December 16

NT -- Revelation 7:1-17
When I was born until I was 7 years old, we went to a Baptist church. My mother was a Baptist. My dad grew up attending a Pentecostal church but he never joined either that church or the Baptist church.
The church we started going to when we moved to the north side of town (the closest to our house, and I kid you not, we were almost always late) was Presbyterian but Sunday School was during church. We talked about covenant a lot and I had been in Sunday School for probably a year before I realized that Yahweh and God were the same being. We just didn't talk about that in the Baptist church.
When I was in the 5th grade, my teacher threw me out of Sunday School for talking about heretical ideas. I had seen the movie Chariots of the Gods and then read the book. It explains the Bible as a series of alien visitations and I have to say, having read the Bible this year, I am still not convinced that Erich von Daniken was wrong. All I wanted to do was talk about the book but my teacher was seriously incensed.
I never went back.
Fast forward to my senior year in high school and we were going to have adult Sunday School discussing Revelation. Mother and I went and it was fabulous. But at some point, one of the much older people bring up the 144,000 'sealed' people. Only in their version it was 'saved'. Only 144,000. Classic Presbyterian doctrine I was told. I simply couldn't believe it. A the time, we were just shy of 6 BILLION people, and only 144,000 were going to heaven? What kind of chance did rotten me have?
Here it is, 33 years later and that is finally refuted.
Revelation, if you want to be literal about it, says that 144,000 JEWS were 'sealed', i.e. claimed by God. The rest of us, the 'multitude' have no number. Just a 'great multitude'.
Numbers, just like colors, have great significance in Revelation -- 24 elders, 12 from Jacob, 12 disciples, red riders, 7 horns, etc. If we lived in 1st century or even 2nd century AD, we would know IMMEDIATELY what these symbols mean.
Just like if I told you I was going to listen to a rap artist right after I finish this blog post, you wouldn't think it was an artist that bangs on things, except vocally.
For us, it is enough to know that while Presbyterians do believe in predestination, the number, at least according to Revelation, is not preordained.
And just in case you think it is crazy of me to have arguments with my dead Sunday School teacher or 33 years ago Revelation class, let me just tell you about a conversation Cole and I had at dinner.
Don was commenting on how few days I had left of this blog and praising me. This is a major accomplishment in my life, let me tell you.
I replied that I might be doing the Torah study which studies a page of Torah a day. Takes 7 years and a day.
Why? Cole asked. Well, you study the first 5 books of the Bible and also the commentary. And the commentary is the arguments of the sage rabbis -- some of whom died 2500 years ago, some who are still living.
Cole laughed. Sounds like a perfect group for you, Mom.

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I did want to say something about the school shootings in Connecticut, especially since we are studying Revelations and this feels very much like a Revelationy kind of thing.
Mental illness is an awful thing. It masquerades as so many physical ailments. It destroys families, marriages, finances. The guilt on all sides is enormous.
But it is not covered by insurance, and nobody wants to admit they have it or that someone near and dear to them has it. It's our little secret. Until it isn't.
I have lived part of my life in that shadow world and expend great amounts of energy keeping myself out. I pray constantly for the others in my family who carry that burden.
The letters of John say love is the answer. To all the problems and all the questions.
Somehow, in this place and time, that doesn't seem enough.