Whose Empire is it Anyway? II

“A Word from the Underside of Empire”

Revelation 1:1-20

A Sermon preached by the Rev. Douglas M. Donley

Martin Luther King, Jr. Sunday

January 20, 2008

University Baptist Church

Minneapolis, MN

 

Today, it’s time for a word from the underside of Empire.  At the underside of empire are those who are victims of empire—the voices of those who exist below the surface: the people who are persecuted for who they are, for the language they speak, for the complexion of their skin, for their nationality, their religion, their sexual orientation or affectional proclivities, people who are crunched by the mortgage crisis, folks who are left out by a broken health care system, folks who fight in wars not because of their overt choices, but because of their circumstances. 

This is a sermon for those on the underside of empire.  We are told that the US is a melting pot—a melting pot instead of a stew.  Where there are no distinctions.  Utah Phillips once said that in a melting pot the people at the bottom get burned and all of the muck rises to the top.  This is a word for and to the underside of empire.

Our guide on this journey is the book of Revelation.  Yes, even though Revelation has been used and misused by the people on the top of empire, it is really a book written to those on the bottom. 

            Revelation was written to a small bunch of Christian radicals who were tempted to call it quits because they were discouraged.  In a time when the authentic church was compromised by empire, John saw a new vision from the island of Patmos.  That vision became the book of Revelation.

John’s vision said, “Be not afraid, hold to your faith even when the world is collapsing around you and nay-sayers abound.”  Revelation gives us a prescription for keeping a faithful witness in the midst of an apocalyptic situation. And he gives it to those on the underside of empire.

Leave aside all of the things you have heard about Revelation for a few minutes.  Leave behind all of the images of rapture, which doesn’t even occur in Revelation.  Leave behind images of seven seals, seven trumpets and 7 bowls, seven lampstands, four horsemen, the lake of fire and even the New Jerusalem.  Leave behind the Left Behind series, please.  Leave all of this behind for a few minutes. 

Revelation was written in code.  It was written for and by those on the underside of empire.  Those on the other side are not supposed to understand it.  It’s like the hip-hop music of today.  It’s full of insider language and code that thrills the readers and lets those on the other side of empire dismiss it as an irrelevant fairy tale.  It was written to and for seven persecuted churches who were struggling for their survival. 

The Roman Empire had control over their lives.  The house churches were outlawed under Emperor Nero.  The people had to constantly decide who they were faithful to: Caesar or Jesus.   The coins said that Caesar was lord.  If you said Jesus was lord, you were not only going against empire, but against commerce.  You could also be killed for treason.

            It is only after speaking the truth to power can you truly enjoy the New Jerusalem explained in Revelation 21, that place of peace and security where there will no longer be pain or weeping or wailing, for we will all see each other and God in a new way.

John from Patmos writes to the seven churches the words of Jesus (the Lamb), “I know your works, your persistent resistance, your faithful witness.…”  Patmos was a penal colony.  It was a place where they tossed the rabble-rousers who were asking too many questions and upsetting the status quo.  Only the lucky few got to live on Patmos.  Others were not so lucky.  They were killed for their refusal to toe the line with the Roman Empire.  In Revelation’s symbolic language, these were the faithful witnesses.  They were the ones, says John, which we were all to strive to be like. Faith is that important.  Non-cooperation with injustice and idolatry is that important.

 Our church, if it is to be the authentic church of Jesus Christ, needs to capture that spirit, that intensity, that charisma, that sense of courage and guidance.  We need a Revelation vision, we who exist on the underside of Empire.

            There are four things that distinguishes a Revelation vision.

1.         A Revelation vision helps us see clearly.

2.         A Revelation vision does not compromise.

3.         A Revelation vision has guts

4.         A Revelation vision is committed to full discipleship.

1.                  A Revelation vision helps us see clearly.

If Revelation is anything, it is a book that calls things as they are.  If you are not Hal Lindsey, author of The Late Great Planet Earth, you can see from reading Revelation that John’s vision sharply criticizes Babylon for being as the 17^th chapter says “drunk with the wine of the blood of the martyrs.”  How’s that for a poetic image of genocide?

Babylon is doomed because it does not follow the Lamb.  It then lists kings, merchants, and shipmasters as the ones lamenting the most over Babylon’s destruction.  They were the ones who made the most profit.  We can hear them wailing today as news of a recession settles in.

Babylon is Rome in Revelation.  If people spoke against Rome, however, they were often imprisoned or killed.  But in today’s context, we can call Babylon anything that takes on the guise of Empire.  John’s vision calls the worship of empire evil and anyone who worships even a tiny part of it is doomed to destruction.  Why?  Because empire worship causes us to lose our focus upon the lamb (or Jesus—the one who is really in charge).

Empire worship makes us comfortable with injustice (when it serves the greater good.)    Some would even go so far as to say that justice gets corrupted by power.

Empire worship shows that our loyalties are more toward empire than toward God.

Empire worship looks a lot like the church.  In Revelation the people say, “who is like the Beast (the emperor)”.  The beast appropriates the words of the lamb and all but the faithful witness, the clear-seeing and authentic churches, are sucked into its grasp. 

It’s no accident that mall in Washington is shaped like a cross presided over by a huge statue of Lincoln in his own stone temple.  This is designed to blur the lines between Christianity and empire.  But Revelation says, beware.  Your allegiance is to God and the Lamb who really controls the world, not the USA or the IMF or the WTO or this or that political party. 

After each letter to the seven churches, the lamb says “who ever has ears, listen to what the spirit is saying to the churches.”

