Come On Baby Light My Fire (John 1: 1-9, 14) 11/27/11

Advent. It is a season in the annual life of the Church. Actually, it signals the beginning of the church year. Literally, it means “coming” or “arrival.” Today begins the four weeks of Advent preceding Christmas. The first Sunday of Advent is most commonly identified with the theme of Hope.  There are other themes for other Sundays: Love, Joy, Peace. But today, I want us to concentrate on Hope.

          Let’s play a game for a moment. Close your eyes and think back. Think way back to when you were a little boy or girl. If you grew up in Jefferson, I want you to think about the Christmas parade. If you grew up somewhere else, think about the first Christmas parade you remember. Remember the floatd. Remember the music. Ok, you can open your eyes now.

Did you remember? I remember that downtown was all dressed up in Christmas lights; a sign of festivity, of anticipation of the coming Christmas season. It was all so exciting when we were little.Always at the end of the parade, was Santa Claus! Santa Claus had come to town and was in the parade!

Have you ever thought about the fact that practically every time we celebrate something, it involves light in some way? Grand openings employ searchlights. Football rivalries invoke bonfires. Fourth of July festivities prompt fireworks. And Christmas! Christmas is Yule logs on the fire, illuminated trees and candles. Lights go with celebration. So it is with Advent. It is the season that celebrates the coming of our Lord, and that “coming” is celebrated with both color and light.

In Genesis 1: 3, God says: “Let there be light,” and there was light. [And] God saw that the light was good, and he separated it from the darkness. Leaving it to the Synoptic Gospels to inform of the facts of Jesus’ birth, the Apostle John used the motif of light and darkness to describe the coming of Messiah in this way:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was

 with God, and the Word was God…In Him was life,

 and that life was the light of men. The light shines in

the darkness…but the darkness does not understand

it…[He was] the true light that gives light to every man.

There was light on that first Christmas Eve. Remember the star in the East? So bright that wise men followed it from afar. So illuminating when joined by a heavenly chorus of angels to shepherds on a lonely hill. Light. It has so many meanings to us. Illumination… vision… clarity. The concept of light so pervades our consciousness that phrases spring up in our language to utilize it: “Wait until daylight” or “I’ve seen the light” or “The light came on” to name a few. Throughout the Bible, light is used to illustrate revelation. The Apostle Paul reminds us of this in his first letter to the Corinthian church, saying: “now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face.”          

Advent season focuses on celebrating the birth of Jesus. Christmas, the birth of the Christ child, was the first Advent, the first coming of god through the birth of the Christ child. Think about it. Christmas is another of God’s revelations. It is God revealed in Christ. With the coming of Jesus, all of creation has the opportunity of being reconciled to God. It is a participatory process for people of faith, and Advent is a time we set aside to commemorate not only the birth of Christ, but also what that birth signals for God’s people.

So…what does the birth of Jesus signal? Advent, not unlike the Savior whom it honors, is marked by spirit: a spirit of expectation, of anticipation, even of longing. There is the anticipation of something, someone, new and different. There is the longing for that new beginning…the beginning that denotes a sea change in the way we look at life…the way we come to life. And, thank God, there is the expectation that such anticipation, such longing, is not only credible; it is trustworthy. It is the stuff of Hope.

Hope. We use that word a lot. All of us have our hope sayings.  I hope you’re happy. I hope you don’t mind. I hope he won’t find out. I hope she chokes on it. I hope he gets well  Whether their intended result is honorable or not so nice, we understand hope in such sayings more as wishful thinking than reality. It is a wishing without the certainty. This is not what the Bible means by hope. The Greek word for hope is Elpida[pro, el PEE tha]. The Biblical definition of the word Hope would be more like “a strong and confident expectation.” This is quite different from the modern day usage of the term.

