.  Accordingly, Paul worked tirelessly to share Jesus with others.  He traveled far and wide throughout the Roman Empire planting church communities, establishing local leadership groups, and then moving on to another location to do the same.  He stayed in contact with these various communities through correspondence, some of which survived and made it into the New Testament canon. 

In today’s selection from Ephesians, we read, “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God— not the result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life.”  Salvation through faith as a gift from God is a teaching that flows from Paul’s own experiences.  This is Paul’s first-person testimony based on his encounter on the Road to Damascus. 

There is also the message in this passage that we are created “for good works,” and that these should be “our way of life.”  Works do not earn faith and thus salvation, but works flow from faith.  Salvation is a gift from Christ that we can never repay.  The character Sheldon in The Big Bang Theory hated gifts.  He felt indebted to the gift giver.  He tried to calculate an exact equivalent to return to the gift giver to get out of the feeling of indebtedness.  This was a comedy on television, but it is an impossibility when it comes to the gift of salvation.  We are forever indebted to Jesus.

Salvation cost Jesus His life.  There is nothing in any of our lives, or even in all our lives combined that can repay Jesus for this gift.  It is an impossibility.  However, Jesus offers salvation as a free gift.  This would upset terribly Sheldon, but for us as people of faith, it is meant to inspire good works as a way of life.  Not to repay Jesus, but to pay it forward.

May Lent help us to appreciate better the gift of salvation that cost Jesus the cross, and may this then inspire us to live our lives in appreciation of that free, priceless gift.
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If you’d like, here is the link to the Southern New England Conference’s daily reading schedule:  www.sneucc.org/lectionary.

Throughout the year, the Southern New England Conference of the United Church of Christ reproduces the Daily Lectionary for use by churches.  These are the suggested readings for March 27th:  1 Kings 17:17-24; Psalm 143; and Acts 20:7-12.  I would encourage you to read these short selections as part of your Lenten practice.

I think every seminarian has heard about Eutychus.  He comes up in homiletics classes, the classes basically about sermons.  No matter the importance of what you are saying – for remember this is Paul who is talking – there is always the danger of simply saying too much. 

Early Christians from the start were honouring the first day of the week, Sunday, as their special day of worship.  Sunday in the church is always a celebration of Easter Sunday’s resurrection.  This is why Lenten Sundays are not counted as part of Lent’s 40 days.  Christians were gathering to be in the presence of the one who was raised from the dead on the first day of the week.  With Jesus not confined to death’s tomb, His followers congregated on the first day of the week to celebrate His presence among them.

Those earliest Christians, however, were not morning people.  Our weekly worship is a morning event.  Theirs tended to be an evening gathering.  This was based on the institution of Holy Communion at the Last Supper.  This was the evening Passover dinner that Jesus shared with His disciples.  At this table, Jesus broke bread and shared it with the Twelve telling them that this was His body.  He shared the cup, telling them this was His blood.  He commanded also, “Do this in remembrance of me.”  Accordingly, those first Christians gathered for an evening meal together, and during the actual meal, “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread (Holy Communion) and the prayers.” (Acts 2:42) 

The Jewish day is from evening to evening.  When we read today “On the first day of the week …,” this is Sunday, but in our reckoning it may actually be Saturday evening.  Regardless, Paul is among them on Sunday, the first day of the week.  Paul has plans to leave the next day.  Before he leaves, he wants to make sure that the believers in Troas have as good a hold on the faith as possible.  So Paul preaches and teaches them from the sunset breaking of bread until midnight.  Let’s just call that six hours.

The room, says the text, is well lit, but still Paul has been preaching/teaching for six hours.  (Sort of puts my sermons in perspective.)  At this six hour point, Eutychus begins to nod off “while Paul talked still longer.”  At some point, Eutychus could not fight off sleep any longer.  He gives in to exhaustion.  The problem is that he fell asleep on the sill of a third-story window.  He tumbles out the window and is pronounced dead on the ground below.  Paul goes down, picks Eutychus up, and tells everyone that he will be just fine.  Then, amazingly, Paul goes back up to the third-floor room and just starts preaching/teaching all over again, and he does so until the sun rises.  Added all together, this sounds like a twelve hour sermon.  (Now my 12-15 minutes in the pulpit are really in perspective.)

