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S141102
“For All the Saints”
Revelation 7:9-17 (NRSV)
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After this I looked, and there was a great multitude that no one could count, from every
nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the
Lamb, robed in white, with palm branches in their hands. 10 They cried out in a loud voice,
saying,
“Salvation belongs to our God who is seated on the throne,
and to the Lamb!”
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And all the angels stood around the throne and around the elders and the four living
creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, 12 singing,
“Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom
and thanksgiving and honor
and power and might
be to our God forever and ever! Amen.”
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Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, “Who are these, robed in white, and where
have they come from?” 14 I said to him, “Sir, you are the one who knows.” Then he said to me,
“These are they who have come out of the great ordeal; they have washed their robes and
made them white in the blood of the Lamb. 15 For this reason they are before the throne of
God, and worship him day and night within his temple, and the one who is seated on the
throne will shelter them. 16 They will hunger no more, and thirst no more; the sun will not
strike them, nor any scorching heat; 17 for the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their
shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of the water of life, and God will wipe away
every tear from their eyes.”
[Halloween]
How’d Halloween go at your house Friday night? I’ve become more and more
conscious that I assess the perceived well-being of our neighborhood by how
many parents actually release their children into the night for this fearful activity.
As most of you do, we live in a neighborhood in fairly close proximity to other
neighborhoods where the scarier elements of the night are very real. So, parents
bring their children into the relative safety of our neighborhood for trick-ortreating. Does that happen here on Bellerive, or Dover Place? Or where you
are? Reading Next Door and the Woodward Now chat site I’m aware we had
gunshots this week on Fillmore Avenue. And, a house right across the street was
robbed. Where I am, on Halloween the Loop can get, well, a bit ‘loopy.’ When
the firecrackers go off we wonder if they are gunshots instead.
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So. Why do we like this holiday so much? Is it getting to dress up like someone
we are not? Or, like that shadow side of ourself I talked about a few weeks ago?
I think that’s it, mostly. It MUST come out. Halloween is a relatively safe time to
let that happen, because we do it together.
But we also know some of our fears are very, very real. So today we celebrate
the flip side, the bright side, the washed-in-the-blood-of-the-lamb side. Washed
in the blood of the lamb. J. Howard Olds observes, “The biblical metaphor is an
oxymoron, like jumbo shrimp, down escalators, United Methodists. If you want to
wash something, use water, soap, detergent. Blood-stained things are red, not
white. So much for logic!” So, what was Saint John of Patmos gertting at?
[Roman Persecution]
The Book of Revelation was written to people whose lives were lived in
tremendous fear, of being found out to be Christians by Roman authorities, who
would send soldiers to swoop in and gather them up and lock them behind bars,
then throw them into arenas with lions and gladiators. That’s about as
Halloweeny as it gets, I think. And it was real life. Not so different from the
experience of Jews hiding in basements or attics in World War II Germany or
Poland. Or, the experience of the man who was arrested and jailed in North
Korea six months ago when he left his Bible in a bar by mistake. Saint John
called it “The Great Tribulation.” It was not some cosmic occurrance to come, as
we who might see the film Left Behind can see portrayed in theaters now. John’s
hearers were IN it.
Another pastor by the name of Robert Crilley takes the observation on the
scripture context a step deeper. He writes, “I don't think Roman persecution is
the only reason this claim has suddenly become so urgent and necessary. It's
more a case of John's realizing that some of his congregations are beginning to
lose hope. Their sorrow from fear and suffering is turning into pessimism.
There's a difference. As painful as it is, sorrow at least is based on the value of
something: that which we miss and now mourn, or have lost but can't ever forget.
Pessimism is founded on the value of nothing: believing the memories foolish
and the search futile. True despair consists not so much in being weary of
suffering, but rather in growing weary of the potential for joy. For all its opaque
imagery and obtruse symbolism, the message of Revelation is quite clear: even
in the midst of our suffering, there is always the joyful opportunity for life anew!”
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[Revelation Vision]
Crilley points out that the vision described in Revelation 7 comes, not at the close
of all things, but between the sixth and seventh seal. So, while the hearers are
waiting for the coming of the new heaven and new earth, John gives them a
glimpse of it! Crilley says “It’s like a ‘Coming Attraction,’ “spliced into the middle
of this divine drama -- just when they least expect it.” And in it, God turns their
pessimistic expectations upside down. They are challenged to replace
pessimism with optimistic hope.
[Chiasm1]
In my own study this week I discovered the last part of the text is what Biblical
scholars call a CHIASM. That means it moves in steps into a central theme, then
back out with a reversal of each step. The writer is standing in heaven with God
Himself. God challenges him to interpret what he sees. The writer can’t, so asks
God to lay it out. Who are these people?
They are the ones coming through the great ordeal. Our NRSV, as most
translations, puts it in the past. “Are coming through” is a more accurate
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translation of the Greek. So, imagine the crowd growing, gathering, even as they
watch. What is the great ordeal? Life itself! Who of us does not experience life
sometimes as an ordeal? There’s a whole sermon just on that, right? Believe
me. Whatever you find difficult in your life now, it can surely be worse. Amen?
You visit someone in the hospital, at a nursing home. You are moved to genuine
tears of sympathy. But you also find yourself coming out in tremendous gratitude
that your own troubles aren't as bad as all that.
[Chiasm2] Then God tells the writer they are “Washed in the blood of the
lamb.” One of our favorite songs, one of our favorite themes of the Christian faith.
