This #sketchnote shows tactics needed to read the book of Revelation in a liberatory way, revealing the religion of empire & how to resist it.

These points subvert the "evacuation theology" used by many Christians to abdicate all responsibility for imperial Christianity.

1. Revelation reveals two religions at war: the religion of empire and the religion of creation. It calls its people, like the rest of the bible, to come out of empire and to be faithful to God (in the face of empire) at all costs.

2. We are not the intended audience. This is a personal & pastoral letter written by John who was a prisoner of the state on the island of Patmos (like an Alcatraz for Rome). It is address to marginalized poor people living under the terror of 1st c. Roman occupation.

3. If we understand that Revelation is not about or to us then we can learn from it in ways that reveal empire in our own time.

When we allow it to speak to its own time & people we see that it is written for and by the poor. It reveals Jesus stands with the victims of empire.

4. Reading Revelation is a lot like reading a political cartoon. If you do not understand the social-political context it is being written in the "joke" is lost on you. (I'm terrible at understanding political cartoons. You are not alone.)

5. Revelation is apocalyptic literature. Apocalyptic literature is a unique genre used to "unveil" or "unmask" in a time when all hope is lost. It generally pulls on images, symbols, and other linguistic devices already in circulation.

6. Revelation is remix. It combines remixed, or preexisting material (from Daniel, Ezekiel, Isaiah, Psalms, and much much more) and puts it in a new context.

This is John's way of showing that the whole prophetic tradition comes to bear weight on this moment.

7. Revelation shows us that God speaks to us in real-time, in local dialect, & in images that our communities connect with.

What Revelation is telling us is that God is present in the midst of every empire standing w/ those who empires victimizes and scapegoats (the lamb).

8. Read for the binaries, juxtapositions, ironies, & parodies.

There is an either/or presentation being offered: either empire (beast) or God's reign (the lamb that was slain). The powerful and the weak. Creation and the state. Hot or cold. And on and on.

9. Revelation is interested in systems. Names and individuals don't matter.

The imperial system is oppressive and is structured in such a way that creates poles in human society, "slave and free," "rich and poor."

God harshly judges the exploitative and "beastly" $$ system.

10. Revelation is a handbook for the faithful on how to resist and not to assimilate into empire. Or as @RonHogan describes it: Revelation is a first century rules for radicals.

It is not about predicting the end of the world. It is about how to keep empires from destroying it.

11. The image of the lamb that was slain (who ends the need for all sacrifice & scapegoating) is the central theme and image of Revelation.

A people shaped by this image will engage in active nonviolence, reject militarism, racism, & side w/ those scapegoated by empire.

12. Revelation unmasks how all empires use scapegoats to create and maintain social order. Scapegoats are used for our own "psychological relief."

Like in "They Live" (1988), we are to see through & dismantle this way of relating with one another.