Sweet and Sour - Revelation 10
It gives new meaning to the phrase, “eat those words.” When we usually hear that phrase, it usually involves either saying something we regret saying, or suggesting that we are going to make someone regret saying the words they have said. However, Judith Hoffberg and Béatrice Coron brought new life to that phrase in creating what has become the International Edible Book Festival. Held in cities around the world, including Penland, North Carolina in the Blue Ridge Mountains, around April 1st of each year, this festival invites folks to come to a “banquet where delicious, surprising bookish foods will be consumed.”[i] Examples from this year include “Pride and Pepperjuice” both an x-rated “hot” version that uses graham crackers, cheese-cake filling, jalapeno jelly, and frosting, and an “approved version” that uses red pepper jelly instead of the jalapenos; “Chicken Little” featuring Peeps, licorice and pretzels; and, “Charlotte’s Web” a flatbread BLT with hotdog binding, and baloney and olive cover art.[ii]
While it is thought that the idea of edible books originated with Hoffberg and Coron in 1999, we will find this morning that the idea actually goes back thousands of years.
After taking Holy Week to focus in on the death and resurrection of Christ, we are back on our journey through Revelation. Where has this journey through this “Book of Hope for Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow” taken us so far?
We have encountered the One Who Is the Alpha and Omega…the One who has the first word and last word in our lives.
We know that these words do not come from any dead wooden or golden man-made idol, but from the Living One.
We have sought to have “ears to hear” what the Jesus, through the Spirit, says to the churches of Asia Minor, and how those words might apply to us.
We have been given a glimpse of the throne room of God.
We have learned that the Lion of Judah is the slain, but living, Lamb of God.
We found hope amongst the Horsemen of the Apocalypse and the opening of the seals.
We have learned that God seals his people…offering protection to the Church in the midst of persecution.
We have taken a moment of silence, in awe of God, recognizing what He has already done in our lives, and what He will do.
After the blowing of the first six trumpets, we considered the importance of repentance in our lives, in order to be followers of Christ.
Today when we would expect to find out what happens when the seventh trumpet is blown, we find, like the interlude that occurred between the sixth and seventh seal, we have another extended interlude. Today, we find God’s entry in the second International Edible Book Festival: “sweet and sour scroll.”
“And I saw another mighty angel coming down from heaven, wrapped in a cloud, with a rainbow over his head; his face was like the sun, and his legs like pillars of fire. He held a little scroll in his open hand. Setting his right foot on the sea and his left foot on the land, he gave a great shout, like a roaring lion. And when he shouted, the seven thunders sounded.” These images call us back to chapter five in which a mighty angel calls our attention to the scroll in the hand of the one on the throne…the scroll that was sealed with the seven seals. The fact that he has a rainbow over his head asks us to remember the rainbow in the throne room of God, the description of his face like the sun, gives call to the description of Christ in chapter one. Differing from the sealed scroll of chapter five, this scroll or little book lies open in the angel’s hand. Several scholars suggest that this scroll that lies open in the angel’s hand is the scroll which the Lion of Judah/Lamb of God has opened…the sound of the angel shouting being like a lion’s roar, continues to help us make this connection.
The angel shouted, and “the seven thunders sounded.” We read that like John’s recording of the seven seals, and now in the midst of the seven trumpets, that he was about to record the seven thunders, suggesting another vision of seven accounting for the suffering of God’s people and the judgment coming upon the oppressors. However, before he can even begin to write it down, John is interrupted: “And when the seven thunders had sounded, I was about to write, but I heard a voice from heaven saying, “Seal up what the seven thunders have said, and do not write it down.”
Many folks have offered their understanding of what those thunders have meant…many of them differing interpretations. However, other scholars suggest that all the attempts at discerning may be for nothing. The voice from heaven says to seal up what the thunders have said, and for John not to write it down. With everything else being revealed in Revelation, it would seem to suggest that what the thunders have said is not an issue for debate. If we consider that this chapter concerns John’s call to prophesy, then we could conclude that what the thunders had to say, will not come to pass. A way of discerning whether a prophet was a true prophet or a false prophet was whether what they said or wrote came true…if the thunders were something that we were waiting to see come to pass, and it did not happen, it would prove John a false prophet…however, John is told to disregard what the thunders said.