Now let’s turn to the words of the writer of Hebrews, whom many believe to be Paul, in the 11^th chapter of Hebrews, where he says: “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”  Isn’t that beautiful! I get a warm feeling all over just saying it. But what does it mean? That was the King James Version: high theology and very poetic.  The Message says it this way: “The fundamental fact of existence is that this trust in God, this faith, is the firm foundation under everything that makes life worth living. It’s our handle on what we can’t see.” Okay, that helped some.

Think of it this way: We BELIEVE. That’s the mental condition, the spiritual commitment. We have FAITH. That’s the physical action, or reliance. It’s based upon the belief. So… we HOPE. That’s the strong and confident expectation that our FAITH is well placed and our BELIEF is well founded.

You know, you can’t see the air, but you can breathe it. You can’t see the wind, but you can feel it. So it is with Hope. If Faith is the meat on the bones of our relationship with Jesus Christ, then Hope is the practice field where Faith is made strong and sure through testing and conditioning.

That sort of brings us back to the beginning, or Advent, or the “coming.” But what coming? The coming of the Christ child, of course. It is the celebration of the end of the beginning. Since creation, our God had revealed Himself to us, and yet we failed to grasp that revelation in such a way that we could be reconciled to Him.

So He changed that. If we could not, would not, come to Him, then He could, would, did…come to us. He came to us as one of us. “The Word became flesh, and made his dwelling among us” (Jn. 1: 14). And on that first Christmas, He came in the form of an infant, a newborn baby, the perfect example of newness.  

The last few months, as Cindy and I have been blessed with the presence of our first grandchild, we are reminded of the freshness of new life, from that special smell of a baby to the looks and giggles of a little boy exploring everything in every way conceivable. We look at our grandson and we are renewed with the possibilities of it all.  And in that small revelation, I try to imagine our sovereign Creator God giving you and me the greatest birthday gift of all…the gift of Himself those two thousand some years ago when he tiptoed down the back steps of Bethlehem on a cold, winter night to a manger… to place Messiah in our midst.

And yet, as miraculous as is the birth of the savior of all mankind to a teenage girl in a lowly stable in a nowhere town, it pales in comparison to the other “coming” it celebrates and anticipates; to the other “arrival” it longs for. We hang evergreens woven into a circle to symbolize eternal life. We use candles to symbolize the light of God coming into the world through the birth of His son. We light the first candle to remember the Hope that was kindled by Jesus’ birth. As the hymn reminds us:

Radiant beams from Thy holy face,

With the damn of redeeming grace,

Jesus Lord at Thy birth,

Jesus Lord at Thy birth.

We also light it to be reminded of our call through the prophet Isaiah to be a light to the world as we reflect the light of God’s grace to others. But most of all, we also light that first candle in anticipation, in Hope, of God’s continuing work across the pages of time as we chronicle it until the day of the Second Advent…in which God will again reveal himself to the world. 

In the 22nd chapter of Revelation, the Apostle John, writing in exile in the twilight of his life, claims that Jesus Himself testifies, saying: “Yes, I am coming soon.” To which John joins, saying “Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.” This is the “coming” for which every Christian waits. The Lord Himself promised it. His disciples testified to it and died proclaiming it. And we light the first candle of Advent this morning standing on those promises.

 Let me tell you another story about Hope. This is a true story about Hope with legs. It’s easy for us in this country to come to church, to worship in peace and freedom. It’s not so easy elsewhere. Gary Thomas told a story in Christianity Today about Leonid Brezhnev’s widow. Brezhnev, you will remember, was the Soviet premier for many years. The older George Bush was Vice President at the time of Brezhnev’s death, and attended his funeral. Bush was deeply moved by a silent protest carried out by Brezhnev’s widow. She stood motionless by the coffin until seconds before it was closed. Just as the soldiers touched the lid, Brezhnev’s wife performed as act of great courage and hope, a gesture that must surely rank as one of the most profound acts of civil disobedience ever committed. She reached down and made the sign of the cross on her husband’s chest.

There, in the citadel of secular authority, the wife of the man who had run it all hoped that her husband was wrong and, in the presence of all who watched, asked Jesus to have mercy on her husband.

