The Holy Spirit leads to new missions,
offering joy to peoples and nations, however embattled by evil they may
be.
The Easter season
moves toward the climax of Ascension, Pentecost, and Trinity Sundays. This next-to-last Sunday of the season has as
one of its themes the movement of the Spirit of the Lord toward the peoples and
nations who yearn to hear the good news.
The reading from
Acts presents the moment in Paul’s work when the mission crosses over from Asia
to Europe . This is the work of the Spirit, which has
guided Paul’s route and destinations through the Roman provinces of Galatia
and Asia (Acts 16:6-8).
At Troas on the northwestern coast Paul
experiences a vision of the “man of Macedonia ”
calling for Paul to come and help them.
(It turns out, after Paul gets there, that the “man” proves to be a
woman, Lydia .) Responding to the call, they go to the
Macedonian city of Philippi .
First “we”
passage in Acts. As the Acts passage
describes this movement of Paul from Troas to Philippi, it shifts from the
third person to the first. Verse 7
reads, “When they [Paul and his companions] had come opposite Mysia ,
…” while verse 10 reads, “When he had seen the vision, we immediately tried to
cross over to Macedonia …”
and the following travel details continue in the first person. Scholars have long debated the implications
of this shift in speech for the authorship of the book of Acts, but the
plainest and most likely explanation is that the speaker is saying, in a quiet
and unassuming way, “I was there for this”!
The passage of the
gospel message into Europe had an eyewitness who speaks
directly to the hearers. (Other “we”
passages in Acts are in chapters 20-21 and 27-28.)
The first convert
to faith in Jesus in Philippi is Lydia ,
and the passage gives several details about her. She conducted a commercial enterprise,
dealing in dyed purple cloth, which probably took her to other cities
also. She was an immigrant to Philippi ,
having come from the city of Thyatira
in Asia Minor (one of the seven churches addressed by
Christ in Revelation 2-3 ). She was a devout person, non-Judean, but
adhering to the Judean faith in God (verse 14).
There apparently were not enough Judeans in this Roman provincial
capital to form a synagogue (ten Judean men were required), and a common
practice of Judeans in such circumstances was to meet on the Sabbath at some
river, as happens here.
There apparently
were only women gathered here for prayer outside Philippi ,
and Paul speaks to them about Jesus. Lydia
was present and “the Lord opened her heart to listen eagerly…” She and her household were baptized, and she
pressed Paul to accept the hospitality of her home. Though Lydia
is not referred to in Paul’s later letter to the church in Philippi ,
the first foothold for the assembly of Jesus people in Europe
was accomplished.
Psalm 67.
The Psalm reading is
a short composition, soliciting God’s grace and blessing on “us,” so that other
peoples may see and enthusiastically praise the God who is the source of such
blessing. The words “nations” and
“peoples” tumble out of the psalm at almost every other line.
There are three
Hebrew terms involved here, which the translations do not fully
distinguish. Following the NRSV ,
these three are identified as follows:
·
The “nations” in verse 2 [v. 3 in
Heb.] are the goyyim, nations in the most common sense, used widely in
poetry and prose.
·
The “peoples” in verses 3-5 are
the ‘ammim, peoples, extended kinship groups, widely used in both poetry
and prose.
·
In verse 4, however, the “nations”
are the Hebrew term le’ummim, a term used almost exclusively
in poetry, having connotations more of “clan” or “tribe.” The sense may be similar to “nations” as used
in reference to Native American tribal communities.
In any case, the
force of the psalm is to summon and anticipate that the “peoples” and “nations”
all around will celebrate and praise the salvation manifested toward God’s
people, who here exult in their blessings.
The reading from
the book of Revelation continues the visions of the end time given to the seer
John. For the Easter season, these are
the visions of the heavenly reign entered into by the Risen Lord.
Here he sees the
New Jerusalem – a city marked by the presence of God and God’s Anointed
(the Lamb). The Lord and the Lamb
provide whatever light and holiness this heavenly-city-come-to-earth will
need. There will be no sun, and there
will be no temple, for the presence of God enlightens and sanctifies all. Everything is holy; all that was secular has
passed away in the several judgments narrated earlier in the revelation. “But nothing unclean will enter it, nor
anyone who practices abomination or falsehood, but only those who are written
in the Lamb’s book of life” (verse 27, NRSV).
The holy city will
be recognized by the nations, who will bring their glory (wealth) to it, as the
old prophecies said. (The heavenly Zion ,
enlightened by God and receiving the wealth of the nations, is elaborated in Isaiah
60 .) Out of the
throne of God in this heavenly city will flow the River of Life, with its water
bright as crystal and the healing trees on both sides (verses 1-2, descended
from the old vision in Ezekiel 47:1-12 ).
Thus the heavenly
drama of the Risen Lord is projected to its incomprehensible climax.
HOWEVER, this is
the place to observe that the Lectionary selections from Revelation have been
extremely selective. Besides the
heavenly liturgies, of which we have heard much, the book of Revelation also contains
much struggle and conflict, and that part has been left out of the Lectionary
readings. See Note Below on Revelation
in the Lectionary.
The Gospel reading
is from that great series of farewell addresses Jesus delivers as he prepares
the disciples for his departure in John’s Gospel.
