Schools are back. Pupils at Green Lane, our Church of England School, returned to their new classes on Thursday. Wednesday was a ‘teacher training’ or ‘inset’ day and so, as Chair of the Academy Council I joined the annual Safeguarding Refresher that kicked off the day: very much ‘first things first’. There are some small but important changes to the Keeping Children Safe in Education document that all staff must read annually (it’s a big tome so spare a thought). Alongside mention of the impact of AI on schools (for good and ill) teachers’ responsibilities reach beyond the school gate with a duty to look out for danger or concerns both within and beyond family relationships that might adversely affect children in their care: the requirements are even more pro-active. And the need is great. Here in church we too have safeguarding policies and procedures. Our new Parish Safeguarding Officer is David Ewart -his contact details are in the church porch. Safeguarding is all of our responsibility, but David is the person to contact if you ever have a concern here in church or with any of our church related activities, but the thing is – how do we know? On the surface of people’s lives all seems well (‘How are you? Fine’ – one of the most frequently told lies) but behind someone’s front door, in the privacy of their homes there may well be a wholly different scenario that needs to be penetrated, that may need understanding.
It’s the same in wider society or at the level of international relations. What we see or experience isn’t necessarily the most important thing about what is actually going on. There is a surface to things (and a depth) behind such things as the recent riots on the streets, the rise in knife crime, the prevalence of pornography or the global politics at play in smaller conflicts. We look to investigative journalists to help us see the connections, to delve into the causes and effects of things. It takes time to understand. It has taken 7 years to produce the report on the Grenfell fire and just look at what has been uncovered there.
John wrote a book. We call it Revelation. What he was doing was pulling back the curtain on spiritual realities for the infant Christian church across Asia. He was attempting to uncover what God was up to when, for all intents and purposes the church was under pressure. He wrote at a time of persecution. The Emperor Nero had decided that the Christian Community should take the blame for the Empire’s problems and he would be followed by the Emperor Domitian who would do the same: it was dangerous to be a Christian, dangerous to be known to be a follower of Jesus. So the question being asked by the church, by Christian folk like you and I, was ‘What’s going on? How long must we suffer and struggle before God does something?’
Revelation begins with a series of letters to the churches. These are then followed by a whole host of weird and wonderful visions that have populated any number of books, video games, theories and descriptions of the end time: the ‘rapture’, the battle of Armageddon and war in heaven. Some Christians find in the book a timetable that details all that must take place before the return of Jesus and the ushering in of the Kingdom of God. Like those folk who love nothing more than studying bus timetables or railway timetables from years ago (you know who you are!), for these Christians the task is to decipher the signs of the times, to work out ‘what time it is’ and what needs to happen before the whole earth reaches the end of the line.
A more helpful key to reading Revelation is to realise that its visions aren’t laid out in a linear fashion (they aren’t presented as a ‘beginning, a middle and an end’) but rather, John replays the same story again and again. Like Match of the Day studying the VAR footage from a Premier league match what John does is to replay the same action, and each time we are given a replay we are enabled to see something different. And this story is presented in the language of the Old Testament. The images and visions draw upon Old Testament stories that resonate with meaning to those versed in their scriptures so you are really up against it and likely to utterly misunderstand Revelation if you don’t know your Old Testament.
So we come at last to our passage this morning and wonder what on earth (or in the heaven) is going on? John gives us a description of something happening in heaven. The ark of the covenant is in view (normally it was hidden), heaven is opened (normally it is shut) and God’s presence is being made known just as it had been known on Mount Sinai at the time of Moses – there are flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder and the like. God is about to speak.
And then we cut away to a portent in heaven, a sign more than a vision (and remember this is all picture language). A woman, crowned with stars appears who gives birth to a son. Who is this we might ask? We read this passage today because some folk might say this is the Virgin Mary giving birth to the Christ. That is true but it is not true enough: it is not the whole story of who this woman represents. The woman represents all God’s people, from whom comes the Messiah. It is from her, from the whole of God’s dealings with His people down many centuries, that the Messiah is born. This child will rule all nations with a rod of iron (a reference to the Messiah from Psalm 2). The whole of history has been building up to the moment when Christ appears on earth. But..
The forces of evil are at hand, waiting to devour the child. Now we must think of the Pharaoh who had wanted to do away with all male children at the time of Moses. Now we are asked to think of King Herod and the infant Jesus, or to think of the way Holy Week is literally excruciating in the way that everything conspires to crucify the Christ…All heaven is sitting on a knife edge to see what will happen. The great dragon (presumably the serpent in the garden ‘all growed up’) does its worst but the child is whisked away to the right hand of God’s throne and the woman (the people of God) flee into the wilderness (the place where God’s people have traditionally been schooled into more fully being His people- think Exodus or Exile) where they must live for 3 and ½ years.
And then we hear the voice from heaven declaring the victory of God. It is as if we have reached the last minute of extra time and all seems lost. All that opposes the rule of God and his kingdom holds the field, Jesus seems absent from us, the church is up against it and great powers stalk the earth like destroying beasts causing hurt, pain and anguish. …But God…BUT GOD speaks.
This is where we are isn’t it? The picture may well be strange, you wouldn’t express things this way yourself but one empire gives way to another (that’s why the dragon has so many heads!), power corrupts, heartless regimes murder their opponents, innocents die in their tens of thousands, poverty afflicts millions at home and abroad, children are trafficked, women are raped, disease, drought, hunger and thirst force tens of millions to leave their homes, refugees drown in the Channel and the Mediterranean, and good people are broken or beaten down and there seems no hope.
But here’s the hope: God speaks. We hear the voice from heaven declare ‘It is here’ God’s kingdom and the Messiah’s reign is here. Yes, there are battles to be fought with the weapons of love and forgiveness, of sacrifice and redemptive suffering. Yes, there is opposition to be overcome but the end is assured because God has spoken and He will save His world.
What does the Revelation say, what is its message? It comes down to just a few words. ‘Take heart. Have hope. Stay faithful.’ The Christian life is a marathon, not a sprint, faithfulness and endurance are qualities to seek and to pray for and, as we acknowledge our Patronal Festival (the Feast of the Virgin Mary in this church that bears her name) perhaps we might take heart that we belong to a Christian community that has worshipped here for almost 900 years and we’re still going strong. There is still work to be done, there is still love to be shared and the One we remember around the communion table (the Lamb of God, crucified and exalted, humble and yet all powerful), Jesus, is Lord.
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