At 10:15am Tuesday, I was approaching Washington on the train from Richmond (where my wife teaches) to Baltimore (where I am a pastor), when we saw the smoke billowing from the Pentagon. Amtrak sent us back to Alexandria, where I was eventually able to make my way back to Richmond. My thoughts raced to the many houses of prayer in the area and the country. What would we say? What could we say?
In Richmond, I was able to attend a prayer vigil at Union Theological Seminary and The Presbyterian School of Christian Education. It was a solemn service of prayers, hymns, and scripture readings. For me, the most poignant word came from Revelation 21 -- the vision of the new heaven and new earth where God will "wipe away every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; mourning and crying will be no more..." I was reminded of the stained glass window in my church that depicts this scene. At the bottom of the window, John sits on the the island of Patmos with his pen poised to write down the vision. At the top of the window, an ethereal city is appearing. The depiction of the window's heavenly city looks eerily like the bottom structure of the World Trade Center before its destruction. The window in my church is almost a hundred years old. It is one of of the largest Tiffany windows in existence. The framework for the window is coming to the end of its life expectancy. The metal that keeps each windowpane in place is rusting. It will have to be repaired at great cost or else tiny cracks will begin to appear in John's vision depicted in the window.
In response to the events of the past week, many of our parishioners will wonder if John's vision has any validity. For many people, this vision is rusted and cracking! Thus, it is a profound time to lift up the vision and to ask questions about its relevance. In Craig Koester's new book, Revelation and the End of All Things (Eerdmans, 2001), he suggests that the structure of Revelation is like a "spiral" with each loop consisting of a series of visions: "Those who read Revelation as a whole encounter visions that alternatively threaten and assure them. With increasing intensity the visions at the bottom of the spiral threaten the reader's sense of security by confronting them with horsemen that represent conquest, violence, hardship, and death; by portents in heaven, earth, and sea; and by seemingly insuperable adversaries who oppose those who worship God and Christ. Nevertheless, each time the clamor of conflict becomes unbearable, listeners are transported into the presence of God, the Lamb, and the heavenly chorus. These visions appear at the top of the spiral. Threatening visions and assuring visions function differently, but they serve the same end, which is that listeners might continue to trust in God and remain faithful to God... Revelation is designed to unmask false sources of security while beckoning readers to join the heavenly host in singing praises to God and the Lamb (p. 39)."
Over the next several weeks, we will hear many voices that will call for our attention. Some will call for mourning. Others will call for revenge. Amid the range of these voices, the most compelling and assuring word we can speak will come from John's vision that invites us towards the only (the ultimate and unshakable) source of our trust: God and God's vision for us all!
Roger Gench
Pastor, Brown Memorial Park Avenue Presbyterian Church