Preached at Bloomsbury Central Baptist Church, 1.9.19
Revelation 17:1-7, 15-17
Revelation 18:1-8, 11-13, 21
Listen to the sermon here:
https://soundcloud.com/bloomsbury-1/apocalypse-now-8-heavens-perspective-on-economics
https://soundcloud.com/bloomsbury-1/apocalypse-now-8-heavens-perspective-on-economics
Last weekend, a number of us from Bloomsbury
were at
Greenbelt Arts Festival.
In addition to discovering some new bands,
we went to
a number of really good seminar.
The big discovery for me was Danny Dorling,
the Social
Geographer from Oxford University.
He was talking about Brexit,
and the way
in which the ‘market’ is held up
as a
precision tool for solving all of society’s problems.
The prevailing view is that we have now evolved economically
to the point
where the
freedom of the market, if it is given enough freedom to correct itself,
will be the
thing that solves all of our problems.
He was critical of that perspective,
and gave good
reasons why,
largely
relating to people who live in poverty.
Particularly, the threat of a ‘no deal’ Brexit,
will have a
severe impact on the poorest of the poor.
And he was looking at different regions around the country,
and the way
in which people will be impacted
at the
lower levels of income.
I was also a signatory to a letter to Boris recently,
written by
the Baptists, Methodists and URC,
highlighting our concerns about the poorest of the poor
in the
event of a no deal Brexit.
I want to set aside the macro-economic arguments
about
decoupling ourselves from the Eurozone,
and the long
term possibilities for good that may exist
for our country
if the Euro collapses.
And I want us to focus on the fact that people are going to
die,
and they
are going to die because of economics.
And I wonder what heaven’s perspective on this is?
And in that reading that Duncan read for us just now,
did you hear
that list of all the benefits of empire?
The horses, and the spices, and the olive oil, and slaves,
and human lives.
And I just wonder if heaven’s perspective on economics
is that it
has the capacity to kill
as well as
the capacity to enrich.
And therefore it needs to be handled carefully.
This morning, I’d like to introduce you to three women and a
beast:
The women,
like
the ancient Greek ideal of the Three Graces
personified
as the three daughters of Helios
are
beautiful, noble, pure and virginal
The beast,
we will come to later…
Like the Three Graces
the women I
want to introduce you to are not real:
they are symbolic,
representations of a greater reality
1. The first
woman is Britannia
the
noble and beautiful warrior queen
who
symbolised the British Empire in its heyday
This image of Britannia, the
woman wearing a helmet,
and carrying a
shield and trident
is a symbol
that blends the concepts of empire,
militarism and
economics.
2. The second
woman is the Lady Liberty
whose most
famous representation is the Statue of Liberty in America
As she speaks of the nobility and
purity of the American Empire
the
land of the free, the land of liberty and justice
3. The third
woman is much older, but just as beautiful
And she dates
from Roman times
On street corners
throughout
the Roman empire
there would
have been a statue of the goddess Roma
She was for the Romans, what Britannia and Liberty are for
us:
a
beautiful, pure woman
depicted in statue form
offering a
stunning personification
of the civilisation of Rome
She was often carved holding an elaborate bowl or patera in
her hands
And the
wine it contained
was symbolic of the richness and
glory
of being part of the Roman empire
For many of those who lived throughout the empire
their
experience of Roma and all that she stood for
was a
positive one
And so the Goddess Roma was worshipped
in temples
throughout the empire
The citizens of Rome enjoyed the benefits of her existence
and drank
deeply from the wine-cup in her hands
And it is this image which John had in mind
when he was
writing to the churches of Asia Minor
in the
letter of Revelation which we read earlier
He pictures in his mind the Goddess Roma
that pure,
virginal, beautiful, lovely symbol
of the
Roman civilisation
But the way John sees her
she is a
Roman temple prostitute,
she is the whore
of Babylon,
a spreader
of disease,
and a
corruptor of any who climb into her bed.
And it turns out that she isn’t fussy,
She will share her bed with anyone who is interested
Corrupting all who buy into her
She is seen by John inviting everyone,
from the
kings of the earth
to the common people of Rome
to
participate in her pleasures
and to buy into her corruption.