The word advent comes from the Middle English and Old French. It has as its root the word advenire, which means in the Latin “to come.”  Interestingly, the word adventure also comes from the Middle English and Old French. It also has as its root the word advenire, which means in the Latin “a happening.”  An adventure, a happening, a coming; all from the same root. Think about that when you think about Advent..

So in this Advent season, and particularly in this first week in which we use Hope as our watchword, don’t stand by passively and wait for His coming. Instead, think of Advent as an adventure, one in which our heavenly father expects our full participation.

Let me leave you with a challenge. St. Augustine said that Hope has two beautiful daughters. Their names are Anger and Courage; anger at the way things are, and courage to see that they do not remain the way they are. C. S. Lewis in his famous work Mere Christianity said: “Aim at heaven and you will get earth ‘thrown in’; aim at earth and you will get neither.”  Why don’t you enlist as one of Hope’s daughters this Advent season? Aim at heaven! Join in the adventure!  Turn that candle light into a bonfire! Our Savior can do it without us, but we can’t do it without Him.

Blessed Are the Wool Makers (matthew 25: 31-46 (11/20/11)

Today is Christ the King Sunday, a Sunday we designate to partake of the Lord’s Supper.  It is also the Sunday when we present our shoeboxes to be blessed as we prepare to ship these gifts all over the world. How appropriate that these themes converge on a Sunday which precedes a national holiday set aside to remember our many blessings.

Matthew 25 contains three parables, although the passage we look at today is not so much a parable as it is a word picture about the end times. It has been interpreted as Jesus’ warning to the Gentiles about how they are to treat the Jewish remnant that believes in him. It can also be interpreted more broadly as a similar warning to all of us that the manner is which we treat our fellow man will be the standard by which we will be judged. I want to ask you to do something for me before we go any further. I want you to think about two barnyard animals for a minute. Think about sheep and think about goats. I want you to imagine which of these two animals best describes you. Now I want you to stand up if you think you’re more like a goat. (Do this for sheep also). Now as the message unfolds, see if you want to change your mind.

A boy in Covington, Louisiana celebrates his fifth birthday by inviting friends to pack shoeboxes instead of bringing birthday gifts. A small rural church in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania sends 173 shoeboxes, praising God that through the power of a simple gift, a small church can make a big impact on God’s kingdom. The shoeboxes are part of an effort called Operation Christmas Child, itself an outgrowth of Samaritan’s Purse,  an organization dedicated to the task of going to the aid of the world’s poor, sick and suffering. The shoeboxes contain school supplies, tee shirts, socks, shoes, and a little booklet entitled “The Greatest Gift of All.” Maybe that doesn’t sound like much, but to children who have nothing to call their own, it is quite a big deal.  Turns out it’s quite a big deal here too, to be part of such a great effort. Hundreds of thousands of shoeboxes will find their way to eager eyes, hands and hearts all over the world in just a few short weeks. In the aftermath of  celebration, there will be an opportunity to read those booklets, to share a word about the hope that is promised in our Savior, to witness to a new generation for Christ just waiting to be found, just wanting to be loved and accepted.

Jesus was concerned about such people. He told many stories about them and his concern for them. In the passage today, Jesus has left the Temple, both literally and symbolically, and he is at the end of what is called the Olivet Discourse, a series of sermons, lessons and parables delivered by Jesus to his disciples on the Mount of Olives just outside Jerusalem. In this parable, Jesus uses domestic animals to illustrate his point. He divides people into two classes. They are either sheep or they are goats.

Next week we begin the season of Advent, a time when we mark with anticipation the birth of Jesus. It is a time of great hope when we remember the incarnation of God the Son as incarnate man. But here, it is over thirty years later and deep into Jesus’ earthly ministry. Jesus talks to his disciples about the end times. He’s giving his disciples a glimpse of the Second Advent, that time at the end of the age when he returns in glory to judge all. He talks about coming back as a King, a King who will finally separate the righteous from the unrighteous.  His standard for judgment has little to do with earthly measure and everything to do with love and compassion.

