A young Curate attended a residential conference at which most of the clergy present were high ranking officials of the Church Including several Archdeacons and Bishops The weather was very cold and it was perhaps natural that the older clergy should cluster around the only heater as often as possible After two days of feeling like he had frost bite the Curate decided to speak out about this “I had a strange dream last night” he announced at breakfast, “I dreamt that I had died and gone to hell” after a few moments of awkward silence someone finally asked “What was it like?’ “Same as here” came the reply “Can’t get near the fire for bishops” one wonders if he is still a Curate? I start with that delightful little story because I have just come back from synod Which you might liken to one or both of two things in that story a church conference or hell but also because part of the subject matter of my sermon today arising out of the passage from Revelation 12 is to do with things diabolical – like hell and the devil things that, I might add, are rarely heard from pulpits today In this reading from Revelation 12 we encounter two “portents” or signs In the sky Such signs are typical of the nature of this book The first is a woman clothed with the son She gives both to a male child, a son Who will rule the nations with a rod of iron And who is taken away –snatched up by God – to sit at his right hand in the heavens Clearly the son here is Jesus Christ The woman whom John sees in the sky is to be identified with Mary Who in turn represents the whole people of God, the Church To use Roman Catholic language – this is “mother church” The woman is in the wilderness on the earth Being nourished and sustained by God Reminding us that the Church is a pilgrim people Passing through this place as it were Until such time as God chooses to intervene The second sign or portent is ominous “I saw a great red dragon” later we learn this dragon is the same as the ancient serpent who appeared in the garden of Eden in Genesis 3 and who is known as Satan or the devil his tail sweeps down form heaven a third of the stars stars being a common symbol of angels and he positions himself before the woman so as to devour her child the Christ child reminding us immediately of King Herod who, like so many tyrants and dictators before and after him acts under the influence of an evil power John’s vision continues – “There was war in heaven Michael and his angels fought against the Dragon, Satan, and his angel There was no longer a place in the heavenly realms for evil And the Devil and his angels were thrown down to earth Well might the loud voice in heaven proclaim “woe to you earth and sea for the devil has come down to you with great wrath for he knows the time is short” what he knows is this the time will come, indeed must come when Christ, the King, will be defeat all evil and the separation that we experience in the present between heaven and earth will be no more there will no longer be any place or realm in which evil and sin and rebellion against God can exist for at that time Christ will be all in all and sin and evil will be completely and utterly defeated those opposed to God know this the picture here in Revelation 12 is of the dragon, or Satan, being like the spiteful sports-person who knows that the game is lost that the ultimate victory cannot be won and so is determined to do as much damage to the winning side in the last few minutes as is possible the language used by John to describe all of this is symbolic and pictorial we are not meant to think of the devil as a red dragon or as a man with horns holding a pitchfork or as a serpent or even as a person or angelic like creature - the Devil or Satan [that whole concept comes to us not from the bible but more from the embellishment of Date’s ‘Divine Comedy’ and from Milton’s ‘Paradise Lost’] the dragon, the serpent, satan, the devil all are symbols or pictures of evil all try to describe with words something that is ethereal that is mysterious and unknown all are attempts to describe the indescribable such picture language attempts to capture in a symbol the very essence of a spiritual and a theological truth that evil, and sin, and rebellion against God and against all that is good really does exist there are few who could doubt it (perhaps a handful of existentialist philosophers or Christian scientists) such symbols are used to personify this power so that we can relate to it in human categories they describe for us – in vivid terms the presence in the world of a power and of an influence for evil that is opposed to God and opposed to all that is good and which honours God this is not so much a someone – but a something we encounter it’s presence in all manner of ways in the evil action of human beings in social and political structures in exploitation and injustice in spiritual oppression and struggle the poet and social prophet William Blake spoke of the hell-like conditions in which mistreated and exploited workers many of them children worked in the early industrial revolution of his day when he wrote of “those dark Satanic mills” and the description fits the mills were satanic for the are evil they de-humanise, they oppress, they are exploit… we encounter and experience that same power the power of evil in many ways in our world and in our lives - The wrath and the fury of Satan What other symbol or picture of evil can adequately describe what we have witnessed in the world just the past few years? As we look down through the ages we see more and more evidence of it It can overwhelm us It can seem difficult to see beyond Yet in the face of this evil and this fury the message of Revelation is clear. Christ has overcome. Christ is victorious. The war has already been fought and won. And here rises the Christian message of hope to a chaotic world. To John is given this vision. A vision that allows him to see past this earthly and present reality in which he lives and in which we so often live and into the heavenly and spiritual reality beyond it. the vision he is given here takes him beyond the present and into a new reality. John sees a war in heaven. A war waged between the forces of good, represented by Michael the archangel and the forces of evil, represented here by the dragon and his angels. And we read in v.8 the dragon and his angels were beaten and cast down the forces of evil are defeated and overcome – their fate is sealed, their time is short. The forces of good have won the ultimate victory. The Book of Revelation carries this message of hope. Evil has been defeated It’s time is short and it will be overcome. But that time is not yet. And that is the difficulty we all face. We live our lives in between; between the victory of Christ already won in the spiritual realm; and the fullness of that victory on earth. What the prophet of Revelation inspires us and enables us to do Is to look with our spiritual eyes Beyond present realities And into the heavenly and spiritual realities So that we may have hope in the ultimate victory of God and the defeat of all evil A passage from the second book of Kings illustrates this in another way And provides a fitting place to finish this morning - When the attendant of the man of God rose early in the morning and went out, an army with horses and chariots was all around the city, thousands upon thousands surrounding the city. His servant said, “Alas, master! What shall we do?” He replied, “Do not be afraid, for there are more with us than there are with them.” Then Elisha prayed: “O LORD, please open his eyes that he may see.” So the LORD opened the eyes of the servant, and he saw; the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha. As Jesus himself has said So we pray The one who has eyes to see, let them see. Amen. |