And by giving his churches in Asia Minor
this
alternative picture
of the
Goddess Roma
John is doing what he does all the way through
his
visionary work of Revelation
He is giving his readers
the
heavenly perspective on their earthly situation
He is showing them their contemporary context
as heaven
sees it, rather than as they see it
And in doing so
he is seeking
to prepare and equip them
to live as
Christians
in
the midst of a world
which
he understands as being fundamentally anti-Christian.
You see, the temptation for those living under the thrall of
Rome
was to buy
into its ideology
to believe
its propaganda
to
unquestioningly accept its benefits
and
to not ask anything about the costs involved
The temptation for those living in close proximity to Roma
was to buy
into her seductive luxuries
and to not
question the cost
Well, John turns that temptation on its head
with his
re-working of the Goddess Roma
as the
great whore
The way John sees her
she
symbolises the economic structures
of the
Roman empire
And instead of being a beneficial and noble system
symbolised
by a noble and beautiful woman
he sees Roman imperial economics as a corrupt and corrupting
system
best symbolised
by a prostitute.
John is asking his readers, through using this imagery
to perceive
something of Rome’s true character.
He is showing them the moral corruption
which lies
behind the beautiful and attractive exterior
of the
empire in which they are so thoroughly enmeshed.
And in giving his readers this insight
he is
presenting them with a stark choice:
they either buy into Rome’s ideology
accepting
the view of the empire
promoted by
Roman propaganda
and
symbolised by the Goddess Roma
Or they see Rome from the perspective of heaven
and
understand it for the corrupt institution it really is
But in addition to the women, I promised you a beast!
And so we turn to the image of the scarlet beast with seven
heads
which for John, symbolises the
corrupt and violent
military and
political power of Imperial Rome
the city of seven hills
The book of Revelation
portrays
Rome as a system of violent oppression
founded
on conquest
and
perpetuated by a system of slavery
And the way John sees it, the economic prosperity
which the
statues of Roma signified
and which
the citizens of Rome enjoyed
had been bought at the expense of other people’s oppression
and poverty
In John’s vision, the whore and the beast are intimately
related
The whore
is pictured riding the beast
– with all the
sexual connotations that this phrase brings with it
they are in
bed together
soul-mates
in corruption
Do you see what is going on here?
John is providing his readers
with a searing political and
economic critique
of the
mighty empire of Rome
The city of Rome, when it is seen from heaven’s perspective
becomes
Babylon – the ancient enemy of God’s people
the military might and political power of Rome
is seen as
a terrifying beast, destroying and oppressing
all who do
not accept its ideology
The economic success of Rome
is seen as
a temple prostitute
corrupting
all those who buy into her system
And this economic success exists
only
because of the military might that sustains it
the prosperity of Rome
is bought
at the expense of others
And the corrupting influence of that prosperity
is achieved
and maintained
by the
imperial armies
But John knows that not everyone can see Rome the way he can
not
everyone sees Babylon, and the beast, and the whore
they still
see Rome as Rome wants to be seen
pure,
noble, good, and righteous
Although John can see the empire as a system
of tyranny,
oppression, and exploitation
He is entirely aware that it was not resisted
or opposed
by most of its subjects
The way John sees it, the citizens of Rome
have climbed into bed with the
whore
They are enjoying their high standards of living
they are
enjoying the economic prosperity of their time
And they are not seeing that it is corrupt and corrupting
because it
is prosperity bought at the cost of others’ oppression
The citizens of Rome are drinking deeply from the golden cup
that the
Goddess Roma holds out to them
from
an outstretched arm on every street corner
And they do not realise that they are actually drinking
from a
poisoned chalice
Rome is offering them participation
in the Pax
Romana
the gift of
peace, security, and prosperity
that
the Roman empire gave to those
who
accepted her ideology
The Pax Romana, the peace of Rome
was her
gift to the world
and the
world either took the gift or paid the price
Rome, the self-proclaimed eternal city
offered
security to her subjects
and her own dazzling wealth
seemed like
a prosperity in which all her subjects could share
But Revelation portrays this ideology as a deceitful
illusion
Rome is simply getting the nations of the world
drunk on
the wine of her success
so they are
too stupefied to notice
the price that
that success demands
The wine of Roman rule
is offered
in a cup whose exterior may be golden
but which
contains abominations
The goddess Roma may appear beautiful and attractive
but she is
nothing more than a corrupting whore
who is in
bed with the beast of political and military oppression
So what is John’s advice to those in his churches?
