The “Circle of Life.” What parent has not listened to Elton John’s heart-tugging theme song for Disney’s “The Lion King” movie (1994)? It is a glorious piece of music, and in the course of the movie the music is wedded to the image of the cute baby lion Simba being celebrated at his birth. It is one of the most powerful “feel good” moments in a “feel good” movie.

But as biologists, and pop-song composers, and pastors, and moms and dads everywhere all know, that “circle of life” has always included the inevitability of death. There are beginnings and there are endings. The circle of life ends. A new generation steps up. But what happened to the generation that “passed away?”

The message communicated in this week’s reading of Revelation offers a revolutionary spin on that “circle.” Instea…