Bridegroom and Warrior

Good morning to all of you.

My name's Tommy.

You're here visiting for the first time.

If you're here from out of town, maybe celebrating a graduation, we're delighted that you're here.

When I was young, I first remember hearing somebody present the gospel to me using the image of an amusement park.

And they said, imagine this great amusement park, and you want to get in, and you get to the gate, and they ask you if you have a ticket.

And if you don't have a ticket, you can't get in, but if you do have a ticket, then you'll be allowed into the amusement park.

And they said, that's a lot like heaven.

You'll get to the end of your life, and you'll go, and you'll come to the gate of heaven, and they'll ask, where's your ticket?

And if you don't have a ticket, you're not going to be allowed in, and you're going to be sent to a different kind of park.

And it's not nearly as amusing.

And so you better have the ticket.

And so I said, well, how do I get, you know, and they said, in order to get the ticket, you need to put your faith in Jesus.

And when you ask Jesus for forgiveness, you get a Jesus ticket.

And then when you get to heaven, you show them the Jesus ticket, and you get in.

And at the time, I found it very compelling, because it was accessible.

It was relevant, I thought, to the way I saw the world.

And yet I realized in the years that followed, it didn't really tell me anything more than how to get into that amusement park.

It didn't tell me what it meant to believe in God or have a relationship with God.

It didn't tell me anything about what I should be doing now, between now and when I get to the gate.

What am I supposed to do?

And so for a few years, I just thought that Christianity was basically making sure the ticket was in your back pocket.

And then other than that, just sort of do what you can to be a decent person and live a good life.

And that's really what I thought Christianity was.

It was mainly about having the ticket in your pocket.

And so it was very easy for me in the years that followed to walk away from that.

By the time I got to college, I had decided it was irrelevant.

And I spent a number of years as an agnostic, because I just thought, there's nothing really here for me.

And what I've come to realize since I came back to faith is that I think many people, Christians and non-Christians, have that perception of the Christian life.

And the more we actually learn about what Scripture teaches about the Christian life, we realize how far departed that analogy is from the tremendous, mysterious, vast mystery that God has unveiled to the world.

And that's why we're reading the book of Revelation.

The sense that I had of the Christian life had almost nothing to do with reality.

And yet when you read a book like Revelation, it blows that whole thing apart.

Because the entire point of the book of Revelation is to pull back the veil and to show us things as they really are.

To unveil those deep mysteries of God.

To help us understand what's really going on under the surface.

And that transforms our whole understanding of the Christian life.

And specifically in Revelation 19, we heard read, Kate read a little while ago, the first part of Revelation 19.

For the sake of time, we read that portion.

But we're going to be looking at the whole chapter this morning.

In Revelation 19, we are given these two images of the Christian life.

And they could not be more disconnected from one another at face value.

Right?

They look completely incompatible.

In the first half of the chapter, what we read, we have this image of a wedding.

All of the saints are gathered together with Jesus as the bridegroom.

And they're at a great banquet, a wedding feast.

And then all of a sudden, in verse 11, there's this jarring shift.

And the scene changes.

And we move from the wedding to the war.

And all of the saints are charging into battle.

And they're not following Jesus, the bridegroom.

Now Jesus is a warrior.

He's on a horse.

And they are charging into battle together.

And at first, these seems totally incompatible.

As though we need a new chapter header.

But as we're going to see, they actually go together.

And you cannot have one without the other.

Together, they help us answer the question of what is the Christian life.

The wedding shows us what our salvation means.

The war shows us what our salvation is for.

Let's pray.

Our Lord and Heavenly Father, we only have the joy of being here at your invitation.

And it's only because of your grace that we can ask these questions.

Contemplate having a relationship with you.

It's only through the power of your Holy Spirit that we can understand your word.

And it's only there that we can encounter your living word, Jesus Christ.

And so we pray, Lord, by your grace and invitation that you would speak to us.

Nourish us.

