Dangerous Deletions

[This is largely a re-presentation of a post I wrote in 2011, with a few amendments.]

This morning, I was looking at the Bible lessons most ELCA Lutherans (like me) and members of many other "mainline" Christian denominations will be using during our Sunday worship in May.

On May 19, the second lesson we'll read at Saint Matthew is Revelation 22:12-21.

But in fact, the second lesson appointed by the lectionary and that the ELCA's worship resources say we Lutherans should use for our weekly worship is Revelation 22:12-14, 16-17, 20-21. (For an explanation of what a lectionary is, go here. For more background, you might want to look here.)

But the lesson, as appointed by the lectionary chops up what, to me anyway, is John's careful, cohesive closing of his letter to the seven first-century churches of "Asia," the first-century world's name for an area we know as western Turkey.

And the chopping up seems to be done, as happens often with the lectionary, in service to an agenda other than the proclamation of God's truth. 

Now, admittedly, the verses deleted are a bit disturbing and might well offend some people.

That's OK, though. Often, the Good News of the Bible can only be heard once we get disturbed by the Bible.

The Bible's primary message--that of new, eternal life for all those who repent of sin and trust in Jesus Christ as Savior and God-in-human-flesh--has always been offensive, even to those who come to believe in Jesus.

The chopped up passage from Revelation describes the new Jerusalem in which believers in Christ will live with God for eternity. But, the lectionary version of it skips over passages like verse 15, which says:

Outside are the dogs and sorcerers and fornicators and murderers and idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.  

John is saying that outside this city with its multiple gates that are never locked shut, will be those who don't gain entrance, those condemned to an eternity of darkness apart from God. Those outside the gates are those who love their sins so much that they are unwilling to let go of them and cling to Jesus Christ.

For some post-moderns, with our convenient and self-glorifying beliefs that "all roads lead to the same place," whether the place is satori, nothingness, some universal mind, or to some version of deity fashioned by human imagination, the idea that anyone would be outside of the eternal city John describes is deeply offensive.

One can't help suspect that the deletions of verses like this have something to do with the rising tide of universalism, the notion that what people believe about the God revealed in Jesus Christ, whether they repent of sin or not, whether they even believe in God or an afterlife or not, doesn't matter.

Universalists hold that everyone's going to be saved from sin and death and that people don't need to believe in Jesus or that they only have to believe in their version of Jesus to be saved from sin and death. They tell us that Jesus may be known by other names by different people, even though Jesus Himself rejects such ideas, as we'll see presently.

Universalism is un-Christian and un-Lutheran. Yet it rears its head in many ways in mainline churches, including the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America of which I'm a part.

One of my seminary professors, the late Walter Bouman insisted even as he was dying of colon cancer, that he fully expected to see perpetrators of the Holocaust like Adolf Hitler in eternity.

Among the scandalous messages of Christianity is that if someone like Hitler did genuinely repent and truly trust in Christ as God and Savior, he would be saved because of the grace made available to all through Jesus.

But the assertion made by Bouman, an undeniably brilliant man, that Hitler would be in the eternal city simply because God loves all people, doesn't square with the witness of Revelation or the rest of Scripture. According to John 3:16, the most beloved and well-known passage of Scripture, God loves the whole world, but the ones who will be saved are those who believe in His Son, that is, trust in His Son Jesus by turning from sin and trusting that He alone can save and transform them. Hell will be filled with people God loves.

Consider a few passages:

[After being ordered by religious authorities to stop sharing the message of new life through Jesus Christ, the apostles Peter and John said:] "There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among mortals by which we must be saved.”(Acts 4:12)

[Jesus said:] "The one who believes and is baptized will be saved; but the one who does not believe will be condemned" (Mark 16:16)

[Jesus also said:] "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." (John 14:6)

[And Jesus said:] “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Those who believe in him are not condemned; but those who do not believe are condemned already, because they have not believed in the name of the only Son of God." (John 3:16-18)

Salvation--life in the eternal city with God--comes to those who entrust themselves, including their past sins and their eternal futures, into the hands of Jesus Christ. There is no other way.

Lutherans have boiled the witness of Scripture about how God saves humanity from sin and death down to three principles: "Grace alone. Faith alone. Word alone."

As Jesus Himself indicates in the last passage cited above, there will be those who are outside the new Jerusalem, not because there are limits to God's love, but because there are no limits to God's willingness to respect the decisions made by the only of His creatures made in the image of God.

The mission of Christ's Church and of individual Christians is to be God's loving witness to in the world, to spare no effort in inviting others to repent and believe in the Good News of Jesus so that they too can be part of the everlasting city.

The exclusion from the lectionary of unpleasant passages that confirm that the Sovereign God of the universe will and has every right to accept eternally people's rejection of the salvation He gives in Jesus Christ, creates a false impression of God and risks turning people away from eternity. The false gospel of universalism it represents is not only gutless, avoiding unpleasant truths, it can also be deeply lacking in love and compassion, denying people truth from God they need to know.

It's ironic, even tragic, that two of the verses not included by the lectionary in this passage are Revelation 22:18-19:

I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to that person the plagues described in this book; if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away that person’s share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book.  

Why would the creators of this lectionary--and of our denominational body, the ELCA--make such a big deal of deleting, really, of going out of their way to delete, these verses from the passage?

Are they afraid that if you and I hear or read something unpleasant from the Bible, we won't feel "affirmed" and, instead, look for another church, a TV show, a web site, an organization, or a group of friends who will tell us, "Don't worry. God loves you. You can deny that He has any authority over your life and trust in your own goodness. You can do whatever you want."?

The world is filled with messages like that. Taken to heart, they lead away from God for eternity, away from the good plans God has for us and has revealed in Jesus Christ. At least that's what God says. Who are we to amend His Word?

