Revelation 21:1-6
“Hope in the End”
Preached Sunday May 18, 2025
It is the job of preachers to proclaim the Gospel - and Gospel literally means Good News so I have some Good News for you today - and that Good News is….this is not a stewardship sermon. I jest, I jest…but no, really. For several Sundays before Easter and for a couple after, we have been talking about stewardship and generosity in light of our Today, Tomorrow, Together Capital Campaign. Talking about stewardship and generosity is very important, they are necessary components of our discipleship. And, as I sat down to write this sermon (and as you all sat down to listen to it), there was at least some relief that we could move on to a new topic. So when deciding on what to preach on this week, I opened the Revised Common lectionary to see the assigned texts and saw just the things that all of us are really looking forward to hearing about that’s not stewardship - and that is…the end of the world.
Bear with me here and let me first offer a disclaimer: The book of Revelation is not what we may think it is. And certainly not what pop culture has made it out to be. The book of Revelation is not all doom, all gloom, and it’s not all prophecy for the end times. As a culture we are unhealthily obsessed with Apocalypse. The definition of apocalypse is “the complete and final destruction of the world.” As Christians - we are not called to Apocalypse. Instead we are called to a fruitful eschatology which is the study of the last things. They’re different. And we’ll get into that.
But before we do, allow me to talk in very broad terms about what the book of Revelation is. The Book of Revelation was a coded letter written by John to a group of Christians that were being oppressed by the Roman Empire. John could not come right out and tell the Christian community that the Emperor was a horrible, evil person. He could not come right out and tell them that although they were being killed, martyred, arrested, harassed, oppressed - to keep the hope and to keep the faith. Doing so would have gotten him and anyone in possession of this letter into a lot more trouble and lead to the death of more people.
What he could do, was use the ritual or genre of the Roman games, the arena, where Christians - and many others who disagreed with the Emperor - were sentenced to death, to make a farce out of the Powers-That-Be, call evil what it is - just that, evil - and give a word of hope that, in the end, everything is going to be okay.
Rob Bell, theologian and preacher, talks about understanding the book of Revelation this way in “What Is The Bible?” He says this:
“Now, here’s what’s so brilliant about the book of Revelation. John begins his letter by having Jesus address the leaders of the various churches in the regions. Jesus tells them what they’re doing well and then he tells them what they need to do better.
Sound familiar?
That’s how Caesar began his games in the arena!
John then describes the throne of God where angels are singing…wait for it…
You are worthy, our Lord and God,
To receive glory and honor and power.
Sound familiar?
That’s what Caesar’s choir sang about him.
What is John doing here?
He’s taking the theater and propaganda and slogans and pomp of the empire and he’s subverting it.
It’s as if he's telling his people.
Don’t fall for the lie.
Don’t be seduced by the power of the empire.
There’s a better way.
What is Revelation? Satire.
Political, dangerous, pointed, sharp satire.”
Now, I am not saying that the book of Revelation is only satire. And I am not ruling out that it is a book of prophecy. What I am saying is, it is more than one thing. It is more than what popular book series and Apocalypse movies and preachers who want to scare people into salvation have made it out to be.
To consider this, take for example how we understand and approach the book of Isaiah. As Christians, we see the book largely as prophecy about the coming of Jesus. And. For the original audience, it had another meaning. It was talking about present day power struggles and structures. It was talking about the very real and current reality for the Israelities - it was history, it was warning, it was judgement, it was hope - and, it was prophecy - foretelling.
The issue we run into with Revelation is we read it as only Apocalypse and only violence. We use it to make up a violent God who destroys the creation that God loves very much. And that has impacts on how we treat one another and our world. We make God in our own violent image when we think we know exactly what the world will look at the end like when we interpret Revelation just as prophecy to come. When, in all actuality, we might not understand it in whole until after it has been revealed - we will not fully understand it until after the events that are foretold take place - like we read Jesus back into the book of Isaiah.