Prepare us to come together to your table.

We pray this in your son's holy name.

Amen.

So first of all, let's look at this image of the wedding.

I want to read again these verses that are so beautifully capture the scene.

Hallelujah.

Hallelujah.

For the Lord our God, the Almighty reigns.

This is verse 6.

Going into verse 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.

Jesus has achieved a great victory on the cross.

And now we see this tremendous celebration.

But it's not just a victory feast.

It's a wedding feast.

And the most striking thing about this image that we get of this feast is that the people of God are gathered together and collectively they're referred to as his bride.

So we have Jesus, the bridegroom, and the church, all of the saints across history gathered together as the bride.

And all through the Bible in places like Isaiah chapter 62 or Ezekiel chapter 16, God talks about himself as the bridegroom to his people.

Isaiah 62 · chapter mention Ezekiel 16 · chapter mention

We need to understand this is utterly unique.

No other religion talks about their God this way.

In no other religion would God talk about their subjects this way.

And there are a number of religions that would be completely scandalized by the implication of this kind of intimacy and mutual indwelling that is implied with this image.

And what it shows us is the Christian life is not just about getting a ticket and carrying it around in your back pocket until you get to the gate.

It's about having an ongoing day in, day out relationship with God that is a lot like a marriage.

With all of the intimacy and all of the joy and all of the vulnerability that that brings.

And if you think about a marriage, those of us who are married, those of us who may be not married, but we know people are married,

a marriage, particularly a good marriage, requires time.

You need time to build trust and to build intimacy and to build connection with one another.

You know, imagine that you're married and imagine that you're married to someone and you love that person as much as you can imagine loving anyone.

But imagine that every day your spouse gets up and they leave the house and they go and they spend time with other people.

And maybe they go on dates with other people.

They spend time sharing their hopes and their dreams and their fears with other people.

Sometimes they share a bed with other people.

And imagine your spouse coming home one evening and you confront them on it.

And imagine you sharing your heartache over this.

And imagine your spouse responding, what's the problem?

We're still married.

I have my wedding ring.

Look, it's right here on my finger.

Right?

I haven't taken my ring off.

We have the same last name.

We have a joint bank account.

What more do you want from me?

We're married.

Imagine what that would be like.

Right?

What would you say?

You would respond maybe, yeah, I see the ring and I see the account.

I see the last name.

I know I have those things, but I don't have your heart.

Clearly, your heart is elsewhere.

And I think, you know, a lot of Christians, a lot of us can be like that with God.

You know, it's like, well, I believe in Jesus.

I've been through the membership class.

I've been baptized.

I go to church when I can.

But let's be realistic.

Life is busy.

What more do you want?

I'm doing all the things.

Right?

And I think that what this image reminds us is that God is after our heart.

God wants our affection.

Right?

When it comes to who do I share my hopes and my fears and my dreams with,

that's the role that God wants to play in our lives.

God desires that we would delight as much in him as he delights in us

because he delights in us.

We're the love of his life.

Teresa of Avila is a woman who lived in the 16th century in Spain,

and she writes in her book about her own life.

She talks about, she sort of admits to spending years, as she says,

a mediocre monastic.

She talks about her relationship with God being dry and mechanical.

She talks about kind of going through the motions,

but she couldn't connect with any of the available forms of prayer

that were being practiced.

She never really felt any sense of connection with God on a personal level,

and so it was dry, it was rote, it was mechanical.

But then she talks about making a very small shift

that ended up changing everything in her spiritual life.

And she essentially says,

I came to a point where I stopped talking about God,

I stopped thinking about God,

and I started talking to God.

She says that the moment she began talking to God

as a real person, everything began to change.

And the story resonates with me because of how easy it is for me

and probably for some of you

to fill up our lives with all kinds of activities

that are about God.

You know, we're talking about God, we're reading about God,

we're doing things that we think are related to following God,

but we're not ever actually spending time

building a relationship with God or talking to God,

even though he's right here.

