Revelation calls the church to faithfulness today

AMBS

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The book of Revelation can inspire fear or fanaticism, but at Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary’s Pastors Week, Elkhart, Ind., Jan. 23–26, participants were called to faithfulness as they studied the Bible’s last book.

"Let us live lives that are a threat to violence, greed and injustice," Iris de León-Hartshorn, director of transformative peacemaking for Mennonite Church USA, said. One of four preachers during AMBS Pastors Week, she focused on "Hymns of dangerous praise." Photo by Mary E. Klassen.

Loren L. Johns, AMBS professor of New Testament, said early in the week, “Revelation is not a book that should be believed as much as it is a book that should be responded to in faith, courage, proper worship and a commitment to justice.”

In his opening sermon, Johns emphasized the scene in Revelation 5 in which the Lamb, representing the resurrected Jesus, first appears. In the scene, which Johns called the “theological heart of the Apocalypse,” the Lamb appears as slaughtered, but conquering. “The only path to victory (or overcoming) in Revelation is the path of a defenseless, consistent witness—a faithful, nonviolent witness that is sealed in martyrdom,” Johns said. Jesus’ death—the pinnacle of his defeat—was actually his victory.

In exploring what this means for the church today, Johns told the 150 participants that the whole vision of Revelation “is intended to create or spark a fresh imagination of what it means to live in the fullness of God’s reign … so that we can be faithful now and live into that reality.”

Johns, whose doctoral dissertation explored the metaphor of the Lamb in Revelation, outlined themes that are important in the book: everything revolves around worship, death is not defeat, God will judge and overcome evil, salvation and redemption are inclusive of all.

He also addressed different views of the end times that people draw from Revelation, but emphasized that the details of the end times are not as important as the goal toward which Revelation points. “Heaven and earth are renewed. The Holy City comes down out of heaven from God. God will dwell with the people as their God. They will be God’s peoples.

“Eschatology at its best refers to our understanding of the Kingdom of God. How do we understand what God is doing in the world? That matters,” Johns said. “Eschatology is not about standing around looking up to heaven for Jesus. There are better things we can do while we wait for Jesus.”

Quoting an article by Lois Barrett, AMBS professor who focuses on Anabaptist history, Johns said, “The church in the present age is called to prefigure the City of God, the way things will be in God’s future.” The emphasis is on modeling a way of life that reflects God’s reign today.

Nelson Kraybill, president emeritus of AMBS and also a scholar of Revelation, began another teaching session, saying, “If you don’t get the concept of worship, you really miss the point of Revelation.

“A central message of the apocalypse is that other spiritual, political and economic entities lure our allegiance,” Kraybill said. “We should read Revelation as a cautionary tale about the ease with which these phenomena become idolatrous.” Then he added, “The antidote that Revelation presents for the idolatrous forces so abundant in our culture and our media is robust worship of God and the Lamb.”

In a final session, participants took a more active role in answering the question of what the book of Revelation means for the church today. Johns noted that the letters to the seven churches in Revelation all include similar elements: a salutation, commendations, charges and demand for correction, additional warnings, a call to discernment and a promise. Using that outline, pastors wrote “letters” to their own congregations, modeling ways in which Revelation both honors the ways congregations are faithful and calls congregations to more fully follow Jesus’ teachings.

Worship services during Pastors Week were led by Janeen Bertsche Johnson, AMBS campus pastor, and Jennifer Gingerich, AMBS student. Preachers, in addition to Johns, were Iris de León-Hartshorn, director for transformative peacemaking for Mennonite Church USA; Safwat Marzouk, AMBS professor; and Willard Metzger, Mennonite Church Canada general secretary.

Workshops included exploration of the Left Behind series, leadership practices, pastoral care in interfaith situations, missional purpose in rural context, and how early Anabaptists understood eschatology. Martha Yoder, artist and associate pastor of West Union Mennonite Church, Parnell, Iowa, displayed artwork in a variety of media, based on themes and images of Revelation.

Johns holds a Ph.D. from Princeton Theological Seminary and is author of The Lamb Christology of the Apocalypse of John: An investigation into its origins and rhetorical force (Mohr Siebeck, 2003) and editor of Apocalypticism and Millennialism: Shaping a Believers Church Eschatology for the Twenty-First Century (Pandora 2000). He also is a scholar of the Dead Sea Scrolls and the development of the biblical canon. Kraybill holds a Ph.D. from Union Theological Seminary, Richmond, Va., and is author of Imperial Cult and Commerce in John’s Apocalypse (Sheffield Academic 1996) and Apocalypse and Allegiance: Worship, Politics, and Devotion in the Book of Revelation (Brazos Press 2010).