Scripture: Revelation 7.9-10
After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. And they cried out in a loud voice:

“Salvation belongs to our God,
who sits on the throne,
and to the Lamb.”

Reflection: The Seductive Idolatry of Politics
By John Tillman

Politics is the idol we bring with us to church just as the Israelites worshiped Baal alongside Jehovah. Israel continued this practice until eventually, altars to Baal were set up in God’s temple supplanting true worship.

Politics is the most powerful new religion of this millennium. It continually plays on the kind of imagery we see in Revelation. But outside of Christ there will never be a day when every nation, tribe, people, and language are united. Politics promises this unity and diversity but instead gains its power from fear and division.

This religion of politics poses a greater threat to the gospel than any other religion. Politics provides everything that the darkest parts of humanity’s sinful nature want from a religion.

The State is a flawed deity that is unpredictably beneficent or wrathful. Pagan societies prefer their gods to be flawed.

Politicians and the media (which serves them) provide an ecclesiastically complex structure of priests and prophets. Schisms, conspiracies, and scandals aren’t bugs in the system; they are features.

Worshipers make ordinances of their favorite political shows, podcasts, and news sites. They attend these programs with far more regularity and commitment than they do church worship services.

They make sacrifices of time and money and perform public shows of support. They promulgate their ideology and police their relationships, disassociating with any who would blaspheme their viewpoints.

Unfriending the blasphemers is viewed as a holy, cleansing action that makes the worshiper a more pure follower and condemns the one unfriended.

The deification of country and the sanctification of political parties as a nation’s priesthood, is perhaps the most dangerous idolatry the church has ever faced. It is a serious error to conflate the identity of God’s heavenly kingdom with any earthly government. It is so easy for earnest believers to fall into this trap.

This doesn’t mean it’s un-Christian to be “political.” Quite the opposite. But we must make sure we are pursuing actions that please Christ rather than pleasing human political kingdoms.

We serve the same kingdom Christ testified to before Pilate put him to death and the kingdom Stephen saw before being stoned by the Sanhedrin.

The Lamb on the Throne is unconcerned with political expediency. When forced to choose between country, or party, and Christ, we must choose Christ.

Prayer: The Greeting
Out of Zion, perfect in its beauty, God reveals himself in glory. Let the heavens declare the rightness of his cause; for God himself is judge. — Psalm 50.2, 6

– Prayer from The Divine Hours: Prayers for Springtime by Phyllis Tickle.

Full prayer available online and in print.

Today’s Readings
Isaiah 37 (Listen – 6:47)
Revelation 7 (Listen – 2:56)

Additional Reading
Read more about Politically Ambiguous Religion
“Faith devoted to the way of Christ is rarely politically expedient.”

Read more about God’s Kingdom Versus God’s Reign
As Christians today, we are often tempted, as the Israelites were, to put faith in shaping society through the exertion of governmental power.

Scripture: Isaiah 36.16-17
Make peace with me and come out to me. Then each of you will eat fruit from your own vine and fig tree and drink water from your own cistern, until I come and take you to a land like your own—a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards.

Reflection: Political Promises
By John Tillman

Taken out of context, one might assume the verses above are written by Isaiah on behalf of God.

They offer the promise of peace, the promise of prosperity, and the promise of a soon-coming king who will take us to a new and better land. However these words are not from God, and not written by the prophet. They are part of a speech given to the city of Jerusalem by the commander of the besieging Assyrian army.

See how carefully Sennacherib’s commander has crafted the message?

He not only speaks their language, he speaks in the style and vocabulary of their own prophets. He claims to know God’s mind about what God would have them to do. “The Lord himself told me to march against this country and destroy it….make peace with me and come out to me…” While at the same time, he denies God’s ability to save, comparing him to the gods of other countries he has defeated.

In the passage from Isaiah, Sennacherib’s commander assumes a binary choice—rely on Egypt or rely on Assyria.

Many leaders of political parties are attempting to force a binary choice. They offer Christians the same carefully worded speech that Sennacherib’s commander made to the besieged city of Jerusalem. All we have to do to receive peace, safety, and prosperity is to go along with a political leader who offers protection in exchange for loyalty. And servitude.

Christians who think they can trust one political party to protect them from another are making a mistake. They will find themselves leaning for support on what Sennacherib’s commander describes as a, “splintered reed of a staff, which pierces the hand of anyone who leans on it!”