And Teresa of Avila has a wonderful book on prayer

called The Interior Castle,

where she describes what it's like to progress

in our relationship with God.

And she says, you know, in the early stages of her journey,

it was just about committing herself

to spending time regularly speaking to God.

Prayer, but just talking to God.

And she said a lot of those early experiences

were just about learning how to avoid distraction.

You can imagine this great mystic,

Teresa of Avila, sitting there just trying not to be distracted

by the chirping bird, you know,

or the squeaking or the people chatting over here too loudly.

And she's trying to, we've all been there,

anybody who's ever tried to pray.

But she hung in there.

And as she grew, she began to recognize

that she had to learn how to deal with discouragement

and dryness.

Because sometimes there were times of rich connection

and other times she felt discouraged and dry.

But the main thing she learned was not to stop,

not to give up.

And she kept going.

And she kept growing.

And she kept praying.

And as we grow, she says,

our prayer becomes less and less dependent on words.

And more and more and more,

she began to learn how the joy

and experience the joy of simply attending,

as she says, to God's loving presence.

Just quietly attending to God's loving presence.

And what I love about it is that she describes the ultimate,

as we fully mature in our life of prayer,

she describes the ultimate aim as experiencing,

as she says, spiritual marriage.

She says, in this, she began to experience more fully

what it's like to be in a spiritual marriage,

which she defines as a deep and abiding sense of union with God

that was with her at all times.

And what you see in someone's journey,

like Teresa of Avila,

is you see somebody who starts in a place

very much like probably many of us are in now.

Can't imagine what that would be like.

And for her, all it took was time and patience and consistency.

Nothing more.

There's nothing that she has access to that any of us lack.

You know, I think about my own marriage.

You know, Laura and I have, we've been married,

I think it's something like 18-ish years.

I think we're in the 18th year now.

And we've developed a habit of taking time in the morning.

And it's between when we drop our kids off at school

and when we have to get started

on whatever that day's work entails.

It's normally no more than about 30 minutes,

most mornings.

But we try to grab a little window of time

where the kids have been dropped off at school.

And this is how it works in our stage of life.

It's gonna be different for you

depending on what your stage of life is.

But we grab that time in the morning after drop off

and before we have to start our day officially.

And we just have coffee together.

And we've been doing this for a number of years now.

And like I said, normally it's no more than about 30 minutes.

But we do it most mornings.

Not on the weekends,

but I would say four or five mornings a week we do this.

And I would say that more than any other marriage book

or vacation or retreat or romantic outings that we have had,

I would say that the simple practice

of sitting down together four or five mornings a week

and spending 20 to 30 minutes talking

has by far been the best possible practice

to keep our marriage strong, to keep us connected.

And here's the thing.

It doesn't mean that we are deeply connecting

and sharing our most vulnerable thoughts

and feelings every morning, right?

A lot of times, to be totally honest,

we are just talking logistics.

Who's gonna pick this kid up?

Who's gonna get this kid there?

Who's gonna respond to this teacher email, right?

It's just the kind of stuff of parenting, right?

The value of it is cumulative.

It's the cumulative time spent together over time

that keeps that bond strong.

And then you add in all of the other things

and it just makes it better, right?

And I'm saying this because I think

that it's actually much the same with God.

This is not rocket science, right?

There's no mystical mountaintop experience

that has to open a gate for this to become possible.

It's simply a matter of saying,

I'm gonna spend time with you, Lord, regularly.

I'm just gonna talk to you.

I'm gonna attend to you.

I'm gonna listen to you.

And it doesn't have to be long.

And sometimes it might be dry.

And sometimes it might be pure logistics, right?

God, help me out with this situation.

God, I don't know what to do here.

You know, God, help us have enough money

to pay the bills, right?

Whatever it may be.

It's logistics.

But that cumulative time spent with the Lord over time,

that was the secret to Teresa of Avila's journey

into experiencing that profound spiritual union.

