Good morning. This morning we’re going to continue on further into this revelation that was given to John. You remember that John is exiled on the island of Patmos and that he is praying…in his words, he’s “caught up in the spirit.” And God gives him a vision – a vision that he can see, a vision that he can hear - and a vision that he writes down. And his written record of this vision is really our last book of the Bible, the book of Revelation.

And we’ve been in this series for awhile, you know. You remember that we began with the first part of the vision, a really majestic (albeit a little weird) picture of Christ.

And Christ really is the dominant figure who is the center of this whole vision. We’re told among other things about Christ that he is standing amidst 7 lampstands, and we’re told that these symbolize the churches.

And so in chapters 2 and 3 the focus shifts to 7 churches. And remember that biblically and particularly in Revelation, where it shows up many times, the number 7 stands for “complete” or “whole.” And so even though there are 7 particular churches, they are also to stand for the whole church.

In chapters 2 and 3, we looked at those churches – churches with problems, temptations and strengths and promises.

Then chapter 4 changes the scene altogether. The door is opened into heaven and John is taken up into heavenly places and there he sees the most incredible worship service. Rings, concentric circles, of the living creatures and the 24 elders and the angels, and they’re all falling down on their faces and shouting, “Holy, holy, holy.” And at the very center on the throne is God. And then as the vision unfolds – either with God or as God – the slain lamb, again the Christ figure, at the center.

Now Dan said last week that most prudent congregations doing a series on Revelation stop there. But Dan boldly turned the corner and took us into chapters 6 and 7. And you’ll remember that the primary image of chapter 6 and 7 was a scroll; a scroll that was sealed with 7 seals which could only be opened again by this lamb. And as each seal is opened, it reveals more of what is going on on earth. And the picture, really is of evil. It’s a series of revelations of the evil that is unfolding on earth.

And the point that Dan made last week, essentially, is that evil doesn’t have the last word. That evil is bounded. That God holds evil and controls it. And so that was, really, chapters 6 and 7.

Speaking personally, I would have been delighted. But again we go around the corner into chapters 8 and 9. It feels to me like things get a little darker and a little murkier. We finished in chapters 5 and 6 these 7 seals. Now we’re moving to talk about 7 trumpets.

And this is a significant change in image because a seal in this case (each time the seal was opened) allowed to be shown that which was. It was an act of revelation. Each time the trumpet sounds it announces that which is going to be done. It is an act of proclamation. It specifically is proclaiming another act that God is going to do.

And the thing that frankly makes this a very hard passage to preach on is that what it seems that God is going to do is bring judgment upon the earth. These are 7 trumpets of judgment. And we don’t typically like to talk about God and judgment and the judging side of God.

Beyond that, it gets even harder, because embedded within this little section is also the notion about prayer, and that somehow our prayers are linked to God’s judgment.

It could be understood to be about all kinds of prayers. But there seems to be a kind of prayer that starts this. It’s what we call an imprecatory prayer. An imprecatory prayer is essentially a prayer for God’s judgment, for God’s justice; that God will come in and make some situation right…will bring His judgment.

This kind of prayer shows up in chapter 6. Here are the martyr’s crying out. And this is the imprecatory prayer at its essence. “Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long? How long will it be before you judge and avenge our blood upon the inhabitants of the earth?

How long?” Frankly, this is a prayer that’s been modeled in different places in scripture.

I’ve never been in a church that has a prayer service where they call forth a time of imprecatory prayers. We do adoration, thanksgiving, confession, but never – “Please, speak out your calls for God’s judgment.”

But it seems to be a prayer that is a part of this. So that’s what I want us to look at today – the connection between prayers and particularly those kinds of prayers, and God’s judgment.

Prayer & Reading from Revelation 8.

Chapter 9 continues with the 5th and 6th trumpet. After the blowing of the 5th trumpet, an angel comes down from heaven with a key and unlocks the door to the abyss

And smoke rises up from the abyss and out of that smoke comes a swarm of locusts. Locusts like none you have ever seen; that look like horses; that have human faces, wear crowns, women’s hair, covered with breastplates and a tail like a scorpion. And they are so powerful that if they sting you with that tail, you cry out so badly and wish you could die. And these are released on earth.

