LentArt: The Seventh Trumpet

In times of crisis many people turn to the Book of Psalms which is essentially a spiritual songbook for almost every aspect of human existence. Over the past couple of weeks I’ve repeatedly used the Psalm in the Daily Lectionary as the prompt for the #LentArt that I have posted because it has resonated with the situation we find ourselves in.

There are others who at such times race straight to the Book of Revelation and other apocalyptic literature within the Bible. Today’s painting, the “Seventh Trumpet” by #LentArt based on the Daily Lectionary Day 31 "Seventh trumpet" by Austino Obi Okafor was prompted by the reading from Revelation 11:15-19

The seventh angel sounded his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, which said:

“The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Messiah,

and he will reign for ever and ever.”

And the twenty-four elders, who were seated on their thrones before God, fell on their faces and worshiped God, saying:

“We give thanks to you, Lord God Almighty, the One who is and who was,

because you have taken your great power and have begun to reign.

The nations were angry, and your wrath has come.

The time has come for judging the dead, and for rewarding your servants the prophets

and your people who revere your name, both great and small—

and for destroying those who destroy the earth.”

Then God’s temple in heaven was opened, and within his temple was seen the ark of his covenant. And there came flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder, an earthquake and a severe hailstorm.

Revelation 11:15-19 (NIV)

I’m not going to get into an argument with folks here about the interpretation of specific texts and verses, but one thing I get enormously frustrated with are those who tend to look on tragedy’s in the world, be it the current crisis, or earthquakes, or hurricanes and tie them to apocalyptic passages such of this, with a degree of barely supressed glee, suggesting that “This proves that Jesus is about to come back!... the seventh Angel has his trumpet pressed to his lips in preparation for the final fanfare!” or worse, that “natural” disasters and diseases are an act of punishment from God for specific sins. We’ve seen that in the past with HIV and some, including some advisors to President Trump, have voiced similar “insights” into the mind of this vengeful version of God. I don’t agree with them, and am like Jesus himself, only insofar as I have no insight into the timing of the coming of God’s Kingdom in all its fullness. I pray every day for it to come, as most Christians do in the words of the prayer Jesus taught his followers, and will rejoice when it does come, but have no idea how or when it will.

This passage in particular and others associated with the blowing of trumpets in the New Testament have become associated with varieties of “rapture” theology that have become so prevalent in some quarters of the church from the 19th century on. So much of this is a function of really poor theology. And much of what is written and frequently preached about Revelation, including this passage, is done without any reflection on the original purpose of that book, or apocalyptic literature in general. It was not written as a playbook on the return of Christ 2000 years in the future (or indeed at any of the times that it has been brought into play at other crisis points in the time in between… during the lockdown why not read C. J. Sansom’s Shardlake story “Revelation” which offers an insight into some of the dreadful things that misuse of the book of Revelation inspired in Tudor England. It’s a long read, but your may have a lot of time for reading in the coming weeks!) It’s original purpose was to encourage, and indeed stir up in some places the Christians belonging to the “seven churches” at the beginning of the Book, based in modern day Turkey, which were undergoing the first of what was to be a series of significant persecutions by Roman authorities. In it there was an assurance that whatever was happening in the world around them that there was a battle going on in another sphere of existence, but that the outcome of that battle was assured. We know how it is going to end and we will be on the winning side. Last year the most recent of the Avengers movies came out, and without offering any spoilers, everyone knew that they would be victorious in the end. The picture at the end of the previous movie was pretty bleak, but everyone knew that they would turn things around. The question was “How?” and “How many would still be alive at the end?”

The Book of Revelation gives that sort of reassurance. Not only to the churches to whom it was originally written, but to others since. We know how the story ends after the seventh trumpet has been blown.

But we do not yet know how many of us will still be walking the earth when it does.

Which is why I like this picture “The Seventh Trumpet”. Because it carries with it not the triumph of a heavenly herald, as most other renderings do. But something of a New Orleans Jazz Funeral (which ironically my friend and colleague Steve Stockman was talking about in a 4 Corners committee meeting on Zoom this afternoon). Such funeral corteges manage in a way no others do, to combine both the plaintive bent notes of the blues together with the soaring notes of celebration. I’ve said before that I would love Wynton Marsalis and Eric Clapton’s rendering of “Just a Closer Walk with Thee” played at my funeral.

Just not any time soon…

PRAYER (a prayer you can sing to the tune of “Abide with me” with lyrics by Noel Robinson, Andy Flannagan, Rev Graham Hunter)

We seek your kingdom throughout every sphere

We long for heaven’s demonstration here

Jesus, your light shine bright for all to see