Time to worship
We open the book of Revelation, the last book in our Bibles, and turn to chapters 4 and 5. One of the things that are striking about Revelation, especially for those who don't read it very often, is how much music comes out of this book. Just in these two chapters we see: Holy, holy, holy,
The Lord God Almighty
Who was and is and is to come. (4:8)
You are worthy, our Lord and God,
To receive glory and honor and power,
For you created all things… (4:11)
Worthy is the Lamb that was slaughtered
To receive power and wealth and wisdom and might
And honor and glory and blessing (5:11)
We remind ourselves again that this letter of John of Patmos, written towards the end of the first century AD to churches in Asia, now Turkey, contains this important theme of worship. The letter was written to churches that John feared would be facing persecution. And more than that, he worried about their fundamental allegiances, for he worried that they were growing too intoxicated by the culture they lived within. Could they maintain their first love, their deepest loyalty, when the temptations were so strong, so appealing?
And worship was one critically important way of resisting. In worship the people would review and remind themselves of first things, of the most important things. They would hear it with their ears, proclaim it with their mouths, and express it with their bodies. Worship is a critical way by which the Christian community can build up its communal sense of resistance to the powerful forces of evil which surround it.
Where are we today? We gather together today as a community to worship. I dare to believe that this relatively short period of time that we are together is important to you. I know church can be boring but I hope this isn't boring. I know church can be unsatisfying to one's spirit, to one's sense of aesthetics, to one's longing for beauty, but I hope this isn't. I know you can go to church with other people but still feel lonely, but I hope that isn't the case for you. I know that church can feel totally inadequate intellectually, but I hope that isn't the case for you. I know that church can leave some emotionally flat, but I hope that isn't the way it is for you. I know that church can seem irrelevant to real life, but I hope that isn't the case for you.
For so many of us this getting together on Sunday routine has been going on for so long it has become routine, and we run the risk of it being far too routine. But I want to remind myself and all of us that in this weekly ritual, this weekly discipline, we impress upon our hearts, minds, and souls once again our allegiance to Jesus our Lord, in whom we trust and have our being. And this is the sturdy cornerstone upon which we build our lives.
When we gather we don't assemble in isolation. It is not like we haven't done things that are not important during the days of the week. It is not like we haven't read things or seen things that are not important. No, the events of our lives, the conversations we've had, the things we've learned, they all matter.
This Sunday as we worship, and as we read from the book of Revelation again, we have the events of our lives in our minds, a kind of backdrop which we interact with as we read the words of John of Patmos. I'm sure for many of us our minds are filled with the horrific images of what it must have been like to be sitting in that German class at Virginia Tech last Saturday morning. Perhaps we've been troubled wondering what we might have done or said upon acknowledging day after day, the sullen, silent student sitting mysteriously alone with his thoughts at the back of the classroom.
And then far away in Iraq, in a scene we are too accustomed to, on the same day that the people of Virginia Tech suffer through their nightmare, there is another hellish scene in Baghdad. More car bombs, one after another, and every day at least a dozen, and on one terrible day two hundred people suddenly dead.
If we stop to think about it, stop to take some deep breaths and just absorb this awful newstaking our minds off of how the San Francisco Giants did last night, or whether or not we need more non-fat milk in the refrigerator, or what to get at Coscowe might cry out Oh God, why? How long? When will this ever stop? Have mercy upon me oh God!
We wonder if things are always going to be this awful. Will nothing ever change? Will history just keep spinning, faster and faster, spiraling downwards into the abyss?
Stunningly, the lamb We return to our prophet John of Patmos, writing around the year 90, recording his apocalyptic vision. Remember that this kind of writingbowls, wings, eyes, strange creatures, etcwas not completely uncommon in his time. Apocalyptic is revelatory literature picturing an imaginary, strangely different, supernatural world, that communicates some kind of transcendent reality.
John's vision begins in chapter 4 with this glorious throne room scene. There are precious jewels and around the throne ``a rainbow that looks like an emerald.'' Around the main throne are twenty-four smaller thrones, each with an elder dressed in white. There are flashes of lightning, the rumble of thunder, torches, flames, spirits, and in front of the throne a ``something like a sea of glass, like crystal.'' There are living creatures around the throne, one like a lion, the second like an ox, the third has a human face, and the fourth like a flying eagle. And the song rises up in praise and worship: Holy, holy, holy,
Lord God Almighty…
You are worthy, our Lord and God,
To receive glory and honor and power…
Let's remember that John is writing to these churches in Asia. He is concerned about them. He recognizes their strengths and their weaknesses. He is concerned about the possibility of persecution to come but more than that he is worried about the risk of acculturation, of a too easy accommodation to the ways of the world they live in, in a too easily given loyalty to the familiar powers that surround them. John is decidedly not otherworldly. He does not advocate abandoning this present world by holding to private beliefs which ensure a secure afterlife.