First there is a
statement of an ultimate unity between Son, Father, and loving
follower: “Those who love me will keep
my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our
home with them.” (Verse 23; the NRSV has gender-corrected masculine singulars
into common-gender plurals here.).
But prior to the
realization of that unity, there is departure!
In place of Jesus’ own presence to the believers, he will send the
Advocate, the Holy Spirit. The Holy
Spirit is sent by the Father, sent in Jesus’ name, and is a means of teaching
the disciples – of teaching them what they already have heard from Jesus
himself. The Advocate “will teach you
everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you” (verse 26).
The passage
intends to give confidence to the followers, especially after Jesus is gone. The process the disciples will go through is
a continuous series of “Ah ha!” experiences.
“That’s what that meant!”
(See, for example, John 2:21-22 and
12:16 .) Thus the reading concludes, “And now I have
told you this before it occurs, so that when it does occur, you may believe”
(verse 29).
The Gospel expects
a period of reflection and continued illumination on the part of the disciples,
constantly assisted by the Spirit, before they move out to share the new life
with the peoples and the nations.
Note on Revelation in the Lectionary
The Lectionary
readings taken from the book of Revelation are heavily loaded toward the
liturgical and heavenly-drama sections of that book. There is much else in this unique Christian
book that has been left out of the three-year cycle of readings.
Christopher
Rowland sums up Revelation in the Lectionary as follows:
The Revised Common
Lectionary prescribes ten readings from Revelation over the three-year
cycle. Of these ten readings, five are
from Revelation 21-22
[New Heaven and Earth and the New Jerusalem], four from two passages (1:4-8;
7:9-17) [both visions of the heavenly liturgy], and one from chapter 5 [another
heavenly liturgy]. …To paraphrase
Bonhoeffer’s words, we have ceased to be a community that hears the Apocalypse,
for the simple reason that we do not allow ourselves the opportunity of
hearing, let alone keeping, its words. (The
New Interpreter’s Bible, Abingdon, Vol. 12 [1998], p. 510.)
The point is that
over half the book of Revelation is about the struggle against resisting evil
that causes the agony accompanying the birth of the new age.
There is a great
cosmic warfare going on, and the seer’s visions present the warring sides and
the cost to faithful witnesses of the struggle between the mighty forces of
evil and the good forces of the heavenly Lamb.
There is not another book in the Christian Bible that presents so
clearly the oppressive power of great imperial forces. This is a message that many Christians around
the world need to hear, because it reflects their own experience of
overwhelming forces bearing them down – but insists also on a final hope for
deliverance.
Let me enter a
plea here for serious readers to find time to read at least chapters 12 and 13. Both chapters speak in symbols, but powerful
and awesome symbols.
In Chapter 12 the
woman robed in sun and moon who is pregnant and flees to the wilderness from
the Dragon who seeks to consume her child – this is the warfare on earth of the
Israel-Church from whom the Anointed One was born. The Dragon is the central force of
anti-creation, expressed in the Hebrew scriptures as the great deep and the
chaos of water that overwhelms all human order.
The woman’s child
escapes the Dragon and is whisked off to heaven where he assumes divine
authority as the Lamb. This produces an
intense warfare in heaven, and the Dragon is defeated. “The great dragon was thrown down, that
ancient serpent, who is called the Devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole
world – he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with
him” (12:9, NRSV). Unfortunately for the
earth, it is at the mercy of these newly rampant forces of evil. “Then the dragon was angry with the woman,
and went off to make war on the rest of her children, those who keep the
commandments of God and hold the testimony of Jesus” (12:17 ).
In chapter 13
there is the presentation of two beasts, which symbolize more organized and
focused evil forces than the vague Dragon of chapter 12. The beast from the sea (13:1-10) is an agent
empowered by the Dragon, who utters blasphemies and “was allowed to make
warfare on the saints and conquer them.
… [A]ll the inhabitants of the earth will worship it, everyone whose
name has not been written … in the book of life …” (13:7-8).
The second beast (13:11 -18) is from the earth, but equally
empowered by the Dragon and the first beast.
This beast has powers of a magician, which it uses to support worship of
the first beast. It can bring an
idolatrous image to life, to dazzle gullible followers, and has power to
execute people who will not worship the beast.
Finally, this second beast is in charge of the demonic bureaucracy of
Satan: “It causes all, both small and
great, both rich and poor, both free and slave, to be marked on the right hand
or the forehead, so that no one can buy or sell who does not have the mark,
that is, the name of the beast or the number of its name” (13:16-17). The name/number of the beast is, of course,
that notorious if ill-used number 666.
Such language and
imagery is extravagant and takes patience to appreciate. Christopher Rowland comments,
Talk about Satan is
avoided by some liberally minded people.
It seems to reflect the beliefs of simple-minded believers or the
fantasies of infancy, …yet it is a potent resource to help us to comprehend the
forces that upset and subvert our managed lives. … As Revelation indicates, the manifestation
of Satan’s power is complex. It is
institutional and social as well as personal.
Thus the beast is a concrete embodiment of evil power. Evil does not take the form of a single king
but an imperial institution or structure; it is a way of operating, and its
agents of propaganda take many shapes (13:1ff.). Likewise, Babylon
[chapters 17-18] is not an individual but a city with its whole network of
relationships and institutions contributing to a pattern of life, involvement
in which John calls “fornication.” (New
Interpreter’s Bible, Vol. 12, p. 653.)
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