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Sermon For 2025-Aug-10

Texts: Sermon Only
Revelation 8:1-13
Revelation 9:1-6
Revelation 9:13-21
Revelation 10:1-7


In our scripture readings for today, the seventh seal of the scroll is opened by Jesus the Lamb, and the second of three sets of sevens begins, this time seven angels are given seven trumpets to sound. And at the blowing of these trumpets, the earth is degraded by thirds, in a futile attempt to get the attention of those who have not been sealed by God. In this cycle of destruction, God's wrath is escalated to the point of torture – which leaves a bad taste in our mouths today. But for those who were in the process of being persecuted, the mystery of God's plan of salvation...feels like justice....


The secret agent is strapped to the table, unable to move. For hours, his captor has tried various forms of torture to get him to spill his secrets and change his alliances. He has withstood hot needles jammed under his fingernails. He has withstood cigarettes applied to his skin. He has withstood fingers and toes being broken with a pair of pliers. But now, the agent regrets that he was caught without his special false tooth and cyanide capsule. His captor is warming up a laser, aimed directly at his private parts. And depending on whether we are on the same team as this secret agent, we will call him heroic and determined....or foolish and stubborn...


Many of the Christians originally reading this revelation to John, lived through the reign of Roman Emperor Nero. They saw fellow Christians set on fire in cages, to serve as Nero's patio lanterns. They saw fellow Christians mauled by wild animals in the Colosseum. They felt the horrible weight of pressure imposed by a powerful society to either renounce their God, or suffer unbearably. What could improve their morale more than the promise of payback in-kind?


This payback continues in our scripture readings with angels blowing trumpets, such that they destroy a third of the earth – first the land, then the sea, then the supply of fresh water, then the source of light.


And when the fifth angel blows his trumpet, the torture of humans begins. From the smoke of the shaft of the bottomless pit comes supernatural locusts, whose purpose is not to destroy crops, but to sting those who do not have the seal of God for five long months. “In those days people will seek death but will not find it” - that's how bad it will get for them. So there IS a fate worse than being one of Nero's patio lanterns!


And when the sixth angel blows his trumpet, the angel cavalry on supernatural horses are activated to kill one third of humanity. The odds of escaping are slim, as the troops number two hundred million, close to the population of the entire world at the time of writing. And the fraction who are killed is getting bigger – the horseman Death of the fourth seal, as we heard last week, was given a fourth of humanity – this time, it's a third. The difference in results between those having the seal of God, and those not having the seal of God, is getting wider and wider. What's it going to take for those foolish and stubborn people to change their alliance? Apparently, it will take more than torture and the threat of death, because the rest of humankind ignored the first six trumpets, and did not repent of their murders or their sorceries, or their fornication, or their thefts.


You may have already noticed that scriptures like these are no longer fashionable in our society. Anything that HINTS at a different eternal result for being on God's side versus following some other belief system - that is taken as rude, or intolerant, or at least arrogant. Anything that SUGGESTS that God WILL take action against those who practice idolatrous ideologies, like the worship of power or the worship of self, or the worship of death - that is taken as unloving, or false, or holier-than-thou. So we no longer bother to warn people about the consequences of judgment and wrath. Is that because we have lost our compassion for the unsaved? Or are we unwilling to face ANY repercussions from the people around us?


OR, is it that the reality of judgment and wrath, is slipping away from US? Part of the mystery of God's salvation, is that for us who are NOT under persecution, the EARTHLY consequences of siding with God are often the same as siding against God. Adultery isn't even against the law...if you get caught. They can't hire enough auditors for the Canada Revenue Agency to make even a small dent in tax fraud. Nobody even blinks at the rate of abortion, or MAID. Our consciences can become desensitized, to the point where we need to keep making a conscious choice to follow God. And that requires us to be awake and alert to eternal consequences.



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