I’d like to tell you a modern story that relates to the Book of Revelation. Sidney Rittenberg grew up in the American South during the 1920s under Jim Crow. As a white boy, he once saw a drunk white man starting a fight with a black man. Sidney called the police, but when the police came, they attacked the Black man.
Young Sidney was horrified. He asked his aunt about it. She told him, “…there was no such thing as justice … you only get as much justice as you can pay for.” This shocked him. Later, Sidney stated that he’d “grown up on stories where good always triumphed … I believed there had to be justice.”
Sidney was later trained as a Chinese linguist during World War II. He was sent to China to help rebuild the country after the war. Tragically, when he arrived there, a drunken US soldier had killed a Chinese girl. Sidney was responsible for bringing a check to the grieving family. The US Government only offered to pay the family $26, stating that it only needed to cover the cost of burial. Sidney was disgusted as he brought the money to the family. The family was obviously heartbroken, for they had lost their only child. When Sidney returned to his office, the father came to return $6. When Sidney asked him why he returned the $6, the father stated that he had to give a kickback to everything, and he saw Sidney as part of the corrupt government.
When his military term ended, Sidney decided to stay in China and lived there from 1944 to 1980. After his experience with the Chinese family, he was idealistic and wanted to stay in China in an attempt to help rebuild a more just Chinese Government. Over time, he manuevered his way up and became something of an advisor to Mao Zedong and worked closely with the Communist party.
In 1949, he was suddenly captured and jailed by the Chinese government he wanted to help. Russian Communist officials falsely identified Sidney as a CIA Agent, so the Chinese government put him in solitary confinement. He was tortured and interrogated as he spent his first year in complete darkness. He was jailed twice and spent a total of 16 years in Chinese prison under the accusation of working with the CIA.
While unjustly imprisoned under false accusations he had betrayed the Government he wanted to help, Sidney remembered a poem he learned in his youth. It went like this:
They drew a circle that shut me out
Heretic, rebel, a thing to flout
But love and I had the wit to win;
We drew a circle that took them in.
This poem was the key to his survival in prison. When he remembered the poem, he thought, “My God, there is my strategy.”
But Love and I had the wit to win;
We drew a circle that took them in.
In his great suffering and persecution, Sidney knew that his only chance at survival was a love and a determination that would draw a circle to include even those who excluded him.
Sidney was fluent in Chinese, so he talked with his guards and became friendly with them. He convinced them to give him books and a candle so that he could read in the dark.
Eventually, the Chinese Government discovered that Sidney was innocent. The government apologized and offered him restitution and a ticket to anywhere in Europe or the United States. He refused and decided to stay in China with the people he loved and to work for justice.
After a few years, Sidney promoted democracy in China, and so the government put him in jail again. This time for ten years. His wife was also sent to a prison camp for associating with an American. After Mao Zedong’s death, Sidney was released from prison. During this second bout in prison, Sidney realized that he had given his life to a brutal Chinese dictatorship that ruled by violence and persecution.
He gave up his dream that he could help Mao Zedong, who resorted to violently brutal tactics to keep power. So after he was released this second time, he moved with his wife back to the United States, where he became distinguished professor of Chinese history at the University of North Carolina.
I tell you this story about Sidney Rittenberg because I think it’s a modern example of the Book of Revelation. Like Sidney was exiled to solitary confinement, John of Patmos, the author of Revelation, was exiled to the island of Patmos. He spent years in exile as punishment from the Roman authorities. But like Sidney, he continued to hope for justice. As we will see in the coming weeks, Revelation is a strange and wild book that is difficult to understand, but ultimately it is about hope. It is about that poem:
They drew a circle that shut me out
Heretic, rebel, a thing to flout
But love and I had the wit to win;
We drew a circle that took them in.
In my article from last week, I mentioned that the word Apocalypse does not mean “end of the world destruction.” Instead, it means, “to reveal” or “to unveil.” So apocalyptic literature tries to reveal something that is difficult for us to see. It is primarily difficult for us to see because human culture blinds us to what is really true about God and our world.
Sidney was at first excited by the promise he saw in communism, and he hoped that Chinese communism would be a kinder form of government than Russian communism. But over time, his blind optimism was overcome by the despair of seeing the brutality of Mao’s use of violence and oppression to keep power.
The Unveiling of Political Subversion
Similarly, the Book of Revelation reveals the brutality and violence of the ancient Roman Empire. In the coming weeks, we will hear of beasts and monsters and dragons, all of which are symbols of violent and oppressive empires from thousands of years ago. Even thought Revelation explores these empires from thousands of years ago, we know that today empires act in the same way.
But today I want to talk with you about the Roman Empire during John’s time. The Book of Revelation was written during the late first century, probably around the year 95 AD. The Roman Emperor was a man named Domitian. He demanded to be worshipped as a god. Coins were made with Domitian’s head and slogans like “Son of God” and “My Lord and My God.”
These titles on the coins are interesting for a number of reasons. First, you begin to see that when the early Christians called Jesus the “Son of God,” they were making far more than a pious religious statement about the divinity of Christ. When Christians called Jesus the “Son of God” they were making a dangerous and subversive political statement. “You think the Emperor is the Son of God? No, Jesus is the Son of God.”
Second, you may recognize the phrase “My Lord and My God.” It’s the phrase that the disciple Thomas used in the upper room after the resurrection of Jesus. The story went like this: Jesus had been killed on the cross. The male disciples all abandoned Jesus during his time of great need. They ran away and went to an upper room of a house as they hid from the people who killed Jesus. Only Thomas was missing. Suddenly, Jesus appeared to them in that room and offered them peace and forgiveness.