When Jesus talks here about sheep and goats, he uses animals whose traits and behavior are familiar to most everyone. Many in the nation of Israel are still herdsmen and know about sheep and goats. Sheep are a passive group that learn and want to follow their leader. They are trusting and meek in nature. These little wool-makers have lots of traits that translate into good discipleship. By contrast, goats are more independent. They engage in shoving and butting, behavior unfamiliar to sheep. The prophet Ezekiel paints a picture of the Divine Shepherd re-gathering his flock and separating the selfishly strong from the weak. Jesus extends this analogy to the end times. Those who act with selfish power and oppression will be separated from those who are obedient. Dr. Tim Laniak, a religious author and seminary professor, puts it this way:

True to their independent nature, the “goats” are those who

have shown no compassion or mercy to others. They have

used their strength and independence only to serve themselves. The “sheep,” known for their responsive temperaments, have been kind and merciful to the marginalized—the poor, the

naked, the imprisoned, the stranger, the hungry and the sick.”  1

The Greek word for disciple is mathatas. It means follower. Disciples of Jesus are followers of Jesus. Here Jesus makes it clear to not only the Twelve, but to each of us who would call himself Christian, that discipleship is unselfish, that discipleship is sympathetic, that discipleship shows compassion and that it is best demonstrated in the way that we act toward those in our midst who can do absolutely nothing to advance us or our personal agendas.

          It has been said that the best definition of integrity is the way one acts when no one is looking. This definition can help us to understand what Jesus meant when he distinguished the righteous and unrighteous by a simple standard: Did you do it to the least in the crowd? Did you look after those who could not look after themselves? Did you do it quietly and without fanfare? Did you do it because your heart moved you to do it? If this is the way and those are the ones to whom you extended a helping hand, then you did it to Jesus himself.

          Theologian William Barclay tells a story about Martin of Tours, a Roman soldier and a Christian. One cold winter day he was stopped at a city gate by a beggar. Martin had no money at the time, but seeing the beggar blue and shivering with cold, he tore his coat in two and gave half to the beggar. In a dream that night, Martin was in heaven and saw Jesus wearing half a Roman soldier’s cloak. When one of the angels questioned it, Jesus answered softly: “My servant Martin gave it to me.”

          What is it you really need today? Think about it for a moment. Your clock and your calendar are about to run out and the Master is on his way to judge and to separate. What is it you really need? What are your credentials? Have you visited someone in need? Fed someone hungry and given drink to someone thirsty? Looked after the sick, clothed someone who needed it? Have you invited a stranger in?  If you have, thank God for you. If you haven’t, it’s not too late. Not today, it isn’t. What is it you really need today? If you can think of something more important than salvation, please come up here and preach it.

          When you read today’s Scripture, be sure you read all of it, for it has application to everyone. Not only does it promise salvation to those who are obedient; it also promises eternal punishment to those who aren’t. That’s the way judgment works with God. He created us all for the kingdom. If we opt out, there are consequences. Don’t be a goat. Reach out and touch someone. Do it today. It doesn’t matter the form it takes. It can be a visit to a shut-in or a shoebox to a little girl in the Sudan or a slice of apple pie to a neighbor. Just do it from the heart and watch God go to work in your life. It will fill your heart with all that God wants for you.

           Now that you know the rest of the story, I want to give you an opportunity to change your preference. How many here would like to be a sheep instead of a goat from now on?  Good!

“For inasmuch as you have done it for the least of these my brethren, you have done it unto me.” Whenever you see one of those folks who might be called the least in his kingdom, look out. You just might be putting your cloak on Jesus himself.      