It makes me smirk when I then read of Paul, “Then he left.”  Paul breaks away from his preaching to check on Eutychus, declares him fine, returns to preaching, “then he left,” and only then do we hear that Eutychus was just fine.  This was a pretty dramatic event in Troas, not to mention for Eutychus, but for Paul it was rather run-of-the-mill.  Not even Eutychus falling out a window to his supposed death was as important to Paul as the Word of God. 

In homiletics, the story of Eutychus carries the warning about saying too much, but it also shares the example of Paul who held the Word of God to be most extraordinary.  We have entered the final stretch of our Lenten journey.  There is only this week and next.  I hope that if you have made these posts a part of your journey that you have grown accustomed to reading the Bible daily, to reading the Word of God.  I hope that you see in the biblical words the extraordinary Word.  And I do hope that you will continue the practice of daily Bible reading even after Lent has passed to the glories of that particularly amazing first day of the week when the women went to the tomb ... well, that’s for another time.
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If you’d like, here is the link to the Southern New England Conference’s daily reading schedule:  www.sneucc.org/lectionary.

Throughout the year, the Southern New England Conference of the United Church of Christ reproduces the Daily Lectionary for use by churches.  These are the suggested readings for March 25th:  Psalm 130; Ezekiel 36:8-15; and Luke 24:44-53.  I would encourage you to read these short selections as part of your Lenten practice.

Today is nine months until Christmas.  This would be the putative day the angel Gabriel appeared to Mary and announced that she would bear a child.  Well, this sure seems to be a non sequitur for a Lenten Blog.  But what about today’s Gospel selection.  It’s an Easter story.  This seems equally out of place.  I was speaking with a friend at one of the Lenten Discussions.  He told me of working on a commission that consisted of an ecumenical array of members.  Part of the commission was made up of Quakers. 

Quakers emphasize the holiness of each day.  As such, they do not observe a liturgical calendar as we do.  They do not divide the year into seasons such as the one we are now in – Lent.  They do not express heightened solemnity on any given Christmas or Easter, for example.  All days are holy days.  If I understand this correctly, and I can’t guarantee that I do, since Jesus resurrected there is no need to recall in a liturgical setting events such as Christmas or Good Friday.  Those belong to the past.  The resurrection makes Jesus a forever dweller in the present.  In this sense, it is not strange to talk about Christmas or Easter during Lent because they are of the past.  They are all a received part of our shared present with Jesus.

This is true.  The actual Christmas and the actual Easter are a part of the past, but these historical events are also mysteries that transcend time.  I believe that it serves us well as believers to proceed again and again with Jesus through His life story.  This does not repeat those events so much as it reaffirms them.  Religion is not only an intellectual exercise.  It is an emotional one, as well.  The changing church seasons take us through the changing emotions of how we interact with Jesus through the different aspects of His life and ministry. 

So Christmas and Easter are in one sense non sequiturs for a Lenten blog, but in another sense this mixed bag of emotions reminds us of the timelessness of Christ.  Jesus once was born and once did die on the cross, but Jesus now lives among and within us.  We cannot be witnesses to those historical events, but in today’s Gospel passage about Jesus’ appearance to His disciples, it is the resurrected Jesus who is speaking.  The resurrected Jesus is just as real to them as Jesus is to any of us today.  When Jesus says, “‘You are witnesses,’” in a very important sense He is speaking about the historical witness of the unique generation of eye-witnesses, but this is not to make it impossible for Jesus to say to each and every one of us as well that we are witnesses to the resurrection because the resurrected Jesus does not belong to 2,000 years ago.  The resurrected Jesus is forever present.

