My notes for this morning’s service at St John’s, Cononley – Epiphany 3.
The readings were Genesis 14: 17 – 20 and Revelation 19: 6 – 10.
With Shelagh I am part of a writing group who meet weekly in Barnoldswick and we have a wide variety of creative writing styles represented amongst us. Some prefer poetry, some fantasy, some humour, some thrillers or more mysterious writing.
There is also the factual stuff and personally, I actually have written far more of that than creative.
There are many styles of writing on the bible and as we read it we need to be careful of the genre, as the 66 books are a real mix. some writing is factual such as historical narrative or correspondence but other writing can be figurative and not meant to be taken in a literal way. Both of our readings today have sections as poetry and a lot of poetry is not to be taken literally as we could see in the Psalm read together today as an example. Poetry often uses words in different ways to make us think and certainly do not purport to represent scientific fact for example. Poems convey a truth in imaginative ways but may be somewhat stretching verifiable facts as they express emotions, feelings and often qualities that are not easy to define.
We need to dig below the words to understand the sense of the writer.
The book of Revelation starts ordinarily enough with messages to seven churches in what we used to call Asia Minor, approximately modern day Turkey but then moves into visionary stuff with apocalyptic passages that have strange creatures and images that have a sense of the surreal and spectacular, the lurid and bizarre with some shockingly violent. All trying to describe the indescribable.
What is described in Revelation is not necessarily sequential but different facets of the same focus: the return of Christ in glory and majesty, the culmination of God’s purpose for all creation when all the world would praise God and recognise Jesus as truly divine.
However there have been all sorts of problems in its interpretation such that one writer commented that such people “were turning wonderful visions into a railway timetable”.
There are still elements of mystery as in today’s reading. Marriage here is a figure, an allegory. The union of the church – that’s us – with Christ
In the old testament we have the mysterious Melchizedek – no background, he just appears and then disappears. But note how Abram offers him a tenth of all he has, obviously some one worthy of high honour. The background is that there was a dispute between various kings and in the process Lot, Abram’s nephew who lived in Sodom, was captured with all his possessions by Chedorlaomer and Abram got all his menfolk around him, 318 – an unusually precise number – and defeated him and rescued Lot, his belongings and all the women as well. Melchizedek is saying that Abram should acknowledge God’s provision in routing his enemies.
[In Psalm 110 which has the title:“Assurance of Victory for God’s Priest-King” in verse 4 we get the only other Old Testament mention of Melchizedek:
The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind,
“You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.” Or ]forever, a rightful king by my edict
A little more of the mystery is unravelled in Hebrews chapter 7.- picture of Christ as a Priest-King which underlines the priestly nature of Christ – a representative for us to God, far better than the Old Testament ones
This suggests he was superior to the High Priests instituted by Moses, certainly pre-dates them and Christ is considered as a priest-king in the same order as Melchizedek.]
APPLICATION FOR TODAY
How can we read stories in bold language full of mystery that cause all sorts of problems trying to be understood logically or rationally especially when they hint at the end times?
We are Christ’s witnesses in a difficult, dangerous and damaged world and it is important to consider how we may read these accounts.
In my bible class I was given a very specific diagram that tried to reduce the entire bible story to a sequential chart with all sorts of times and divisions. It is still available on the internet although dates back to the 19th century.
It is seems almost scientific except it is worth noting that science is constantly evolving and new discoveries are being made all the time – last week new unusual arrangement of galaxies called the Big Ring was reported that challenges our understanding of cosmological mysteries: potentially the entire understanding of the universe will need to be revisited.
Jesus’ second coming how does that work out? There are many theories but we simply do not know with any precision. As we continue following Jesus and living out the gospel in terms of service and community then we are demonstrating Christ here and now.
Every time we have wars, rumours of wars and natural disasters or diseases some point to the end times. Such speculation has been happening for 100s of years. The first time the end of the world and Christ’s return was envisaged was back in 70 AD when the Romans sacked Jerusalem and destroyed the temple.We do not know when for sure, we may guess but it is still in part a mystery; just like Melchizedek would have been to Abram, just as much of Revelation would have been to John who had the visions on Patmos.
I think God wants us to use our creative minds to accept we are given hints and glimpses of what is to come but there are always unknowns, just as latest news about the ‘Big Ring’ is an example.
We respond with hope and being heartened by this picture of our union with Christ, described as a marriage supper. It is a celebration to which all are invited.We are encouraged to “wear our fine linen, bright and pure”, which is an illustration of the righteous acts undertaken by believers in Christ.
There is a note of praise, embracing the whole world, responding and accepting Jesus as king, as priest, blessing us. When this happens then we will truly know that Jesus has come a second time.
As the king-priest Melchizedek blessed Abram, so Jesus as a king-priest blesses us in this celebration.
However we read this account the key elements I take from this morning’s readings are ascribing glory and praise to God. This is what we have done in prayers and hymns and a psalm – after all this service is often described as Morning Worship. In the meantime until that moment when we are fully one with Christ let us be concerned about our acts of righteousness which clothe us, however we understand that. It will work out in different ways for each of us. Amen.
The section in [ … ] in blue was not actually said this morning but is included here for the sake of completeness.
A Reader Reflects 