Ecclesiastes 3:1-13

I'm not going to say much about this one. If the whole Bible was like this, there wouldn't be a need for this sermon helper.

Revelation 21:1-6a

Revelation does not get talked about a whole lot in mainstream churches. Or, it gets talked about all the time if you are one of those churches that talks about the end times. Eastern Orthodox churches don't include it in their Bible at all. This particular passage seems to be a favorite, as it appears 3 times in the lectionary cycle.

There are a few views on Revelation. If I had to pick one, I'd go with “preterist” from the Latin meaning “past”. Although the text doesn't say it anywhere, I see the symbols in this book as allegory of the terrible events of 70AD, when Jerusalem was destroyed by the Romans during a Jewish uprising. These words then offer comfort of a coming “new earth”. Other interpretations tend to include too much about predicting the future, which I find unpalatable.

By destroying Jerusalem, the Romans wiped the slate of Judaism clean. This is not unusual in history, the Mongols did it repeatedly in China, World War I cleared much of Europe. Wars, famine and disease have marked other major changes in history. Looking back from hundreds of years later we can see the good that eventually grew out of that change, but we never really know what was lost. Those who were there would felt only the lose and would have had a hard time seeing any good. Revelations is known as one of the craziest psychedelic visions in all scriptures. In this chapter at least, it's a vision of something good coming out of an otherwise terrible time.

Matthew 25:31-46

For about a year, before I gave up completely on my church, I admitted that I was not accepting much of the Bible, and that I was cherry picking the parts I liked. Matthew 25 was one of those parts. Even this passage has its troublesome aspects. It would be nice if they just stopped at verse 40. Up to there you are getting some really clear direction, on par with the better parts of the Sermon on the Mount. Feed the hungry, give clothing and shelter to the needy, visit people in prison. Plenty of Christians do all that, possibly for the wrong reasons, but they do it.

It starts to get a bit twisted as he scolds those who didn't do those things, but it helps to make a point. I talked to a philosophy professor and found out that the idea expressed here is included in other ethical systems including more modern ones. I still think the summation in verse 45 is a great way to express the idea of how we should treat each other, “just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me”. This shows up in Martin Luther King's “Until all are free, none are free”, as well as many other similar calls for unity by great leaders.

Jesus is talking about himself here, but god in just about any incarnation, represents the larger whole of our culture, its history and what it aspires to be in the future. How we treat those among us who are in need who, for whatever reason have not gained from what the society has to offer, that is how we should judge the quality of that society.

Treating someone well who has much to offer and is giving their all is just a version of reciprocity. Reciprocity is fine, but a society based solely on reciprocity will tend to concentrate its wealth in those with the widest range of natural abilities as they are able to do more with less effort. That wealth will accumulate as they select and reward others like them. We would lose contributions from those who are weak in significant ways but still have important strengths. And we would lose our sense of compassion for those who are the most in need.

This is a brief summary of social contract theory, something that some argue doesn't exist. But I am too aware of how many people have helped me get where I am to see the world as anything but billions of connections, each affecting the next. I don't fear a consequence of eternal punishment, I take joy in knowing that I get to pass along what was handed to me.