Jesus says, "Repent and believe in the good news" (Mark 1:15). Maybe we ought to take Him at His word.

Understanding Revelation, Part 6 (Revelation 22:12-21)

[This was shared during worship with the people of Saint Matthew Lutheran Church in Logan, Ohio, this morning.]

Revelation 22:12-21
There’s a simple scene enacted in millions of homes and other places across the country every single day.

It may involve a family with children, sitting before a freshly cooked, multi-course meal together with extended family.

It may entail a single person with a frozen dinner they’ve just microwaved.

Or it might play out among a group of friends grabbing a fast food meal on the road.

In each scene, heads bow and either silently or aloud, a prayer is said: “Come, Lord Jesus, be our guest and let these gifts to us be blessed.”

I bet you’ve been part of a similar scene yourself many times. It’s likely that you too have said that prayer yourself countless times.

In fact, say that prayer with me again right now: “Come, Lord Jesus, be our guest and let these gifts to us be blessed.”

Like other well-known prayers we say, this one may have been nearly bleached of personal meaning for us by constant use. But we say this prayer and teach it to our children and grandchildren mostly, I think, because, as we eat and drink and, maybe, visit with others over our meals, we want Jesus to be at that table with us.

A simpler prayer on which this one is based, goes all the way back to the first Christians. Paul offers this it in his first letter to the Corinthian Christians, breaking away from the Greek in which it and the whole rest of the New Testament was written to use a phrase from Aramaic. (Hebrew was a dead language by the time Jesus was born and Aramaic was the language that He and all the people of Judea used back then.) Paul prayed, “Marana Tha,” (Maranatha), meaning, “Come, Lord.”

But I wonder, as we pray this simple prayer, how much do we mean it when we ask Jesus to come to us?

An old joke has a man telling a friend: “I was praying last night and when I did, I sensed God giving me two messages: good news and bad news. Which would you like to hear first?” “The good news, I guess,” the friend answered. “OK, here's the good news: Jesus is coming back soon,” the man said. His friend was excited. “If that’s your good news,” the friend said, “I can’t imagine any news being bad enough to make me unhappy. What’s the bad news?” The first man answered: “Jesus is really ticked off.”

When we think about the words of that old dinnertime prayer, “Come, Lord Jesus…,” we may wonder that if Jesus really answers it, whether we'll like what happens?

No doubt, we’re sincere in our invitations to Jesus when things are going badly in our lives: When we’re facing health issues, when a teenaged son or daughter is driving home on a stormy night, when we get an audit notice from the IRS. The old saying is true, I think: “There are no atheists in fox holes.”

But when things are going well—when we’re healthy, the kids are home safe, and the tax refund is safely deposited in our account with no questions asked, we may not think too much about Jesus, let alone inviting Him to be our guest.

In fact, having Jesus as our guest may be the last thing that we want. When I was in college, I worked as youth coordinator in an acquaintance’s campaign for the State House of Representatives. I spent a lot of time with Bob*, a guy whose stint in the Army and impending tour of duty in Vietnam were ended when he got into a motorcycle accident that required the amputation of a leg. I was an atheist in those days and Bob told me that he believed in God.

“But,” he told me once, “I don’t want to get too close to God. I don’t want to have to change any of the things I like to do. The way I figure it, I’m going to live it up, do whatever I want to do. And then, when I’m on my deathbed, I’ll ask God to forgive me of my sins—accept Jesus or whatever, and then go to heaven.”

Even then, as an eighteen year old, I remember thinking that a man who’d lost a limb in a motorcycle accident should know that the opportunity for making peaceful deathbed confessions of faith are guaranteed to no one. In this fallen and dying world, anything can happen and it often does, without our plan or approval.

The writer of our second lesson for this morning, John the Evangelist, writing in the New Testament’s last book, Revelation, knew well how nothing in this world can be taken for granted. When he wrote the letter we call Revelation to the Christian churches of western Turkey, John was without freedom, a manacled prisoner exiled on the Mediterranean island of Patmos.

And the believers in Jesus to whom John wrote also knew that life may not go as planned. By the time John's letter had come to them, they had already felt the sting of harassment and pressure from authorities of the Roman Empire demanding that they renounce their faith in Jesus, which those in power saw as a threat to the Roman way of life. Some of these early followers of Jesus had been imprisoned for their faith. And some knew church members who had been killed for believing in Jesus. Their lives were hard. The empire under which they lived was evil. Their prayers for Jesus to come to them or to come to bring down the curtain on this world had an urgency that you and I seldom feel when we pray, “Come, Lord Jesus, be our guest.”

It was for Christians like these—to give them comfort, hope, and strength—that Jesus, already crucified, risen from the dead, and ascended to heaven, revealed to John the visions that make up much of Revelation.

Jesus wanted His people to know that all who repent for their sin and trust in Him have all that they need in this life and the next.

The last verses of Revelation that make up our second lesson today find Jesus repeating this promise--the promise that is at the heart of Revelation--to John, to those early Christians, and to us: “See, I am coming soon…”

But I’m convinced that even when Christ seems to be far away, He is already with us. There are times when we find that hard to believe. But if we will, as Psalm 46, the psalm whose words inspired the lyrics of Martin Luther's 'A Mighty Fortress is Our God,' tells us, “be still and know that” God is God, we may be surprised by the ways in which Jesus comes to us.

