"Hope and the Great Ordeal"  2010

Isaiah 25:6-9   Revelation 7:9-17

 

Isaiah 25:6-9 (NRSV)

On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-matured wines, of rich food filled with marrow, of well-matured wines strained clear.  And he will destroy on this mountain the shroud that is cast over all peoples, the sheet that is spread over all nations; he will swallow up death for ever. Then the Lord God will wipe away the tears from all faces, and the disgrace of his people he will take away from all the earth, for the Lord has spoken.  It will be said on that day,    Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, so that he might save us. This is the Lord for whom we have waited; let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.

 

Revelation 7:9-17 (NRSV) The Multitude from Every Nation

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. 10They cried out in a loud voice, saying, ‘Salvation belongs to our God who is seated on the throne, and to the Lamb!’ 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 worshipped God, singing, 'Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen.’ Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, ‘Who are these, robed in white, and where have they come from?’ I said to him, ‘Sir, you are the one that 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. 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.  They will hunger no more, and thirst no more; the sun will not strike them, nor any scorching heat; for the Lamb at the centre 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.’

 

In July of my third year as a pastor,

            our little fishing community along the North Carolina coast

                        was hit dead-on by a terrible and destructive hurricane.

            I had never seen or experienced anything like that before.

 

                        Then about a month and a half later

                                    another even more destructive hurricane

                                                traveled along the same storm path with flooding…

                               …and the ordeal seemed to break our beleaguered spirits.

 

The next year we here hit hard by another,

            and the next year there was another major hurricane.

Also that year, a number of our faithful church members

            decided they'd had enough   and moved inland  away from the coast.

 

About that same time, there was suddenly a lot of sickness,

            and at one point there were 10 people in our little congregation

                        who were each battling for their lives with cancer.

 

It was difficult and discouraging.  It got to be overwhelming.

            So one evening we gathered together as a church family.

                        With the lights dimmed, we sat in a big circle,

                                    and we prayed, we worshipped the Lord, together.

 

I read some Scripture passages, we sang a few favorite hymns,

            and then we talked and prayed together …

                        … we cried out to the Lord, and we hugged one another,

                                       and truly, we worshipped the Lord our God, together.

 

And God was very present and comforting   with us in our worship,

            and from that, we found hope, the courage and strength to go on.

                                    Something incredibly powerful and wonderful

                                                happened to us that night in our worship together.

 

We still continued to have a hurricane each year, the next year.

            Some of the folks survived their cancer, and some did not.

                                    Our circumstances were still difficult at times;

                                                but we had renewed hope and trust;

                                                            we were confident that God was with us

                                                                         that God cared, and God would sustain us…

 

                        … that is part of the transforming power

                                    of the people of God gathering for authentic worship,

                                                as our tears and fears

                                                            became   hope and trust in the promises of God.

 

This wasn't a false Disney-style of 'Pollyanna's glad-game'

            that ignored the pain and ordeal of our losses.

                        It wasn't a pie-in-the-sky hope for only after you are deadà

 

            à but it was the assurance that even through tribulation & trial

                        that God's love and grace has the power to create good.

And there was way more in play than just our troubles and tribulation.

 

                        'The Light shines in the darkness,

                                    and the darkness does not and cannot overcome the Light." …

That is how the gospel of John begins,

            and that was God's promise that sustained us through our storms…

  … and that is the true message and point of the book of Revelation.

 

I am always a bit hesitant about preaching from Revelation,

            not because it isn't God's word and truth we need to hear,

                                    but because it has been so shamelessly exploited

                                                by those who pervert its wonderful message of hope

                                                            for their own greed and financial gain.

 

Regrettably they promote a false god of wrath and fierce revenge

            who hates and punishes sinners, a terrible god who seems  …

                …   more like Satan     than our Lord Jesus Christ of the gospels,

                                    who loved lepers, who healed and forgave sinners,

                                      and welcomed the rejected outcasts into relationship.                    

 

    And despite all their wackiness and the false claims made by

            the slick guys in polyester suits  selling books and DVDs on TV,à

 

                        if you check your Bible,   the title of the book    is not,

                                    "the terrifying judgment of God at the end of time",

                                                it is,   "The Revelation of Jesus Christ to John."

 

The message is, 'The Light shines in the darkness,

                                               and the darkness does not and cannot overcome the Light."

 

  When the book of Revelation was written,

            the author didn't have to envision some terrible scene of

                        tribulation and suffering in the far distant future …

   … for that group of Christians were already living the great ordeal.

 

The current emperor (Flavius Titus Domitanious)Domitian had decided

            that Christianity was causing the decline of the Roman empire…

                                    … so he and his henchmen set out

                                                to destroy the Christian Church once and for all.

 

The persecution and suffering of the Church were extreme,

                for to be a Christian in that place and time

                        meant that you and your family might be tortured or killed,

                                    you might pay for church membership,  with your life.

 

The churches were suffering and discouraged by their ordeal,

    and John of Patmos wrote the book, the Revelation of Jesus Christ,à

 

            to encourage them,   urging them to remain faithful to God …

                        … by reminding them,

                                    of what an awesome, wonderful & powerful God we serve;

            and that absolutely,

                        there is hope and light even in the darkest circumstance.

 

Throughout this book of Revelation

            we are brought into wonderful praise & descriptions of worship,

                        for it is in the act of worship,

                                    that the people gathered into the presence of God,

                                                are reminded of who we really are,

                                                            the beloved and graced   precious ones of God.

 

And so in worship, our hope and trust in the promises of God

                        are renewed as our walk with God is re-invigorated,

                                                                                    … and here is how that that happens.

