A sermon shared with First Presbyterian Church,
Spring City, TN, August 20, 2017
For the last several
weeks we have explored the relationship between Christian faith and Christian
action, and the negative pressure of our culture that discourages us from its
practice. It is a difficult message, so
it pays to step back on occasion and get a good perspective on the most
valuable tings and celebrate them, lest we take lose sight of them in our worry
about everything happening around us.
To do this, we are going
to explore primarily Revelation 5:1-13 by an imagining exercise of singing with
a loud voice of our thankfulness for our greatest gift, redemption in the face
of our unworthiness. Imagination is
perhaps the most powerful mental capability we have.
If Isaac Newton had
never imagined how an apple falls to the ground or why thing keep moving unless
you push on them , we wouldn’t have the scientific
discoveries of the laws of motion.(This isn’t exactly true, several “natural
philosophers had similar imaginative ideas, but Newton started the ball
rolling.) If Einstein has not wondered
if we can measure the speed of an object moving in empty space with nothing
around to use as a reference point, we would not have the magnificent beauty of his
theories that explain so much of the mysteries of the universe.
If artists and
musicians had not imagined words and ideas to express the joy and sadness they
felt we would never have the powerful and beautiful music, or paintings and
sculpture that evoke those human emotions and the situations that cause them. If
the prophets and writers of scripture lacked inspired imagination to capture
the magnificence and drama of our relationship to God we would not have books
like Ezekiel and the Revelation of John and Paul’s epistles. Without the
imagination of musicians whose own feelings and experiences are evoked by
scripture and set to music, the world would be a poorer and less appreciative
of the deep, soul-touching message of scripture.
A great example is
the way Rev. 5:1-13
inspired George Handel’s imagination to create the chorus, “Worthy Is the
Lamb,” in his cantata, the Messiah. Handel
imagined and created an audible image of scripture.
Let’s imagine we are
in the scene of John’s revelation as he experienced it standing before God. You
have been asleep and suddenly find yourself standing before a great door
opening up into the expansive throne room of God. A loud voice that seems to come from
everywhere, from the air, the ground, even the walls of the room itself speaks
you, “Come and I will show you what must take place after this.”
A great wind sweeps
you into a room where you see a great throne glowing as if encased in fiery gemstones,
and encircled by a bright rainbow. Lightning flashes and deafening claps of
thunder shake the room. You see 24 smaller thrones on both sides of the throne,
each with a person dressed in while with a crown of gold. Somehow you know
these are the elders of the Church. Before and behind the throne are
magnificent but terrifying, otherworldly creatures. They look like a lion, an
ox, a man and an eagle but have wings and many eyes. (I have a paisley tie whose
pattern reminds me of those eyes.) The creatures sing a refrain over and over in
a tremendous voice that overpowers even the thunder in the room, “Holy, Holy,
Holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was, who is, and who is to come.” After
each refrain, the elders in the 24 thrones fall to the ground before the large
throne worshipping the One who lives forever and ever, saying, “You are worthy,
our Lord and God, to receive power and glory and honor for you have created all
things by your will and blown the breath of life into us.”
Fear petrifies you. Surely
you are dead!
You realize there is a
great scroll rolled up and sealed with seven seals in the right hand of the One
sitting on the great throne. An angel beside the throne thunders a question
that resounds to the depths of the Earth and heights of heaven, “Who is worthy
to break the seals and open this scroll that tell of the life now and to come?”
A deafening silence falls in heaven and over the face of the earth because no
one can say, “I am worthy to open this scroll, to look inside and read the
words of God.”
This tragedy for all
humanity overwhelms you. We are lost because there is no one worthy to open the
scroll read its proclamation for all, not even one of the angels. You fall to
your knees weeping bitterly. In the midst of your sobbing, one of the elders
says, “Take heart and weep no more, the Lion of Judah, of the Root of David, is
victorious and He alone can open and read this scroll.”
Let’s pause and think
about the liturgical structure of our service. These verses may cause you to
think about the confession and assurance of pardon in our service. A first-time
visitor may not realize that the first element of a service is when we turn our
hearts and minds to God. Our first act is a praise of God in the call to
worship and our confession is the second part of worship. The words of this passage,
“Take heart and weep no more, the Lion of Judah, of the Root of David, is
victorious and He alone can open and read this scroll,” is a kind of call to worship/praise,
and the question, ““Who is worthy to break the seals and open this scroll that
tell of the life now and to come?” and subsequent deafening silence, is a
confessional statement.
The confession is the
answer to the angel seeking the one worthy to open the scroll. We acknowledge that
we are not worthy, it is opened only by the grace and love of God. After the
Confession I often ask, “Who is in a position to condemn us?” Only Christ, but
he lived among us and died to defeat death for us. He is worthy to open the
scroll.
