The Apocalypse of Toto

Revelation 5:11-14

Then I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels surrounding the throne and the living creatures and the elders; they numbered myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands, singing with full voice, “Worthy is the Lamb that was slaughtered to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!”

Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them, singing,

 “To the one seated on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!”

And the four living creatures said, “Amen!” And the elders fell down and worshiped.

Last week we learned that the book of Revelation was a letter FROM a particular person, TO seven particular churches in their time.  When we read it, we’re reading THEIR mail.  It contains no secret codes or predictions of the future for us.  It was their mail for their time.  That said… we also recognized last week that reading other people’s mail from other times can be REALLY interesting AND Revelation is some super weird, funky, and interesting mail to read, for sure!  

Part of the reason Revelation is super weird, funky and interesting, is that it is an example of APOCALYPTIC literature.  I know that word, "APOCALYPTIC" sounds scary.  That’s because insecure and manipulative men have worked hard to make that word sound scary as a way of holding onto power.  BUT authors of apocalyptic literature don't write it with the goal of instilling fear!  They write this way in part, trying to give a cosmic, supernatural level of hope to the hopeless!  That said, I think that the Book of Revelation has been so mucked with that it might be easier for us to see what Apocalyptic literature is and isn’t, if we use a different piece of apocalyptic literature as an example of this genre.   

That story goes like this… There once was this young girl.  She, her dog, and her whole house got vacuumed up by a tornado and then deposited in a VERY strange land inhabited by small, mythical beings.  From there she journeyed toward a city made of precious gems to seek salvation.  Along the way she meets three additional mythical beings… one made of hay, one made of metal, and one with the face and tail of a lion.  Their journey comes into conflict with an evil being with a VERY unnatural face color (I know you’re thinking orange, but in this story its actually green) this evil being also has a bizarre, used footwear fetish and commands an army of mindless, evil, wing-ed monkeys who wear red hats.  

Eventually the group defeated the great, green, evil monster and in the Emerald City had a supernatural encounter in a giant room filled with smoke and fire and booming voices that seemed to come from all around them.  At that point, Toto, our hero’s tiny dog, pulled back the curtain that had separated the world of the supernatural from the world of the travelers.  That literal REVELATION, leads to another REVELATION that in spite of how things looked along the way, good has (and always will) triumph over evil.  Then our hero heads back home by way of a magic incantation and clicking the heels together of those fabulous, second hand, supernatural shoes.

THIS story, like the book of Revelation, is apocalyptic literature.  Both are based on visions or dreams.  Both point to a future end time when all that is currently wrong with the world will be made right again and a new era will emerge.  Both have a dualistic view of good and evil.  Both use symbolic language, mythical characters, and fantastical action that pulls back the curtain on the cosmic battle between good and evil.  (Toto did that literally!)  And BOTH show how the consequences of the cosmic battle between good and evil are a reflected in the struggles of regular people in the real world. 

Revelation was John’s Vision.  The Wizard of Oz was Dorothy’s.  John’s apocalypse ebbs and flows between terrible battles, bowls of plagues, terrible beasties and hope filled interludes.  (It is one of those hope filled interludes that we have in today’s second lesson.)  Dorothy's apocalypse also ebbs and flows between crisis and hope as well.  First a tornado, then a safe landing in Munchkinland and a new-to-her pair of fabulous shoes.  The loneliness of a journey into the unknown, then the relief of finding companions along the way.  Evil flying monkeys, then the discovery that evil is water soluble.  Then the final victory of Dorothy returning home surrounded by the entire host of characters from Oz and facilitated by a magical being and, of course, that pair of mystical, magical, amazing footwear.  

So now, after two weeks, what have we learned so far about the Book of Revelation?  First, its someone else’s mail, not sent to us or meant for us BUT when we read it we can see how it buoyed up the people of those seven churches as they lived their way through their fully involved dumpster fire of a world.  It worked for them in their time in the same way I find the Maya Angelou quote “every storm runs out of rain” works for us in ours.  BOTH give us regular folks some Good… really GOOD, God Level stuff to hold onto while our dumpster fire of a world rages all around us.

We’ve learned, thanks to Toto, that "Apocalyptic" just means to pull back the curtain.  We've learned that the Book of Revelation uses this unique literary devise to pull back the curtain between heaven and earth so that the regular people in those seven churches back then (and maybe regular people reading their mail today too) might be able to hear God clearly over the deafening din of their dumpster fire world say, "The day is ABSOLUTELY coming when myriads and myriads of angels, the elders, and all living creatures will once again sing out in full voice:  Alleluia!  We sing your praises.  All our hearts are filled with gladness.  The day is ABSOLUTELY coming when we will all once again feel like the place we are living… is home.  Amen.