28.07.2025
Saint Francis
The Gift of Order in the Midst of Chaos
Revelation Series Part 2
Sermon for July 13, 2025
5th Sunday after Pentecost – Pr. Bea Chun, St. Francis Lutheran Church
Grace to you and peace
from the One who is,
and the One who was,
and the One who is to come.
Welcome back to the sermon series on the Book of Revelation.
This is part two of a seven-part journey.
Last Sunday, we stepped into the strange, beautiful,
and terrifying world of John the Seer.
John had been banished to the island of Patmos,
not because he stole,
not because he murdered,
not because he broke Roman law.
But because he told the truth.
And because he refused to say, The emperor is our god.
He said, Jesus is Lord.
And for that, he was exiled.
Last Sunday, we learned that John
was deeply worried
about seven churches under his care.
Seven churches, living under pressure,
facing trials:
Ephesus
Smyrna
Pergamum
Thyatira
Sardis
Philadelphia
and Laodicea.
What was it about their situation
that had John so worried?
I want to invite you to travel with me back in time
to the city of Laodicea.
The city is still asleep,
the sun is just rising,
the stones of the street are cool.
And three women have gathered at the well.
Their jars are heavy,
but not as heavy
as the weight they carry
in their hearts.
They are tired,
weary,
burdened.
Mara,
Damaris,
Salome.
At the well they pour out their hearts:
Lately, they often talked about
how the cost of bread keeps rising.
And food is harder to find.
And the taxes are so high,
some people have started selling their linen
just to survive.
Around them are signs of great
wealth and prosperity,
and yet, the poor grow thinner each day.
There is unrest.
Rumors of war.
Talk of uprisings.
Today, there is a new urgency.
Salome’s eyes are red.
She has been crying all night.
“My husband’s been taken again," she says.
"They have taken him again for questioning.
They say he conducts un-Roman activities.
They say that we are not loyal citizens,
because we do not bow to the statue of the emperor."
Mara shakes her head.
“The world has gone mad.”
Damaris adds quietly—
“What if we have another earthquake?”
Damaris is the oldest.
She was just a girl when
the last earthquake happened,
and sometimes she talks about it.
How the ground shook.
And the sky turned black with dust.
They thought it was the end of the world.
Salome nods.
“Yes, my mother—our relatives—still talk about that quake.
Their house collapsed.”
Mara sighs.
“At least our city has rebuilt again,
not like Jerusalem,
which is still such a broken place.”
My uncle came to live with us
during the war in Jerusalem.
He was the only one in the family
who made it out alive.
He came to us with nothing.
And what he tells us is unbelievable.
He says the sky turned black with smoke.
Tens of thousands of people were slaughtered,
combatants and civilians alike.
Blood flowed like rainwater in the gutters,
and the temple was overflowing with dead bodies.
The women have heard this before,
but still, they shiver
at these accounts.
Could this happen here?
Could the Romans do something like that to us?
They look around their city.
All seems calm.
Peaceful.
But for how long?
Will war come again?
Will the earth shake again?
Will the empire strike again?
Let’s leave the women now,
and let them carry their water home.
But let’s stay with their stories
for a moment,
because their fears were real
and not unfounded.
And the stories they shared
were all true.
Yes, there really was
a terrible earthquake in Laodicea.
It happened about thirty years
before the time of John,
and before the women met at the well
that morning,
but the memory of that terrible earthquake
was very much present.
Also, the city of Jerusalem really was
a site of unspeakable atrocities.
The destruction of Jerusalem
and the Holy Temple
was a turning point in history
and remains a profound symbol of loss and trauma
to this day.
And again,
all of this happened about thirty years
before the time of John
and before the women met at the well
that morning.
But dramatic events
can cast long shadows.
Trauma can seep into every crack of life.
We know about that, don’t we?
Remember September 11?
It’s been over 20 years since the attack
on the Twin Towers.
And still the aftershocks remain—
in our policies,
our fears,
our daily lives.
So yes—
We can understand
what it felt like to carry that kind of shock,
and also, how such a history
can lay the groundwork for a sense
of fear and foreboding,
a constant worry about what the future might bring.
I think this mindset is something
we have in common
with those first-century believers.
We, too, live in anxious times.
Every morning the news hits us
with new troubles:
Flash floods in Texas.
Rivers rising within minutes,
a wall of water rushing down.
Homes swept away.
Dozens dead.
Many still missing.
Elsewhere in America,
people struggle with
a massive, suffocating heat dome.
Temperatures are soaring.
Power grids breaking.
Wildfires raging.
Extreme weather events
are happening all over the world,
causing global displacement.
All over the world,
millions are fleeing from floods
and famines and fires.
And the war in Ukraine
and in the Middle East
drags on and on.
There are tensions in the South China Sea.