1 Laniak, Timothy, While Shepherds Watch Their Flocks, ShepherdLeader Publications, 2007, p.153, 154.

FOLLOW, KEEP AND OBSERVE (Deuteronomy 8: 1-18) 11/13/11

The year was 1621.The first harvest was safely in, and the little group of pilgrims at Plymouth, Massachusetts had made it through its first winter in the New World. It had survived in large measure because of the generosity of a tribe of Wampanoag Indians, whose leader Massasoit had donated food to the fledgling colony the winter before when the supplies brought from England had proved insufficient.  Of course at the time, it was just Plymouth Plantation. The state of Massachusetts and the Massachusetts Bay Colony, now known to us as Boston, were just pipe dreams for the future. But on this fall day in New England, as the region was later to be called, fifty three pilgrims and ninety Native Americans joined together for a feast which lasted three days.  There was fish (cod, eels and bass), shellfish (clams, lobster and mussels), wild fowl (ducks, geese, swans, turkey), venison, berries, fruit, vegetables (peas, pumpkin, beetroot and possibly onion), harvest grains (barley and wheat). And there was something known as the Three Sisters: beans, dried maize or corn, and squash. Although there were other, earlier feasts of this type, our modern Thanksgiving holiday traces its roots back to this celebration. William Bradford was a member of that group and later its governor, and wrote these observations about the day: “Thus they found the Lord to be with them in all their ways, and to bless their outgoings and incomings, for which let His holy name have the praise forever, to all posterity.” Although it was primarily a church observance, Governor Bradford apparently ordered its secular recognition in 1623. That year saw a good harvest in the end, but only after the colonists had survived a nearly catastrophic drought. During the War Between the States, in 1863, President Lincoln proclaimed it a national holiday.  Like Independence Day, it is thought of as an American, rather than a purely religious, holiday. And yet it has clearly religious roots.

This last Friday, we celebrated Veteran’s Day. It is also a Federal holiday, and it started in 1919. President Woodrow Wilson declared it as Armistice Day, in remembrance of the end of World War 1. President Wilson actually invited 2,000 soldiers to the White House in 1919 and he helped the kitchen staff cook the main course of ravioli. It had become popular on grocery stores shelves as the age of canned goods was arriving in grocery stores. Many people still remember the day by serving ravioli. In 1953, the name was changed to Veterans Day, to remember all those who have served in our military. In all our wars, and there are many, over one million three hundred thousand have lost their lives. The most telling statistic is that we lost more men and women defending ourselves from each other in the Civil war than we did in World War 1, World War 11, Korea and Vietnam combined. We are not kind to ourselves.

In the Jewish tradition, the first five books of the Old Testament are called Torah, the Hebrew word for law. In the Book of Deuteronomy, the changing of the guard is imminent. Moses is passing the gavel to Joshua, his old friend and protégé, now probably eighty years old himself. The Promised Land awaits. The people of God are encamped in the territory of Moab where the Jordan flows into the Dead Sea. Soon they will be crossing the Jordan to claim the promise made so many years before. Moses is old and no doubt tired, but he delivers a long farewell address to his people, which reads like a cautionary tale of what to do and what not to do. At the center of his address we find today’s passage, in which Moses warns his people not to forget God and to follow, keep and observe His commands.

Do not forget the Lord. It sounds so simple, doesn’t it? These are God’s people. They have wandered through the wilderness for a generation to be reminded of who is really in charge. Do not forget God. Why? According to Moses, so that you may live and increase and enter and possess the Promised Land.  So follow his commands that these promises may come to pass. Remember that God leads you in the wilderness to humble you and to test you, to hone your understanding of  the importance of your obedience and to appreciate His deliverance.  In this testing, your real heart is known---will you keep his commands? He reminds the people of God that he brings us into the good land---the land flowing with milk and honey---the land where bread is not scarce and where we will lack nothing. He reminds us that when we have tasted the good life, when we have eaten off the fat of the good land that he has given us—that we will tend to forget the lessons of the wilderness—that we will feel self-sufficient---and he reminds us to praise him and continue to observe his commands. He says do not forget and he reminds us of the wilderness. He says do remember and he reminds us of the Promised Land. Moses reminds us that when we sit on the front porch in our rocking chairs after a Thanksgiving feast for the ages, that is the time to remember the manna and the quail---or the fatback and the chitlins. He reminds us that if our hearts become proud, we will forget that our existence was carved from deserts and wastelands; that our sustenance can come from a rock when the rod is guided by the hand of the Creator. He reminds us that “man does not live by bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord” (v. 3).

