The Whore of Babylon

(Reading:  Revelation 18 and Luke 21.20–28)

In case you didn’t know, we are in the dying days of the Church’s liturgical year.  The new year begins for us on Sunday, with the first Sunday of Advent.  In the midst of winter darkness, we seek shelter, warmth and light.  With our ancestors of faith, we await the promise of a coming Messiah, who will save us and lead us beyond the darkness.  

But in these dying days, the Lectionary does not let us rest in peaceful slumber.  After the glorious vision of Christ the King which we shared on Sunday, we now find ourselves confronted with apocalyptic visions.  In Revelation, today, we meet the ‘Great Whore of Babylon’, and witness the promise that her reign over the earth will one day end.  And then in the Gospel reading, we read Jesus’ dire predictions of the destruction of Jerusalem – which actually did take place, about 40 years later.  These visions are reminders to us that although Christ reigns today in heaven, ‘on the right hand of the Father’, his work of fully establishing God’s kingdom on earth is not yet done.  There is still much struggle ahead.

‘Babylon’ is a very particular biblical metaphor.  Based on the idea of the city which carried off Jewish leaders into Exile, 500 years or so before Jesus, the Babylon of the book of Revelation is generally thought to represent the city (and the political and economic structures) of Rome.  When John prophecies the overthrow of Babylon, he predicts the Fall of Rome.  Later scholars have suggested that Babylon represents any economic or religious structure which runs counter to the principles of the Gospel.  Throughout history, Babylon has been associated with Jerusalem itself, the Roman Catholic Church, and these days, even the cites of Washington DC, Brussels, Strasbourg and London! 

Too many religious leaders – especially among the Christian churches – have tried to read the book of Revelation as if it were a coded message to the 20th or 21st centuries.  “Look!” they will say, “the downfall of the whore of Babylon is a description of the American war against Iraq (which is modern-day Babylon)”.  Then, they will make a leap of prediction, and claim that this means Jesus is coming soon…any day now.  Unfortunately, the messy history of church claims about the imminent return of Jesus suggest that they are probably wrong.

But as with all biblical prophecy, we must be cautious of trying to fit our context into the context of the biblical writers.  We need to hear the hope, and the fear that they were expressing about their own time and their own world – and then consider what parallels there are for us today.  For there are indeed many parallels between our world and the world of the Bible.  

The kinds of signs which commonly accompany ‘end times’ prophecies are exactly the sort of things we see and hear around us today.  Wars and rumours of wars.  Famines and earthquakes.  And plagues.  No biblical writer ever heard of COVID-19….but after the ‘hell on earth’ of 2020, we know all about plagues!

War.  Famine.  Earthquakes and sickness.  These are the Big Four – the things which have the most potential to disrupt our comfortable existences.  These are the four major events that human beings feel most powerless about, on an individual level.  But it is our very impotence in the face of such existential threats which offer the chance for God to break through.  Confronted by the reality of war, many people will seek peace.  Confronted by the reality of famine and earthquakes, many people will respond with charity.  Confronted by a plague, even politicians may come together in common purpose, and find the resources to help scientists find a vaccine.

You see, this is what God does.  He enters into the darkest corners of human existence, and by his presence he redeems us.  His spirit whispers ‘Make peace’ to the Generals who could unleash hell.  His spirit whispers ‘share your wealth’ to the rich nations, when famine or natural disaster strikes the poor.  His spirit whispers ‘come together, co-operate’ when pandemic plagues threaten the world.     

The most graphic example of Jesus turning darkness to light is perhaps the work of the Cross, transformed into Resurrection.  But that’s just the most graphic example.  For this work – of turning darkness into light, despair into hope, sickness into healing, war into peace…this is the work of Jesus, every day.  In this sense, Christ the King is truly on his throne – proclaiming through the Spirit of Truth the Laws of the Kingdom to all his subjects.  “Seek peace, give love, co-operate together and bind up the broken”.

So as we move towards the time of anticipation which Advent affords, let each of us ask ourselves whether we have truly heard and answered the call of the King of Kings.  Let each of us commit ourselves anew – let us be ‘stirred up’ (in the words of this week’s collect) to ‘seek peace, give love, co-operate together and bind up the broken’.  Amen.