So this is the first thing that we see.

The first half of chapter 19,

shows this great wedding feast.

And we are all, as God's saints,

joined together as the bride,

and the bridegroom is there.

And there's this great celebration

over the spiritual union between God and his people.

That's what salvation means.

It's what we now have access to.

The rest of chapter 19,

there's a pivot, as I said.

And it depicts a great battle,

where we now see Jesus depicted as a warrior

who's leading his people

to fight against the beast and its followers.

And the thing that we need to see right away

is that this is not a typical military battle.

There are a couple of key differences.

Number one, this is not a military war.

This is a spiritual war.

Revelation uses images like this

to show us spiritual realities.

The dragon and the beasts

and even Babylon throughout Revelation,

they all represent that which stands

opposed to God and his word.

That which stands opposed to God's people.

That which stands opposed to God's creation.

Right?

We have the dragon, the beasts, Babylon.

And as Paul says in Ephesians chapter six,

we do not wrestle against flesh and blood,

but against the rulers, against the authorities,

against the cosmic powers over this present darkness,

against the spiritual forces of evil

in the heavenly places.

There is real evil in this world.

And behind the social evil

and behind the political evil

and behind the cultural evil

and behind the breakdown of family

and the breaking apart of marriages

and behind the trauma and the abuse

and all of those things that we see,

there is spiritual evil.

So it is a spiritual war

against fundamentally a spiritual enemy.

The second thing we see

is that this spiritual war,

out of necessity, uses spiritual weapons.

It's not fought with swords or guns or bombs.

It says in verse 15,

from his mouth comes a sharp sword.

The warrior Jesus has but one weapon,

his word.

He is, if we look back to creation,

he is the word.

He has the word and he wields the word.

And the gospel accounts show us

what it looks like in this war

when Jesus wields his word.

When Jesus does this,

the blind receive sight.

When Jesus wields this weapon,

people with leprosy are healed.

People who can't walk are now able to walk.

People who have died come back to life.

People who are hopelessly lost in sin

are instantaneously forgiven

and restored to right relationship with God.

And in all of these things

that we see Jesus doing,

he is wielding his word like a sword.

He is speaking these things into being

in a way that the enemy cannot stand against.

He's waging war against the enemy.

He's reclaiming territory.

He's liberating captives.

He's driving back the darkness and chaos.

And this, my friends,

is what our salvation is for.

This is the reason that we have been restored

to right relationship with God,

to join in that fight,

to follow Jesus into battle.

And this means many things.

It means speaking God's word

into the chaos and confusion of the world

and allowing it to be a lamp unto our feet.

It also means liberating captives

and freeing those who are oppressed

and fighting against injustice

and caring for the poor

and giving food to the hungry.

In all of these ways,

we push back the darkness.

So all the ministries of the church

are engaged in this war.

You know, when we preach and teach

and live out God's word in our lives,

we are pushing back the darkness.

When we provide safe homes

for people in need of short-term foster care,

when we support moms and dads

as they try to rebuild their families,

we're pushing back the darkness.

When you work with those

who are in prisoner re-entry programs

or provide refugee care

or care for those who are without homes

or work in international development,

those are ways of pushing back the darkness.

The simple acts of Christian faithfulness,

forgiveness,

showing hospitality,

generosity,

showing kindness,

those push back the darkness.

Right?

So the image of this war

shows us what salvation is for.

We're here to push back the darkness.

We're here to join with Christ

in the renewal of all things.

You know, that's what our mission statement says

at Church of the Advent.

That we want to join people to God,

join them to one another,

and then to join in with Christ

in the renewal of all things,

in the work of renewal here in D.C.

and through it the world.

And understanding

that these images

are meant to be held together

gives us a much fuller picture

of the Christian life.

We need to hold these things together,

the wedding and the war.

What does it mean?

What is it for?

