I imagine that out of all the various authors who contributed to the Bible, when it comes to the length of the queue of people waiting in line with their questions, Paul and John are going to have some of the longest queues. Even other New Testament authors admit that Paul is sometimes difficult to understand, and when it comes to Revelation... I wonder whether John might have two queues: one for 'questions on the gospel and the epistles' and a much longer queue for Revelation.
A couple of days ago I asked what questions you would ask if you could meet John face to face. Yesterday we tried to imagine that situation in church with the arrival of a time travelling John - who may have looked a bit like Father Christmas.
When I tell people that Revelation is one of my favourite books in the Bible they sometimes imagine that I therefore have an idea in my head about all the symbolism and images and can provide them with a time line of events that start now and end with judgement day. But when it comes to a lot of the detail of Revelation I don't have a clue.
But how much of the detail are we supposed to be able to work out - or is it ok to see the big picture and not worry too much about the detail? The big picture of Revelation is surely that Jesus is King (even now) and in the end God wins. Therefore there is an encouragement to persevere through hardship and a challenge not to be on the loosing side.
I also think that the way that Revelation is written means that wherever we live and in whatever age the truths about the world remain relevant. Revelation provides a peep behind the scenes into what is really going on - and what is really going on is that we live in a world that is opposed to God and his people. And this is true in countries where this is obvious (such as N Korea), but also in places where it is less obvious. Places where there is freedom of speech or freedom of religion but where the way things work favour the rich and the powerful rather than those on the margins, those without a voice, the poor...The challenge is then - how do I live as a follower of Jesus, how do I not get sucked into systems and ways of thinking that are opposed to God's values...
If you've ever read Revelation - the last book in the Bible - you might have wondered what John was thinking/had taken as he sat down to write. On Sunday we're going to be looking at Revelation as this is the final week in the Community Bible Experience. I have read John, 1-3 John and Revelation quite a few times over the last couple of weeks as I've tried to get inside John's head a little.
Imagine you were to meet John face to face, what one question would you want to ask him about Revelation?
Imagine John was to meet you face to face, what one answer do you think he would want to give you? Would he want to answer your question - or would there be something more important he had to say?
Let me know what you think.
Last Sunday, as we continued our reading through the New Testament as part of the Community Bible Experience, we looked at 1 & 2 Peter and John.
One of the ways I have been using this book is to colour in different words that keep on coming up - either within a single book, or a series of books written by the same person. It has been really interesting to see what comes up. John makes regular reference to know/knowing etc as well as believe/believing etc. Peter talks about reminding/remember and know/knowledge - and tells his readers in his second letter '...this is now my second letter to you. I have written both of them as reminders to stimulate you to wholesome thinking.'
Clearly the way that we think and what we believe is very important as we seek to follow Jesus. The way that we think determines how we act - in fact the way that we act betrays what we really think - actions do speak louder than words.
For the writers of the New Testament it was what they knew about Jesus that made all the difference. John and Peter had both known Jesus personally. John is constantly talking about what he had seen and what he had heard (we'll see this again next week with Revelation). If we want to be his disciples we need to know Jesus - not just know about him. And what we think about Jesus is vitally important.
What we think about Jesus should shape everything else - what we think about Jesus is our starting point. Often what we think about Jesus is shaped by what we already think about other things - like what we think church is all about, or what we believe about mission. We read the gospels and we try to fit Jesus into a box that is consistent with our church and its programmes.
We've now completed seven of the eight weeks of the CBE - so in the last seven weeks we've read all four of the gospels. How has our thinking about Jesus been challenged? How has this thinking challenged the way we think about all the other stuff?
