Revelation 2:8-11 Friends Don't Let Friends Misread the Apocalypse

Revelation 2:8-11

The Message to Smyrna

 ‘And to the angel of the church in Smyrna write:
These are the words of the first and the last,
who was dead
and came to life:

 ‘I know your affliction and your poverty,
even though you are rich.
I know the slander on the part of those
who say that they are Jews and are not,
but are a synagogue of Satan.
Do not fear what you are about to suffer.
Beware, the devil is about to throw some of you
into prison so that you may be tested,
and for ten days you will have affliction.
Be faithful until death,
and I will give you the crown of life.
Let anyone who has an ear listen
to what the Spirit is saying to the churches.
Whoever conquers will not be harmed
by the second death. 

Observation: John shares messages from Jesus for each of seven churches in Asia Minor (modern-day Turkey). To Smyrna, Jesus says that they have affliction and poverty, even though they are rich, and are facing slander from their fellow Jews, whom John calls a "synagogue of Satan." It's not clear what the background of this accusation is, because little is known about the Jewish community in Smyrna.

Application: *Sigh*. What a difficult text to be reading in the wake of yet another gruesome act of anti-semitic violence last weekend, in Chabad synagogue of Poway, California.

The Apocalypse (Which DOES NOT MEAN THE END OF THE WORLD, but rather is Greek for "Revelation") has been misused and misread for as long as it's been around. This particular passage has done an awful lot of harm in that history. For centuries, Christians have assumed, with little supporting evidence, that by "synagogue of Satan" John means non-Christ-believing Jews, and Christians have used that interpretation to do horrible violence to Jews in their own time and place.

It should go without saying, violence against anyone, let alone the very family of faith from which Jesus, all twelve apostles, and indeed John of Patmos came, is itself Satanic. I can't think of a more evil thing to do than  to walk into a house of prayer--any house of prayer--and take lives. If there's a real "congregation of Satan" today, it is any gathering of people of faith that would ignore or empower this kind of atrocity.

The call I hear from Revelation/"The Apocalypse", over and over, is to keep our faith even in times of horrific violence, and to stand in solidarity with those facing violence. To do anything less is to ally ourselves with the very forces of evil which John describes in such symbolic and poetic detail.

I grieve with my siblings in faith for the life, and the sense of safety, lost this weekend. I pledge to speak up and challenge interpretations of Christian scripture that lend any credence to those kinds of attacks. Always.

Prayer: God, I pray for the people you chose to be the first to know and follow you, the children of Israel. Help us to be good and faithful friends to them. Help me to be part of your congregation--the congregation that pursues peace and understanding in your name--and none other, even if it should bear your name or claim to follow your way. Amen.