Sunday Evening in the Book of Revelation

It’s the space around the sessions at a conference like this that is so valuable!

 

This evening’s meal was spent in the company of three from Denmark.  What did you make of your visit to Berlin? Was the question they asked?  I found myself retelling the story of No Walls Within.

 

Then it dawned on me just how significant it was to be here.  For the first part of my life the thought that the berlin wall should come down and the iron curtain be drawn aside was simply beyond the bounds of possibility.  And then the miracle happened.

 

That’s the hope in those part of the world where walls play such a part now … the miracle CAN happen.

 

As we had driven in the coach along one particular lstretch of the wall that had been preserved our attention was drawn to art work along the wall.  One in particular caught Stefan’s attention and he pointed it out.

 

Many small people

Doing many small things

In Many small places

Can change the face of the world!

 

That’s it!

 

Be it the largest of issues or the smallest of concerns, it’s the tiniest of things that matter!  That’s the inspiration for the work of any local church, of our church at Highbury in particular.  It’s the inspiration for the teaching Stefan does in Brazil and I do with the Federation.  Those small things really do count.

 

The evening meal over, it was into the one session of today.  A paper read by Joel White of the Geissen Seminary, where Juergen and Stefan had studied before coming to Cheltenham and to Highbury.

 

The Tale of the 144,000 in Revelation 7 and 14.  Old Testament and Intra-textual clues to their identify.

 

It excited me to find Joel right at the start using his hands to draw attention to the world of Revelation in exactly the way I had been using my hands in the couple of sermons I had preached on Sundays leading up to the Conference.  In reading Revelation how important it is to think of the world [up there!] of the vision and the world [down here!] that the vision is referring to.

 

The paper and the ensuing discussion circled round the Jewishness of the world of Revelaion and the world of the early church.  It was good to share a whole range of insights.

 

Great to have a proper conversation afterwards with Roland Dieness who is Professor in the theology and religious studies department at Nottingham University.  It would be great to get in touch later and build on that relationship in the context of our course.

 

The evening finished off with a great conversation with Stefan.  We recalled those words on the wall, made plans for the family’s visit to Highbury and rounded the evening off with a choc ice!

 

Our final sessions tomorrow.