They are bounded. They are bounded in a number of ways:

• They are not allowed to eat certain types of vegetation.
• They are allowed to torture, not to kill.
• They are allowed to stay on the earth for only 5 months.
• And they are not allowed to touch anyone who has been marked with the seal of the lamb. That is, they are not allowed to go after the Christians.

And then there’s the 6th trumpet. And at the sounding of the 6 th trumpet angels that have been held back – bad angels on the edge of the Euphrates as unleashed. And as a result,

200 million cavalry – the size of an army that would have been well beyond anything anyone had ever seen or imagined – 200 million cavalry are unleashed on the nations.

These are no ordinary cavalry.

• The horses have heads like lions and tails like snakes, killing on either end.
• They’re covered with breastplates. They are bright colors.
• Their riders, they emit…there’s smoke and sulfur and fire that comes out.
• And unlike the locusts, when they come across they don’t just torture, they kill.

And a third of humanity is killed by these cavalry. And then at the end of chapter 9, verse 20,

“The rest of humankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands or give up worshiping demons and idols of gold and silver and bronze and stone and wood, which cannot see or hear or walk. And they did not repent of their murders or their sorceries or their fornication or their thefts.”

Now at this point in the text, there’s a two chapter interlude. And its actually going to be Dan two weeks from now who is going to pick up on that interlude. But at the end of the interlude, we get the 2nd trumpet, and that’s at chapter 11 verse 17.

Reading: Revelation 11:15-19. The word of the Lord.

Seven trumpets. Seven trumpets of judgment. But did you notice that they are bracketed by prayer? At the very end you have the 24 elders who make their first appearance since that great worship scene. The 24 elders are falling down and beginning in worship, saying, “We thank you, Lord God.” And if you take the Greek words for “we thank you” and you peel them back to their underlying root words it’s “We thank you for answering our prayers.” It ends with words of thanksgiving that God has heard and answered their prayers.

The text begins also with prayer.

Chapter 8 begins, actually, with the opening of the last (the 7th) seal. Remember back to last week. We have this growing cacophony of intensity and energy and sound culminating in the 6th seal where the sun goes dark and the stars cave in and there’s this earthquake. And then we’re taken into heaven and we see the multitudes who are shouting and praising. And there’s all this noise and all this fury. And then in chapter 8 the 7 th seal is removed and it is silent…completely silent in heaven for half and hour.

Why?

I think it is silent in heaven because God is listening to the prayers of His people. God is listening to the prayers, “How long, O Lord? How long, O Lord?”

It is quiet enough that He is able to hear the prayer of a 12-year-old girl stuck in a dark back room, locked in a sex brothel awaiting her next customer.

It’s quiet enough for God to hear the deep sobs of a man who has just learned that his wife is leaving him for another woman…for another man.

It’s quiet enough for God to hear that a 5-year-old who can’t get anything to eat and has no one looking after him because he has been orphaned by AIDS.

It’s quiet enough for God to hear the exhausted cry of a woman who has worked 2 full jobs day after day and still doesn’t make enough money to feed her children.

It’s quiet enough for God to hear the whispered prayer of a woman who lays awake in bed next to her sleeping and abusive husband.

How long, O Lord? How long? When will you bring justice and judgment?

Somehow there’s some connection between those prayers and God’s activity. And what I’d like to do is make 3 observations about that.

1) When we pray for justice and judgment, we are in some fashion mysteriously participating in God’s work. But we don’t define it.

And let me see if I can explain that a little clearer.

It does seem from this text that it is something about the prayers of the saints that are on the altar that then rise up to God on the throne so that He in some sense smells them of becomes aware of their presence…it seems like that’s what triggers, or inaugurates, these trumpets blowing.

Now this is murky territory because we know that God knows everything, God is aware of all suffering, God can act without anything from us.

And so we would never say that God’s activity is dependent upon our prayers. And yet, in some mysterious way, it seems like they play a role in participating – in starting – this judgment activity.

But they don’t define it.

In other words, God doesn’t take the prayers just as they’ve been given…they float up…and turn around and say, “Okay,” and throw those back down.

When you and I pray for justice and judgment we always do so imperfectly. We’re broken people. Our prayers are always broken prayers. Our prayers for justice are always mixed in with some parts that aren’t quite right: self-pity, or anger, or a desire to get even, or any number of different ways in which our prayers are not really quite aligned with the heart of God.