This idea that the words of the thunders will not come to pass is strengthened by the next three verses: “Then the angel whom I saw standing on the sea and the land raised his right hand to heaven and swore by him who lives forever and ever, who created heaven and what is in it, the earth and what is in it, and the sea what is in it: ‘There will be no more delay, but in the days when the seventh angel is to blow his trumpet, the mystery of God will be fulfilled, as he announced to his servants the prophets.’”
Words of hope, there will be no more delay…
People don’t like delays…we don’t like delays in the service we get in a restaurant, we don’t like delays in the departure or arrival times at an airport…we don’t like delays in the receiving our paychecks…and we don’t like delays when it comes to justice and vindication. We had talked, as we reflected on repentance, that God’s desire is that all come to Him in repentance, that is why He has not simply wiped out all of the persecutors, but now, according to the angel, there will be no more delay…the seventh angel is going to blow the trumpet and all will be fulfilled. God’s people will be relieved of their suffering, the persecution will be over.
It is following this word of hope that we find the issue of the God’s edible book: “Then the voice that I had heard from heaven spoke to me again, saying, ‘Go, take the scroll that is open in the hand of the angel who is standing on the sea and on the land.’ So I went to the angel and told him to give me the little scroll; and he said to me, ‘Take it, and eat; it will be bitter to your stomach, but sweet as honey in your mouth.” So I took the little scroll from the hand of the angel and ate it; it was sweet as honey in my mouth, but when I had eaten it, my stomach was made bitter.”
It is a curious scene. What is the deal with eating the scroll? As I hinted at earlier, this is the second edible book creation of God. This scene is supposed to call to the reader or hearer the first scene…and as we have seen so many times through Revelation, this is yet another connection to the Hebrew Scriptures. It was to take the knowledgeable person back to the image of Ezekiel:
2 He said to me: O mortal, stand up on your feet, and I will speak with you. 2 And when he spoke to me, a spirit entered into me and set me on my feet; and I heard him speaking to me. 3 He said to me, Mortal, I am sending you to the people of Israel, to a nation of rebels who have rebelled against me; they and their ancestors have transgressed against me to this very day. 4 The descendants are impudent and stubborn. I am sending you to them, and you shall say to them, “Thus says the Lord God.” 5 Whether they hear or refuse to hear (for they are a rebellious house), they shall know that there has been a prophet among them. 6 And you, O mortal, do not be afraid of them, and do not be afraid of their words, though briers and thorns surround you and you live among scorpions; do not be afraid of their words, and do not be dismayed at their looks, for they are a rebellious house. 7 You shall speak my words to them, whether they hear or refuse to hear; for they are a rebellious house.
8 But you, mortal, hear what I say to you; do not be rebellious like that rebellious house; open your mouth and eat what I give you. 9 I looked, and a hand was stretched out to me, and a written scroll was in it. 10 He spread it before me; it had writing on the front and on the back, and written on it were words of lamentation and mourning and woe.
3 He said to me, O mortal, eat what is offered to you; eat this scroll, and go, speak to the house of Israel. 2 So I opened my mouth, and he gave me the scroll to eat. 3 He said to me, Mortal, eat this scroll that I give you and fill your stomach with it. Then I ate it; and in my mouth it was as sweet as honey.