After he disappeared, the disciples told Thomas about their experience with the resurrected Jesus. Thomas said he wouldn’t believe it unless he put his finger in Jesus wounds. Later, the disciples, along with Thomas, were in that upper room and Jesus appeared to them all. He invited Thomas to put his fingers in his wounds. Thomas responded by worshiping Jesus and saying to him, “My Lord and My God.”
Again, when Thomas worships Jesus and declares him “Lord and God,” it is far more than a pious religious statement. For the early Christians, it meant that political leaders like Domitian were not Lord and God. The Emperor didn’t hold their ultimate loyalty. Domitian was not worthy of worship. No, they gave their ultimate loyalty to Jesus.
A Radical Political Critique
The Book of Revelation is a radical political critique of anyone or any nation that demands our ultimate loyalty. Domitian demanded to be worshiped, but John had a vision of another worship. In our passage today, John saw a door opening up to heaven where we find the throne room of God.
Now, the throne room of God is another important thing to notice. Because do you know who else had a throne room in first century Rome?
That’s right. The emperor.
And it was there in that throneroom, where the emperor had 24 elders who attended to his needs and advised him on political matters.
Again, the politcal critique would have been obvious for Christians living in the first century. The throneroom of the Emperor and his 24 elders paled in comparison to the throneroom of God and of God’s 24 elders.
In addition, everyone in the throneroom of God wears white robes. When Rome conquered a new city, there was a ceremony where everyone wore white. This is another political critique that the Book of Revelation gives of the Roman Empire.
Even more important, like Sidney’s experience with Mao’s Government was meant for a select few, the Emperor’s courtroom was only for a few people. It was exclusive and always had the threat of violence. The circle of Empire’s throne room drew a few people in and everyone else out.
God’s Circle of Inclusion
But in chapter 5 of Revelation, we find that the circle of God’s inclusion is wide enough to take in everyone and everything. It states that John, “heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea and all that is in them singing,
To the one seated on the throne and to the Lamb
Be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever.”
The point again is that the Emperor is seated on his throne, but it’s a fake throne, because it is based on violence and exclusion. The true throne belongs to God and to the Lamb, and every creature on heaven and on earth and even under the earth and in the sea are included. The Book of Revelation provides a vision of heaven that is radically inclusive.
The Lamb of God
Last week we talked about the importance of the Lamb. John sees that God does not identify with a ferocious lion who conquers through violence. That would make God like the Roman Emperor. Instead, John sees that God identifies as a Lamb who conquers through nonviolent love.
I don’t particularly like the use of the word “Conquer.” The violent image makes me uncomfortable. But John uses the word “conquer” in order to subvert the violent “conquering” of the Emperor. The Lamb of God is the one who defeats and conquers powers of evil, not with violent and evil means, but through nonviolent love.
This vision of the heavenly throne room is crucial to our understanding of God. It is here where we meet the Lamb who was slain. It is this Lamb, not the lion, that occupies God’s throne.
The importance here is not just that the Lamb occupies the throne of God. It’s that the Emperor does not occupy the throne. But it’s also more than that. It’s about a way of life. The Emperor conquers through violence, whereas the Lamb conquers through nonviolent love. The book of Revelation puts these choices before us: Will we choose the violence of the Emperor or the nonviolence of the Lamb?
John’s Letters to the Churches of Asia Minor
In the first few chapters of Revelation, John writes letters to the seven churches in Asia Minor. I won’t go over each of those letters, but they follow a general pattern. Each of the 7 churches does some good things, but they also show signs of falling away from the Christian life.
One of the churches is in a city called Pergamum. It’s in Pergamum where the book of Revelation says that Satan sits on Satan’s throne. Pergamum was essentially the capital of Asia minor at the time, and a place where emperor worship thrived.
The Book of Revelation is calling the Emperor’s seat in Pergamum the throne of Satan. That’s some serious political and religious trash talking.
We will see in the next few weeks, that Satan is far bigger than the Roman Emperor. But for now I think it’s important to remember something about the word satan in Hebrew. Satan has multiple meanings. It can mean tempter and adversary. But increasingly, I find that for me the most important meaning of the word Satan is “accuser.” Satan is the spirit of accusation. The spirit of hostility. The spirit that seeks to unite us against one another.
The Roman Emperor controlled his empire through the satanic principle of accusation and violence. If his subjects were accusing others, it meant that they weren’t accusing him. So the emperor continuously tried to find scapegoats to blame.
Avoiding the Satanic game of Accusation
Jesus, and the book of Revelation, warn us not to play the satanic game of accusation. Revelation implores us to stop worshipping the gods of accusation and violence and instead worship the God who sits on the throne as the nonviolent Lamb who conquers through self-giving love.
The seven letters to the seven churches at the beginning of the Book of Revelation have an urgency behind them. Revelation knows that the time is always now for the followers of Christ to act in the ways of love and justice. As Sidney knew that when
They draw a circle that shut us out
Heretic, rebel, a thing to flout
But love and I had the wit to win;
We drew a circle that took them in.
Revelation reminds us that it’s always time to draw the circle wider. To subvert the political ways of exclusion and violence with the ways of inclusion and love. This message of Revelation, the message of love and justice and hope, is needed for our world today. The seven letters to the churches remind us that we have a part to play in God’s plan for a more just and loving world. May we continue to draw the circle wider and to work for justice in the spirit of love. Amen.
