Umm.  Where do you go with that text?  I guess it’s payback time.  I got an easy one - the lamb of God.  Now I get the one that I can’t even say in polite society!  I mean, Don Imus, shock jock radio talk show host was thrown off the air for using that word!  The name John uses for the woman riding the beast is the ugliest word we can use for a woman.  It means degradation, buying and selling something that’s not supposed to be for sale, exploiting people, both men and women.  It is the ugliest image we can think of - and that is exactly why it is used here.

A whore, a harlot, an adulteress, a prostitute, a seducer of men - she is supposed to epitomize not only her own evil, but the leading of others into evil with her show of  splendor, power and wealth. 

From a distance, she looks regal and beautiful and powerful - but John takes us up close where she is revealed to be drunk and ugly.  So, who is she, and who is the beast she controls?  Well, the beast…we know that from chapter 13...it symbolizes the Roman Empire, which symbolizes everything that is evil in their day: corruption, violence, greed, wealth and luxuries, military power and oppression.

And the woman?  It says in v 18 that she is the city of Babylon.  Babylon was a real city in the Old Testament - in fact, it is mentioned 287 times in scripture, more than any city other than Jerusalem.  And Babylon was the essence of evil, the embodiment of cruelty, the enemy of God’s people, and the seat of carnal sin, lust and greed.  Sounds like the woman on the beast to me!

Some say the city was Jerusalem, which in Jesus’ day was infected with consumer religion, where Jesus threw out the money lenders and merchants in an absolute fury.  And when Jesus didn’t turn out to be a king who could bring military power and liberation from Rome, they killed him.

To John’s listeners, in those days, it was Rome that symbolized all the antagonism and all the opposition to the Christian faith.  It was Rome that had dominion over the kings of the earth.  It was Rome that was drunk on the blood of the saints and martyrs. To John’s listeners the woman was Rome.

Babylon, Jerusalem, Rome, America?  She is all cities, all states, all cultures and societies who seduce with the allure of wealth and luxury and pleasure and power.  And in Rome, in Babylon, in America today - technically it’s the system that’s the harlot - any system of corruption and violence and greed where the choices of some affect life for others. 

Harlotry or prostitution, is the absolute worst of consumerism-it’s buying and selling life - it is consuming life.  Whether in Babylon, in Rome, in Jerusalem or in American cities today, the evil woman on the beast is the system  - the political and economic system that thinks it can buy and sell anything - friends, enemies, success, luxuries.  And John is saying that when we consume everything, when we purchase everything, when we own everything, everything is dead.  It loses its allure once we have it and then we need more.

Now-since we are using the language of a whore, we can’t ignore thee reference to the evil and the allure of sex-in Babylon, in Rome, in the world today.  Teenagers lured into thinking it’s okay because everyone’s doing it; saying, “It doesn’t mean anything,” or “If you loved me you would.” Adults getting divorced saying, “My husband (or wife) wasn’t what I thought they’d be, so I’m returning the merchandise.”  That’s not love, and that’s not marriage-that’s purchasing a harlot.  Boyfriends and girlfriends, husbands and wives are not consumer items.  They are not to be consumed, but created! 

The harlot is real - she is all men and all women who prey on one another, but she’s also way more than that.  She’s all of the excesses of a consumer society.  A society that values success and wealth and power and pleasure.  A society that spends 140 times more on gambling than on missionaries to spread the gospel.  Who spends millions on diet-related products-pay wealthy people to help us not overeat while people who don’ know Jesus starve. 

Not just Americans, but all nations are sucked into this consumer economy through commercials.  Teenagers, by the time you graduate you will have watched 350000 TV commercials - the equivalent of 18 months of 8-hour days – or 2 years of school!

The true crime of the harlot is that she tempts God’s people to sin!  And to the extent that America is a hooker, she’s an unhappy hooker!  We are learning first-hand today where greed and corruption leads.  It ultimately destroys even itself.

Here in this text, this is a new kind of judgment scene.  The whore isn’t struck down by a thunderbolt from God for her sin.  She is destroyed by the very evil she rides upon.  The judgment lesson in our text for tonight is that evil ultimately self destructs.  That which is opposed to God’s will, by its very nature destroys itself.  We know in our own lives how sin destroys.  Adultery kills a marriage; gambling/excess spending kills families and finances; lying kills relationships; porn kills the spirit not only of those consumed, but of the consumers as well; and overeating literally kills by the diseases it leads to.

Evil kills.  God gives life.  The harlot is the culture of evil and violence and greed that lures us with false promises of pleasure and beauty and wealth and power.  Christians, from the very beginning have been called to be countercultural.

Speaking of counter-cultural, there’s a story I heard Tony Compolo tell:

A few years ago Tony flew to Hawaii to speak at a conference. The way he tells it, he checks into his hotel and tries to get some sleep. Unfortunately, his internal clock wakes him at 3:00 a.m. The night is dark, the streets are silent, the world is asleep, but Tony is wide awake and his stomach is growling.He gets up and prowls the streets looking for a place to get some bacon and eggs for an early breakfast. Everything is closed except for a grungy dive in an alley. He goes in and sits down at the counter. The fat guy behind the counter comes over and asks, "What d'ya want?"

Well, Tony isn't so hungry anymore so eying some donuts under a plastic cover he says, "I'll have a donut and black coffee." As he sits there munching on his donut and sipping his coffee at 3:30, in walk eight or nine provocative, loud prostitutes just finished with their night's work. They plop down at the counter and Tony finds himself uncomfortably surrounded by this group of smoking, swearing hookers. He gulps his coffee, planning to make a quick getaway. Then the woman next to him says to her friend, "You know what? Tomorrow's my birthday. I'm gonna be 39." To which her friend nastily replies, "So what d'ya want from me? A birthday party? Huh? You want me to get a cake, and sing happy birthday to you?"

