9-29-24Michael&Angels-Sermon-BSteinway-leveled

The speaker discusses the use of apocalyptic language in the book of Revelation, emphasizing that it is not about literal destruction but rather a journey through pain and despair with a vision of hope. They mention the fear and misunderstanding surrounding this language and the dangers of literal interpretations. The hope offered is rooted in the cross and the belief that evil will ultimately fail. The speaker concludes by highlighting the message of the Lamb of God taking away the sin of the world and making all things new. We have a word for the mind and the mouth, and we have patience for our hearts, the acceptable in your sight, and, Lord, our strength and our hope in your presence." I don't agree that his prayer is the concluding verse of the psalm that would be appointed for this Sunday, were it not a special day, a feast day. St. Michael and all angels, a day for apocalyptic liturgy. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon. The dragon and his angels fought back, but they were defeated, and there was no longer any place for them in heaven. Dragging it within, dragging it without. Evil so pervasive that only the poetry of Apocalypse will do to tell of its defeat. But to do that, it will take us to the very beginning of language, the breath of our ears and imagination. It is the place out of which many of us feel ourselves to be teetering as we watch the images on our television screen, dreading what that may come. I, who have never even, for example, seen a single episode of King of Thrones, have never really understood the attraction of the revelation to John, also known as Apocalypse, as the story of the book is, what we Christians define as the Bible. Then, while reading up on this text, I came across a little bit of a timing from one of my favorite spiritual writers, Catherine Ward, who wrote this, I don't think it creates a revelation by saying that I like any story that's tragic, but this is a somewhat built-in question. In some circles, you can be labeled a fundamentalist just by reading that you've read it. I suspect that this editor, this is evidence of the extreme liberalism, the fear of the metaphor that in some ways defines the narrative. I don't think that's true, never. Any more than a dozen John activists control what God will reveal. The Greek word, Apocalypse, comes from the Greek and means to uncover or reveal, which makes it the word about possibility, which are poetic characters. The way old maps draw on the earth to construct a new world also involves the name, the phrase, unknown territory, to name the unknown. Ancient maps also link these characters. Here, they're the tragedies. Unknown territory is why Homer smiles. The answer is death, and musicians sing as it's said. But you can't control other things from that territory, and that's a problem sometimes, especially those who explain power or who love it. So, the language of Apocalypse is scary. So, I'm going to mention this. Chariot Ride and Shadow Walk is image by image, decaying exact or autonomous to the evil flow of the moment. I'm always up to remember, in the book of Revelation, that literal truth of the impending downfall of Stalin, Khrushchev, Mao, the United Nations, and the so-called military-industrial complex of which Eisenhower warned us. Liberals, on the other hand, tend to ignore or eliminate any metaphoric images which might be interpreted as referring to the slave punishment that ended the course, divine redemption to the sinner, and even the cross to be crept in to judgment. There is no doubt that the language of Revelation can be dangerous, and no more so than making it forced back in the other direction. Literal interpretations of a powerful metaphorism have often led Christians to restrict, to construct, a kind of bogeyman god who acts suspiciously like an idol, confirming our own prejudices. This may just be a very fresh seizure in the political campaign, trapped in Stalin. What can somehow be apocalyptic more, like an image, is who you are. Not the chimpanzee company, but the real eyes to God, you. Like prophetic waves, the images of apocalypse are limited by God to make up our consciousness. That is their peculiar talent to us, especially with a culture which has come very nearly We often think of things apocalyptic as referring to catastrophic destruction. In, to be fair, cosmic upheaval is definitely revealed in the book of Daniel, the book of Revelation, and in several passages of the Gospel. But destruction is not what the word apocalyptic means, and it is certainly not the heart of the message of Revelation to John. So, here the eye of faith finds its healing place, a journey through the terrifying palmetra of pain and despair with a vision of hope. The Gospel makes it clear that this is no fashionable hope. It is, rather, the hope that lies wholly through and beyond the cross. That hope asserts that the evil of the world will so certainly fail, that righteousness and non-truth will have no password, that God can no mere mortal reach. In other words, indeed, I ask your advice for consoling, depending upon your point of view. The discomfort we feel when a custom found in us shifts, resides in the measure of our to the way things were. And in one of the clearest features of John's Revelation is that of the Lamb of God declaring, Behold, I am talking to you. I am not the prince of this world. I am not the might of your arms or partners. I am the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, and I, the Lord, will do that, will make all things new. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.