Brian Zahnd, pastor and theologian, gives us this warning about the way we tend to read the book of Revelation:
“If we literalize the metaphorical violence of Revelation, we create a theological catastrophe. We end up with violence as God’s salvific solution. We end up with God saving the world by killing it. We end up with God adopting the condemned way of Cain. We end up with Jesus renouncing his Sermon on the Mount. We end up with the cross of Christ as superfluous and even pointless. We end up ruining the whole gospel story.”
Now - some deep breaths. Because I am not just preaching against something today. I am wanting to preach the Gospel, the Good News, today. And that Good News is: despite popular interpretations of the Book of Revelation, it, and our world, does not end in destruction. It ends in re-creation. It ends in re-newing. It ends in resurrection. It ends - but not really. The end is not the end, it is really the beginning.
This is the difference between fixating on Apocalypse which can tend to fill us doom and gloom, make us less likely to care for God’s creation, and leave with with a sense of dread more than hope - the difference between that and having a fruitful understanding of eschatology, of how God works at the end of all things as we know them. Which is: Everything. Everywhere. All of creation. Will be redeemed, restored, made right, made whole.
Another one of my favorite Bible passages talks about this waiting, this held breath, this groaning for what will be. Romans 8: “For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God, for the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its enslavement to decay and will obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning together as it suffers together the pains of labor, and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly while we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies.”
All of creation is groaning…not because all of creation will be destroyed. But because all of creation, with God, is in labor - birthing the new thing that God will complete in Jesus Christ. Birthing a new reality. Labor is a kind of end - life as the mother knew it before is over - there is a new identity, wrapped up and connected to the beautiful child she has borne. This is the labor that all of creation is in, co-laboring with God, to bring about, to bear, to birth a new, life-giving, life-filled, creation.
In fact, we are called to be co-laborers with God in bringing about this new creation. Labor here has two meanings - to work in the vineyard of our world to bring about the fruit of God’s Kingdom and labor as in taking deep breaths until something new is born - that new thing will be God’s new creation - a world where all is as it should be, and God, the Lamb, is fully seated on the throne.
There will be a new heaven and a new earth. This is the image given to us in our Scripture passage today from Revelation 21: “See, I am making all things new.”
Our story does not end with destruction. It ends, it begins again, with creation.
This should make a difference for us.
After proclaiming the book of Revelation as satire, Rob Bell goes on to say:
“But it isn’t just satire.
[John] then tells about how he saw the throne of God and there was a lamb that had been slain -
Remember, the Romans did a lot of slaying -
All of it to essentially say
I’ve seen who’s in charge of the world…
And it’s not Caesar!
That’s the power of this letter.
John reminds his people that ruling, military, oppressive power like that of the empire is temporary and passing. It can’t endure.
John uses this imagery because he believes that in Jesus, God has decisively dealt with evil.
He writes to them of a reality beyond their everyday circumstances, a reality rooted in God’s love for all of creation. He writes to them of the life they have in Christ even if their present, physical, earthly life may come to an abrupt end. He wants his people to find comfort and peace in the turmoil raging around them, and he believes this is found in Jesus, who can be trusted.”
In summary, we live in a world not too unlike the world that John was writing to in the book of Revelation. Our world is marked and marred by violence. Our world has too much injustice, too much death, too many tears. We live in a world where all of creation is groaning for redemption. We live in a world desperate for hope.
So take hope. God does not end our story in violence. God does not end our story with Apocalypse. In fact, there is no end. There is only God’s continued creation - a new Heaven, and a new Earth, where all will know God, and all will be set right. A day when everything and everyone is whole and well. A day when “Your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven” is truly our whole reality.
14th Century mystic and saint Julian of Norwich says it like this, “all shall be well, all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well.”
In the face of everything that is wrong and could be wrong, in the face of what seems like destruction, in the face of what seems like the end - take hope. All is not lost. For if we have nothing else, we can still have hope - that God is, ultimately, in charge. And one day, all forces of evil and violence and empire, will be destroyed - God will dwell with us, death will be no more, mourning and crying and pain will be no more…all things will be made new. And all shall be well.
Have hope. Amen.
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