Singing the Apocalypse

Revelation seems to be the province of fundamentalists, dispensationalists, popapocalyptics. It’s far too cartoonish, stark, violent, demanding to be at home in the mainline. 

Craig Koester (Revelation and the End of All Things) points out that mainline churches actually hear very little of the Apocalypse in church. The Revised Common Lectionary virtually ignores the book: “Although the book is twenty-two chapters long, the lectionary selects only six short passages to be read. These include the opening and concluding greetings from God and Christ as the Alpha and Omega, together with four scenes of the saints in glory. These texts are read during the Sundays after Easter once every three years. and occasionally, one of these same texts is also read on All Saints day or Christ the King Sunday in November. The lectionary conveniently avoids passages mentioning the beast and the harlot, and passes by the seven seals and other plagues without inviting commend. Some rather stern warnings do interrupt the greetings at the end of Revelation, but these are omitted from the assigned reading so that worshipers do not hear them. The result is a rather pleasant selection of texts that minimizes the likelihood that anyone will be embarrassed or confused by Revelation’s more bizarre or disturbing images” (32).

Yet Revelation slips in anyway, not in reading but in singing. Koester highlights the hymns of the Apocalypse, and notes how they appear in popular mainstream hymns: “Of Our Father’s Love Begotten,” for instance, speaks of Jesus as “Alpha and Omega,” and saints throw down their golden crowns around the glassy sea every time we sing “Holy, Holy, Holy.” As Koester puts it, “By translating the book into song, musicians have helped to give Revelation an integral place in a living faith tradition.” It’s an error – and a serious one – to ignore the warnings of Revelation, still Koester argues, “the worship scenes help reader interpret the warnings in light of the promises, and to understand that God’s purposes are directed toward the joy of salvation” (38).