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Revelation 16:1-21

1 Then I heard a loud voice from the temple telling the seven angels, “Go and pour out on the earth the seven bowls of the wrath of God.” 2 So the first angel went and poured his bowl on the earth, and a foul and painful sore came on those who had the mark of the beast and who worshiped its image.

3 The second angel poured his bowl into the sea, and it became like the blood of a corpse, and every living thing in the sea died. 4 The third angel poured his bowl into the rivers and the springs of water, and they became blood. 5 And I heard the angel of the waters say, “You are just, O Holy One, who are and were, for you have judged these things; 6 because they shed the blood of saints and prophets, you have given them blood to drink. It is what they deserve!” 7 And I heard the altar respond, “Yes, O Lord God, the Almighty, your judgments are true and just!”

8 The fourth angel poured his bowl on the sun, and it was allowed to scorch people with fire; 9 they were scorched by the fierce heat, but they cursed the name of God, who had authority over these plagues, and they did not repent and give him glory. 10 The fifth angel poured his bowl on the throne of the beast, and its kingdom was plunged into darkness; people gnawed their tongues in agony, 11 and cursed the God of heaven because of their pains and sores, and they did not repent of their deeds.

12 The sixth angel poured his bowl on the great river Euphrates, and its water was dried up in order to prepare the way for the kings from the east. 13 And I saw three foul spirits like frogs coming from the mouth of the dragon, from the mouth of the beast, and from the mouth of the false prophet. 14 These are demonic spirits, performing signs, who go abroad to the kings of the whole world, to assemble them for battle on the great day of God the Almighty. 15 (“See, I am coming like a thief! Blessed is the one who stays awake and is clothed, not going about naked and exposed to shame.”) 16 And they assembled them at the place that in Hebrew is called Harmagedon.

17 The seventh angel poured his bowl into the air, and a loud voice came out of the temple, from the throne, saying, “It is done!” 18 And there came flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder, and a violent earthquake, such as had not occurred since people were upon the earth, so violent was that earthquake. 19 The great city was split into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell. God remembered great Babylon and gave her the wine-cup of the fury of his wrath. 20 And every island fled away, and no mountains were to be found; 21 and huge hailstones, each weighing about a hundred pounds, dropped from heaven on people, until they cursed God for the plague of the hail, so fearful was that plague.

Revelation: The Wrath of God

Aliens decide to finally visit Earth…They come in peace and surprisingly, they speak English. So, all of the heads of government and religious leaders set up a meeting with our new visitors. When it's the Pope's turn, he asks "Do you know about our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ?" “Oh, you mean good old JC? Yeah, we know him! He's the best, isn't he? He swings by our planet every year to make sure that we are doing okay. He brings us all sorts of good things, and he always makes sure that we never have any earthquakes, diseases or natural disasters.” Surprised, the pope says, "He visits you every year? It's been over 2,000 years and we're still waiting for his SECOND coming!" The alien gets quiet and says, “Well, maybe he just likes our chocolate better than yours?" The pope retorts "Chocolates? What does that have to do with anything?" The alien says "Well, when he first visited our planet we welcomed him, had a great time, and when it was time for him to go, we gave him a huge box of chocolates! Why? What did you guys do?"

Today's sermon from the Book of Revelation is about the Wrath of God. That's something we don't really like to talk about, or even think about, really. We like to think of God as a heavenly Santa Claus, who is always kind and jolly, who always loves us, always listens to our wishes--I mean, our prayers--and always gives us everything we want. Of course, even Santa Claus has been known to drop the occasional lump of coal in a naughty stocking, but that doesn't seem so bad, and most of us don't know anyone that's actually happened to.

But Revelation chapter 16 (and several of the preceding chapters) paints God in a very different light. We see him dishing out (pardon the pun!) all sorts of nasty things to the people of the earth: Rivers of blood, scorching heat, darkness and sores, earthquakes, and 100 pound hailstones. This is probably a good place to remind ourselves that John's vision is written in a well-established genre called "apocalyptic literature." This kind of writing is always filled with coded imagery and symbolism, with each symbol representing something that would have made perfect sense to the original audience.

Symbols can be interpreted in a lot of ways, but by their very nature as symbols, they are never meant to be taken literally. When we call New York City the "big apple" the one thing we don't mean...is that it's a giant piece of fruit sitting on the Northeastern shore of the United States. The terrible symbols in the Book of Revelation, then, are not meant to be taken literally. But they are meant to be taken seriously. And underlying each symbol is this concept that makes us so uncomfortable: The Wrath of God.

I want to make the case today that God's wrath is not a bad thing. In fact, it is a very good and necessary thing. My wife, Amy, is one of the most kind and loving people you could ever meet. But if anyone or anything ever threatens one of our three children, look out! A mother's wrath is a powerful force, and a benevolent one, too. Shouldn't it be the same with God? In the same way, when we see horrible injustices committed in our world, we long for leaders who have the both the power AND the motivation to intervene, punishing those responsible and ensuring that justice is done.

The problem is, we're okay with righteous anger and wrathful justice when it is directed at "those" people, "bad" people, people who are not US. And we ourselves are NEVER bad, right? Of course, we all know the real answer to that question.

In our scripture passage today, God's Wrath is poured out upon humanity in seven "bowls." And that's a great symbol in itself. A bowl is something that usually contains food or drink--things meant to nourish and sustain us, not to harm us. And yet, in the 1st century world, bowls were also used to administer medicine, herbs and remedies meant to heal those who were sick. Even today, medicine doesn't always taste good going down. But we know that the person giving it to us loves us, and wants us to be better. So it is with God, and the bowls of God's wrath.

Throughout the book of Revelation, and also the entire Bible, there are only two things capable of summoning God's wrath: The first is people or situations that threaten God's children--specifically the people of Israel in the Old Testament, or the early Christians in the New Testament.

We see an example of this in today's scripture: God turns the rivers and waters of the earth into blood (again, this is symbolic of something, probably not literal blood). Why? Verse 6: "because they shed the blood of saints and prophets, you have given them blood to drink. It is what they deserve!" In the time when John was writing Revelation, Christians were being slaughtered by the Roman Empire because of their faith. The manifestation of God's wrath, is in part a cry for justice, and also a promise that in the near future, justice will prevail.

The second thing that summons God's wrath is when people put their hope, their trust, their allegiance in things that are not God. This is called idolatry, worshiping false idols. As a parent, this one makes sense to me as well: I know that I love my children, and I will always have their best interests at heart, but I can get really upset when I see them putting their faith and trust in things I know are false or dangerous. I want them to be able to make good decisions on their own, but it's also my responsibility to step in and intervene when someone or something is leading them astray.

• Mark of the Beast
• Dragon, Beast, and False Prophet: Unholy Trinity, things we worship that are not God
• Great City of Babylon: Rome, tyranical powers of the earth
• Harmagedon: Har = mountain. Megido = a plain in the middle east.
• It is done.