Trade wars with China
and many other countries.
The drums of conflict beat louder.
Authoritarianism is rising.
Democracy is faltering.
Journalists jailed.
Protesters silenced.
And then—
Economic injustice.
Tech companies lay off thousands,
while executives cash in.
Food insecurity rises.
Housing prices climb.
The rich grow richer.
The poor are pushed aside.
Mental health is in crisis—
especially for the young.
And every day, disinformation spreads
and truth is twisted.
So yes, the world is also in chaos.
We have that in common
with the people of
Ephesus,
Smyrna,
Pergamum,
Thyatira,
Sardis,
Philadelphia,
and Laodicea.
John longed to visit them
and to bring them comfort.
But he was stuck on Patmos.
So what could he do?
He prayed.
And he received a series of visions,
and these visions now form
the backbone of the Book of Revelation.
Today, in chapter 4,
we enter the first great vision.
John is caught up into heaven.
There he sees a throne,
and someone sitting on it
in radiant appearance—like precious stones.
And the throne is surrounded by a rainbow
that looks like emerald, symbolizing mercy and covenant.
Around the throne there are 24 elders
with white robes and golden crowns.
There are flashes of lightning,
rumblings, and peals of thunder.
There are seven lamps of fire
and a sea so calm, it looks like glass.
There are four living creatures
with eyes that see everything.
They constantly praise God:
“Holy, holy, holy,
is the Lord God Almighty,
who was and is and is to come.”
The living creatures and the elders continually fall down,
worship, and cast their crowns before the throne.
It is a vision of beauty
and order and perfection
and stability,
uninterrupted worship—
worship of God alone.
It is the complete opposite of the world,
with its violence and disaster
and terror and tears
and worship of power and greed.
This vision might suggest
that God is somehow far away
and far removed from all the troubles of the world.
But that is not the message of the Book of Revelation.
The message is this:
God is not far off.
God is at work.
God is remaking the world from the ground up.
God will bring heaven down
and make his home among the people.
And then there will be a new earth—
a world of justice,
and beauty,
and peace.
But it won’t come easily.
The process is not gentle.
It is labor.
It is birth.
It is painful.
And full of struggle.
And the Book of Revelation
will show us that.
It will not hide the pain.
It will not skip over the suffering.
But it will also show us the end.
Spoiler alert:
In one of the final visions,
John gets to see
“a new heaven and a new earth,”
and he gets to see the Holy City,
the new Jerusalem,
coming down out of heaven from God,
and he will hear a loud voice from the throne saying,
“Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people,
and he will dwell with them.
They will be his people,
and God himself will be with them and be their God.
He will wipe every tear from their eyes.
There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain,
for the old order of things has passed away.”
But we are not there yet,
and in the meantime, there is work to do.
Our work is to remind people of the promise
that God will always be with us,
and to be a witness of that new world.
Our St. Francis Mission Statement begins
with the following words:
“St. Francis is a bold Lutheran community
centered on forgiveness, wholeness, and peace
in a busy and fragmented world.”
With our actions, our prayers, our worship,
we can proclaim God's intentions for the world—
intentions that are for peace, not violence,
and for order and stability, not chaos and disruption.
With our actions, our prayers, and worship
we can remind people of God's gift of Order in the midst of chaos.
Amen.
Historical Note: The earthquake in Laodicea happened around 60 CE, and the siege of Jerusalem occurred in 70 CE.
The text: Revelation 4:1-11
The Elders and the Four Living Creatures
After this I looked, and there in heaven a door stood open! And the first voice, which I had heard speaking to me like a trumpet, said, “Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this.” At once I was in the spirit, and there in heaven stood a throne, with one seated on the throne! And the one seated there looks like jasper and carnelian, and around the throne is a rainbow that looks like an emerald. Around the throne are twenty-four thrones, and seated on the thrones are twenty-four elders, dressed in white robes, with golden crowns on their heads. Coming from the throne are flashes of lightning and rumblings and peals of thunder, and in front of the throne burn seven flaming torches, which are the seven spirits of God, and in front of the throne there is something like a sea of glass, like crystal.
Around the throne, and on each side of the throne, are four living creatures, full of eyes in front and back: the first living creature like a lion, the second living creature like an ox, the third living creature with a face like a human, and the fourth living creature like a flying eagle. And the four living creatures, each of them with six wings, are full of eyes all around and inside. Day and night without ceasing they sing,
“Holy, holy, holy,
the Lord God the Almighty,
who was and is and is to come.”
And whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to the one who is seated on the throne, who lives forever and ever, the twenty-four elders fall before the one who is seated on the throne and worship the one who lives forever and ever; they cast their crowns before the throne, singing,
“You are worthy, our Lord and God,
to receive glory and honor and power,
for you created all things,
and by your will they existed and were created.”
