I’m still thinking about Sunday and the idea that we should be happy. There seems to be an idea that we will get reward in this life, and one can even find scripture around this… if you quote in part out of context.

I believe that I shall look upon the goodness of the LORD
in the land of the living! (Psalm 27:13 ESV)

And yes, that is from the lectionary. But one has to ask what is the goodness of the LORD. Many would take that as feelings of comfort and happiness. Well, I am not that sure. There is no retirement within the church, and the ministry one has ends when one dies. For many of those who help greatly, their spouse greatly helps: he is able to give greatly because his wife cares for him greatly.

This is called selfishness by this society. As if we are not going to be persecuted. As if we are not going to face opposition: if not in the church in our secular businesses. Psalm 27 is not about prosperity: it is about being opposed, having to wait upon the LORD for deliverance, for those who are aligned with evil are running things.

A remarkably current situation.

So I guess my problem with this is that gay people can go to any other florist and get the flowers they want. But instead of doing that, they prefer to force their morality on this woman. This woman doesn’t think that same-sex marriage is something to be celebrated. But the gay rights activists think that she needs to be forced by the power of the state to celebrate gay marriage. How would gay marriage affect you? Well, you will be prosecuted by the state and have your wealth confiscated. This case should be talked about in every church in the land next Sunday. But then I guess people would complain that that they were being too political and not providing them with feelings of comfort and happiness.

But what is it to see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living? Well, for this we do have a witness, the disciple who is generally called the one Christ loved: the one whose sexuality has been called into question by those who think all love requires sexual expression, and one who lived in exile to an old age.

When he saw the living Christ in Glory he collapsed in fear.

I, John, your brother and partner in the tribulation and the kingdom and the patient endurance that are in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos on account of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet saying, “Write what you see in a book and send it to the seven churches, to Ephesus and to Smyrna and to Pergamum and to Thyatira and to Sardis and to Philadelphia and to Laodicea.”

Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me, and on turning I saw seven golden lampstands, and in the midst of the lampstands one like a son of man, clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash around his chest. The hairs of his head were white, like white wool, like snow. His eyes were like a flame of fire, his feet were like burnished bronze, refined in a furnace, and his voice was like the roar of many waters. In his right hand he held seven stars, from his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword, and his face was like the sun shining in full strength.

When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. But he laid his right hand on me, saying, “Fear not, I am the first and the last, and the living one. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades. Write therefore the things that you have seen, those that are and those that are to take place after this. As for the mystery of the seven stars that you saw in my right hand, and the seven golden lampstands, the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches.

(Revelation 1:9-20 ESV)

Christ has power: you do not need to unpack the symbolism here for the plain text says he controls Death and Hell. He is glorious. And as we are we cannot withstand him.

This is a frank contradiction to church services making us feel good about ourselves and not rocking the boat: preaching personal comfort and prosperity. John describes the qualities of the church as patience, endurance, and persecution: many were being martyred as he was told to write. We need to consider the messages to the seven churches in Asia as written in a context of persecution. They had less than no power: the pagan Romans considered them, like cockroaches, as needing extermination from society. People were dying for the faith, for the very person who can shut death and suffering up and close that chapter of this world.

And there are those who claim we have this power: we do not. Christ does.

I think we are left in this world to be witnesses so that all those in the world will have the gospel proclaimed, if not by word, by our lives: if not by our lives, by the manner of our death. But the church has lost its way. Instead of being a place where the words of scripture cut us like a sword and bring us, in tears, to our knees, it has become a place of comfort. Where people seek an earthly reward.

As if such things last: they do not. The very government, the very nations we have, are fungible.

O LORD, you are my God; I will exalt you; I will praise your name, for you have done wonderful things, plans formed of old, faithful and sure.
For you have made the city a heap, the fortified city a ruin; the foreigners’ palace is a city no more; it will never be rebuilt. Therefore strong peoples will glorify you; cities of ruthless nations will fear you.
For you have been a stronghold to the poor, a stronghold to the needy in his distress, a shelter from the storm and a shade from the heat; for the breath of the ruthless is like a storm against a wall,

(Isaiah 25:1-4 ESV)

Let us not forget that the God we serve is so glorious and righteous that no one of us can remain in his prescence, but by his blood. He has the power and the glory and the honour. We do not: and those who claim this right, those who ruthlessly impose their morality upon us, will be bought down. It is our job to bear witness to Christ in this time: do not expect this to lead to prosperity. Pray it leads not to ruination, jail and death.