IVORY COAST ELECTION WINNER IN HOTEL PRISON
This blog provides a meditation on the Revised Common Lectionary readings along with a headline from world news.
Revelation 2:8-17
The Message to Smyrna
8 ‘And to the angel of the church in Smyrna write: These are the words of the first and the last, who was dead and came to life:
9 ‘I know your affliction and your poverty, even though you are rich. I know the slander on the part of those who say that they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan. 10Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Beware, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison so that you may be tested, and for ten days you will have affliction. Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life. 11Let anyone who has an ear listen to what the Spirit is saying to the churches. Whoever conquers will not be harmed by the second death.
12 ‘And to the angel of the church in Pergamum write: These are the words of him who has the sharp two-edged sword:
13 ‘I know where you are living, where Satan’s throne is. Yet you are holding fast to my name, and you did not deny your faith in me even in the days of Antipas my witness, my faithful one, who was killed among you, where Satan lives. 14But I have a few things against you: you have some there who hold to the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling-block before the people of Israel, so that they would eat food sacrificed to idols and practise fornication. 15So you also have some who hold to the teaching of the Nicolaitans. 16 Repent then. If not, I will come to you soon and make war against them with the sword of my mouth. 17Let anyone who has an ear listen to what the Spirit is saying to the churches. To everyone who conquers I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give a white stone, and on the white stone is written a new name that no one knows except the one who receives it.”
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These are not letters such as St.Paul’s: they are prophetic messages whose author is the risen Christ, characterised in ways appropriate to the situation of the church being addressed-as the conqueror of death to the persecuted church; as the speaker of the sharp word to the church flirting with heretical teaching. The Christian prophet writes to the church much as the Hebrew prophets spoke to the people. St. Paul records that prophets also spoke in the midst of worship as they were moved by the spirit. We don’t know the experience of John the Prophet but we can see that the messages are a mixture of his pastoral knowledge of churches and his vivid faith in the risen Christ. Christian people are described as engaged in a struggle with the power of evil. Those who conquer by their faith are promised in the one instance, eternal life, and in the other, the bread of heaven and knowledge of the new name of the risen Lord. In both cases the assurance of resurrection gives the believer courage for the struggle. As we have rightly become wary of the promise of resurrection to those engaged in holy war, it’s important to note that the believers are being asked to suffer rather than use violence to anyone. The book of Revelation is full of the imagery of violence but its only weapon is the cross of Jesus in which the faithful may be asked to share. The prophet speaks in a majestic voice which small groups of believers can hear amidst the clamour of vast powers which try to rule their lives.

Laurent Gbagbo

In the Ivory Coast the elected leader, Alassane Quattar, is surrounded by the troops of the defeated Laurent Gbagbo to prevent him taking over. Tyranny holds to power even when its mandate has gone. The first Christians believed this to be true of all evil power.
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John 4:46-54
Jesus Heals an Official’s Son
46 Then he came again to Cana in Galilee where he had changed the water into wine. Now there was a royal official whose son lay ill in Capernaum. 47When he heard that Jesus had come from Judea to Galilee, he went and begged him to come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death. 48Then Jesus said to him, ‘Unless you see signs and wonders you will not believe.’ 49The official said to him, ‘Sir, come down before my little boy dies.’ 50Jesus said to him, ‘Go; your son will live.’ The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and started on his way. 51As he was going down, his slaves met him and told him that his child was alive. 52So he asked them the hour when he began to recover, and they said to him, ‘Yesterday at one in the afternoon the fever left him.’ 53The father realized that this was the hour when Jesus had said to him, ‘Your son will live.’ So he himself believed, along with his whole household. 54Now this was the second sign that Jesus did after coming from Judea to Galilee.
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The faith of the official is evident in his obedience to Jesus who tells him to go home. He has not seen “signs and wonders” but he already believes. He trusts Jesus as the one whose Messianic wisdom includes all his people regardless of distance. Jesus is depicted here as the same “person” as the majestic speaker of Revelation; and the faith of the official is the same as that of the churches which have to trust without seeing visible miracles.
Your life is threatened by the state; a prophet tells you to trust in rewards beyond death; your child is dying; a teacher tells you to do nothing but go home and he’ll live. Both violent and non-violent faith fly in the face of the facts; only the latter can ever be true.