The Reason for the Season

“Put the Christ back in Christmas!” “Remember the reason for the season!” “There’s a war on Christmas!”

Throughout the holiday season I've heard these sentiments touted over and over - there are even Facebook pages dedicated to these causes. There are obviously many who are worrying that the meaning of Christmas is being lost as it's replaced by the forces of political correctness.

Some complain that the word "holiday" is being used where “Christmas” properly belongs. And if we believe everything we hear from Christian alarmists, we might be easily convinced that the "true meaning" of Christmas is quickly fading in American culture.

And indeed, I would agree – I think there is something terribly wrong with the way in which we observe Christmas in this country.  In the midst of frantic shopping, the stress of travel, and the ever-present anxiety that always accompany family showing up for the big Christmas meal, I think we sense that something is askew. There's a disconnect behind how we celebrate and why we're celebrating.

Though I don’t think political correctness or the “non-Christian” culture is to blame.

I think it runs deeper. I think the problem lies not outside Christianity - but perhaps within it.

Rapture In Reverse

Scripture: Revelation 21:1-7

This final week of Advent also marks our final week of our journey through the book of Revelation. And as I promised that first week – we end up pretty much right where we started. With Jesus saying to us once again, “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end.” We began by hearing the promises given to the seven churches, to those who conquer and overcome – that they would be given crowns, robes, and made pillars in the temple of God. And here we see the culmination – what those who “conquer” will inherit.

These past 7 weeks we’ve gone on a very “revealing” journey about our world – of where we are versus where God wants us to be. We’ve seen beasts, harlots, plagues, horsemen and countless other threats to our world, our livelihoods and our faith lives.  We have been called out of the evil systems of our world, called out of operating like the rest of the world operates, called to a life of faithfulness, called to renew our love for one another, called to hear the promises that we will be victorious if we can resist the seductions of evil around us.

And now, at the end of the book – we are being invited in and given a glimpse of God’s vision for our future.

As the conquering Word of God goes out and defeats the evils and threats we face on a regular basis, Revelation 21 and 22 invite us in to see what God envisions for our world. Invites us to see what heaven on earth will look like. Invites us to see how what we pray each week will become a reality.  “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”

Revelation has not been about rapturing us up into heaven so we don’t have to face the ugliness of our world - but rather delivers to us a promise that equips us to handle the ugliness and evil of the world around us.  Instead of sweeping us up into heaven to let the world just fend for itself and be destroyed – Revelation ends instead with God and his Kingdom DESCENDING, coming down to earth – coming down to us.

The Self-Destructive Nature of Evil

Scripture: Revelation 17

I remember one time when I was in seminary a Jehovah’s Witness came to my door wanting to talk to me about the book of Revelation. They were determined to show me the error of my Lutheran ways, and wanted to use Revelation 17 to do it.

They asked me, “Do you know what the Harlot is?” I said, “Ummm, a great city?”

“Oh no! Revelation 17 tells us that it’s following a false religion.”

I responded with… “Oh? Really? Ok, let’s look it up…”  I then proceeded to read to them verse 18, “The woman you saw is the great city that rules over the kings of the earth…”

For some reason... they never came back to visit me.

People go a lot of different places with this imagery…

But if we go back to John’s day, we know that the image of a woman riding a noble steed was frequently used throughout the Roman Empire to symbolize the city of Rome.

In the case of Rome, they had coins that had the Goddess Roma… oddly enough leaning back against seven hills.

What John is doing is taking this well-known image and “revealing” its true nature.

John is using satire. He’s taking this familiar image, and making it into a caricature to say something about the nature of this so-called “noble woman” called Rome.