Wonder, Love, and Praise -- FPC sermon excerpt

Where were you on September 11, 2001? Last week's 10-year anniversary caused us to reflect on that question. It provides an appropriate introduction to this sermon series on the Book of Revelation.

Most of us can remember exactly what we were doing when we first learned of the brutal 9-11 terrorist attacks. The shock and sadness of that day will stay with us for many years, and it certainly set the tone for the first decade of the 21^st century.

The years following that horrible day brought a series of natural disasters and human calamities. The tsunami in the Indian Ocean and earthquake in Haiti devoured tens of thousands of lives. The crisis in the housing market and crash of the banking system exposed human greed and corporate deception, and caused many people to lose jobs, savings, houses, and self-esteem.

Most troubling about these calamities is the suffering of innocent people. Think of the passengers who lost their lives on Flight 93, and the homeowners who lost their houses even though they worked hard and played by the rules. You wonder why they suffer, while the wicked continue to prosper. The scales of justice seem to be out of balance.

At times like this, we sense that a destructive force is impacting our lives, but we cannot seem to control or defeat it. We want to know: Where is God? Is God in charge? Doesn’t God care?

The Book of Revelation was written to address these very questions.

Revelation contains a series of visions from Jesus Christ to assure believers of God’s power and care. These visions came to a servant of Christ named John, the author of Revelation (1:1). John was a pastor, with concern for “the seven churches that are in Asia” (1:4), and also a spokesman for God. Probably not the same John who wrote the Gospel of John, he was a Christian leader who was exiled to the island of Patmos. He was exiled for refusing to address the Roman Emperor as “Lord and God” (1:9).

Yes, promises John to his fellow Christians: God is firmly in charge, and God cares deeply for us. We can be filled with hope and given power to endure any afflictions — if we can hear and see what God is doing.

Like us, John and his fellow Christians struggled with senseless suffering in the world. They lived in the Roman Empire at a tough time — brutal civil wars had wrecked the peace and order of the empire, damaging both food production and commercial trade. People were trying to survive political oppression and economic exploitation, as well as natural disasters, social injustice, and human atrocities. Then, as today, earthquakes, famines, plagues, and violence afflicted entire nations.

Even worse, Christians suffered because they refused to participate in the Imperial Cult — an organization that worshiped the Roman Emperor as a god. John and his fellow Christians honored Jesus as the only divine Lord, and refused to partake in the Imperial Cult’s celebrations. As a result, Christians were put under social pressure from agents of the cult, and were vulnerable to the charge of disloyalty to the emperor.

Although we do not face an Imperial Cult in 21^st century America, we certainly feel pressure to conform to the standards being set by Washington, Madison Avenue, and Hollywood — all of which have an impact on our politics, our buying habits, and our sexual behavior.

John believed that God cared deeply about the suffering and oppression of his people, and that God was unveiling a plan for a better future.