And what that shows us

is that the Christian life

is two things at the same time.

It is a life of intimacy with God

and it's a life of engagement

with the brokenness of the world.

It is a life of contemplation

and it is a life of activism.

It is both at the same time.

And I think we need to hear this,

and this is why I want to do the whole chapter,

because I think that we,

depending on who you are

and your wiring and your gifts

and your heart and your inclinations

and your life experience,

we have different tendencies

in terms of where we feel most comfortable.

You know, some of us love to worship

and we love to study

and we love to learn the scriptures

and we love to read about theology.

But if we don't get out into the fight,

you know, if we're not going out

and preaching the gospel to the lost,

if we're not confronting injustice

in our communities,

if we're not pushing against the darkness

and ignorance in the world,

if all we're doing is holding up

and reading about these things,

refining our doctrine,

you know, working on all,

if that's all we're doing,

then our faith is going to become abstract,

it's going to become stagnant.

So some of us need to know,

hey, yes, spend time with God,

but there's a reason why

you need that relationship with God.

It's because you're called to go out

and engage and serve,

pour yourself out for the life of the world.

Some of us are the exact opposite.

We love being activists.

We love being out in the world.

We want to go out

and we want to change the world

and we're really good at it

and we're amazing at coming up with ways

to make the world a better place.

We have lots of ideas and visions

about what justice looks like

and we want to get it done

and we want people around us

and we can't wait to get started.

But if you're that kind of person

and you have not given your full heart to God,

if you're not anchored by

and nourished by God's word,

if you're not regularly worshiping

with the saints

and being nourished and fed,

if you're not spending time in prayer,

then you're going to become rootless.

You're going to drift.

Chances are you're either going to,

if you're having success in that work,

you're going to feel puffed up.

If you're not having success,

if you're running into futility,

you're going to get burned out

because you're fighting against a darkness

that goes way beyond your strength.

So the good news is,

is that we need both

and then I believe Jesus has given us a way

to hold both of those things together.

We have a way,

every time we come together, friends,

we have a way to experience intimacy

and nourishment from God

and then we are sent out into the world

having the strength to fight.

And this is the experience we share

every week at this table

at the Eucharist.

I mean, this meal,

when we share it, friends,

this is like a rehearsal dinner

in anticipation of the great wedding feast to come.

You come down the aisle

to receive the bread and the wine

and when you come down the aisle,

you're coming as the bride

would process toward the bridegroom.

And this feast is the thing that we need

to prepare us for the fight outside.

And every aspect of it

is radically countercultural.

Every aspect of what we're doing right now

pushes against the darkness in the world.

We live in a highly individualistic culture

and this meal shows us that we need each other.

We eat together.

We serve one another at this table

and we remember that it's not good

for any human being to be alone.

That's why we do it together.

That's why we don't do it in private,

one-off Eucharistic gatherings

for one or two people.

It's why we do it

when we're gathered together as a family.

In a divided culture,

this reminds us that ultimately

we are one in Christ.

We may disagree politically.

We may disagree.

And I know from past experience,

there are people in this church

that disagree on most of the major issues,

politically, socially,

even some theological.

And yet this reminds us

that ultimately in a divided culture,

we are one in Christ

because we all share the same bread

and we all share the same wine.

In a culture of celebrity and self-promotion,

this meal humbles us

because it reminds us

that no one is entitled to eat this meal.

No one has earned this meal.

We come because of God's mercy

and God's mercy alone.

In a culture of workaholism,

where many people work

all the way through the weekend,

every weekend,

it shows us that human beings

are created for

and we need Sabbath rest.

In a culture of ambition and careerism,

this table reminds us ultimately

that the purpose of all human vocation

is the glory of God.

So when we bring the offering,

what we're really doing is

we are offering up the work of our hands.

We're offering that up

and saying ultimately,

Lord, this is for you.

You know, work with your whole heart,

Paul says in Colossians,

as for the Lord.

