Some might say I'm a strange United Church preacher, but I'm really curious but about the book called Revelation! I'm curious about its wild imagery; both violent and beautiful! I'm really curious about how this text at the same time lifts up the wrath of God, while at the same time condemning the violent ways of the world.

We know that the authority for Revelation is stated in the first chapter. This revelation comes from the crucified one himself; the Lamb.

"To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood and made us to be a kingdom and priests to serve his God and Father. To him be glory and power for ever and ever!. Amen."

Now I know that the last time I preached about salvation through the blood of the lamb, someone told me they were appaulled. They rejected the lanaguage as being unhelpful in this day and age, and even harmful.

And yet, in chapter 5 of Revelation, this image seems to evoke the central reality that gives rise to the worship of God, both by the heavenly angels and by all the creatures on earth. Millions of angels sing;

Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain,
to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength
and honor and glory and praise!"

And all the creatures of the earth cry out;

"To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb
be praise and honor and glory and power,
for ever and ever!"

Perhaps those who are troubled by the idea that we are saved through "the blood of the Lamb"; through the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross, are troubled by the idea that the love of God can use an act of violence to redeem a violence soaked world. That the the love of God was poured out into a fallen and violent and broken history, and that at the core of the gospel is that we were not saved by wise teachings of a great and holy teacher. That we were not saved by OUR coming to enlightenment regarding our attachment to desires which give rise to violence. That we were not saved by our ability to overcome evil within ourselves through acts of compassion and goodness. But rather that through the suffering of God, not in some abstract mythical way, but through the horribile death of an innocent man dying a very public death at the hands of both the religious and secular powers, WE WERE AND ARE SAVED!. That this is the way that God has redeemed the world; and those who glimpse its reality fall down upon their knees and worship.

Saved by the Lamb; Blood washing away sin; SIN, that reality at the core of each of us; that divisive reality at the core of humanity which gives rise to a river of blood 10 feet deep from one end of the earth to the other. SIN equals DIVISION equals VIOLENCE equals DEATH. That is the central problem in the world, according to Revelation. And through the blood of the Lamb; through the self giving of God in Jesus Christ, we are saved. All of us in the same boat, saved by God's mysterious way; through the death of God-come-in-Jesus, on the cross. JESUS equals RECONCILIATION equals LOVE equals LIFE, and even eternal life.

Paul said none of us can boast, but only in the love of God. For that is what the cross means. That each of us in only a beloved child of God, because of what God has done. From the worst Christian to the best, none stand under God's grace, except because of what God has done. This is why, the last are the first in God's kingdom. The last of us who are saved, the worst of us who strand under the grace of God, those who understand all too well the "violence that lurks in the hearts of men", also understand the depth of the love in the heart of a God willing to take upon God's very self, the sins of the world. To take upon Godself the divisions that tear our personal and collective lives apart, that we and our world might be made whole. They understand when they read Revelation what it means to worship "the slain Lamb of God."

You understand what it means to be welcomed by God to share in the Divine purpose; to be reconciliation with God; Made right, despite our failures, our lack of qualifications, our past complicity with evil, claimed despite our fears that we are too small and insignificant to be part of some cosmic drama. You know that at the heart of the reign of our crucified Lord is good news.

Yet Revelation is clear in also giving warnings. Do not be naive, danger awaits those who would follow the crucified Lord. While sin was defeated on the cross, the losing forces of the ways of sin and death still linger. Both in the church and outside. Those who would continue to cause division; those who see violence and war as "normal" or as "just the way human beings have always 'got things done'." Or worse, those who would glorify the ways of violence and death, see the way of the Lamb as foolishness, as strange, as subversive, as dangerous, as evil.

Listen to the Good News in Revelation, those who are tempted to despair about yourself or the world. God has made God's home amongst humanity. As we gather, we gather not just as this small community in worshipping the Lamb, but with the hosts of heaven, with a sea of humanity around the world, and with Creation itself. We are not alone. And thank God for that since we do live in a dangerous world. Not just from violence to ourselves, but we are in danger of giving ourselves over to those who would battle for our hearts and minds. Images in the media call for us to seek the seductive ways of greed and death. Religious ideas that seek to have us embrace violence as a "way to get things done." Or spiritual ideas that cause us to turn inward and forget the world God loves; focusing only on 'filling my spiritual tank' or 'getting MY worship experience'.

Listen, however nice we want Church to be, a cross stands at the fulcrum of history; a blood soaked cross IS the sign of the salvation of the Living God. When the work of Christ, the slaughtered lamb who lives; when this one pierces the barrier between heaven and earth comes; he comes both to challenge and to comfort. For the truth is that when Christ arrives in our lives and in the lives of others things can not remain the same. When the Lamb of God calls us to share in his way of self-giving and renunciation of the worlds ways of greed and violence, and we follow him to the cross, our old life dies and a whole new one begins. We may be scared, confused, and even angry but are you not curious about this wonderful life that is coming into being by a God who instead of rejecting our world, decided instead to die for it, and for us.

Blessed are those willing to be provoked by Christ's words ; blessed are those willing to be challenged into living a new life. And blessed are those with the hope that the world is not as God intends it, who know in their hearts that Christ shall return to cast the powerful from their thrones and lift the poor from the dust.

Eugene Peterson, says "He will jar us out of our lethargy, get us to live on the alert, open our eyes to the burning bush and fiery chariots, open our ears to the hard-steel promises and commands of Christ, banish boredom from the gospel, lift up our heads, [and] enlarge our hearts."