Thoughts drawn from yesterday’s message at St. Andrew’s Ajax:
The message was the second of two recognizing the reality of evil in the world,how Christ has dealt with this, and how he has offered to share with us what he has done. Yesterday the main point was that not only is evil real, but its effects are intensifying. At the same time, however, God is working good that is “gooder” than the bad is “badder.”
The message was drawn from a book that is criticized, understandably, as portraying God as one who deals with the violence of the world only with violence, in the extreme, of his own–The Revelation to John. With that very charge in mind, I pointed out the parallel, or rather contrast, between the rider on the white horse of chapter 6 with the rider on the white horse of chapter 19. The first is the rpresentation of conquest, leading to war, famine (or disparity), and death. The other, in chapter 19, clearly is meant to be Christ, “the Word of God” (19:13). On the charge of resolving things violently, it is to be noted that his sword is not wielded in the hand, but proceeds from his mouth.
So what if we see the violently powerful depiction of the defeat of what is against God as indicating the power and decisiveness with which God acts (and ultimately will act to defeat all evil), but not the form it takes? Seeing it that way, instead of the rider-on-the-red-horse of war of chapter 6, we have the rider-Word of chapter 19 producing community; instead of disparity/famine (black horse in chapter 6), the the sword-Word further brings a spirit of abundance, and life instead of death.
Community and a spirit of gracious abundance are both products of the Word lived, and are much needed parts of a lived out witness to God’s devastatingly powerful love, shared in a fearful, stingy, violent world.