 

John of Patmos is describing a scene he sees in heaven, vs. 9

            … 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.                            

                                                             

This would be the ultimate ecumenical gathering of all God's people;

            gathered from of every place, & every time throughout the ages,

                        in numbers and diversity beyond our comprehension,

                                    all unified by the one thing that actually does matterà

vs. 10

            ‘Salvation belongs to our God who is seated on the throne, and to the Lamb!’

                                    And that really does matter!

 

Their white robes are a theological symbol of grace   and baptism;

            for wearing the robe is putting on the righteousness of Christ,

                        being cleansed, healed and washed white   by the grace of God

                                    through the blood sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

 

The palm branches they carry

            were an ancient symbol for the joyful celebration of victory …

                                                … this is all an image of the activity of worship.

 

What is the important message

            that John has for these beleaguered suffering Christians?

                        He paints them a magnificent picture of hope,

                                    by describing the joyful wonder of heavenly worship.

 

As described in vs. 11-12

            it even includes angels, elders and other creatures,

                        and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshipped God, singing, ‘Amen!  Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever!  Amen.’

 

Continuing,  vs. 15-17

            … 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.  

                        They will hunger no more, and thirst no more; the sun will not strike them, nor any scorching heat;  for the Lamb at the centre 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.’

 

This is the heart of the message of Revelation, repeated in chapt. 21.

            This message is being spoken              to the suffering Christians as

                        word of hope for the persecuted Church during their ordeal.

 

The author has borrowed these words from the OT prophet Isaiah,

            from the passage we read earlier,  which was written

                        to address the Hebrew people suffering and discouraged

                                    during the terrible exile to distant Babylon.

 

These words of Isaiah

            were given as a word of hope and assurance of God's promises,

                        that even in that terrible foreign place of struggle,

                                    yet God cared, and was with them, sustaining them,

                        …  and there was more in play than just their tribulation.

 

            Isaiah offers and image of all humanity

                        all of God's precious people all gathered in worship

                                    on the mountain of the Lord for glorious celebration.

 

This is the image of hope and God's promise that John of Patmos

            knows will sustain the persecuted church through their ordeal.

Isaiah 25:8-9

            Then the Lord God will wipe away the tears from all faces, and the disgrace of his people he will take away from all the earth, for the Lord has spoken.   It will be said on that day, Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, so that he might save us.  This is the Lord for whom we have waited; let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.

 

            It may have seemed like the Babylonians had all the power,

                        and the message of Isaiah was to still hope, and trust God.

 

John of Patmos borrowed these words of Isaiah,

            because his readers knew of God's promise given through Isaiah,

                        and they knew    as a fact of history,

                                    that indeed the people were able to return from exile,

                                       and the nation of Israel was restored as God promised.

 

So too the people of God suffering under Domitian's persecution

            were being urged to remember God's promises,

                        and their fulfillment back during the time of the exile…

 

            -- and know that we worship the same loving and powerful God…

… our God of grace who gives strength to the weary,

            who gives courage to the fearful even over Domitian's power,

                        who gives peace and joy to the crushed and brokenhearted…

 

…  who hears the cries of the people, and from their tribulation,

            from the great ordeal, creates joyful celebration of victory…

                 … indeed that is what worship is about, for the people of God.

 

True worship proclaims a simple, but critical message ---

                        'The Light shines in the darkness,

                                    and the darkness does not and cannot overcome it."

           

That is our hope, in the truth, the glorious promises of God,

            and that is why we gather together for worship…

                        - for in worship

                                    we engage in activity that will endure forever,

                                                giving us hope that endures,  overcomes any ordeal.

 

Now out in the world,

            there are a whole different set of things being proclaimed:

                        that human value and worth are determined

                                    by our success, by what we accomplish and acquire;

 

            that it's Ok to exploit or even abuse our neighbor,

                        to lie, cheat or steal if that's what takes to win

            that the poor, the prisoner, the immigrant, the outcast

                        can be ignored and forgotten,

                           for they haven't earned or deserve our mercy & compassion.

 

In Revelation we're offered an amazing alternative view,

            one of angels and elders and a grand multitude all in worship,

                        singing and dancing with joy before the Lord's throne.

 

            It's not the promise of heaven   as disengagement from the world,

                        but the power of confidence and hope, freedom to be faithful

                                    knowing that this that we can see    is not all there is…

            'The Light shines in the darkness,

                        and the darkness does not and cannot overcome it."

 

On the night of November 14, 1940, Nazi Germany unleashed

            nearly 450 bombers, over 500 tons of explosives and firebombs

                        in the first attempt in history

                                    to destroy and entire city in a single air raid.

 

The 11 hour bombardment turned the city of Coventry into rubble,

            killing more than 1400 people, the whole city was destroyed

                        every building, including their 12^th century cathedral.

 

After the war, the cathedral was rebuilt.

            The back wall of the new sanctuary is a 70 ft. glass wall

                        with seemingly irreverent etched images

                                    of angels and saints blowing trumpets, shouting,

                                          singing & dancing in joyful & reckless celebration.

 

And visible looking through the glass of merry-making worship,

            stands the stark ruins and rubble of the old cathedral.

 

You see the remains of the ordeal of war's death and destruction

            through a glass curtain proclaiming the hope of God's promise…

   … what a wonderful metaphor to explain the mystery of worship…

            for in worship, God changes the way we see our world and lives.

 

In worship we come together drawn out from the world

            to remember and celebrate that we are the people of God

                        called to proclaim the victory of God's grace to the world.

 

            The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness does not and cannot overcome it.

                        If we say that we have fellowship with him while we are walking in darkness, we lie and do not do what is true; but if we walk in the light as he himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.