Today, we observe Thanksgiving, a holiday when we take time to remind ourselves that we have plenty, that our larders are full and our cupboards are loaded and our lives are riddled with so many modern conveniences that we mark our existence with remote controls and digital thermometers and smart phones. It was not always this way. It is not this way in many parts of the world, and it is not this way for those who would defend us in foreign fields and for those who would carry the cross to lands both near and far.

I did some time in the service of my country as did many of you. I have eaten C-Rations and boiled salt water to drink a few times.  It seems perfectly normal to me now that those were in many ways the times I felt it easy to be close to God.  Now I have a son who, while perfectly safe, has spent two tours in the line of unfriendly fire. Mt wife spent many a holiday without her father as he did not one, but two tours in Vietnam. I cannot begin to do justice to thanking every single man and woman who have served this country in its military. They did not forget us and we should never forget them.

But I worry about myself and I worry about God’s people in America. We really are the fat cats. Even when we go through job loss and unemployment, we have the resources to recover. It is not so in many areas of our planet. We say the world has gotten smaller, because we have almost instantaneous communication all around the world. Yet, we continue to watch people starve. We continue to witness disease and malnutrition and unfit drinking water in epidemic proportion in many areas of the world in spite of staggering wealth and knowledge and food that could be put to use to remedy these sad situations. We are not kind to ourselves.

Let me offer you a Thanksgiving thought from someone who won’t be home this Thanksgiving. She is spending her fourth year in Africa. This year sher is Kigali, Rwanda taching school and doing mission work in and out of her school environment.  Her name is Emily Griggs and she is my daughter. Much more importantly, she is a child of God. Here is what she had to say about Thanksgiving last year in her blog:

I miss spending this holiday at home, with family and friends, and fun times. But we’re celebrating here too! I’m headin’ down to a friend’s house tonight, where all of us are gathering and enjoying a huge feast of foods from all over…As I get excited about celebrating this holiday of Thanksgiving, I can just look around me, as we all can, and see others that are not as blessed as we are. And we can see MANY reasons to give thanks, and many opportunities to give to others. Let’s give thanks to God, our Creator today! Thank Him for ALL things. Thank Him for the clean water that runs out of your sink today that you can drink. Thank Him for your car today. Thank Him for your grocery store. Thank Him for your health. If you’re sick, STILL thank Him…thank Him for giving you the time to rest and be in His presence. Thank Him for medicine, and the money to buy it. Thank Him for hot water that comes out of your shower. Thank Him for supplying ALL of your needs! Even the ones you aren’t even sure about right now! Let’s thank Him for All things today!

As Emily reminds us from a place where she does without much, she knows that she still has so much for which to be thankful. There is no place on earth where God’s grace and blessing cannot reach us. He led you through the desert, and if you are still there, he will lead you out. He gave you manna to eat when there was nothing else and he will do it again whenever you call faithfully for him. He wants it to go well for you. But remember that it is not your hands or your power or your strength that produce the wealth that is there for you. It is God’s grace that does that. He gives you that ability. In doing do, he confirms his covenant made long ago to his people. Today, by God’s grace, by the blood of his son, by the saints that walked this ground before you, you and I can give thanks.  As Moses reminds us, follow, keep and observe God’s commands…and do not forget the Lord.  

