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The date was June 6, 2006….or
6/6/6….and there was all kinds of anticipation. Not as big
as the turn of 2000 and Y2K, but given the times, it
couldn’t pass without notice. The internet was awash with
frenzied doomsday predictions. Heavy metal rock bands and
right-wing religious publishers used it for self-serving
marketing. One website, with what it calls a “rapture index”
which calculates the likelihood of Christ’s return, said it
was time to “fasten your seatbelts.” Some pregnant mothers
tried to speed up their delivery dates to avoid June 6,
while others chose the name “Damian” in recognition of it.
Of course, the day passed with
little fanfare and no rapture. In fact, quite to the
contrary, for us it will go down as a day of great
celebration in the gift of new life to our congregation—the
birth of Casey John Nelson.
All of this was built around one
cryptic symbol in John’s vision, the often abused and
exploited story of the fabled “666, the mark of the beast.”
It is one of many symbols in the Revelation Code where the
biblical literalists, fear-mongering booksellers and ranting
revival preachers have had a heyday of speculation, trying
to figure out the meaning of the mark and the naming of the
beast. At the time of the Reformation, some believed it was
the Pope and others believed it was Martin Luther, depending
which side of the debate you were on. During World War I it
was thought to be Kaiser Wilhelm and, of course, during
World War II it was Adolf Hitler. In the days of the Cold
War, some guessed Henry Kissinger or Khrushchev, and more
recently it has been equated with Richard Nixon, Bill
Clinton, Saddam Hussein or George Bush…again, I suppose,
shaped more by your politics than your theology.
In four tenths of a second, a
Google search for “666” turned up about 85,400 sites, most
of them attempting to figure out “Who is the beast, whose
number is 666?”, trying to predict the “Antichrist”
even though that term never appears in the book of
Revelation.
They list everything from
barcodes to credit cards, the United Nations to the European
Union, Al Gore, Bill Gates or, even still today, the Pope.
One site equated 666 to the WWW of website addresses, and
another to biochip implants. I even found one TV preacher
still saying it represents the Soviet Union, even though the
Soviet Union no longer exists.
Given that we are talking about
timeless symbolism, I suppose they might all be right. But
James Efrid says:
One thing they all have in
common—each has turned out to be wrong. The reason is
simple. The passage is not predicting someone to come in the
future, but rather is describing something that John’s
readers would have immediately identified.
(James Efrid, Revelation for Today, page 91)
1.
For John’s day, the message was simple.
Written to an underground church
in a secret Revelation Code, this subversive letter is
directed at the oppressive Roman authorities. John gets as
close as he can to naming the beast, but instead he uses a
familiar numerical code. For his readers it was about as
subtle as JFK or FDR. John says:
Let him who has understanding
reckon the number of the beast, for it is a human number,
its number is 666. (Rev. 13:18)
He is naming the Roman
emperor—the source of the church’s persecution, the one who
controls commerce (you couldn’t buy or sell without
acknowledging the emperor in coins and commerce). He is
addressing the state religion of enforced emperor-worship
which claimed that “Caesar is Lord” while the church
proclaimed that “Jesus is Lord.” In the midst of severe
persecution which threatened to stamp out their identity,
John names the enemy...“It’s a human name,” he says.
For John and his readers,
the beast is the emperor whose mark branded everyone with
the mark of Rome.
John wasn’t looking ahead to
some far distant event and he certainly wasn’t thinking
about computer chips, barcodes, or microchips. He was
describing the ongoing struggle between good and evil,
calling the church to be faithful to its Lord and its
identity. His message is simple: “Never forget who you are.
Don’t let the mark of Rome brand you as anything other than
a child of God.”
2. The message was clear
for John’s readers and the message is true for every time
and place.
The church must always be aware
of the powers and pressures in culture and society which
would stamp us, mark us with any name other than the name
and mark of Christ. It’s the same message St. Paul sends to
the Christians in Rome struggling with the same issues:
I appeal to you therefore,
brethren, by the mercies of God... Do not be conformed to
this world but be transformed by the renewal of your mind,
so that you may prove what is good and perfect and
acceptable as the will of God.
(Romans 12:1-2)
Or my favorite translation of
this verse is from J.B. Phillips: “Don’t let the world
around you squeeze you into its mold.”
Don’t allow the world to
determine your values and priorities. Don’t allow the
culture to call the shots. It’s the message we give our
children and youth—don’t just follow the crowd; don’t allow
your morals to be shaped at McDonalds. You belong to Jesus
Christ, so live as citizens of the Kingdom of God, live as a
child of God.
Let me give you an example of a
more recent “mark of the beast.” Remember K-Mart and the
blue light special? Sometime back I was shopping at K-Mart
(you can tell it’s an old story). A voice over the PA system
announced: “Welcome, K-Mart shoppers. Today’s blue light
special is...” And I wanted to shout back at the disembodied
voice, “I am not a K-Mart shopper! That is not my true
identity. That is not who I really am.”
When forces of society see us as
nothing more than a consumer, when greed tempts us to think
only of our own concerns, when self-centered materialism
shapes and molds our values, “Remember who you are!” You are
more than your plastic, more than money. As Jesus said, your
life is more than food, and your body is more than raiment.
The brand you wear is not just Abercrombie and Fitch or
Tommy Hilfiger. You are branded as the disciples of Jesus
Christ.
