It’s Saturday morning. Yesterday was Halloween. Tomorrow we’ll celebrate All Saints Day with baptisms and a good time had by all. Life goes on. Nothing really changes. We’re all human and we strive together in this world.
I think that we forget that. And in the forgetting we see ourselves alone. Lost in the woods. Unfamiliar sights; smells; sounds. Dappled sunlight on the forest floor casts shadows that wriggle and move unnaturally around us.
We sometimes meet others out there. Wandering. Waiting. Wondering. We speak to them and tell them to stay back. Don’t come too close! Are you one of Us? Or, one of Them? We truly don’t have a clue what that means. Us? Them? We may have an idea of what that may mean.
I’m currently leading a Bible study of the Book of Revelation. It’s interesting, to be sure. There are 7 headed monsters and a dead lamb that’s not dead. He’s really a lion. There are a whore and a mother. A dragon and huge city floating down to the earth. Yeah, interesting. When folks read this story they tend to get caught up in all of the visuals and special effects. What does that really mean? A lake of fire? Two guys who die then come back to life? Is John talking about us or someone else? And, of course, we then miss the entire message of John’s missive to the churches in Asia. Like walking in those woods, we see shadows and hear noises that distract us from all of the others who are lost with us.
But, one of the things that I have found in this piece of literature is that what seems obvious is hidden in language that, at least to us, obscures. This book, (letter?), was written about realities. Yeah, there are always more than one. There’s the reality that we see and experience. The one in the woods. There is also a reality that we truly live in. The one outside of the woods.
In John’s story the world in the woods. You know the one that we can touch, feel, and taste, is Rome. No, not that Rome. Rome the Idea. In the first century Rome was THE empire. Her emperor did all the stuff that the gods did. He provided security and peace. The Pax Romana kept them all safe from pirates and brigands. He made her and her people wealthy and prosperous. Therefore, he was honored like any other deity. The built temples and held feasts and sacrifices honoring the emperor and his consort, Roma. A person could go far and achieve great wealth and honor by believing in this idea. Rome was a goddess! She of great beauty sprawling across the Seven Hills of Rome. From her came the wine to make glad and the grain to fill bellies with nourishment. Life was good! Such was the experience of some in that ideal world.
But, it wasn’t real.
No, the real world was where slaves and the poor lived. The real world was where the few took all of the wealth and resources for themselves and said, “Life is good!” The real world was where the ideal Pax Romana was enforced by the blade of the sword. And, then only for a select few. The government of Emperor and Senate was fractious at best. The goods of the provinces were brought to the Great City where the wealthy few could indulge in whatever indecencies they desired. And those who were not the wealthy few? Life was not so good.
I don’t write this in order to give a history lesson nor a Bible study. I write in order to point out, once again, the Human Condition. What was life experienced by those walking in the woods and those living in the real world were very different realities. Just as they are today. We in the U.S. are no different. We have an idea that we call America. It’s the “Land of the Free, and the Home of the Brave.” It’s a world that is color blind. In these woods there are shadows that reveal Manifest Destiny, Mom, apple pie, and the flag. We have established the Pax Americana. Like it’s Roman ancestor, it also wields the sword and calls in Peace. But it’s only an idea. The concept of a thought of what we believe might be real.
Reality is poverty and hatred of the ‘Other.’ Of Them. Whoever that may be. Reality is fear and loneliness because we walk in those woods. We can’t face the reality of the genocide of Indigenous people or the fact that this country was built on the backs of stolen people and on stolen land. We want to push back into the shadows the realities of hunger and ignorance.
But, alas, we cannot.
This is what the Book of Revelation is about. Looking at the true world where the human condition is real. The book also provides an alternative reality that is entirely different from either of those I’ve sketched out. But that’s a story for another time.
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