Corrie ten Boom, the Dutch Christian who, along with her family, were imprisoned by the Nazis during World War Two because they helped Jews escape their occupied country, is one of my heroes. During one four-month stretch of her imprisonment at the Ravensbruck Concentration Camp, Corrie was placed in solitary confinement. The cell was dark and there was dirty standing water on the floor. At times, she heard the cries of other prisoners and knew that she too could be tortured by the Nazis. Once, terrified beyond all bearing, she cried out to God, “Lord, I’m not strong enough to endure this. I don’t have the faith.”

At that moment, Corrie looked down to see an ant. She noticed that the moment the ant felt water on the floor, it went straight back into its hole in the wall. Corrie realized that when the ant confronted something too big or overwhelming, it went to its hiding place. “Corrie,” God seemed to tell her, “don’t look at your weak faith...I am your hiding place, and you can come running to Me” the way that ant went to its hiding place. When we’re desperate enough to truly mean it when we pray, “Come, Lord Jesus,” we may take it as a matter of faith that Christ will come to us!

And one day, Jesus will come back in the flesh to bring the old earth and old heaven to an end and the new earth and the new heaven into being. But what will Jesus do when He comes back?

The answer to that question is found in the first verse of our lesson. After promising that He is coming soon, Jesus says, “My reward is with me, to repay according to everyone’s work.”

Now, every good Lutheran knows, of course, that we are saved not by what we do—by our works—but by the gracious gift of new life God gives to those with faith in Jesus, Who died on the cross and rose from death for us.

So, what does Jesus mean saying that He’s going to repay us according to our work? Is He changing the rules of the game? If He is, we’re in trouble.

No, Jesus isn’t changing the rules. Jesus, the Lamb of God Who takes away our sin, is, as the book of Hebrews tells us, “the same yesterday, and today, and forever.”

For those of us who live in the in-between times—the times between our own births and deaths, the times between Jesus’ resurrection and His return to the world, between the mysteries of this life and the triumphant answers of the world to come, the work that Jesus rewards is well-known. Jesus put it this way in words recorded in John’s Gospel: “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him Whom [God] has sent.”

Trusting submission to Jesus is the work of the Christian. Allowing ourselves to be washed of all our sin and death in the blood of the Lamb of God: That is the work we do to enter eternity. We are saved by God’s grace through our faith in Christ; that’s our work.

We began this series of sermons on Revelation five weeks ago with the idea of simplifying a book of the Bible that people love to complicate. When all is said and done, the message of Revelation is simple. No matter what trials or uncertainties we may deal with in this life, when we turn from sin and trust in Christ, we have strength for today and hope for tomorrow.

Christ can come to us even now as he did to John on his island of exile. And Christ promises that once our lives here end, He will come to us again. Toward the end of our lesson, near the end of Revelation, Jesus says again, “Surely I am coming soon.” John responds, “Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!”

May that be our prayer through all the moments of our lives. And when that is our prayer, we can be sure that the blessing that ends Revelation will be ours every day: “The grace of the Lord be with all the saints. Amen!”

Come, Lord Jesus!

*Not his real name.

A Look at This Sunday's Lesson: Revelation 22:12-21

[To help the people of Saint Matthew Lutheran Church in Logan, Ohio, where I serve as pastor, and of any other congregation that uses the Revised Common Lectionary for their weekend worship, here are a few thoughts on the lesson on which I'll be doing my sermon on Sunday: Revelation 22:12-21.]

¹²“See, I am coming soon; my reward is with me, to repay according to everyone’s work.
(a) The speaker is the risen and ascended Jesus, the One Who John the Evangelist says has given him the revelation of the new Jerusalem that he has been given.

(b) Jesus says that He is "coming soon." First-century Christians were confounded by the fact that the risen and ascended Jesus had not returned yet. But Jesus had said even before His crucifixion that all the conditions for His return had already been fulfilled. He further said that His people shouldn't speculate about when the end would come, that the decision about that was in the hands of the Father. It was to assuage anxieties over Jesus' perceived "delay," that the apostle Peter wrote:

The Lord is not slow about his promise, as some think of slowness, but is patient with you,^* not wanting any to perish, but all to come to repentance. (2 Peter 3:9)

(c) "to repay according to everyone’s work": Be careful not to misread these words! Jesus isn't saying that if you work hard at being good, you'll get eternity with God. To those who asked what they needed to be doing to do the work of God, Jesus once said, "This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent" (John 6:29). Of course, if we believe in Jesus Christ--that is trust Him with our lives, that trust will be seen in what we do. That's the point of Jesus' foretelling of the end time in Matthew 25:31-46; there, believers will be unaware of their good works. They simply trusted in Christ and He worked in them. Also see Ephesians 2:8-10.

¹³I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.”
(a) Here, Jesus claims for Himself the same designation given to "the Lord God" in Revelation 1:8, "the Alpha and the Omega." These, of course, are the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet. Their use in Revelation 1 pointed to God as the One Who began creation and the One Who would bring it to a close. Only God has that power.

Throughout Revelation, we've seen that the Lord God and the Lamb reign from the same throne. In the Gospel of John, Jesus says, "The Father and I are one" (John 10:30).

Here, as we near the end of Revelation, the Lamb Himself is making clear His claim to be not only a man, born among humans, but also God. He has the power to create and end the lives of worlds.

¹⁴Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they will have the right to the tree of life and may enter the city by the gates.
(a) We've seen the imagery of washed robes already before in Revelation. In Revelation 7:14, John saw a great crowd. One of the elders told John, "These are they who have come out of the great ordeal; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb." Christians are sinners whose sin has been washed away by the blood of the Lamb of God, Jesus. This cleansing is available to all who believe in Jesus. (Check Hebrews 9:23-28.)

(b) The first human beings, Adam and Eve, along with all their descendants, have been denied access to the fruit from the tree of life since Adam and Eve fell into sin. Prior to that point, humanity could have gotten to that fruit, fulfilling God's desire to give us life. The only "forbidden fruit" came from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Once sin became part of us, God refused to take the risk of our living forever separated from Him.

