Thursday 11 September 2014

Background

"Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord;
he is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath arestored;
he hath loosed the fateful lightning of His terrible swiftsword:
his truth is marching on.
Glory, glory, hallelujah! ..."

These lines from the American Battle Hymn of the Republic werefirst sung in the 1860s by Unionist soldiers who saw God's hand intheir fight against their southern Confederate (and Christian)foes. This image of a bloody grape harvest as a metaphor for God'sviolent judgement of his enemies is found first in the OldTestament (eg Isaiah 63:3) and comes again here in today'spassage. It is the second of two harvest images, the first beingthe rather more benign image of the ripe grain being gathered in (acommon theme in Gospel parables), the fruit of the faithful whohave sprung up from the seed of the gospel and the witness of themartyrs.

This passage continues the 'message' of Revelation: that thefaithful who persevere in the face of persecution will be blessed,while those who fall away and "worship the beast and its image" (iethe Roman emperor) "will be tormented with fire and sulphur in thepresence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb" (Revelation 14:9, 10). And just to make surethat there is no doubt in the minds of the readers, there are sevenfinal plagues to come - "the bowls of God's wrath" (Revelation 16:1). Meanwhile, the faithfulmartyrs who, like Moses in the Exodus, have come through the seaand already reached the other side, 'sing the song of Moses and theLamb' (verse 3. based on Exodus15) celebrating God's imminent triumph. "Here is a call for theendurance of the saints, those who keep the commandments of God andhold fast to the faith of Jesus." (Revelation 14:12).

To Ponder

• While we may understand that the morale of violently persecuted1st-century Christians (and those 19th-century Unionist soldiers)was stiffened by the thought that God would soon wreak bloodyvengeance on their enemies, what do we do with Jesus' command to"love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you" (Matthew 5:44)?

• This kind of violent imagery has always had a powerful hold onChristian imagination, and still shapes the beliefs of many. Wouldwe be better off without the book of Revelation, as was seriouslydebated in the early centuries of the Church? Why?

• Crushing-to-death was practised by ancient Rome (sometimesusing elephants), and was later used by the Church as anappropriate way to extract confessions from heretics, even inEngland in the late 1500s. How can we read Revelation responsibly,without turning the "Lamb of God" into a monster?