Are we unworthy? At
the risk of being accused of tossing fire and brimstone, if you doubt we are
unworthy, you only have to understand that the bible captures the relationship
between Humanity and God. Every human story in the Bible is an allegory, a
symbol, of our own lives. Brother kills brother as Cain did Abel. We betray even
our own families, as Jacob bargained
his older brother Esau out of his birthright, and later tricked his father to give him
Esau’s blessing of authority and inheritance. We complain bitterly against
God because we see the negative not the blessings, as the hungry Israelites in the
desert did to Moses after being freed from slavery under the Egyptians.
“Why did we follow you out of Egypt? Where is this God? We would have been
better off back in Egypt in slavery, at least our bellies were full!”
Some betray closest
friends just as Judas did.
Others cling to our coins scattered among our dollars rather than buy a
breakfast for a hungry woman on the street. Some refuse service to a person
because of the color of their skin, or the religion they practice. The Nazi’s
sent millions to gas chambers in the name of country. Of
the tragic weekend of August 12 in Charlottesville, VA, some spoke in
admiration of those who did that evil.
Some experience evil
and seemingly arbitrary calamities as on Job, on us, our families and our work.
We question God. “Why does he let these things happen?”
Poor Job was a blameless
Gentile who God said was more righteous than his own chosen people, yet God allowed Satan to victimize him
in a wager about faith. For no other reason than a bet, his family was
killed, his crops and husbandry destroyed and he was stricken by sores and
illness. He cried out to the one who sits on that Throne, “Why me? I have done
no wrong. Every part of my life was righteous and honored you. Why have you let
evil prevail against me?” His laments were so loud and bitter his own wife
said, Why don’t you just curse
God and go ahead and die?”
In all this Job never
relented in his faith even though he never got a better answer from God than,
“I AM who I Am. On creation day I made the seas to stop at dry land. I made you
a little less than God and gave you dominion over all else. My ways are not
your ways. Gird up your loins like the mighty man that you are and contend with
me. I will repay you, twofold, and that is what God did, true to his word.
Why do bad things
will happen to us that we don’t deserve? Maybe I can’t give you a satisfactory
answer other than the answer lies in freedom not to do good or evil but to
choose to trust God or not.
In the beginning, God
looked over his creation and said, “It is very good.” In spite of
that, as Paul said, no matter how hard we try to do the good thing, we do the
bad thing. That freedom to trust God is a confidence completely embodied in Revelation 5:1-13.
When you are down and
out feeling God has abandoned you to the evil of the world, remember your
freedom is to cling to faith that the God who placed us here among all the
temptations, evil and calamities, gave us a promise of a home where we all will
be part of the chorus praising God forever…
We left our imagining
exercise bitterly weeping over the silence that answered the question, “Who is
worthy to open the scroll of the life that was, is and shall be, to unseal the
proclamation of our own redemption and that there is a home? But every Sunday,
almost reflexively, we voice the answer in our Confession and assurance of
pardon.
The good news is written
on that scroll with seven seals. God redeemed us by living in this world as a
Job did, suffering every evil the world could offer when his wave of the hand
could dismiss all the danger. He was criticized, called a drunkard, associated with
the wrong kind of people, crowds tried to stone him, and then they killed him like
a lamb, but in the most horrible way they could create by nailing him to a
cross.
While weeping
bitterly, an elder said to John, “Take heart and weep no more, the Lion of
Judah, is victorious and He alone can open and read this scroll.”
Then like John, we
see a Lamb beside the Throne. It appeared to be slain, yet was standing alive
surrounded by these terrifying animal creatures. The Lamb reached out and took
the scroll from the hand of God.
Yes, the lamb that
was slain is the only one in heaven and on earth who is worthy to open the
scroll and redeem us. That Lamb of David’s lineage defeated the evil and
meanness of the world so we can find our way home.
Then, every creature in
heaven fell to their knees with face to the ground. You glance up towards the
Throne and there are a multitude of angels, thousands among thousands, myriads
among myriads, a bazillion, uncountable number of angels who began singing at
maximum voice, “Worthy is theLamb that was slain, who was slain to receive power and wealth and wisdom andstrength and honor and glory and praise. Who has delivered us to God, to God byhis power.”
Handel imagined a
song of thanksgiving deserving to be sung by choirs of angels and humanity so
loudly in full voice that it shakes the very pillars of heaven! Get a copy and
play it with the volume turned high. How else can we celebrate the blessing and
thanksgiving of humanity to God? “Worthy
is the Lamb that was slain who has redeemed us by his blood. Blessing and honor, glory and power be unto
him that sittith on the throne forever and ever. Glory to God in the highest.”
Now, does that
deserve an amen?
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