But in eternity, after "the Alpha and Omega" has shut down the life of the old heaven and the old earth, the tree of life can do those washed in the blood of the Lamb no harm. Cleansed of the stain of sin, they can live for eternity as God intended humanity to live: eternally, in the presence of God. (See Genesis 3:1-24.)

(c) Remember that earlier, John described the vision he saw while "in the spirit" of "the new Jerusalem." It had twelve gates, he said, always open.

Of course, in the first century world, people lived in cities because, at night, their walls and locked gates provided protection not to be found in the countryside, where thieves and muggers loomed. But, as John has previously described the new Jerusalem, the city will be filled with endless light, coming from the Lord God and from the Lamb. The gates will be open because there won't be anything to fear, yet it's also clear that only those washed in the blood of the Lamb will be able to gain entrance.

¹⁵Outside are the dogs and sorcerers and fornicators and murderers and idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood. 
(a) "the dogs": There is some debate among scholars over the precise meaning of this term. Among first-century Judeans like Jesus, for example, dogs weren't domesticated and never used as house pets. They roamed streets and countryside, scavenging food and menacing people. So, people of that tradition wouldn't have used the term, "dog," in any but disparaging ways.

Commonly, in Jesus' day, Gentiles were referred to as "dogs" by Jews. Jesus had this meaning in mind, when he used the epithet in his conversation with the Canaanite woman who asked Jesus to cast a demon from her daughter. Jesus had told her, "It is not fair to take the children's food [the children being Jesus' fellow Jews] and throw it to the dogs." Jesus was astounded by the woman's faith and granted her request when she answered, "Yes, Lord, even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters' table." (Matthew 15:21-28).

Some scholars believe that the term "dogs" as used by John in our Revelation text is meant to be a blanket categorization for all the other notorious sinners presented in the balance of the verse. But if anything, the final term, "everyone who loves and practices falsehood" would seem to more likely cover all the categories of sinners preceding it. Jesus says that all who spurn Him spurn the truth and trust the father of lies.

(b) Sorcery is relying on "powers" other than God to live one's life, control one's destiny, or to make decisions. (See What's Wrong with Reading the Horoscope?)

(c) Fornication is sexual intimacy outside of marriage. Marriage, of course, is a lifetime covenant between a husband and wife, with God. It was instituted by God apart from the "piece of paper" issues by local governments. 

(d) Idolatry is the worship of false gods. Our "god" is what we derive ultimate meaning and purpose from in our lives.

(e) Of course, all these sins can be forgiven by God. When we repent in Jesus' Name and trust in Him, we are washed in the blood of the Lamb and made fit for citizenship in the new Jerusalem.

¹⁶“It is I, Jesus, who sent my angel to you with this testimony for the churches. I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star.”
(a) An angel is a messenger. The term, angelos, in the original Greek of the New Testament, means just that, messenger.

(b) "the root and the descendant of David": Jesus claims here to be the one who established the family line of David and, as a man, a descendant of David. David died in 970BC, nearly one-thousand years before the birth of Jesus. The Davidic line was chosen by God to be the kings of Israel. (See Isaiah 11:1; Jesse was David's father.)

(c)"the bright morning star": See Numbers 24:17. The "morning star" brings a new day.

¹⁷The Spirit and the bride say, “Come.” And let everyone who hears say, “Come.” And let everyone who is thirsty come. Let anyone who wishes take the water of life as a gift. 
(a) "The Spirit" is the Holy Spirit.

(b) "The bride" is the Church. See here.

(c) There are three invitations to "come" in this verse. The first two are addressed to Jesus. The last is addressed to all who haven't been washed in the blood of the Lamb.

(d) The invitation echoes the invitation to receive the body and blood of Jesus in Holy Communion.

(e) "And let everyone who is thirsty come. Let anyone who wishes take the water of life as a gift": This echoes the prophecy found in Isaiah 55:1-5, written centuries before the birth of Jesus. Jesus is the living water who gives life to all who turn to Him.

Notice too, that salvation or an eternal relationship with God is not forced on anyone. It's available to "anyone who wishes [to] take the water of life." See here.

¹⁸I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to that person the plagues described in this book; ¹⁹if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away that person’s share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book. 
(a) This is a solemn and bracing warning to any who want to pick and choose among the truths that God has revealed to the world. Just as Jesus couldn't go halfway to the cross in order to win our salvation, we dare not go halfway in faith. We either trust in Jesus as Savior and God or we don't.

²⁰The one who testifies to these things says, “Surely I am coming soon.” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!
(a) Here, we have a call and response. Jesus affirms that he is coming to the world soon. The response is agreement (amen means truly or it is so) and invitation, "Come, Lord Jesus!"

²¹The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all the saints. Amen. 
(a) "the saints": All who repent for sin and trust in Jesus are counted among the saints. Saints are forgiven sinners who, in this life, wrestle with temptation and sin.

Will There Be Some Left Outside the 'New Jerusalem'?

This coming Sunday, as I wind up my sermon series on Revelation, the text will be Revelation 22:12-21.

Actually, the second lesson appointed by the lectionary used by we Lutherans for our weekly worship is Revelation 22:12-14, 16-17, 20-21. (For an explanation of what in blazes a lectionary is, go here. For more background, you might want to look here.)

This Sunday's appointed reading chops up what, to me anyway, is John's careful, cohesive closing of his letter to the seven first-century churches of "Asia," the first-century world's name for an area we know as western Turkey. In the final ten verses of Revelation, John refers to a series of images and themes that have appeared throughout his letter. He's wrapping things up and the lectionary muddles John's ending.