We see it in 18:4
He says to his congregations
“Come out of her, my people, so that you do not take part in
her sins”
John offers an image that the people of his churches
are
climbing into bed with the whore
and buying
her services for their own pleasure
and that
they are blind to the cost
their
prosperity is demanding
John sees the people of his churches
unthinkingly
accepting the economic prosperity of Rome
without
giving a passing thought
to
those who were living in oppression and misery
to
maintain their high standard of living
And so John says to these early Christians
that they
must come out.
They must withdraw
they must
leave the bed of the prostitute
and
resist participating in her corrupt economic systems
They are to resist participating in the political and
military machine
which
oppresses and destroys
And they are to withdraw from the economic system
which
corrupts and defiles
Do you see what John is doing here?
he is
exposing the lies of the empire for what they are
so that his
congregations can see their world
as
heaven sees it
and can
then act accordingly.
He is giving them heaven’s perspective on their earthly
situation
so they can
identify the beast of political and military oppression
so they can
spot the whore of economic corruption
And he wants his congregations to act on this knowledge
and resist
the beast and come out from the prostitute
John’s vision of the destruction of the great whore
therefore
represents divine judgement on the economic systems of Rome.
What is significant, though, is the manner of her
devastation
since the
whore is ultimately destroyed not by direct divine action,
but by the feeding frenzy of the kings of the earth
who had
previously been her lovers (17.16–17; 18.3).
This is in accord with John’s overall presentation
of the
satanic empire as a self-destructive entity
that brings upon itself the fitting judgement for its
idolatrous activities.[1]
However, there is one aspect of the imagery that John
employs for the great whore
that deserves
some particular attention before we’re finished.
Through Chapter 18, John uses the image of fire
to describe
the burning of the great city,
evoking the
picture of a city being put to the torch (18.8, 9, 18).
However, he also describes the ‘burning’ of the great whore
in the following terms:
‘And the
ten horns that you saw, they and the beast will hate the whore;
they
will make her desolate and naked;
they will
devour her flesh and burn her up with fire’ (17.16).
This description of the stripping, rape,
cannibalistic
consumption and burning of the body of the great whore
is as deeply shocking to modern readers
as it would
have been to John’s first audience.
It’s worth our noting that John is consciously employing
such powerful imagery
to
deconstruct the worldview of those living under the Roman Empire
in the
seven churches of Asia Minor.
He is not seeking to describe an actual physical and sexual
assault;
rather he
is using the language of such a violation
as an image
to describe the downfall of the idolatrous satanic empire.
There is a very real question here
as to the
effect such imagery has on modern readers,
and also of the effect that it has had
down through
the centuries since it was first written.
John’s association of the female form, laid vulnerable and
violated,
as an image
for God’s fitting judgement on evil in the world,
has doubtless played its part in promoting
negative
and exploitative views of women.
Artistic representations of this scene
have fed
the male desire to see women dominated and abused,
even
lending divine authorization to such imagery.
Whilst this may not have been John’s original intent in
constructing this image,
nonetheless
it must be recognized
that this
is part of the effect that it has had and continues to have.
In terms of the way in which John’s economic critique of
empire
is read in
the contemporary world,
care also needs to be taken not to draw overly-simplistic
direct parallels
between
John’s engagement with ancient Rome
and
present-day critique of any specific nation or institution.
There have been many down through the centuries
who have
sought to equate John’s description
of
the judgement of the great whore
with
imperial power in their own time.
Examples include the Roman Catholic Church,
Turkish
Islam, Mary Queen of Scots,
The
Anglican Church, London, and America.