Tomorrow we will gather for the Fifth Sunday of Lent worship Service.  I hope that our worship lifts our souls, that it is of personal worth.  However, let us not ignore the fact that our attendance gives witness in a very public way to Jesus in the present.  It is one of the most effective ways of sharing Jesus with others.  It conveys in no uncertain terms that something of spiritual value takes place at worship.  I invite you to share in our Sunday worship Service tomorrow.  As I said, I hope it is meaningful to you, but also may it serve as an effective witness for the Jesus among and within us still in the present.
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If you’d like, here is the link to the Southern New England Conference’s daily reading schedule:  www.sneucc.org/lectionary.  

Throughout the year, the Southern New England Conference of the United Church of Christ reproduces the Daily Lectionary for use by churches.  These are the suggested readings for March 24th:  Psalm 130; Ezekiel 33:10-16; and Revelation 11:15-19.  I would encourage you to read these short selections as part of your Lenten practice.

Today is our fifth Lenten Friday, especially solemn days within the solemn Season of Lent.  The Prophet Ezekiel says to us today, “The righteousness of the righteous shall not save them when they transgress; and as for the wickedness of the wicked, it shall not make them stumble when they turn from their wickedness.”  This is a liberating revelation.  It frees each person from a supposed inherited punishment for the sins of his or her forebears. 

I presume that the message conveyed in the Torah is intended to speak to the munificence of God when it is written:  “For I the Lord your God am a jealous God, punishing children for the iniquity of parents, to the third and fourth generation of those who reject me, but showing steadfast love to the thousandth generation of those who love me and keep my commandments.” (Deuteronomy 5:9-10)  This obviously is hyperbole.  If it is not, if it is literal, it creates mathematical contradictions that cannot be erased.  As hyperbole, it conveys the seriousness of God’s judgment, but puts it in the context of the extraordinariness of God’s faithful love.

Even so, there is the lingering message that the consequences of sin outlast the lifetime of the sinner.  Such a notion may have arisen from the practical observations that a parent’s life choices do affect the life situation of the next generation(s).  These consequences can persist within a manageable, finite period.  There are many families where great grandchildren are held in the arms of great grandparents, which is the observable fourth generation of the biblical text.  This manageable, observable, finite, period is contrasted with the divine span of “the thousandth generation,” an incomprehensibly extended period.  The message may be that our sins do leave a practical, lasting effect on the generations that follow us, but that God’s “steadfast love” is effectively timeless.

Ezekiel, however, is in a particular situation where even this message is fraught.  The nation of Israel/Judah has been destroyed, the king dethroned, the Temple gone, and the people sent into exile in a foreign land.  These are the people of Ezekiel’s prophecy.  The generations that had come before them had failed and now they were living with the consequences.  Ezekiel must speak encouragement to them.  He must let them know of this new revelation that in the utter destruction they are enduring there is hope.  The sins of the past are past.  The consequences of good or evil take effect immediately.  A person cannot rely on the goodness of the past to cover the sins of the present, and alternatively and probably more to the prophet’s point, a person must not worry that the sins of the past prevent the blessings of righteousness to take hold in the present.

To a people defeated, deported and demoralized Ezekiel offers the hope of a fresh start.  Change is possible.  No one is locked into their story.  Each person is free to become.

On this fifth Lenten Friday, maybe take some time to think about the example of the good thief on a cross adjacent to Jesus’.  He admits that he has been “condemned justly,” but he turns to the crucified Saviour and says, “‘Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.’” (Luke 23:41, 42)  There is not much life left in this man’s lifetime, but the instant that conversion takes place it takes effect.  Jesus consoles the repentant man by saying, “‘Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise.’” (Luke 23:43)  No one is bound by their past in the eyes of Jesus.  He sees the person as they are, not as they were.  What a blessed liberation this is for anyone who feels entrapped by the past; and what a call for people of faith, for the followers of Jesus, to not be a harshly judgmental people.  This is something to consider as we approach Calvary and the crucified Saviour.
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If you’d like, here is the link to the Southern New England Conference’s daily reading schedule:  www.sneucc.org/lectionary.  

