Revelation 1:1-8: Order of Worship

Rocky: Wow, this is going to be neat. Apart from the fact that we're both ordaining and installing new officers and both celebrating the Lord's Supper, there's almost nothing alike in our worship services. In your first reading you're sticking with the Baptism of the Lord of the Lectionary; I'm not doing that. In fact, I even lied on the front of the worship bulletin and called it the "First Sunday in Ordinary Time," which, of course, is made up; there is no such Sunday.
Here's my order of worship (without the actual texts for some things, because I simply lifted most of them from a cd copy of the Worship Sourcebook that somebody gave me . . .):

*Call to Worship

* Hymn Holy, Holy, Holy Red #323

*Singing Praise, Worship, Confession, and Glory

Old Testament Reading Genesis 1:1-5

Children’s Time

Anthem LEAD ME, LORD

New Testament Reading Revelation 1:1-8

Sermon ESCHATA-WHAT?

Affirmation of Faith (The Heidelberg Catechism)

L: What benefit do we receive from “the resurrection” of Christ?

P: First, by his resurrection he has overcome death that he might make us share in the righteousness which he has obtained for us through his death. Second, we too are now raised by his power to a new life. Third, the resurrection of Christ is a sure pledge to us of our blessed resurrection.

Ordination and Installation of Officers
Response: Here I Am Lord Blue #525

Offering and Doxology

The Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper

*Hymn Blessed Assurance Red #67

A couple of notes: I've just about emptied my chamber on the "eschata--" device, and it's only the first week. Secondly, that final hymn. I like it because my folks know it really well and will belt it, but I have to admit serious reservations about preaching about the present time, about "realized eschatology" if you will, and then sending us all out with the lines, "watching and waiting, looking above . . ."

I guess these are the compromises you make.

Landon: To recap our conversation over coffee for the benefit of our readers...

I thought about it more as I left the coffee shop this afternoon, and I really would want to encourage you to reference the line from Blessed Assurance in your sermon. I think that the juxtaposition of you saying "this is not what it is", yet affirming the history of what we have believed through song, could be a powerful liturgical moment for the pew sitters.

The comfort they will feel singing a familiar song will (hopefully) be a balm on the sore of having their worldview challenged. That, I think, is liturgy doing what liturgy does best - comfort and stretch, comfort and stretch...

Landon: Here's my first shot at the major pieces of an order of worship:

Order of Worship - January 7, 2007

Welcome and Announcements

Ringing of the Bell

Call to Worship

Look! The Holy One is coming in the clouds!
Blessed be the Holy One, the god of Israel, who alone does wonderous things!
The Lord God is the Alpha and the Omega.
Blessed be the Holy One, the god of Israel, who alone does wonderous things!
Come let us worship the one who is, and who was and who is to come.
Blessed be the Holy One, the god of Israel, who alone does wonderous things!
- From Revelation 1:7-8 and Psalm 72:18

Hymn #476 - O Worship the King, All Glorious Above!

Prayer of Confession

For the times we have lied to one another
and the times we have been lied to,
heal us, Jesus, Savior of the world.
For the times we have laughed at another’s pain
and the times we have been laughed at,
heal us, Jesus, Savior of the world.
For the times we have spoken when we should have remained silent
and the times we have remained silent when we should have spoken,
heal us, Jesus, Savior of the world.
For the times we have not respected another’s freedom
to be different from us,
heal us, Jesus, Savior of the world.
For the times we have betrayed a friend
and the times we have been betrayed,
heal us, Jesus, Savior of the world.

O God of heaven and earth,
you emptied yourself of your power
and became a helpless baby
in order that you might heal the sick world.
Teach us to empty ourselves of the things
that destroy us and keep us alone.
Empty us of our jealousy,
of our meanness,
of our fear of others.
For Jesus’sake. Amen.