Why the creators of the Revised Common Lectionary (RCL) decided to dump certain verses of this unit can only be guessed.

But it is clear that the verses deleted are a bit disturbing and might well offend modern ears. That's OK, though. Often, the Good News of the Bible can only be heard once we get disturbed by the Bible. The Bible's primary message--that of new, eternal life for all those who repent of sin and trust in Jesus Christ as Savior and God-in-human-flesh--has always been offensive, even to those who come to believe in Jesus.

Besides, one of the deletions made by the lectionary in this Sunday's passage from Revelation can create incorrect impressions about this last book of the Bible, even of the entire Bible.

Verse 15 says:

¹⁵Outside are the dogs and sorcerers and fornicators and murderers and idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.  

In continuing to describe the new Jerusalem mentioned in last Sunday's lesson, John says that outside this city with its multiple gates that are never locked shut, will be those who don't gain entrance.

For some post-moderns, with their assertions that "all roads lead to the same place," whether the place they refer to is satori, nothingness, some universal mind, or to some version of deity fashioned by human imagination, the idea that anyone would be outside of the eternal city John describes is deeply offensive.

There are also some Christians who subscribe to universalism, the notion that what people believe about the God revealed in Jesus Christ, whether they repent of sin or not, whether they even believe in God or an afterlife or not, doesn't matter. They hold that everyone's going to be saved from sin and death. One of my seminary professors, the late Walter Bouman insisted even as he was dying of colon cancer, that he fully expected to see perpetrators of the Holocaust like Adolf Hitler in eternity.

One of the scandalous messages of Christianity is that if someone like Hitler did genuinely repent and truly trust in Christ as God and Savior, he would be saved because of the grace made available to all through Jesus. But the assertion made by Bouman, an undeniably brilliant man, that Hitler would be in the eternal city simply because God loves all people, doesn't square with the witness of Revelation or the rest of Scripture.

Consider a few passages:

[After being ordered by religious authorities to stop sharing the message of new life through Jesus Christ, the apostles Peter and John said:] "There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among mortals by which we must be saved.”(Acts 4:12)

[Jesus said:] "The one who believes and is baptized will be saved; but the one who does not believe will be condemned" (Mark 16:16)

[Jesus also said:] "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." (John 14:6)

[And Jesus said:] “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. ¹⁷Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. ¹⁸Those who believe in him are not condemned; but those who do not believe are condemned already, because they have not believed in the name of the only Son of God." (John 3:16-18)

Salvation--life in the eternal city with God--comes to those who entrust themselves, including their past sins and their eternal futures, into the hands of Jesus Christ.

Lutherans have boiled the witness of Scripture about how God saves humanity from sin and death down to three principles: "Grace alone. Faith alone. Word alone."

As Jesus Himself indicates in the last passage cited above, there will be those who are outside the new Jerusalem, not because there are limits to God's love, but because there are no limits to God's willingness to respect the decisions made by the only of His creatures made in the image of God.

The mission of Christ's Church and of individual Christians is to be God's loving witness to in the world, to spare no effort in inviting others to repent and believe in the Good News of Jesus so that they too can be part of the everlasting city.

[More on the deleted passages later, I hope.]

Famous Last Words

[This message was shared during worship with the people of Friendship Lutheran Church and their guests on May 20, 2007. Megan and Shane are two young people who were confirmed during today's worship celebration.]

Revelation 22:12-21
Last words, whether in a will or from the dying or in other contexts are important to us. One woman’s last words from her deathbed were both scolding and funny. She turned to her husband and said, “I told you I was sick!”

And many of you have heard me tell the true story of the retired pastor, seemingly no longer able to hear or speak as he slipped toward death. The nurse at the nursing home where he lay knew his favorite song. So, she began to sing it to him: “Jesus loves me, This I know, For the Bible tells me so.” I heard that very nurse tell what happened next. That pastor popped up from his bed to say, “And don’t you ever forget it either.” He then fell back on the bed and died. Great last words!

Often the last words of a book explain everything that has come before it and give us understanding for the future. The words of our Bible lesson for today are the very last words in the Bible. And they both explain a lot and give us hope for our future!

Pastor John Jewell has identified three great truths in these words and since the Eleventh Commandment for all preachers is, “Thou shalt steal good ideas...as long as you give credit where credit is due,” I want to put my own spin on these three truths.

Truth Number One: God is in charge. Megan and Shane, as you begin your life as adult followers of Jesus Christ today, this may be the most important thing for you to realize. No matter what happens in the world. No matter what happens in your lives. No matter how crazy things may sometimes get. God is in charge.

As He does at other places in Revelation, Jesus includes in the last words of this book of the Bible His claim: “I am the Alpha and the Omega.” Using the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet in which the New Testament is written, Jesus says, “I’m the One Who got everything started. And when I draw the curtain on the life of this world and bring in the new heaven, the new earth, and the new city of God, I’ll still be in charge.”

Sherri Conley and her family learned for sure that God is in charge back in 1999, when a tornado ripped through their Oklahoma community. “We said a prayer that God would watch over us,” she told The Daily Oklahoman newspaper. That’s what Sherri and her family did as they huddled in their hallway linen closet for protection. After the storm had passed, they discovered that the closet was the only thing left of their entire house.

Of course, God being in charge doesn’t always mean that everything will go the way we want it to. Praying people are sometimes swept away by tornados, tsunamis, and the tragedies of life. The pastor who presided at my uncle’s funeral on Thursday said that my uncle wanted to confess his sins and his faith in Jesus Christ when the pastor visited him. That didn’t take my uncle’s pancreatic cancer away. But it did mean that when he died, the God Who is in charge was waiting for him. If you will persevere in your life with Christ, Shane and Megan, you can live each day with the assurance that Christ is waiting for you, too!