We emphasize our salvation in Christ. But sometimes we focus on our own
salvation without acknowledging the cost! The price paid! It’s bloody, bloodier
than the nasty red goo painted on the faces of Halloween trick-or-treaters. Real,
painful, horrible blood-letting. Remember how so many criticized Mel Gibson’s
movie The Passion of the Christ, saying it was too ‘bloody?’ Well? It WAS!!! But
the robes are made white. Spotless. Imagine these early Christian hearers, as
they pictured their loved ones being literally slaughtered before them, paying the
same price paid by Jesus. The Romans offered them the opportunity to recant,
deny their faith, but they did not. In the first century, this was the very definition
of a ‘saint:’ the ones who did not recant, but went to the death instead. The
martyrs were the ‘saints.’ Here in the elevated and gathered multitude, they are
not bloody. They stand strong, healthy, whole.
[Chiasm3] And they are worshipping. That’s the activity. What is worship?
Worship is focused on God, not us. It’s not in the first instance about our
learning, or our giving, or even our inspiration or courage to do more. Worship is
about GOD. Worship is losing ourselves in the glory of the One Who made us,
redeems us, sustains us. Adam and Eve, the very first humans, got side-tracked.
They thought life was about knowing, learning, as much as God. No. Worship is
adoration, gratitude, praise, of the God Who will always be mysterious.
But while worship seems central for us, it is not the center of Saint John’s
Chiasm. This is so important to get. It’s a major twist. The next phrase, the
center of the chiasm, is that in this moment, in this gathering of the saints, the
focus shifts.
[Chiasm4] The scripture says ‘The One on the throne shall shelter them.” And
it goes on to define that sheltering: no suffering, no hunger, no thirst, no fire of
persecution! This is the center of the vision. The God Who is Love, the God
Who is praised, the Lamb Who has gone through the fire with the saints, yes,
BEFORE the saints, turns the focus from worship of God to sheltering the saints!
[God in Tent] Now, I want to expand a little on that, because it is such an
important Biblical concept, and the key to understanding the depth meaning of
this scripture passage. The Greek word is skanosei (the future tense
ofskana’and it more literally means to “spread a tent over.”
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[Tabernacle] Do you know, that the very same Greek word is used to translate
Tabernacle, as in the Tabernacle in the Wilderness sheltering the Ark of the
Covenant, and also Temple, as in the Jerusalem Temple where the Ark was later
housed, the Ark being the symbol of the presence of God. So there is a very
intentional reversal of roles going on here, emphasized by the Chiasm, it’s center
in this passage of sheltering, and then in each step to follow. See?
[Wedding Tent] The Tent housing God now shifts in purpose, to house…the
Saints. They no longer suffer. Instead they enjoy and live in the shelter, the very
house, and household, of God. Soon we will celebrate Christmas, the
Incarnation, when Jesus, God’s son, comes to “dwell, to “pitch his tent,” AMONG
us. In Revelation 21:22 we are told “there is no temple there, for God and the
Lamb ARE the temple.” No religion! John Lennon’s vision is realized! God is
ONE, and ALL are sheltered.
[Chiasm5] The intentional reversal continues in the following verses. The
Lamb, Who sits on the throne, now becomes the shepherd of the lambs. Do you
see the shift? We know the Shepherd image related to Jesus in other New
Testament passages, of course. But here He is the Lamb, the slain offering,
Lamb of God, who takes away the Sin of the world. Then his role reverses, as
does the role of the saints. Now he serves those who have served Him. And the
saints who have suffered are freed from suffering, fully sheltered, no longer
having cause to fear, no longer being tempted not to hope.
[Chiasm6] The next verse even more richly describes the reversal. For those
who stand in bloody robes, washed clean, yet still bloodied, instead are
immersed in “springs of the water of life.”
[Chiasm7] Then finally, where before they experienced great ordeal, the reverse
again: their tears are wiped away by the God in Whose Love they now fully live.
[Tears]
I want to end on those tears. Leonard Sweet suggests that when you find your
eyes welling with tears you should pay close attention, for those tears can lead
you to the next significant place and moment in your spiritual journey. He retells
an old Jewish story: When Adam and Eve were expelled from Eden, God gave
them the gift of tears. When Adam’s and Eve’s first tears landed on the earth, the
first “garden” outside of Eden sprang forth. The tears of anguish and
abandonment became tears of new life and new hope.
The white robes of the uncountable multitude that John’s vision revealed would
not have been possible without the sacrificial love of the Lamb. Jesus’ love was
enough. Whatever their earthly torment, Jesus was enough for all. Here is an old
Jewish saying: “In the desert of the heart, let the healing fountain start.”
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[Communion/Heart/Crown]
This goes to the heart of the meaning of Holy Communion. Holy Communion
reverses the world’s perception of how fullness of life is found. A two-year-old
was brought for communion and given this little cup. She wanted more, so she
threw herself on the floor and began screaming, “More juice, more juice!” Well.
We forgive two year olds, right? The world is screaming ‘More juice.’ In our
weaker moments so do we. Realizing we are here to offer God’s juice to the
world, too often we feel overwhelmed, and get pessimistic. We feel we just don’t
have much more juice to offer. That’s why John gave those folks a greater
vision. The world may say, “Seeing is Believing.” John teaches us here that “If
we believe first, then we shall surely see.” If we gather before the throne, we
experience the shelter. If we pour out our own juice, God transfuses it into others,
and theirs back into us.
The bread and wine remind us that the Lamb paid the price. The word
Communion reminds us that so did the Saints, and so do Saints right now. So do
we. But ever so much as God the Father loved and loves God the Son, so also
is the Banner of Love, the Holy Tabernacle, to be spread over us all. That is the
Victory of God, and the Victory of the Saints.