       

  

A Great Multitude For a Divine Shepherd Rev. 7: 9-17, Heb. 12: 1 (11/6/11)

 

Today, we observe All Saints Day. In doing so, we want to remember those who have gone before us; those who have paved the way and helped make straight the road. We do so not just to remember, but to be reminded…reminded that the road is still there for each of us to travel and to make straight for those who come after us. Our Scripture for today comes from the book of Revelation, which means “unveiling.” Revelation is an example of apocalyptic literature, which most often emerges in times of great oppression. Typically, the writer of apocalypses envisions the earthly events as part of a great struggle between God and/or his angels and Satan and his angels. This literary genre is used to remind us that God will prevail. Revelation was probably written between 92 and 96 AD at the end of the Emperor Domitian’s reign, a period of great religious persecution of Christians. Only some twenty years before, the temple had been destroyed under Nero’s reign, and Domitian was even worse.

Chapter 7 opens with four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding back the four winds. In this vision, they have the power to harm the earth. An angel comes from the east and instructs them to hold back until 144,000 servants of God are sealed with the Lord’s protection on their foreheads. There are a number of interpretations of the identity of these servants and their number, from the remnant of Israel to the Christians of the tribulation, from the literal 144,000 to a much larger number. This is the backdrop for the scene which now depicts a great multitude wearing white robes.

We have all benefitted from Christian example. We all have our heroes and heroines, from family to friends to the great Biblical examples. Today, as we pause to remember, let us start with the Hall of Faith in Hebrews 11. By faith, says the writer of Hebrews, Abel offered a better sacrifice, Enoch did not experience death, Noah in holy fear built an ark, Abraham obeyed and went, knowing not where he was going. The list goes on, and includes Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Rahab, Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel and the prophets. The writer ends by saying he is out of time, but reminds us that none of these Biblical heroes and heroines received what they had been promised in their time here on earth. They were made perfect only by the coming of the Son of God.

The history of the church is a history of men and women proclaiming their faith boldly. It includes such celebrated names as Peter, John, Paul, Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, Luther, Calvin, Knox, the Wesley brothers, and the list goes on and on.  It includes lay men and women who started this church so many years ago, and the saints whose bodies now rest in the very graveyard that adjoins this sanctuary.  Throughout history, the saints have persevered and endured in the name of Jesus. The writer of Hebrews reminds us that they were chained, imprisoned, stoned, sawed in two, put to death by the sword, forced to hide and live in caves, that they were destitute, persecuted and mistreated—that “the world was not worthy of them.”  He says that “we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses” [Heb. 12: 1]. Today we focus on that example as we remember all the saints who have gone before us.

Revelation 7 reminds us why all these saints, whether past, present or future, would persevere in the face of such horrible persecution. In this vision, John stands within view of the throne of God.  He describes a great multitude, too numerous to count, from every nation, tribe, people and language. Dressed in white robes, they are holding palm branches. John says they are standing in front of the Lamb. They are crying out in a loud voice: "Salvation belongs to our God.”

Time out.  Time for a contemporary word picture. I remember the fall of my freshman year in college. I was a football manager. The job didn’t pay anything, but I got free training table meals. I got to make one road trip with the team, and it was to a Big Ten university. As I stood in the tunnel with the team, I could see the stadium. It held 100,000 people and it was full. As I came out the tunnel, I thought all the people in the world must have been in that stadium. The roar was enough to make us all want to go back down the tunnel.

Well, that was just another Saturday of college football. Imagine the sight to which John introduces us. We are looking at the throne of God. The crowd is so large it is uncountable and they are crying out in a loud voice. The voice is as one, but made up of every language on earth. Try to imagine that sound!

Now add to the scene all of God’s angels (the elders mentioned here are probably more angels). Throw in the four living creatures described back in chapter 4, which are a lion, an ox, a creature with a face like a man and an eagle, all with six wings and covered with eyes, even on their wings. They all fall on their faces to worship God! They are not tired. They are engaged in worship! Theologian William Barclay says that this is the beginning of the vision of the future blessedness of the saints.  