The second truth in the last words of the Bible is this: Christ has a gift for all who want it. The gift is life with God, now and forever.

Early in our passage, Jesus says, “My reward is with me, to repay according to everyone’s work.” And what is our work? It’s to listen to Jesus’ call to turn away or repent for our sins and to believe in only Him. That’s what Jesus means when He says, “Blessed are those who wash their robes [blessed are those, in other words, bleached clean by Christ’s blood, shed on the cross] so that they ...may enter the city [the new Jerusalem] by the gates.”

And describing the new life He gives as “living water” that can refresh us and renew us for all eternity, Jesus says, “Let anyone who wishes take the water of life as a gift.”

Megan and Shane today have affirmed that they want to live in the covenant God made with them when they were baptized. They want Him to be their God and they want to take the gift of new life offered to everyone through Jesus Christ! In our lesson today, Jesus is saying that all they have to do--all any of us has to do--is take it. Take God’s gifts. Let Him love you. That’s it!

The third truth in the Bible’s last words is this: It won't be long. It won’t be long until this life or the life of this world come to an end. But what does that mean exactly?

In an old joke, a man has a conversation with God. “Tell me, Lord,” he says, “is it true that in your eyes a million years is like a second and million dollars is like a penny?” “Yes,” the Lord answers. “That’s true.” “In that case, Lord, could you give me a penny?” The Lord says, “Just a second.”

When I was a child my birthdays only came around once a year. Now they come every single year! Just as the picture of time varies between children and adults, so does God’s picture of time differ from all of our understandings. When Jesus says, as He does to us today, “See, I am coming soon...” and “Surely I am coming soon,” we have to remember that, as Peter tells us in the New Testament, “with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like one day.”

There will be times in your life, Megan and Shane, when you’ll pray and pray and pray and wonder what God is doing. What is the holdup? God always answers prayers sincerely brought to Him in Jesus’ Name. But His answers aren’t always, “Yes.” Sometimes Gode says, “No.” And sometimes He tells us, “Maybe” or “Wait.” In my own life, I’ve had things for which I’ve prayed literally for decades and then, seen God answer them with a Yes that’s been stunning and totally unexpected! When God seems to put off His answers to our prayers, it’s because He’s waiting for the right time to do the right thing in the right way for us. Often, He makes us wait because it’s only when we do wait that we realize that the good things that come our way are really from Him, the God in charge Who loves to hand us His free gifts, and not because of anything we’ve done.

I hear some Christians say that they wonder why Jesus is waiting so long to come back into this world and usher in the new world in which all who believe in Him will live. They think that this old world is in worse shape than it ever has been before. Surely, Jesus needs to return before things get any more terrible, they think.

I have two responses to that. First of all, there are some ways in which this world is worse than it has been before. But in many other ways, it’s much better. When I was growing up, there were no seatbelts or airbags in cars and trucks. There was lead in paint and asbestos in public schools. There were no Amber Alerts. Racism and ethnic stereotyping, surely horrible sins, were widely accepted. And girls were made to feel that they shouldn’t aspire to use their God-given talents in the professions. I think that, at least in our little corner of the world, things are better in these and many other ways. When Adam and Eve, our first parents, plunged the human race into the cesspool of sin, the fall was complete. There are no new sins. But some sins go in and out of style. Don’t let the sins that people specialize in today make you think that the world is worse off today than it was when Jesus walked the earth.

But, here’s the real reason I think that Jesus is waiting to return: He’s giving those of us in the Church time to do our mission.

And our mission is simple...

• We’re to make disciples.
• We’re to tell others about Jesus Christ.
• We’re to invite them to come and see our Savior Jesus active in our church.
• We’re to invite them to worship with us and to follow Jesus with us.

Those of you who have been through the recent Witnesses for Christ classes have been particularly trained and empowered to share Christ both boldly and humbly. You can play a critical part in helping our congregation to grow by twenty-five new households before the end of this year.

I ask all members of Friendship to make it a personal goal to ask at least one spiritually-disconnected person to come to a Friendship activity each month for the rest of the year.

We all have our parts to play in Christ’s mission for His church and we all can be excited that at least five new households are about to go through the new members’ class, Friendship 101.

Jesus says that in His eyes, it won’t be long before He returns. However long that is in our eyes, our job is to invite as many people into eternity with us as we can.

I hope that you’ll make that your mission, Shane and Megan. I hope that we all will.

The Bible’s last words for us are simple and important:

• God is in charge.
• Christ has a gift of life for all who want it.
• And He will return.

So, Megan and Shane, and all of us, let’s be busy doing the mission Christ has given to us and pray in every time and circumstance, “Come, Lord Jesus! Fill our hearts and our world with You!”

[THANKS TO: John Schroeder of Blogotional for linking to this sermon. Whatever good is in my sermons is from God. It's nonetheless reassuring to know that someone like John finds something of God in this message. Thank you, John.]

Third Pass at This Weekend's Bible Lesson: Revelation 22:12-21

[Verse-by-Verse Comments, continued]

15Outside are the dogs and sorcerers and fornicators and murderers and idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.
(1) These are people outside the new Jerusalem. They are there by choice. (See here.) They're people who choose not to repent and choose not to rely on the righteousness of Christ and instead, stand naked in their sins before God.

(2) Dogs was a term used of anyone who was ritually impure. But, more to the point here I think, is that it was used by Judeans of foreigners who stood outside the covenant God made with His people through Abraham.