Assurance of Pardon

Hear the good news!
Who is in a position to condemn?
Only Christ,
and Christ died for us,
Christ rose for us,
Christ reigns in power for us,
Christ prays for us.
Anyone who is in Christ
is a new creation.
The old life has gone;
a new life has begun.
Know that you are forgiven, and be at peace.
Thanks be to God!
—based on Romans 8:34; 2 Corinthians 5:17

Congregational Response

The Peace

A Sacred Space for Children

Prayer for Illumination

First Reading - Luke 3:15-17, 21-22

Anthem

Second Reading - Revelation 1:1-8

Sermon

Installation of Officers

Hymn #6 - Jesus Comes with Clouds Descending

Prayers of the People

Offering Invitation

Offertory

Doxology

Prayer of Dedication

Sacrament of the Lord's Supper

Hymn #434 - Today We All are Called to be Disciples of the Lord

Charge and Benediction

Ringing of the Bell

Based on the discussion in the last post, I'm thinking of changing the hymn of response to #356 - Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing.

Tense in Revelation 1

Rocky: It certainly is. I love Dave Parker, by the way.

I was just listening to a recording from last summer's Allelon Institute conference, and somebody quoted Eugene Peterson in a way that I might copy on Sunday. In his introduction to the book of Matthew in The Message, he writes,

Every day we wake up in the middle of something that is already going on and that has been going on for a long time. Genealogy and geology, history and culture, the cosmos, God.

It gets to the same thing that you're getting at with the "past, present, and future reality of God," but puts it (and us) in a narrative framework. That we are a part of God's story, which is not the story of us but the story of God, and that it's a story that was well underway before we got here and will continue to be here long after we're gone, is crucial. So the future is in God's hands because God is sovereign, yes, but also because God is creating a story of which we and the entire cosmos are a part.

Also, that the sacrament of the Lord's Supper is a "witness" to the future and our very present expectation for it. Because "whenever [we] eat this break and drink this cup we proclaim the Lord's death until he comes." So this act of gathering together around the table, of proclaiming the death of Jesus by partaking in a common loaf and a common cup, doesn't mean anything--not hospitality, not community, not salvation--without a lived belief in and hope for the future.

Ultimately, Revelation 1 makes me want to ground us and our hope, our expectation for the future, in the ongoing story of God and to draw out the things we do right now to participate in it.

Landon: Yes, I most certainly think that'll preach. Most certainly.

And I hope that it does, because that's where I've decided to go as well. The points I mentioned in the "First Thoughts" post that struck me are the points that continue to strike me: God "is, was, and is still to come" and we must testify to that.

Dave makes a great point in his comment (not the part about the SUV - I'm not laying off! tee hee) that answered one of your initial questions from our first work session ("What do we hope will be the outcome of preaching eschatology?"):

I think if our congregation members can see it (and consequently live it) that way, then we would be free to be the types of Christians God is really calling us to be!

His discussion of "remembrance" is, I think, particularly helpful. It brought something else to mind.

I was reading The Great Transformation by Karen Armstrong last night, and in her chapter regarding the shift from a ritualistic to kenotic quality in Axial Age spirituality she writes this:

The people followed other gods only because they did not truly know Yahweh. Their understanding of religion was superficial...Religious practices must no longer be taken for granted and performed by rote; people must become more conscious of what they were doing. Hosea was not talking about purely notional knowledge; the verb yada ("to know") implies emotional attachment to Yahweh, and an interior appropriation of the divine. IT was not enought to merely attend a sacrifice or a festival. "I desire loyalty [hesed]," Yahweh complained, "and not sacrifice; the knowledge of God, not holocausts." Hosea constantly tried to make Israelites aware of the inner life of God.

I have several pieces I've got to weave this Sunday:

1. the present, past, and future reality of God - sort of an "Ebenezer"-ish theme
2. that we are to be witnesses to that reality be virtue of an "interior appropriation of the divine"
3. that the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper is one of the chief ways we witness to the eternal nature of the Triune God

I'm really glad that this is the first week's text - it's allowing us to set the stage nicely.

Rocky: Landon, friend, we touched on this a bit already, but my staff meeting this morning brought it out further: the phenomenon of tense in our passage for this week. Particularly in the assertion that Jesus is the one who "loves" us and who "has freed us" from our sins and "has made us" a kingdom gets my attention. Add to that the coming-in-the-clouds allusion to Daniel 7 and the repetition of the "is, was, and is to come" refrain, and you have a thoroughly past-centered expectation for the future lived out in the present.

I don't know about you, but this will probably be huge in my preaching of this text. That our expectation and our hope for the future is grounded in God's past (not, mind you, our past or a past of historical events that follow a pattern) is most certainly good news. And we experience it right now. Because the God who "will be," beyond and after all the incidents and accidents of lived history, is the God who "was" before all of it and the God who "is" in the midst of it.