But God says, “Bring those prayers to me anyhow.” But they don’t define His action.

In the picture here, the prayers are laid out on the altar. And then God gives the angel incense – lots of incense – that’s mixed with those prayers so that when they actually float up to God, they come with God’s flavoring – God’s twist. And then God responds not with our imperfect cries for justice, but with His perfect justice. And we see that as it unfolds.

One of the interesting things, one of the obvious things, as we read through these is the over and over “A third, a third.” “A third of the earth.” “A third of the water.” A third of the people are affected by these plagues. Why a third? I mean, Jewish apocalyptic literature would lead you to expect, “All. All. All.” But here it’s a third, a third, a third. Why?

Not because I think the saints were praying, “Please, just affect a third.” It’s because God in His perfection always mixes judgment with mercy. You can’t pull those apart. God’s judgment is always imbedded with mercy.

In these plagues there is an invitation. As God judges and judges rightly, there is still an invitation, “Come back. Come back. Come back.” That’s why, when you get to the end of chapter 9, it is such a plaintive voice when you hear that the rest of humankind who were not killed by these plagues did not repent; did not repent of the works of their hands, did not repent of their idolatry.

My mental image (this is kind of hokey) is of a bus stop. And you’ve got one of these covered shelters at the bus stop. And God is inside and there’s someone outside waiting for the bus. And God says to the person outside, “Come in. We can talk. We can hang out together.”

And the person says, “No, I’d rather not.” And then it starts to drizzle, and then it starts to rain, and then it starts to pour, and then it starts to hail. And then the winds blow and threes start to fall over and big windows of buildings fall out. And all this is crashing down around this man standing at the bus stop. And God keeps saying, “Come in. Come in. Come in. It’s safe in here. Come in. Come in.” And the man says, “I would rather not. I will not. I will not repent. I will not repent.” And so then the 7 th judgment comes and that’s the end.

But God’s judgment is mixed with mercy, with invitation. And in that sense it often is more pure and right than the kind of prayers we bring up. But still God says, “Bring me those prayers and I will season them with my incense and use them as I administer justice and judgment in the world.

2) I actually think that being able to pray these kinds of prayers may be necessary to truly release us to fully love our enemies; to fully embrace those who persecute us. And let me see if I can explain why I say this.

I think every one of us is made with an intrinsic sense of fairness. There is some sense that if something is wrong, it should be righted. If somebody does something wrong, they should be held to account for that. I say this is intrinsic. You can see it in children from the very earliest. You know, “It’s not fair!” There is this deep sense in which we cry out for fairness. And I actually think that it is a part of the character that God has imbedded within us. When we are made in the image of God we are made to look like God in this respect because God is just. So we have that natural instinct.

But at the same time, as we hear in Romans, we’re called to bless those who persecute us; never to pay evil for evil, never to try and take vengeance, or get back, or right the scales. If someone hits us in the face, we’re told we’re supposed to turn the other cheek and let them hit us again. Submit to violence with non-violent submission. And you say, “How do these go together?”

I am the absolute last person who has any right to talk about injustice. I freely tell you that I have the most charmed and wonderful life. But my own experience is the only experience that I know to speak out of, and so let me just tell you that there are little tiny times, little...so petty that I’m embarrassed to share them…but little tiny times when things happen to me that I say, “Well, that’s unfair.”

• Somebody at work says something about me that’s wrong and I don’t get a chance to counter it.
• Somebody promises to do something and they fail, and I have to clean up after them.

Just little tiny things.

But when they happen there’s a part of me that first wants to jump up and say, “Whoa! Wait a minute! That’s not fair! There needs to be an accounting here!”

But then I remember, no. Bless those who persecute you. You don’t love your enemies. So what I tend to do is to squelch that desire for justice, my desire for accounting.

My picture is that I have kind of like a well. And that as I absorb these blows (minor, little tiny, little petty blows), the well fills up. And at some point it’s full. And the next little piece of injustice that I encounter causes me to what I call “leak.” And I begin to respond.

• I lash out at somebody where it’s not appropriate.
• I criticize somebody in a way that wasn’t necessary.
• Or say a bad word behind somebody’s back.

