The Rejoicing in Heaven

19After this I heard what seemed to be the loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, saying,
‘Hallelujah!
Salvation and glory and power to our God,
²   for his judgements are true and just;
he has judged the great whore    who corrupted the earth with her fornication,
and he has avenged on her the blood of his servants.’^*
3Once more they said,
‘Hallelujah!
The smoke goes up from her for ever and ever.’
⁴And the twenty-four elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshipped God who is seated on the throne, saying,
‘Amen. Hallelujah!’

5 And from the throne came a voice saying,
‘Praise our God,    all you his servants,^*
and all who fear him,    small and great.’
⁶Then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude, like the sound of many waters and like the sound of mighty thunder-peals, crying out,
‘Hallelujah!
For the Lord our God    the Almighty reigns.
⁷ Let us rejoice and exult    and give him the glory,
for the marriage of the Lamb has come,    and his bride has made herself ready;
⁸ to her it has been granted to be clothed    with fine linen, bright and pure’—
for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints.

9 And the angel said^* to me, ‘Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.’ And he said to me, ‘These are true words of God.’¹⁰Then I fell down at his feet to worship him, but he said to me, ‘You must not do that! I am a fellow-servant^* with you and your comrades^* who hold the testimony of Jesus.^* Worship God! For the testimony of Jesus^*is the spirit of prophecy.’

the smoke goes up forever

There’s just a little lip-smacking over the fate of Babylon/ Rome: Hallelujah! the smoke from her goes up forever, but this kind of fierce joy, we must remember, is only being anticipated by the prophet. At present those who hold to the testimony of Jesus are being persecuted. The anticipated day of judgement on the great empire gives hope and courage to those who suffer. It is a note not often struck in mainstream churches today for whom both suffering and ultimate victory are out-of-date. Too often suffering is left to the churches of the poor and victory to the churches of the rapturous rich. Nothing is a greater denial of Jesus than the refusal of many Christians to suffer even the least inconvenience for their faith, as if the Lamb of God was a BBQ item rather than a crucified messiah.

New Jerusalem, bride of Christ, above Las Vegas

The “marriage of the Lamb” is first mentioned here. The prophet reveals that the Lamb will marry the holy city, the new Jerusalem, which is the eternal community of God’s people. This love relationship will be real both for  the individual believer and for the believing community: both will share the very being of Jesus. To some extent this is already true as the believers share the suffering of Jesus but it will only be completely true when they also share his victory, that is, goodness without limit, the life of God. The life of believers in this world is said to be a preparation for this marriage: the right actions of the faithful are compared to fine linen for the wedding. This suggests a passionate spirituality of the “bride of Christ” which has from time to time flourished in the church but which became suspect, at least amongst reformed Churches as belonging solely to feminine devotion and the commitment of nuns. St. Paul also refers to this spirituality when he states that the sexual unity of man and woman is an image of the love of Christ and the believing community. Such a full-blooded model of relationship  with Jesus would be healthier than some of the pallid offerings of modern spirituality. If I think that Christ desires a passionate unity with me I may be readier to surrender my independence and open my hard heart than if I think of him simply as a commanding leader or a holy saviour.  And if church communities were to see themselves as a the bride of Christ, they might be readier to abandon their disabling worldliness.