This post was written by Anastasia McAteer about her staged reading of the book of Revelation.

(The Revelation of Jesus Christ: A Staged Reading is located in the Worship Texts/Dramas section of the Clayfire collection, “Discipleship for the Real World.”  Included with the reading are detailed performance notes for casting and staging. It is available for local use with a subscription to Clayfire.org.)

The Revelation is a casebook of visionary excess… [but] also an ordinary human vessel, a letter meant to be read aloud. It begins and ends with a blessing upon those who read it to others, and those who hear and heed it.

This is a poet’s book, which is probably the best argument for reclaiming it from fundamentalists. It doesn’t tell, it shows, over and over again, its images unfolding, pushing hard against the limits of language and metaphor, engaging the listener in a tale that has the satisfying yet unsettling logic of a dream.

Kathleen Norris, Revelation (Pocket Canon), pp. vii, viii & ix

The Revelation of Jesus Christ: A Stage Reading began with a sermon series. My pastor, Darrell Johnson, had decided that he wanted to share this book about “discipleship on the edge” with his congregation, and it being the year 1999 and end-times all the rage, he figured he could get away with it. This wasn’t any normal little series, however – it was 32 weeks of intense theological digging into perhaps the most deep, poetic and misunderstood book of the Bible.

After each week’s service, I would go home and meditate on the scripture which had been presented. As usually happens when I hear scripture read aloud, I began to hear different voices reading it with varying inflection and interpretation. I considered how the words may be presented by not just one, but multiple readers. The very beginning of the book states quite plainly that the words are “meant to be read aloud.”  This book, which as a child I’d read during boring sermons for sensational entertainment, turned out to be an epic poem which was intended by its author to be read to others. Not turned into cheap fiction, not made into bad movies. It was a letter from one disciple to others, and originally would have been read aloud to the congregations mentioned therein as well as many others. Why couldn’t we, today, have the same experience – the original intent?

Of course, to hear these words as simply a beautiful poem or a sensational story is not wrong – the art of the book is part of what makes it so special. But going deeper within the text adds a new dimension of understanding to the much-maligned familiar scenes taking place in the spiritual dimension. Simply put, the further one dives into this book, and the more one understands its true meaning and intent to change our lives, the more one will enjoy this staged reading. Indeed, I wish that all audiences of the piece would learn the theology behind what they are hearing. Thus, I was delighted that the first performance of TRoJC concluded the sermon series mentioned above. It was a perfect ending to a year of intense study and debate, for everyone listening could recall how the verses they were hearing had been unpacked and wrestled with. It brought back the truths we had discovered together, while at the same time reminding us all that, in the end, the book is an amazing work of art.

Download an excerpt of The Revelation of Jesus Christ: A Staged Reading.

© Anastasia McAteer

Anastasia McAteer is a freelance writer and liturgical consultant. She holds a Master of Divinity with a concentration in Worship, Theology and the Arts from Fuller Theological Seminary, and has done doctoral work in Liturgical Studies at the Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley. She authored the popular blog Feminary while at Fuller. Stasi has also written a variety of worship resources for local use and national publications. Her essay “Exorcising the Spirit” is included in Jesus Girls: True Tales of Growing Up Female and Evangelical (Cascade Books, 2009). Stasi is married to John and their two children, Maggie and Kieran, help her fulfill her priestly calling on a daily basis.