Think about how you can claim this vision for yourself. There is encouragement here for those who are facing earthly hardship. The number of saints is beyond all counting. This is like God’s promise to number Abraham’s people beyond the sand on the shore. There is the statement that God’s people will come from everywhere: every race, every tribe, every people, every tongue. No matter who, no matter where, all are the flock of this shepherd.

The signs of victory are clear. Everyone is wearing white and holding palm branches. Both are clearly recognized signs of victory and triumph. They now share in God’s glory. God has brought them to this point. His deliverance is not an escape, but rather a conquest. Barclay says that we are not saved from trouble but rather brought triumphantly through it. This is the essence of Christian hope. Paul calls it endurance. James calls it perseverance. Being in Christ gives us the endurance and the perseverance to stay the course. John’s vision here helps us understand that the glory of God more than outshines any price that must be paid along the way. The worship in the vision ascribes praise, glory, wisdom, thanks, honor, power and strength to God for all who are gathered at the throne.

The Bible has much to say about white robes, as well as the soiling of them. There are many references which associate white with cleanliness, purity and the lack of stain. All of the people in the vision appear before God and the Lamb in white. The stain of life and the sin that went with it have been cleansed by God’s grace. To be forgiven is also to be cleansed. The blood of Christ himself has made this possible.  To the Hebrews, blood is life. Jesus has given us his life-giving blood in order that we may be cleansed. This is the great work of Christ, that through his life and death, he restores the relationship lost between God and man.

In the vision, the angel mentions something to us in verse 14 that we cannot overlook. He says that those engaged in worship “have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.” We do play a part in our own salvation. Jesus redeems us, but we have to appropriate that redemption. We have to ask for forgiveness. We have to have faith. We have to wash our own robes. We, with God’s help, must turn from that which separated us from God and walk the path to righteousness. If we can do that much, the grace of God is there to guide and save us.

The thing about being a saint is that it inevitably involves being a disciple. Put another way, if you really want to be a good shepherd, then you are probably going to spend a lot of time being a sheep. Learning how to follow is very helpful to becoming a leader. We have so many examples from the Master himself acting out servant roles all through his ministry, from feeding the five thousand before partaking of food himself to washing the feet of the disciples on Maundy Thursday. As we imagine in our mind’s eye what that white robed scene in heaven will look like, we can begin to understand that all those saints started out just like us. Along the path of life, those sheep became more saintly as they walked with their Savior.

The last two verses in this passage are among the most beautiful in the Bible.  Verse 16 promises no more hunger, no more thirst, no more scorching heat. The words are almost verbatim from Isaiah 49: 10. They echo the dream of old being fulfilled in Jesus Christ. While most of us will have trouble relating to the depth of meaning contained within this simple promise, much of the world we live in today would claim this promise like manna from heaven. Let us not become so insulated from the rest of our world that we fail to grasp the significance of this amazing promise.

Finally, we reach the end of today’s message, and we find Jesus the Lamb as the Divine Shepherd, leading us to springs of living water, while God wipes away every tear from every eye. No more hunger, no more pain, no more sorrow. This is the title that Jesus took for himself in John 10, where he asserted:  “I am the good shepherd.” He leads us to springs of living water, without which we would perish. He wipes the tears from our eyes. While he nourishes our bodies, he nourishes and comforts our hearts as well. Our Divine Shepherd can and will guide us through whatever we may confront.

Near the beginning of this message, I asked us to consider why all these Christians, great and small, famous and unknown except to their loved ones, would persevere through all the hardship and persecution. The Apostles’ Creed states that we believe in the communion of the saints.  This passage helps remind us of the significance of that statement. We believe in the promise of the Divine Shepherd. He will nourish us here to get us there. In the glory that can only be known to those who persevere, we too will find the Good Shepherd waiting to embrace us, to wipe the last tear from our eyes, to hear us join in that heavenly chorus:

Praise and glory

and wisdom and thanks and honor

and power and strength

be to our God for ever and ever.

Amen!