Jesus playfully uses a related term--the word He uses is actually more aptly translated as puppy--when a foreign woman He has every intention of helping makes a request of Him:

Just then a Canaanite woman from that region came out and started shouting, “Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David; my daughter is tormented by a demon.” But he did not answer her at all. And his disciples came and urged him, saying, “Send her away, for she keeps shouting after us.” He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” But she came and knelt before him, saying, “Lord, help me.” He answered, “It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.” She said, “Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.” Then Jesus answered her, “Woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish.” And her daughter was healed instantly. (Matthew 15:22-28)

(3) God has always regarded sorcery--and that would include things like Tarot cards, Ouija boards, crystals, and daily horoscopes--as "abominations." "You shall not practice augury or witchcraft," Leviticus 19:26 says. [On augury, see here and here.]

Some Christians who read their horoscopes or play with Ouija boards defend themselves by saying, "It's harmless fun." Not according to God. Even if you think that you're being playful and even if you don't believe in such things as dark powers (though it should be pointed out that Jesus believed that they existed), such playing inherently splinters your allegiance to God. A seed is planted in your brain to rely on what the Tarot cards tell you, rather than on God alone. Your allegiance is fractured. Psalm 146:5 says:

Happy are those whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the Lord their God...

Our "god" is whatever is of highest importance in our lives. Whenever we allow some "oracle" to tell us about our future, rather than relying totally on the God we know in Christ, we engage in idolatry. We violate the first commandment.

Thank God that through Jesus Christ, all of our sins, including the sin of idol worship, can be forgiven and because of God's forgiving grace, we need not stay outside the new Jerusalem!

(4) Those who love to practice falsehood must be those who have fallen so deeply into sin that they feel no twinge of remorse over lying. It's become so natural to them that they don't even think about it.

16“It is I, Jesus, who sent my angel to you with this testimony for the churches. I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star.”
(1) The churches to whom Jesus gives His testimony are identified in Revelation 2 and 3.

(2) Jesus' identification of Himself as both the root and the descendant of David echoes, in some respects the description of Him as "the Alpha and the Omega." In a famous passage in John's Gospel, Jesus uses bad grammar to make an important point about Who He is, "“Very truly, I tell you, before Abraham was, I am" (John 8:58).

I Am, of course, is a rough translation of the Hebrew word for God's Name, Yahweh, meaning I AM WHO I AM, or I WILL BE WHO I WILL BE. The name denotes God as the "ground of all being."

Here, Jesus says that He--God the Son--designated David to be Israel's second and greatest king. He also says that it was God's will that the King of all kings, the Messiah, should be born into a family that descended from David.

(3) Numbers 24:17 said that "a star shall come out of Jacob, and a scepter shall rise out of Israel." Jacob, of course, was the third of the Old Testament "patriarchs," fathers of the Jewish family of faith. Jesus is the bright morning star, the King Who comes to bring a new day to all who turn from sin and trust in Him.

17The Spirit and the bride say, “Come.” And let everyone who hears say, “Come.” And let everyone who is thirsty come. Let anyone who wishes take the water of life as a gift.
(1) The Spirit is the Holy Spirit, third person of the triune God. (For a basic explanation of the Trinity, one God in three persons, see here.)

The Holy Spirit has always been the third person of what theologians call "the Godhead." Genesis 1 tells us that God's Spirit moved over chaos and brought life into being.

But today, we live in what might be called "the era of the Holy Spirit." After Jesus' death, resurrection, and ascension, He sent the Holy Spirit to His prayerful first followers. That happened on a day called Pentecost. It's marked as the birthday of the Church, the day when God empowered Jesus' followers to fulfill Christ's mission for all who follow Him.

(2) The bride is Christ's Church. This is an extension of imagery used in the Old Testament, imagery in which God portrays Israel as His bride and Himself as the nation's husband. There are several places in the New Testament Gospels where Jesus applies this imagery to Himself as husband and the Church--which is sometimes called "the new Israel"--His bride.

Remember that in ancient Jewish custom, the bride didn't know for certain when the groom would show up for the beginning of the festivities. The bride and her party had to be ready at any time. This is what lay behind Jesus' parable of the wise and foolish bridesmaids.

For some, the return of Christ with the new Jerusalem is a fearful prospect. But for the Christian, whose faith is made possible by the Holy Spirit with whom the Church agrees here, it's a wonderful thing!

(3) For an understanding of the water of life, go here.

(4) Notice that the water of life is a gift. New life in Christ can't be earned. It's a gift from God through Jesus Christ!

18I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to that person the plagues described in this book; 19if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away that person’s share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book.
(1) One of the complaints that Jesus has against the seven churches addressed at the beginning of Revelation is how they mess with the pure Gospel. The Nicolaitans, Gnostics, and the Jezebel operating in one of the churches are all adding layers of legalism or hedonism to the Gospel.

Some say that it doesn't matter what you do; you can't lose your relationship with Christ; so, sin away.

Others say that believers need to have secret knowledge or they must manifest certain gifts or do added good works in order to be accepted by Christ.

Martin Luther pointed out that we are to rely on faith alone in Christ alone based on God's Word alone. Any time people try to make the Gospel out as "faith and....," or "Christ and...," or "God's Word and...," they're perpetrating a lie.

John 3:16 says, "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life."

It doesn't say, "everyone who believes in him and eats a particular diet." It doesn't say, "everyone who believes in him and tithes to the church." It doesn't say, "everyone who believes in him and votes Republican." It doesn't say, "everyone who believes in him and speaks in tongues." It doesn't say, "everyone who believes in him and knows some 'secret knowledge.'"

John is saying, "Don't add or subtract a single thing to what Jesus has revealed here." Christians could save themselves a lot of unnecessary grief if they would ignore what agenda-driven preachers say about this and other books of the Bible and remember instead to rely on faith alone in Christ alone as revealed in the Bible alone.