So what's the case right now? Revelation 1 gives two answers: 1) God loves us and 2) God is.

Think that'll preach?

Taking It Personally

Landon: I'm totally with you on this. If nothing else, to preach this subject must mean to preach with the recognition that something is actually at stake. To steal your phrase from the other night at IHOP, eschatological preaching must be a "lived onomatopoeia."

Rocky: Driving home tonight something occurred to me about our project here, about the task of preaching itself, and about the nature of God. I will be brief.

Preaching eschatology must be an engagement with the future itself, a personal rendezvous with the end of time on a personal and cosmic level, and not merely a peddling with ideas about the future and the end of time. C.S. Lewis' image of children playing with chemistry sets and Annie Dillard's quip about the need for church ushers to issue signal flares instead of programs come to mind.

My challenge is going to be engaging personally and seriously with this eschatology stuff, and not simply learning and talking about it. But, like I said, that's the challenge of faith itself, no?

Revelation 1:1-8: The Nature of Witness

Rocky: Yeah, and what about the fact that the writer identifies Jesus, among his many other titles, as "the faithful witness." The act of marturia is ascribed to the Lord himself, the lamb, firstborn from the dead, and ruler of the kings of the earth.

Landon: In our "First Thoughts" post you wrote:

It makes me think of a seminary professor I had who lamented the utter lack of "witness" as a practice among contemporary churches of all stripes. I used to counter her assertion by pointing out that modern evangelical churches expect their members to be able to talk about their faith in a way that will make them unpopular, like at work and in public. Is that the same thing?

I think I have to agree with your professor that this isn't happening, and I would probably disagree that this is synonymous with the evangelical impulse to be unpopular. I would contend that the unpopularity of the evangelical has more to do with the absurdity and offensive tenor of their proclamation.

I have not been around this kind of attitude in a long time, but I experienced it last year when I was talking to an Assemblies of God woman who worked at a local Roman Catholic university. She used the language of feeling "persecuted" for her faith, etc. See, so often the modern (especially evangelical) notion of "martyrdom" has more to do with the martyr than the faith for which the martyr is...well...martyred.

To be honest, I, myself, try to make them see how absurd so many of their faith claims are because dissonance is the surest way to grow. That's what happened to me. No one cared when I made the claim that "my faith and my savior are better than yours or your lack thereof." Where it started getting sticky was when I began making the claim that Jesus doesn't want you to have that new SUV because you're going to pollute the earth more (I loved your environmental tack, BTW), and that Jesus thinks you're a racist because you willingly participate in a system that gives you and your white devil skin the advantage (I wasn't really that harsh), and that someone died tonight because you live in a huge - I mean, freaking HUGE - house.

I guess the question of the nature of witness comes down for me to "what is the gospel to which we are witnessing?" It is my belief that the apocalyptic genre was written for and by social and religious outcasts, so that might make the practice of witness, prophecy and testimony different than white mega church evangelicals being made fun of at work. Okay, not "might" - "will."

What we're doing

A few weeks ago two preachers had a pint at the local pub, and talk turned to the future. I mean, the fuuuuture. One of us was planning a study of The Revelation of John for an adult Sunday School class, and was seeking the counsel of his friend and colleague. The conversation carried on for a long while, and what emerged through the smoke and Smithwicks was a collaborative seven-week sermon series on eschatology, that branch of systematic theology concerned with the future, particularly with God's future and God's purposes for it.

We agreed to start this week, January 7th, 2007, with the opening of Revelation. After that, we'll each alternate in selecting a text, until there are six total, sort of like a draft. Some of these texts, like the one from Revelation 1, will be apocalyptic; others won't. Because eschatology is a fairly wide river with a number of tributaries running into it, only one of which is apocalyptic literature like that found in Revelation and Daniel.

Ablogalypto will be a space for our week-to-week conversation about this project. We'll discuss exegesis and sermon preparation, and hopefully post audio for each sermon. We're hoping to generate a conversation between friends, which is what started this thing to begin with. But we also are hoping that the conversation spreads to not-yet friends, even to never-gonna-be friends, so that some kind of growth and transformation may be generated.

Welcome to the conversation.