Maybe the folks who think
barcodes and credit cards are the mark of the beast aren’t
so far off… if we see them as symbols of the rampant
materialism of our day, undermining the values of mercy and
love, compassion and caring, generosity and
hospitality—those things which are meant to be the
identifying marks of the disciples of Christ.
If you want to find the “mark of
the beast,” don’t look for some fantastic, futuristic
Antichrist to come into the world. Look for those pressures
in our everyday life which would shape and mold us in
anything other than the pattern of Christ.
3. But...there is good
news in the Revelation, as well.
There is
another mark in John’s Revelation Code. In contrast to the
mark of the beast, John sees another throng bearing another
mark…
Then I looked and lo, on Mount
Zion stood the Lamb and with him 144,000 who had his name
written on their foreheads.
(Rev. 14:1)
Now obviously, the number
144,000, like all the numbers in the book, is not a literal
number. It’s a multiple of 12 (12 tribes of Israel, 12
disciples) and represents the vast multitude of the people
of God.
It’s an incredible crowd, the
immeasurable, infinite, all-inclusive number; all the people
of God. They have been branded with the alpha and omega, the
name and the mark of Christ. They have been sealed by
the blood of the Lamb. They’ve been through the battle
between good and evil and bear the mark of the great
sacrifice. They carry the watermark of baptism, like a
dagger of lightning on the forehead, the sign of God’s love
and grace.
Which brings us to the
mark on Harry’s forehead.
Even if you haven’t seen the
movies, you’ve seen the posters: Harry Potter, with the
dagger-dash of what looks like a birthmark on his forehead.
Growing up, he has no idea where it came from or what it
means. Finally, he meets Hagrid who helps him understand who
he really is. “It’s a scandal! It’s an outrage!” roared
Hagrid, “Harry Potter not knowin’ his own story.”
Then he relates to Harry the
story of the death of his parents at the hands of the
dreaded Voldemort, the name so fearsome Hagrid can’t even
say it, so he refers to him in code language—a kind of a 666
“you-know-who.” He says:
“You-know-who” killed your
parents, and then came after you. But he couldn’t do it.
Ever wonder how you got that mark on yer forehead? That was
no ordinary cut. That’s what yeh get when a powerful, evil
curse touches yeh—but it didn’t work on you, and that’s why
yer famous, Harry. No one ever lived after “you-know-who”
decided to kill ’em except you. You were only a baby, and
you lived.
(J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter
and the Sorcerer’s Stone, page 55)
It’s all about the mark on
Harry’s forehead, the sign of Harry’s true identity. Buried
under the oppression of his “muggle” relatives forcing him
to be something other than what he was born to be, all but
lost from his childhood memory, but the mark was still
there, and when he heard the story…
- the story of a battle between
good and evil
- the story of a sacrifice for his salvation
- the story of the sign of his redemption
Harry remembered who he was and
claimed his identity.
So we carry on our
foreheads the mark of Christ, the waters of baptism,
the sign of the Savior, our true identity as children of
God. Sometimes we forget it’s there. Sometimes we live as if
it doesn’t matter. Sometimes we even feel like we have been
marked by some other mark erasing the sign of the cross. But
when we hear once again the story of our salvation, we
remember who we are and reclaim our identity…Children of
God. Marked in the water of baptism. Sealed by the grace of
God. Signed by the blood of Christ.
When my brother and I were
young, it was more than obvious that we were twins. As a
child, I can vividly remember being asked, “How do people
tell you two apart?” And I remember answering, “Well, Jim
has a mole on the back of his neck and I have a birthmark on
the sole of my foot.” (I will spare you a display of the
evidence.) It was the mark that set me apart as a unique
individual.
But more important, I remember
the day Rev. Ralph Richardson placed his hands on my head
and confirmed me as a disciple of Jesus Christ. I remember
the night at Cherry Run Camp when I responded to an altar
call and the invitation to give my life to Christ, and Daddy
Ross put his hands on my shoulders and prayed over me. I
remember the weight of their hands and I remember the mark,
the seal, the sign of God’s grace and love. And even though
there have been plenty of times when I have forgotten the
sign, acted like it wasn’t there, when I remember, it draws
me back to my true identity as a Child of God.
It’s the only mark that
ultimately matters. It’s the sign which outweighs the
tattoos of society, the brand name more important than all
the brand names of the marketplace.
Don’t waste your time looking
for some great Antichrist to come. The mark that matters is
the mark of Christ, the seal of baptism, the sign of grace,
naming us as children of God.
John’s message is simple: Remember who you are.
- Young
adults on your way to college and all the pressures to
conform…remember who you are.
- In
a society which would measure us by what we buy and sell,
the branding of the marketplace…remember who you are.
- In
a world which would try to obliterate the mark of your
baptism and turn the witness of the church into something
other than the witness to Jesus Christ… remember who you
are.
- When
the identifying marks of the Christian life—love, patience,
mercy, kindness, compassion, caring, hospitality—are traded
for prejudice and hatred and vengeance and pride…remember
who you are.
“It’s a scandal. It’s an
outrage,” says Hagrid, “Harry Potter, not knowing his own
story, not knowing who is really is.” It’s a scandal. It’s
an outrage...the People of God, not knowing their own story,
not knowing who they really are. Like Harry Potter, you have
been redeemed in the great struggle between good and evil.
Your life has been saved through great sacrifice—the
sacrifice of the cross—and you are marked on the forehead
with the waters of baptism.
Remember who you are.
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