20The one who testifies to these things says, “Surely I am coming soon.” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!
(1) Jesus promises again that He is coming soon. John responds with Amen, meaning YES! Then, he writes a three-word prayer, which in Aramaic, the language Jesus spoke, would be rendered Maranatha, "Come, O Lord."

As Brian Findlayson says of this passage:
Our burning desire should be for the return of Christ and thus, our union with him.

21The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all the saints. Amen.
(1) For a discussion of what a saint is, see here and here.

Second Pass at This Weekend's Bible Lesson: Revelation 22:12-21

[Here is the first pass at this weekend's lesson, including an explanation of what this is about.]

Verse-by-Verse Comments
12“See, I am coming soon; my reward is with me, to repay according to everyone’s work.
(1) The person being quoted is Jesus. You have to be careful not to misread this passage. Jesus isn't saying that we need to work to gain a place with Him in eternity. Paul writes in the New Testament book of Ephesians:

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. (Ephesians 2:8-10)

Eternal life with Christ can't be earned. It belongs to those who repent (that is, turn away from sin as a way of life) and entrust their lives to Christ, the giver of eternal life. When we allow Christ into our life, we embrace a new way of living, a way of service that "God prepared beforehand to be our way of life."

In verse 14, John speaks of "those who wash their robes," that is, those who have been cleansed by the blood of Christ, the sacrificial Lamb, on the cross.

The "work" of a Christian is to turn from sin and follow Christ. Bryan Findlayson puts it this way:

The essential command that must be obeyed is the call to faith in Christ.

(See here.)

(2) Jesus begins this section by saying that He is planning on returning to the earth soon. These words are for us, no less than for John's original readers and hearers. Peter writes:

...do not ignore this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like one day. (2 Peter 3:8)

13I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.”
(1) John uses the very term--the Alpha and the Omega--to describe Jesus in the prologue of this book. It refers to the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet and claims that Jesus is the first, the last, and everything. (For more, see here.)

14Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they will have the right to the tree of life and may enter the city by the gates.
(1) Revelation 7 talks about those who "have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb." These are all who repent of their sins and believe in Jesus Christ, the saints. They've been made clean by Christ's death on their behalf.

(2) This is the tree of life mentioned in Genesis and in last week's Bible lesson.

[More verse-by-verse comments, I hope.]

First Pass at This Weekend's Bible Lesson: Revelation 22:12-21

[Most weeks, I present as many updates on my reflections and study of the Biblical texts on which our weekend worship celebrations will be built as I can. The purpose is to help the people of the congregation I serve as pastor, Friendship Lutheran Church of Amelia, Ohio, get ready for worship. Hopefully, it's helpful to others as well, since our Bible lesson is usually one from the weekly lectionary, variations of which are used in most of the churches of the world.]

This Week's Bible Lesson: Revelation 22:12-21
12“See, I am coming soon; my reward is with me, to repay according to everyone’s work. 13I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.” 14Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they will have the right to the tree of life and may enter the city by the gates. 15Outside are the dogs and sorcerers and fornicators and murderers and idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood. 16“It is I, Jesus, who sent my angel to you with this testimony for the churches. I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star.” 17The Spirit and the bride say, “Come.” And let everyone who hears say, “Come.” And let everyone who is thirsty come. Let anyone who wishes take the water of life as a gift. 18I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to that person the plagues described in this book; 19if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away that person’s share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book.

20The one who testifies to these things says, “Surely I am coming soon.” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus! 21The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all the saints. Amen.

General Comments:
1. John, the only Gospel writer to have a prologue and a brief epilogue in his narrative of Jesus Christ's life, death, and resurrection, appears to have the same literary devices in the book of Revelation. Our lesson is part of what most scholars see as the epilogue of Revelation.

Some say that the epilogue is composed of Revelation 22:6-21, while others leave out the last verse as a separate item, a stereotyped closing greeting in early Christian correspondence.

2. Whatever one includes in epilogue, it's clear that John intends for it, along with the prologue, to form what scholars call an inclusio, framing the major themes of Revelation at the book's beginning and end. (For a brief, helpful discussion of the inclusio as a literary device, see the second section here.)

3. Jeske points to common verbal similarities between the prologue, Revelation 1:1-8, and epilogue:

One can...see that a relationship...between the epilogue and prologue in terms of verbal similarities and subject matter. For instance [in the epilogue], there is a restatement of the theme of reception, that God is the source of the message that John has shared with his audience, mediated to him from Jesus through an angelic messenger (22:6, 16; cf. 1:1). There is also the reference to the entire writing as "the words of prophecy" (22:7, 10, 18-19; cf. 1:3), to be read in the church (22:18; cf. 1:3, 11). Those who keep the words of this prophecy are blessed (22:18; cf. 1:3, 11). Those who keep the words of this prophecy are blessed (22:7; cf. 1:3). There are the Alpha and the Omega theme (22:13; cf. 1:8), beatitudes (22:7, 14; cf. 1:3), a word of grace (22:21; cf. 1:4), and the announcement of Christ's coming soon (22:6-7, 12, 20; cf. 1:1, 7)...

4. It isn't surprising, Jeske says, to see certain of the entire book's themes reiterated in the epilogue:

For instance, the warning to John is repeated that he should not confuse the mediating messenger with God, the source of the message...(22:8-9; cf. 19:10). Other repeated themes include: the access of God's people to the tree of life in the new holy city (22:14, 19; cf. 22:2); a list of vices (22:15; cf. 21:8); the testimony to the churches as delivered by the messenger sent by Jesus (22:16; cf. 2:1-3:22).

[I hope to have verse-by-verse comments tomorrow.]