Throughout the year, the Southern New England Conference of the United Church of Christ reproduces the Daily Lectionary for use by churches.  These are the suggested readings for March 23rd:  Psalm 130; Ezekiel 1:1-3; 2:8 - 3:3; and Revelation 10:1-11.  I would encourage you to read these short selections as part of your Lenten practice.

The Book of Revelation is written after the composition of the Pauline Epistles.  In those writings, there are offices of bishops, deacons, presbyters and apostles.  The Pauline churches have created structure.  This structure was originally charismatic, based on recognized gifts of the Spirit.  As time moved forward, those offices took on a more formalized pattern.  In that same area, however, Revelation refers to only two offices:  apostles and prophets.  Apostles are referred to as belonging to the past.  Their time has come to a close.  They have laid the foundations on which the church is built (cf. 21:14). 

Prophets, on the other hand, have a role and an importance in the book’s present. Jurgen Roloff writes in the volume “Revelation” in the series “A Continental Commentary,” “He [John, the author of Revelation] makes their [the prophets’] task and mission in 10:1-11 into a theme of detailed reflection, by which it is clear that he is referring to his own role.  It may be concluded from this that John was presumably the leading member of a group of prophets that saw its purpose in influencing directly the churches with the testimony entrusted to them.” (p. 8-9)  This is the passage the church shares with us today in the Lectionary.

The church of the Book of Revelation is well aware of the local Pauline churches, but they have chosen to approach the idea of church differently.  Theirs remains a thoroughly charismatic church.  Authority comes from the Spirit mediated through the prophets, which is what is visualized for us in today’s passage. 

Revelation almost didn’t make into the New Testament canon because its writings are uniquely strange.  The style is apocalyptic.  It is a writing for when things are so bad that little to no hope exists that change is possible.  The only avenue imaginable for God’s victory is the total collapse of the known world and its replacement by the reign of God.  There is a problem though.  An apocalyptic like the Book of Revelation envisions God’s conquest, but it is written during extremely hostile and dangerous times.  This is the reason for the strangeness of the prophecies.  Their message must be hidden in a sense.  John cannot come out against the rule and worship of Caesars while writing during the time of the rule and worship of Caesars – not if he wants to remain alive and more importantly if his writings are to have a chance to be shared.

Roloff and other scholars argue for a composition date late in the 90’s for Revelation.  The totality of the Roman state is expressed in the imperial cult of the Caesars, that the Roman ruler is a manifestation of a Roman god.  This cult was not systematically propagated until late in the reign of the Emperor Domitian, which would be the late 90’s.  Revelation is not some coded prediction for the far distant future, even if it is used like this still today.  Revelation has been used to demonize many an evil state throughout history, and yet history continues.  The reign of God did not intervene.  Please take any Revelation-based predictions with a grain of salt.

What we have in Revelation is a church guided by Christian prophets.  They are dealing with an imperial cult that seems all-powerful.  The Caesar demands to be called “our Lord and God.”  Christians and the church of the Book of Revelation are trying to live their faith in Jesus in this threatening environment.  The prophet shares that to receive the prophecy is at first as the taste of honey in the mouth, but then the message of the prophecy is as bitter as an upset stomach.  To interact with God, in other words, is a joy, but the message God shares is a burden.

Our Lenten closeness to Christ is a blessing, but the remembrance of Jesus’ suffering is bitter.  The awesome love of God that is no clearer than at the cross cannot obscure the reality of Jesus’ pain and suffering.  We should not dull the torture that Jesus endured physically, nor His psychological distress from the denial and abandonment of those closest to Him, nor even His spiritual struggle as He tries to fathom the will of God in all this, for remember in the earliest Gospel Jesus dies with nothing but a loud scream. (Mark 15:37)  Lent calls upon us to savour the sweetness of God’s loving salvation at the cross, but we cannot simply ignore or rush past the devastation of the cross.

We are getting closer to Golgotha.  I hope and pray that our Lenten journey is preparing us to meet up with the crucified Saviour and the ineffable love His cross proves.   
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If you’d like, here is the link to the Southern New England Conference’s daily reading schedule:  www.sneucc.org/lectionary.