Nonetheless, this is not to say
that the
critique of empire offered by John
has no relevance beyond the first century.
Richard Bauckham provocatively suggests:
In view of the prominence of the
economic theme in Revelation 18, it is hard to avoid seeing a modern parallel
in the economic relations between the so-called First and Third Worlds. It is
easy, from our cultural distance, to recognize the decadence of a culture in
which party guests were served with pearls dissolved in wine – thousands of
pounds consumed in a few mouthfuls. But the affluent West of today has equally
absurd forms of extravagant consumption.[2]
It is to this end that Wes Howard-Brook and Anthony Gwyther
suggest the ideology of global capitalism
as a contemporary expression of the
economic empire
about which John is so scathing.
They comment:
When empire was embodied in
clearly defined entities like nation-states, it was relatively easy to trace
the contours of imperial power. Global capital, however, is a more elusive
reality. Nonetheless, it may be startling to see how precisely the reality of
global capital matches both that of the Roman Empire
in particular and Revelation’s wider critique of empire generally.[3]
We live in a world of contemporary market forces,
globalization,
multi- and
trans-national corporations,
and
international trade and financial institutions.
The merchants of the contemporary world grow rich
from
participation in the system of global capital,
with those at the centre of the first-world
benefitting
from generally high standards of living
while those on the margins in the third-world
are held in
economic slavery and poverty
to service
the demand for luxury, convenience and entertainment
at the
heart of the empire.
This is not to suggest that Revelation was written
as a
critique of twenty-first century global economics;
in fact
quite the opposite.
John’s critique of Rome’s
satanic economic systems
is in the
initial instance targeted specifically within the first century,
but it also becomes applicable whenever a system arises
within human history
that
perpetrates the corrupt economic ideals of ancient Rome.
So as John uses imagery of Babylon
to convey his critique of Rome,
we might
use imagery of Rome
to gain a critical perspective
on the
contemporary economic system of global capital.
In this way, we might notice unsustainable levels of growth
and consumption,
and we
might echo for the twenty-first century
John’s
first-century proclamation that empire is
fallen (cf. 14.8; 18.2).
To this end we might need to hear the prophetic critique
offered by
the American billionaire financier George Soros:
‘I cannot see the global system surviving …
we have entered a period of global disintegration only we
are not yet aware of it.’
It may be that the contemporary system of global capital
has already
sown the seeds of its own destruction
through its oppressive, exploitative and unsustainable
levels of consumption.
Just as within John’s vision
the great
whore receives her due judgement
at the
hands of her former lovers (17.16–17),
so a comparable judgement is due
wherever
the satanic empire is re-invented within human history.
The economic systems of the modern west
bear
frightening similarities to those of Rome
about which
John is so scathing
We in the west drink the cup of our economic prosperity
as we live
in relative security
under the military protection
of
the Pax Americana, or the Pax Britannia
It’s not for nothing that we continue to spend money
on aircraft
carriers and a nuclear deterrent.
And all the while we enjoy our freedom
to oppress those whose existence
is defined by their working
to perpetuate
our prosperity
John’s vision and challenge is, I think, as relevant today
as it ever was.
The
question before us, individually and as a congregation,
is can we
hear that challenge,
and what
are we going to do about it?
And I’m afraid I’m going to leave the challenge hanging,
because
there are no easy answers here.
We’re all caught up in this,
and I can’t
just say that we should do this, that, or the other, and then we’re off.
I wish I could.
But I can say that we cannot stop asking this question.
Because if we don’t, people are going to keep dying.
[1]
The words of Paul could equally be applied to John’s understanding of Rome and the church: ‘Do
not be deceived; God is not mocked, for you reap whatever you sow. If you sow
to your own flesh, you will reap corruption from the flesh; but if you sow to
the Spirit, you will reap eternal life from the Spirit.’ (Gal. 6.7–8).
[2]
Bauckham, The Bible in Politics, p. 101.
[3]
Howard-Brook and
Gwyther, Unveiling Empire, pp. 237–8. cf. John M. Court, 1997, ‘Reading the Book 6.
The Book of Revelation’,
The Expository Times: 164-6.