If we look into the future of the kingdom of Israel, the commander’s prediction about Egypt being of no help is the only part of his speech that was accurate.

Hezekiah and Isaiah refuse the false binary. May we do so as well.

May we resist carefully crafted political promises and refuse to exchange loyalty for power.
May we not trade our role as ambassadors of a heavenly kingdom for an inferior role as a political party’s “yes-men.”
May we speak up for the downtrodden and helpless no matter which party is against them.
May we speak the truth in love—confronting our allies as strongly as we would confront our enemies.

Prayer: The Refrain for the Morning Lessons
My heart is firmly fixed, O God, my heart is fixed; I will sing and make melody. — Psalm 57.7

– Prayer from The Divine Hours: Prayers for Springtime by Phyllis Tickle.

Full prayer available online and in print.

Today’s Readings
Isaiah 36 (Listen – 4:00)
Revelation 6 (Listen – 3:12)

Scripture: Revelation 3.19-20
Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest and repent. Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me.

Reflection: The Churches Christ Attends
By John Tillman

Recently a reader returning from a trip to Southeast Asia emailed me describing some of the amazingly humble leaders of the churches there.

These are men and women operating quietly under the threat of being disappeared by the government. They will never grace the stage of a pastor’s conference in the West. They will never promote a book on a talk show. They will never teach a church growth seminar at a conference. Yet they are leading megachurch sized ministries that are growing and thriving under true oppression.

I needed the encouragement because my mood was dark as I read about pastors (and prominent Christians) here in the West tripping over their own feet amidst scandals and petty arguments. We (I) need the humbling realization that the Western church is not the center of God’s universe, and like Elijah in the cave, we are not alone in serving God.

Frustrations with the church are nothing new and have been a chief reason given for those exiting the church.

But there are no safe spaces or perfect churches in the New Testament or on earth. Everywhere you go there is correction and conflict. Most of the New Testament is letters filled with corrective, confrontational language.

We may not wish to attend scandalous, imperfect churches, but Jesus does. Revelation 3:20 is often used as a scripture about individual salvation, but in context it is Christ knocking on the door of a sinful church, wishing to sit with them.

Christ longs to feed us from the tree of life, to heal blindness with salve, to clothe nakedness with mercy, to dress us in white, to give us a new name, and to seat us on his throne. These are not promises made to the “perfect” churches, but to the failures.

In Christ there is radical, loving confrontation and a passionate pursuit of reconciliation all wrapped up together. This is a mixture that our culture can’t stomach—we prefer excoriation to redemption.

No church is perfect or stands alone. Dysfunctional and broken churches are an opportunity for Christ to bring redemption, if we will but listen. Christ confronts and comforts in the same breath. If we cannot find it in our hearts to do so, we can find it in his.

Prayer: A Reading
Jesus came and stood among them. He said to them,… “Peace be with you. As the Father sent me, so am I sending you.” After this he breathed on them and said: “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone’s sins, they are forgiven; if you retain anyone’s sins, they are retained.” — John 20:19-23

– Prayer from The Divine Hours: Prayers for Springtime by Phyllis Tickle.

Full prayer available online and in print.

Today’s Readings
Isaiah 33 (Listen – 3:45)
Revelation 3 (Listen – 3:53)

This Weekend’s Readings
Isaiah 34 (Listen – 2:59) Revelation 4 (Listen – 2:09)
Isaiah 35 (Listen – 1:43) Revelation 5 (Listen – 2:39)

Scripture: Revelation 2.7
Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches…

Reflection: To the Worst Churches in the Bible
By John Tillman

There are many strange and unfamiliar images in Revelation that we have no context for and do not easily understand. But one that has a very familiar ring is the description of scandal-filled churches.

In many recent articles, such as The Fall of the Village, by Jake Meador and The Wrath of God Poured Out, by Albert Mohler, Christian writers have been agonizing over recent revelations of sins from the past as well as current scandals.

In an article on moral failings, Ed Stetzer noted that of the leaders who spoke with him at a conference in 2010, half had stepped down for some kind of moral failing.

At a time when Evangelicals have changed their minds about whether leadership requires a moral private life (they no longer think it does) most still say a church leader’s private life should be morally upright. And Christians all over are justifiably upset both at the sins that had been covered up (or ignored) and the attrition of leaders and churches falling to scandal.