4 He said to me: Mortal, go to the house of Israel and speak my very words to them. 5 For you are not sent to a people of obscure speech and difficult language, but to the house of Israel— 6 not to many peoples of obscure speech and difficult language, whose words you cannot understand. Surely, if I sent you to them, they would listen to you. 7 But the house of Israel will not listen to you, for they are not willing to listen to me; because all the house of Israel have a hard forehead and a stubborn heart. 8 See, I have made your face hard against their faces, and your forehead hard against their foreheads. 9 Like the hardest stone, harder than flint, I have made your forehead; do not fear them or be dismayed at their looks, for they are a rebellious house. 10 He said to me: Mortal, all my words that I shall speak to you receive in your heart and hear with your ears; 11 then go to the exiles, to your people, and speak to them. Say to them, “Thus says the Lord God”; whether they hear or refuse to hear.[iii]
The first instance of God having someone eat a scroll that would be as sweet as honey in the mouth, was the call of Ezekiel, and so the people hearing this passage from the Revelation of Jesus Christ to John would understand this as God’s call and commissioning of John as prophet. If there were any question about whether or not that was the case, the next verse in Revelation answers that doubt: “Then they said to me, ‘You must prophesy again about many people and nations and languages and kings.’”
One issue that we need to resolve, though, is the nature of the prophet’s words. All too often we think that the prophet’s primary words were about the future, telling folks what would happen moments, days, or even years into the future. The problem is, though those kinds of words come from the prophets from time to time, their primary focus was not about future forecasting, but about confronting the present. Repeatedly the prophets of the Hebrew Scriptures address the evil of the nations around Israel, but most often they confront the evils of the works and attitudes of the people of the Hebrew people…their unfaithfulness to God and the worship of manmade idols, the lack of concern for those in need in the community—the widow, the orphan, the poor, and the alien in the land…their disregard for God’s commandments…or the abuse of others. Mixed in with the words of hope very often were words of judgment.
That is the call that was given to Ezekiel…and that is the call given to John. It also gives us some understanding of why the scroll is described as both sweet and sour. The prophet’s message is a message of message of hope and sorrow, of salvation and
judgment, of resurrection and death.
The reading from Ezekiel gives us a clear picture of this, as God tells him that He is to proclaim God’s very own words, how much sweeter could that be…but God warns Ezekiel that though he will speak to many, there are many who will refuse to hear and respond. Likewise, the connection of these passages would carry that warning forward to John…though John will proclaim God’s word to many, many will refuse to hear, or refuse to respond to this message of God’s hope. God’s message of hope and salvation is sweet in the mouth and on the lips of John…but John’s stomach churns at the knowledge that this message will be refused by so many.
Think about it, think about times when you have shared with someone some advice, or even your experience with a situation, hope to offer them help, so that they may avoid some difficult or terrible situation…maybe it was a friend, or maybe it was one of your children. However, even as you share with them, you know most certainly that they are going to do things their own way…they will have to learn the hard way and face the consequences of their refusal to listen…think of how your stomach churns and your heart aches, knowing what they will have to face. If so, then we begin to understand the nature of the sweet and sour scroll.
But if Ezekiel, and then John, are proclaiming God’s Word to the people, why would any of them, especially as the people of John’s time, see all the persecution and death going on around them, why would any of them refuse to hear and respond?
It is because of the nature of God’s Word…and it is also part of the Easter message that we proclaim during this season. Dietrich Bonheoffer puts it this way, the message of Christ is to “come and die.”[iv]
“But preacher, I thought the message of Easter was the good news of Resurrection?”
It is about Resurrection, but, remember the message on our marquee earlier this year:
“Death comes before Resurrection.” Without death, there can be no resurrection. And before we can truly experience the hope that comes from the promise of the resurrection, we must first die. Jesus says, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.”[v] Jesus says, “For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will save it.”[vi] Just as before the empty tomb there stands the cross on the hill, before the hope of new life in us, comes the death of the old self.
We must be willing to put to death all the ways in which we put ourselves before God…self-interest and self-preservation must die in order for us to experience the hope that comes from God. Remember the letters to the seven churches…those churches that were criticized were those who had compromised themselves to the Roman Empire to avoid persecution, while those who were praised were those who had been willing to lay their own lives on the line for the sake of their loyalty to God.
My brothers and sisters, how will we receive the message from Ezekiel, from John, from Christ? Our response will be the difference between resurrection and death, between hope and despair, between salvation and judgment.
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Comments
Post a Comment