1.         A Revelation vision helps us see clearly.

2.                  A Revelation vision does not compromise.

In Revelation 3:15-19, the lamb says to the church in Laodicea: “I know your works; you are neither hot nor cold.  I wish that you were hot or cold.  But since you are lukewarm, neither cold nor hot, I will spit you out of my mouth.  For you say, ‘I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing.’  You do not realize that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked….I reprove and discipline those I love.”

In Revelation, you can’t have it both ways.  You are either for the lamb or you are against the lamb.  If you are against the Lamb, you are for Satan. 

There is no middle ground.  Annie Dillard once said, “if people were to take the scriptures seriously when they came to church singing hymns invoking the coming of the Spirit, they would wear crash helmets instead of pretty hats.”  People would be prepared to have their world up-ended. 

1.         A Revelation vision helps us see clearly.

2.         A Revelation vision does not compromise.

3.                  A Revelation vision has guts

Oh yes.  You need guts to withstand persecution.  You need guts to speak the truth to power.  It is not just anyone who withstands the tribulation.  It is the faithful witnesses, the martyrs and the ones who engage in patient endurance otherwise translated as persistent resistance.  This is where nonviolent social action comes in.  I heard Coretta Scott King say that people have misinterpreted Martin Luther King’s methods as “passive resistance”.  There is nothing passive about nonviolence.  It is active.  It is convinced that love is more powerful than hate.  It is convinced that we only find our souls when we are actively committed to change the world.

It is not enough, in Revelation’s understanding, to distance yourself from the world, you need to persistently resist the ways that empire can control you or blind you to God’s presence and control over the world.   It takes guts.

Martin Luther King criticized the church in his letter to the Birmingham jail,

“The contemporary Church is so often a weak, ineffectual voice with an uncertain sound. It is so often the arch-supporter of the status quo. Far from being disturbed by the presence of the Church, the power structure of the average community is consoled by the Church's silent and often vocal sanction of things as they are. But the judgment of God is upon the Church as never before. If the Church of today does not recapture the sacrificial spirit of the early Church, it will lose its authentic ring, forfeit the loyalty of millions, and be dismissed as an irrelevant social club with no meaning for the twentieth century."

            In the 21^st century, I think the church has something to say to power, if we are willing to take the consequences.  Our church has always been on the cutting edge of both power and protest.  We have been abolitionists, fighters for women’s suffrage, civil rights activists, advocates of reproductive freedom, activists in the LGBT liberation movements and the anti-war movements.  We have guts.

But we also have temptation.  We want to be bigger and more effective and we too often compare ourselves to the bigger churches across town.  In order to be the authentic church, we need to have the vision of God and the ability to hear the voices of those on the underside of empire.  That’s how we are successful.  That takes guts, passion, a refusal to compromise and a clarity of vision.    

1.         A Revelation vision helps us see clearly.

2.         A Revelation vision does not compromise.

3.         A Revelation vision has guts.

4.                  A Revelation vision is committed to full discipleship.

Gandhi was once asked what the difference was between himself and most Christians.  Gandhi replied that he thought Jesus meant it. 

Jesus meant for us to live lives of compassion. 

Jesus meant for us to turn over the tables. 

Jesus meant for us to break religious and even civil laws if they excluded anyone or demeaned anyone. 

Jesus meant it when he said “follow me.”

It is not okay to admire Jesus from afar.  If we are to truly be the church we need to have committed Christians within the church who can call each other to task as we all confront the tentacles of Empire creeping to our lives.  We need to be a church that is committed to following Jesus in his ministry of compassion and peacemaking. 

At our church, we believe that everyone and I mean everyone is entitled to and required to live a life of discipleship.  That is a Revelation vision and that kind of vision changes the world because we are changed by the very fact that we follow Jesus.

1.         A Revelation vision helps us see clearly.

2.         A Revelation vision does not compromise.

3.                  A Revelation vision has guts

4.                  A Revelation vision is committed to full discipleship.

Sisters and brothers, Martin Luther King spoke to the underside of Empire with a confidence that there was a new vision on the horizon.  It was like the vision at the end of the book of Revelation where John saw a New Jerusalem coming down from heaven.  This New Jerusalem is what Martin called the beloved community: one where all people would be treated with justice and equity. 

No one would be a second class citizen. 

No one would have to fear for their lives or their livelihood because of who they were, how they looked or who they loved.  That’s the vision that keeps people alive and enlivened. 

It’s the vision that we need to hear on the underside of empire. 

We need to hear and be and embody that vision of a new heaven and a new earth. 

We need to imagine, envision and create a new community where we can see all people as members of God’s empire. 

God’s empire rules with equity, compassion, love and acceptance. 

It wants there to be no crying or death or sin any more.  God’s empire is one of a beloved community where everyone is valued and accepted. 

Is it a far off pie in the sky vision?  Not at all.  It’s possible.  It will take clear vision.  It will not tolerate compromise.  It will take guts and it will take the commitment of us all.  But oh what a thing it will be.  What a vision.  As the hymn writer says, “What a world where everyone respects each other’s ways.  Where love is lived and all is done with justice and with praise.”

            What a great gift to dream of, to imagine and to work to put in place.

            Don’t be seduced by the powers and sooth-saying of those in control of empire, unless they are speaking with and for and on behalf of those on the underside of empire.  When they do that, then you know that they have a Revelation vision.  One that sets people free at last.

            Whose empire is it anyway?  If it’s God’s empire, it welcomes and affirms all, especially those on the underside of the empires of this world.  Let us embrace that empire.  May we see it as clearly as the writer of Revelation.  M ay we see it as clearly as Jesus.  May we see it as clearly as Martin Luther King.  May we work to make it so.