For those who picture themselves in the role of prophet, this can seem like a cause for celebration.

Down with the hypocrites. Down with the failures. Let rise the greater and wiser leaders of a more humble and sacrificial church. But this is just new idolatry to replace the old.

It is notable that the first things revealed to John in the book of Revelation are not heavenly wonders, but earthly sins. But the more shocking revelation is that Jesus loves and cares for sinful and dysfunctional churches and their leaders.

Despite the deep brokenness of most of the churches in Revelation, Jesus finds positive things to say about each of them. Not one is he willing to give up on without a fight.

He does not merely threaten them with punishment, but gives them a purpose, a path to redemption, and a reward for obedience.

Make no mistake. The redemption described is primarily for the church as a whole. Individual redemption from sin, does not require a restoration of position, power, or influence. Those individuals who have harmed others should not be back in the pulpit.

But if Christ can speak lovingly and redemptively of churches as corrupt as these, why can’t we?

When defending people from harm, may we intercede with the strength of Christ and his sword of truth.

But may we also not shirk from Christ’s call to reach out in redemption to even that most vile of sinners, the fallen leader.

Prayer: The Call to Prayer
Sing to the Lord and bless his Name; proclaim the good news of his salvation from day to day.
Declare his glory among the nations and his wonders among all peoples.
For great is the Lord and greatly to be praised; he is more to be feared than all gods. — Psalm 96.2-4

– Prayer from The Divine Hours: Prayers for Springtime by Phyllis Tickle.

Full prayer available online and in print.

Today’s Readings
Isaiah 32 (Listen – 2:46)
Revelation 2 (Listen – 4:59)

Scripture: Revelation 1.1-2
The revelation from Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servants what must soon take place. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John, who testifies to everything he saw—that is, the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ.

Reflection: Angelic Visions Require Childlike Faith
By John Tillman

As a writer of what today might be called “Fantasy Sci/Fi” novels, Madeleine L’Engle was often perplexed at the tendency of scholarly Christians to hold at arm’s length the angels and miracles of the Bible.

Cherubim, seraphim, all the angelic host as they are described in scripture, have a wild and radiant power that often takes us by surprise. They are not always gentle. They bar the entrance to Eden, so that we may never return home. They send plagues upon the Egyptians. They are messengers of God. They are winds. They are flames of fire. They are young men dressed in white.

Encounters with angels in the Bible are always moments of great importance and have always attracted a great deal of scholarly attention.

The faith of intellectualism is interested in explaining away the angel. Intellectual assent wants to dissect the angels’ particulars and clarify their place in the great chain of being.

This can become analogous to pondering whether the composition of a stop sign is steel, fiberglass, or aluminium, as you roll past it into the intersection.

To take angels seriously, L’Engle insists that we must have a bit more childlike faith.

Three of them come to Abraham to be his guests. One wrestles all night long with Jacob. They minister to Jesus after the temptations in the wilderness. They are God come to tell us something, and in the Old Testament it is obvious that God’s people understand that angels are voices and appearances of the Master of the Universe himself.

To be visited by an angel is to be visited by God. To be touched by an angel is to be touched by God, and it is a terrifying experience. When the angel smote him on the thigh, Jacob limped forever after. Daniel, who had braved lions, trembled and fainted at the appearance of the Lord’s angel. And John, on the Isle of Patmos, fell down as though dead.

If we read the Bible, and if what we read has anything to do with what we believe, then we have no choice but to take angels seriously; and most artists do, from Milton to Doré to Shakespeare…

The artist, if he is not to forget how to listen, must retain the vision which includes angels and dragons and unicorns, and all the lovely creatures which our world would put in a box marked Children Only.

May we read the Bible (especially the upcoming chapters of Revelation) with a child’s faith and a child’s imagination, guided and spurred by the Holy Spirit.

*Quotations from Walking on Water, by Madeleine L’Engle

Prayer: The Request for Presence
Show us the light of your countenance, O God, and come to us. — Psalm 67.1

– Prayer from The Divine Hours: Prayers for Springtime by Phyllis Tickle.

Full prayer available online and in print.

Today’s Readings
Isaiah 31 (Listen – 1:49)
Revelation 1 (Listen – 3:43)