And I realize what’s happening. There is this suppressed desire for fairness that hasn’t found expression. And if it’s like this with me with my absolute, petty little injustices,

Imagine what it must be like for someone who has truly experienced oppression and injustice. To be someone who, for example:

• Who was the object of ethnic cleansing
• To have seen your village plundered and then burned
• To see your fathers and brothesr have their throats slit in front of you
• To your daughters raped in front of you

And then imagine saying, “Bless those who persecute you” without in some fashion needing to deal with this “There must be justice!”

And I think God knows that. And so I think God says, “Bring those prayers to me. Bring your prayers for justice and judgment to me, and lay them on the altar. Why? Because I am a just God and I will give justice.”

In Romans, that passage that was read, I’ve heard all my life: “Vengeance is mine says the Lord.” And I’ve always heard that as a restriction: “Don’t you go taking vengeance. Don’t you go taking vengeance.” I’ve never heard it as an assurance. “Vengeance is mine. I will have justice.”

I think when we pray these kinds of prayers to a God who we know is just we can leave them on the altar and therefore we don’t keep piling them up in our wells, and we’re able to love and to give ourselves self-sacrificially. We’re truly able to bless those who persecute us. But it’s because we can trust God to deal with the justice question.

3) It seems to me that when we pray these kinds of prayers (that is “How long, O Lord? Justice, judgment kind of prayers), we are aligning ourselves with the heart of God in a couple of ways.

One way is that we are aligning ourselves with the victims. It is always victims who cry out “How long, O Lord?” Never the oppressors. And God always lines up with the victims, not the oppressors. The supreme example of this is Jesus’ death on the cross, where He chose to die in sympathy along with the victims of the world…to fully identify with the victims.

And so when we pray, “How long, O Lord? Bring justice and judgment!” A prayer which I might say only legitimately comes out of either our own suffering or our suffering for others…never as a triumphalist kind of, “knock them down,” but only out of our own suffering. But when we pray that, we align our hearts with the victim.

I think we live in a culture that doesn’t really deal with evil very well. We talk about good and getting better. We talk about strong and broken. We talk about righteous and needing healing. We don’t deal very much with evil. We don’t know what to do with evil. It is hard for us to recognize that God hates evil. God hates evil.

We sometimes talk about God hating evil in theological terms because God is pure light and he can’t stand even a speck of darkness. There’s some true to that, but ultimately why does God hate evil so much? God hates evil because it distracts and tortures and kills people He loves. That’s why He hates evil. And when you and I say, “Bring justice and judgment,” and it comes out of our suffering or suffering for others, we are aligning up with the heart of God that hates evil and loves the victims.

There’s one other way, though, in which this prayer causes us to align with God. Alexander Solzhenitsyn once said that the line between good and evil never runs between two different groups of people. It runs right through the heart of every person. Each one of us, even as we cry out for justice and judgment are asking justice and judgment on us. Every one of us has an evil within us that makes it deserving of us to receive all of the judgments that are listed…all of the 7 trumpets we deserve.

Back to my picture at the bus stop.

Now you’ve got no shelter. You’re standing at the bus stop and the Lamb of God comes along. And the Lamb of God says, “Let me surround you. Let me cover you. Let me wrap you?”

Why?

So that when the first trumpet sounds and the hail and the fire and the blood come down, I will absorb it.

When the second trumpet sounds and the mountain is toppled over, I will absorb that shock.

When the third trumpet is sound and the waters turn bitter, I will drink them for you.

When the fourth trumpet is sound and the lights start to go down, I’ll absorb the darkness.

When the fifth trumpet comes down and the locusts, I will take their suffering.

When the sixth trumpet comes down and the cavalry sweep across the nations, I will die for you.

God’s judgment is always mixed with his mercy. And when we pray for judgment, we at least implicitly are acknowledging our deep dependence on His mercy and His grace. We’re wrapped in the Lamb of God.

That’s what this table (the communion table) is about. We come to the Lord’s table. We come as victims and as oppressors. When you come to this table as a victim, it is a symbol that reminds you that you are approaching the God of justice and that there will be a day when all justice, all evil, everything will be right. And God will have that day and you can leave your cries for justice on this table knowing that they will be heard, and that they matter.

You can also come to this table as an oppressor. Because this is the table, the altar, where the lamb was slain. Slain for you and for me, to wrap around us; to absorb this judgment on our behalf.

This is a table for victims and oppressors. And it’s a table for you and me.

Let’s pray.