But John is concerned about how history will unfold, how will we find a way, and how can we possibly cope and live in this present troubled world.
As he is in the midst of his vision his eyes and mind alight on a scroll. He hears in his dream the strong voice of an angel asking ``who is worthy to open the scroll and break its seals?'' Securely locked in the scroll are clues to how the future can unfold, are indications of how one ought to live in these troubled times. John, in his vision, sees that there is writing on the inside and on the back of the scroll. But what is locked inside is bolted shut by the seven seals. No one can touch it, no one can see it. John longs for it to be opened. He wants to understand. Or as Ted Grimsrud puts it: ``we get the impression that what he's describing should be understood as, in some sense, history fulfilled, the completion of the project initiated in Genesis One.'' (Ted Grimsrud's ``Revealing a New World…'', p. 1-2)
For John it is a terrible, terrible, dream. For no one, absolutely no one, can open the scroll. We are doomed, we are lost, no one can ever get it.
But just then John hears a voice, the voice of an elder, one of the twenty-four, who says not to weep, for ``the Lion of Judah, the Root of David,'' this one will be able to open the scroll. We imagine John's heart leaping for joy. Of course the ``root of David'' reminds us of texts like Isaiah 11 for out of the stump of Jesse will come a savior. But this one is a ``Lion.'' History will be explained, problems will be solved, through the force and power of the Lion. And this hope fits not only first century expectations, but surely expectations in our own time, that through the force and power, and indeed violence, of the Lion, will come resolution, explanation, and even lasting peace. It is the warrior Lion, the warrior Messiah, who will fight God's battles and bring justice to the earth.
John must think along with so many of us, ``yes.'' Yes, this is the power we need, we need this controlling, dominating power to bring order out of chaos in our world and to snuff out those who will do evil. This kind of strong man power is what is necessary to redeem history.
But let's pay attention to John's vision. The image of the conquering warrior like lion is only what John hears. He only hears the elder say, don't worry, don't cry, the Lion has conquered and will open the scroll.
But then in a complete reversal what he actually sees in his vision is this, he sees to his great astonishment a Lamb that has been slaughtered. It is a stunning reversal, a complete flip-flop from what he expects. Instead of the mighty conquering Lion image, the slaughtered Lamb!
The one who can and will open the scroll, who can explain how history is to unfold, the deepest revelation of God's will and way, is not the Lion but instead the Lamb. It is the Lamb, and not the Lion, who will open the scroll.
As Grimsrud says, we think we need to force, overpower, and dominate to control others, to move history in a redemptive direction. But John's revelation asserts that the truest redemptive power, the power to bring the most genuine wholeness, restoration, and healing, that this kind of power is found in the way of the Lamb, not the Lion.
We choose to follow the Lamb It is very important that as God's people, as Christians, as followers of Jesus Christ, that we hold fast to our loyalty to the Lamb, the one who was slain. Of courts there are other interpretations around, and the one we struggle against mightily is with those who would say that yes, Jesus came as a lamb, but he will return as a lion, and by extension, we are then granted permission to act in lion, warrior-like ways. But the way of the lamb, the way of love, was not a handy strategy for Jesus to untilize while on earth, and then to abandon, in favor of end-of-time fiery and final violence.
What we have is a radical turn around. John looks and expects to see as the way forward the way forward is through the dominating power of the lion. But instead victory is won, ultimately, by the way of the lamb. This is how we ``conquer,'' how we ultimately ``win.'' Not by force, not by power, but by the suffering way of the lamb.
Today we remind ourselves of this path to ultimate victory. We may tremble, for we know the path is not easy. We think of the terrible, unpredictable violence and sin in our world, both corporate and individual, both in Iraq and at Virginia Tech, and we cry out, ``how much longer oh God,'' and simply ``why?''
Then we think of people like Liviu Librescu, the Virginia Tech engineering department teacher, who blocked the door, facing down the troubled shooter, allowing his students to escape through the classroom windows. Liviu was following in the way of the Lamb.
We think of Tom Fox, the Christian Peacemaker Team volunteer, who went to Iraq to witness to the peacebuilding, alternative way of Jesus. Fox was taken, held and eventually murdered. He too was following in the way of the Lamb.
We do not have on this side of the grave any easy answers. But we say with the visionary writer of old, and we cling to it with all our strength, Worthy is the Lamb
To receive power and wealth and wisdom and might
And honor and glory and blessing.