Lord, we're offering that up to the Lord.

In a culture that divides insiders and outsiders,

in a culture of cliques,

in a culture of favoritism,

this shows us what true hospitality looks like.

Because listen,

the ones with whom we share this meal,

even this morning,

are not necessarily the ones

we would choose to have a meal with

if left to our own devices.

Right?

The people who are here,

the people we share this meal with

are here not at our invitation,

but at Jesus' invitation.

You know, and sometimes you come to a party

and you're like,

wait, you invited that person?

You know, how did they get invited?

I think Jesus delights in that.

I think Jesus loves that.

And I think Jesus loves our discomfort

at that.

Because I think it's exposing something

in our hearts that needs to be healed.

Verse nine says,

blessed are those who are invited

to the marriage supper of the Lamb.

You don't get to choose your family.

Here, we're reminded that God does.

In an outrage culture,

this meal calls us to forgive

and be reconciled to one another

before we eat.

Every time, before we come to the meal,

we pass the peace.

I'm not gonna choose outrage today.

I'm not gonna choose resentment today.

I'm gonna choose forgiveness and peace.

In that way, I think this meal is central

to re-knitting the social fabric.

This is where we knit together

the torn and shredded social fabric

of our society.

It begins here.

And perhaps the most challenging thing

for people like us who live in D.C.,

you can decide for yourselves,

is that this table reminds us

of our fundamental inadequacy.

that we are not enough.

That we don't have everything we need in here.

And that ultimately, we need God.

And I think, honestly, friends,

one of the most significant things

that we do liturgically

as a liturgical act

is as we come up to receive

the bread and the wine,

we hold out our hands like this.

We're holding our hands out

in the shape of a cross.

And we are signifying by doing that,

ultimately, I do not have what I need

and I do not deserve what I need.

And I'm here at your mercy

and I'm asking you to give me

what only you can give me.

That's what this means.

So please don't be offended

if your children come up

and we gently encourage them

to put their hands in a shape of a cross

or if we encourage you to do that.

It's not just about being formal

or keeping with tradition.

I actually believe that

when I do this every week,

it forms my heart

and reminds me that I'm not enough

when there are so many other voices

that want to convince me otherwise,

including my own.

We recognize our fundamental inadequacy.

In all of these ways,

through a simple meal of bread and wine,

we are pushing back the darkness.

We are living in a radically countercultural way.

And we are being prepared

to go out and fight the fight.

God ultimately doesn't give us

answers or explanations.

He gives us the life of his son

and he gives us the body and the blood

and that is actually what we truly need.

So Christianity is not just about

getting a ticket to heaven

and keeping it in your back pocket

until you get to the gate.

Christianity is about

living in intimacy with God

and participating in the life of God

and then it's about joining with God

in building a new society,

a countercultural society,

dare I say,

building a Eucharistic society,

a truer, better way

of being human together.

And so we gather together

around the feast at God's table

and at the end of this service,

be ready,

there will be the dismissal,

which is the call to arms.

And we will be sent out.

Hillary will send us out

to fight against the chaos

and darkness and injustice

in the world

and we will do so in Christ's name

until he comes again.

Let's pray.

Our Lord and Heavenly Father,

help us grasp these mysteries.

on our own,

we're not enough

and we can't do it,

but with you,

all things are possible.

Lord, as you give us yourself,

we pray that we would be strengthened,

filled with your presence,

that you would do in and through us

what only you can do.

Help those of us

who feel disconnected from you

or dry in our spiritual life.

Lord, bless us

with a sense of intimacy

and connection with you.

Remind us of the wedding.

And for those of us, Lord,

who may have become passive

or inert

or apathetic,

Lord, stir us to action.

Stir us to good works.

Lord, that we would be impassioned

to live for you,

not just here,

but in the world

and our lives

and our neighborhoods

and our vocations.

Lord, that we would live for

and proclaim your name

and word and deed.

We pray this in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Amen.