The first woman says, "Aw, come on, why do you have to be so mean? Why do you have to put me down? I'm just sayin' it's my birthday. I don't want anything from you. I mean, why should I have a birthday party? I've never had a birthday party in my whole life. Why should I have one now?" Well, when Tony Campolo heard that, he said he made a decision. He sat and waited until the women left, and then he asked the fat guy at the counter, "Do they come in here every night?" "Yeah," he answered. "The one right next to me," he asked, "she comes in every night?"

"Yeah," he said, "that's Agnes. Yeah, she's here every night. She's been comin' here for years. Why do you want to know?" "Because she just said that tomorrow is her birthday. What do you think? Do you think we could maybe throw a little birthday party for her right here in the diner?"

A cute kind of smile crept over the fat man's chubby cheeks. "That's great," he says, "yeah, that's great. I like it." He turns to the kitchen and shouts to his wife, "Hey, come on out here. This guy's got a great idea. Tomorrow is Agnes' birthday and he wants to throw a party for her right here." His wife comes out. "That's terrific," she says. "You know, Agnes is really nice. She's always trying to help other people and nobody does anything nice for her." So they make their plans. Tony says he'll be back at 2:30 the next morning with some decorations and the man, whose name turns out to be Harry, says he'll make a cake.

At 2:30 the next morning, Tony is back. He has crepe paper and other decorations and a sign made of big pieces of cardboard that says, "Happy Birthday, Agnes!" They decorate the place from one end to the other and get it looking great. Harry had gotten the word out on the streets about the party and by 3:15 it seemed that every prostitute in Honolulu was in the place. There were hookers wall to wall.

At 3:30 on the dot, the door swings open and in walks Agnes and her friend. Tony has everybody ready. They all shout and scream "Happy Birthday, Agnes!" Agnes is absolutely flabbergasted. She's stunned, her mouth falls open, her knees started to buckle, and she almost falls over. And when the birthday cake with all the candles is carried out, that's when she totally loses it. Now she's sobbing and crying. Harry, who's not used to seeing a prostitute cry, gruffly mumbles, "Blow out the candles, Agnes. Cut the cake."

So she pulls herself together and blows them out. Everyone cheers and yells, "Cut the cake, Agnes, cut the cake!" But Agnes looks down at the cake and, without taking her eyes off it, slowly and softly says, "Look, Harry, is it all right with you if...I mean, if I don't...I mean, what I want to ask, is it OK if I keep the cake a little while? Is it all right if we don't eat it right away?"

Harry doesn't know what to say so he shrugs and says, "Sure, if that's what you want to do. Keep the cake. Take it home if you want." "Oh, could I?" she asks. Looking at Tony she says, "I live just down the street a couple of doors; I want to take the cake home, is that okay? I'll be right back, honest."

She gets off her stool, picks up the cake, and carries it high in front of her like it was the Holy Grail. Everybody watches in stunned silence and when the door closes behind her, nobody seems to know what to do. They look at each other. They look at Tony. So Tony gets up on a chair and says, "What do you say that we pray together?"

And there they are in a hole-in-the-wall greasy spoon, half the prostitutes in Honolulu, at 3:30 a.m. listening to Tony Campolo as he prays for Agnes, for her life, her health, and her salvation. Tony recalls, "I prayed that her life would be changed, and that God would be good to her."

When he's finished, Harry leans over, and with a trace of hostility in his voice, he says, "Hey, you never told me you was a preacher. What kind of church do you belong to anyway?" In one of those moments when just the right words came, Tony answers him quietly, "I belong to a church that throws birthday parties for prostitutes at 3:30 in the morning." Harry thinks for a moment, and in a mocking way says, "No you don't. There ain't no church like that. If there was, I'd join it. Yep, I'd join a church like that."

That is exactly the kind of church we have.  That is exactly the kind of a God we  have.  Our God loves prostitutes - he loved Rahab and Mary Magdalene and he loves you and me. He gives us all we need to live life abundantly with him. He is so very consistent!  He gave us the Ten Commandments to keep us from the evil that destroys us - as a red light - to stop behavior that kills us and hurts us and others and takes us away from him.  Commandments that give us a green light - Go!  Enjoy the life I have created for you.

A little trivia…the woman and the beast sport scarlet and purple and gold, but there is no blue to be found! Blue is conspicuously missing. That’s because in the OT, blue was a symbol for the 10 commandments, which were carved into the blue sapphire stone of Mt. Sinai, and people wore blue fringe bracelets to show they worshipped the one true God.

I considered bringing blue bracelets or blue ribbons for all of u to put on to remind us not to choose evil, not to give in to the seductions around us luring us to pursue success and wealth and pleasure.  It kills!  The seducer, the whore, chooses evil, takes others with her and they perish.

God says, “Come out of her!”  She will die a horrible death and will take all of her followers with her.  Come out of her - come, be made clean, come be my bride!  Our God, knowing who we are and which are our own sins of choice, says stop it!  Come be my bride.  I will make you my own, give you my name, come into you and stay forever.

Again and again, God calls us to repent - to change our ways.  He promises life.  He comes after us, he came right down to us.  In Jesus’ death, he took our evil destruction upon himself, and in Jesus’ resurrection he gives us life.

I have loved this Revelation series because John’s letter reminds us as it reminded those churches so long ago - how much our God loves us, the lengths he’ll go to save us, and what he expects from us.  Come out of her.  Come to the wedding.  Come be  my bride.

So, tie that imaginary blue band around your wrist, or put on a real one - declare with Joshua, “choose you this day whom you will serve . . . but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord" (Josh. 24:2, 15).