“Thy Kingdom Come” by the Rev. Dr. Don Wahlig, November 24, 2024, Year B / Christ the King (Proper 29)  -  Daniel 7:9-10, 13-14 and Psalm 93 /. Revelation 1:1-16 / John 18:33-37

THEME:  Remain faithful to Jesus during testing times ahead because he is the ultimate ruler of this world and the coming Kingdom.

Have you ever been woken up by a really weird dream? Supposedly, we dream all the time, but we do not remember most of them. Although, I daresay, we all remember that horrible dream of being out in public wearing nothing but our underwear.  But I am not talking about that. I am talking about the kind of dream where strange people appear, and odd things happen. And we say and do weird things in weird places. It is as if we are in some kind of supernatural world. That is the kind of dream that John is having as he sits in exile on the island of Patmos, in the middle of the Aegean Sea 60 miles from civilization. Except for one thing. John is actually awake. John is having a prophetic vision, conducted by the risen and triumphant Christ himself.

It is a strange and disturbing picture of a cosmic battle between good and evil. And yet, as fearful and violent as the battle is, the conclusion is the single most glorious ending imaginable. In John’s vision there are all sorts of strange creatures and bizarre happenings. Satan is a dragon. Jesus is a lamb. Rome is called by the code name Babylon. Babylon is ruled by a beast. That beast is the antichrist, representing the Roman Emperor.  There are four horsemen of different colors, each bringing apocalyptic destruction. Symbols of judgment are all over the place – seals, trumpets, bowls, and, of course, the great book of life. And then there are the numbers. The numbers are codes. 4, 7, 12, and 1,000 all refer to wholeness, or completeness.

Yes, indeed, Revelation is a truly strange book. It makes us wonder did John maybe spend a little too much time in the Mediterranean sun? As otherworldly as this vision is, it has to do with the specific situation of the early churches in John’s day. John wrote in the late first century.  Christians back then were periodically harassed by the Roman Emperor and marginalized by the surrounding culture of the Empire. John knew that some Christians had already been arrested. One had even been martyred. John himself has been exiled for preaching the Word. As bad is this is, he sees that it is just the beginning. It is the first wave of the coming tsunami of Roman persecution of the church.  So, John writes to warn the 7 churches of Asia Minor in modern day Turkey. His message is that the time of testing is at hand. It will be painful, and it will be traumatic.  

Christians will find it very hard to stand firm in the faith. Many will fall away. But Christians who remain faithful to the end will triumph with Christ when he returns. They will be welcomed into the glorious Kingdom of the New Jerusalem when Christ brings it down to earth.  It struck me this week that John may as well have been writing today. The question for you and me is the same question that the Christians in Asia Minor were asking. How do we live as those who trust that Jesus is King in a world determined to crown Caesar lord and ruler of all?

By now, most of us realize that the pervasive Christian culture that existed 50 years ago is now largely gone. Virtually every social and religious figure I know acknowledges that we are living in a post-Christian world.  There is no shortage of proof. No longer does the church set the norms for society. People may have a general understanding of Christian ideas, but they know less and less about Jesus. And they have little familiarity with the scriptures that tell us of his truth. When it comes to public policy and personal morality, society increasingly rejects the Christian worldview and the ethics of Jesus Christ. The recent political campaigns gave us ample evidence of that – on both sides. This transition into a marginalized community of believers is downright painful. Like a rich person having to get used to living paycheck to paycheck, it is difficult to give up the prestige and power that we in the church used to have.

Today, when others learn that we are Christians, they are just as likely to view us with suspicion and judgment as they are with admiration and approval.  Less and less do the opinions of people like me matter in questions of public policy and community affairs. That is the bad news. The good news is that this is not an entirely bad thing.

You and I are increasingly free to be the kind of faithful Christians that built Christianity from a handful of believers in Palestine to a worldwide movement of billions.  With less cultural collusion to sidetrack us, we are better able to serve Christ and our neighbors in powerful ways, ways that please God and point to his Kingdom. The same was true of the Christians to whom John wrote. He was right about the coming persecution. Periodically over the next 200 years, Christians were made to suffer tremendously. But the more Rome tried to crush it, the more Christianity flourished.  A church friend of mine in New York used to say, “Roman oppression of early Christians was like trying to kill cockroaches in your apartment. The harder you stamp on them, the quicker and further they scatter.” And that is exactly what happened. Christianity spread throughout the Roman world. Eventually, it transformed Roman culture itself. It did this with relentless, courageous, and faithful Christ-fueled love.

By the fourth century, the Roman Emperor known as Julian the Apostate was so impressed by the way Christians cared not only for themselves but for all the poor, that he commanded his pagan priests to do the same.  “No [Christian] ever has to beg,” he observed. “[They] support not only their own poor, but ours as well.  All men see that our people lack aid from us.”  Christians also helped end the Roman practice of child abandonment and infanticide. They took in abandoned children, paving the way for the very first orphanages.  Christians cared for the elderly and the sick. This eventually led to the creation of the very first hospitals, something previously unknown in the ancient world. Christians spoke out against the ritualized violence of the gladiatorial games. Eventually, their voices prevailed and the games were ended.

These are just some of the ways that faithful Christians changed the world around them to become more like the Kingdom that Christ will usher in when he returns.  And they did this as a cultural and statistical minority.  Friends, the same can happen here and now.  Like the early churches, we are in a time of testing. Our numbers are getting smaller. It is becoming harder to find pastors. Budgets are tighter.  Ministries are harder to fund. 

We here at SSPC have been fortunate, more than most. It is clear to me that this is largely because our response to cultural marginalization is very much like that of the early church.  Like John of Patmos, our Session has also had a prophetic vision. Now, I am not saying that they sat around the Session table in a trance. And, as far as I know, none of them saw dragons and beasts and a white-haired man with eyes of flame floating in the sky. Nevertheless, I am certain that their vision of what we can and should become was directed by Jesus, just as surely as he directed John’s vision.

The vision that our Session discerned a few years back was this:  to become more of grace-filled family of faith sharing Christ’s love with all. And the ‘all’ is underlined for emphasis. That is why more and more of our programs and ministries are geared to serve not only our own faith family, but also our community, the folks who are beyond our walls.  Just this past week, we hosted our very first Meal with a Mission. We fed 100 people from both the congregation and the community, ranging in age from teenagers to retirees. Then, together, we assembled over a hundred Emergency Food Kits for New Hope Ministries.  The reason we did this is because, no matter how much noise the kings of this world make, we know that loving God and serving our neighbors is our surest declaration that Jesus reigns supreme.

2,000 years ago, he triumphed over death. Today, he is very much alive, in our hearts and our ministries. And we trust that, one day, maybe not long from now, he will return. When he does, he will bring his Kingdom to earth, in all its fullness and glory.  If you want to see what that looks like, read Chapter 21 of Revelation when you go home today.

Jesus Christ is the Alpha and the Omega. He is the one who was, who is, and is to come. You and I know that he is the King of all kings. So, let’s continue to declare that, not only with our words, but our actions, too. 

May it be so.