April 14, 2013 – Revelation 5:11-14
Revelation 5:11-14
Who is Worthy?
Third Sunday of Easter – April 14, 2013
First Lutheran Church – Winnipeg, MB
Last week I introduced the book of Revelation to you by noting its Greek title, Apocalypse.
And I said that that is not a scary word, but a word that simply means “unveiling.”
While in prison on the island of Patmos, John has a vision that pulls the curtain back on reality.
His vision shows us what is really going on in the world and who, really, is in charge, and how.
Last week, we saw how it was possible for John to be in two places at the same time,
to be both in his prison on Patmos and at the same time “in the spirit.”
This week, he has a vision right into the heavenly throne room.
What he sees there is that God is holding a scroll.
Opening the scroll will lead the world into God’s intended future for it.
Opening the scroll will bring about the events that bring about the fulfillment of
God’s intentions for this world.
And for those who have already read to the end of the story in Revelation,
we know what that intended future is: an end to violence, the healing of the nations,
the sharing of God’s bounty among all peoples,
the communion of all things in peace.
The end is cosmic harmony in John’s vision.
The question is: how will we get there?
Or, in the terms of his vision: who has the authority to open the scroll?
At first, no one can be found to open the scroll.
No one can be found, that is, who can bring the intended future into being.
And so John begins to weep.
Indeed, if there were no way for God’s intended future to become a reality,
we should truly weep.
Tears often flow when there seems to be no way.
I sat beside a woman at our Community Meal on Wednesday who wept because
her husband was murdered a year ago and there seems to be no way forward for her.
Who will oversee her journey into God’s intended future for her,
which will not be a smooth one?
If we don’t know, that is reason to weep.
As John weeps, an elder tells him to stop it, because the Lion of Judah has been found worthy.
Lion of Judah: now that sounds pretty good.
A lion is powerful.
And you’re going to need somebody powerful to bring in God’s intended future because,
let’s face it: there’s a lot of opposition to it!
In John’s day, that opposition seemed to be focussed in the Roman Empire,
and one way of reading Revelation is read it as one of the most scathing attacks on
the Roman Empire ever written.
John saw the empire as based on unbridled power, violence, and the trade in goods taken from
the far corners of its empire, including slaves and the natural resources of the earth.
Who can counter that?
Who would you want to oversee the events leading to God’s intended future?
Who can defeat all the evil in the universe?
You’d want someone powerful, right?
I imagine these dudes around the throne interviewing all the possible candidates.
Maybe you’d want someone just as evil as the ones you’re fighting against: fight fire with fire:
maybe you’d interview Darth Vader for the job, or Voldemort, or Sauron.
On the other hand, maybe you’d want someone who seems good but is also powerful:
in which case, maybe you’d interview the Hulk, or Iron Man, or
a dance competition winner. . .
But none of these seem right.
But the Lion of Judah: yeah. That sounds good.
Seems powerful. Seems biblical. Let’s interview that guy.
So John says: okay. Where is this Lion of Judah?
And the elder says: he’s right over there, behind you.
So John turns around, and what does he see standing there but . . . a sheep!
And not just any sheep, but a sheep that’s been slaughtered.
And not even a sheep, really, but a lamb.
And, in fact, in Greek it doesn’t really say lamb, but the diminutive form of lamb: lambkin.
John turns around and expects to see the Lion of Judah, but what he in fact sees is Fluffy.
I’m sure John flips through the resume he’s been handed asks something like:
It says here you’re the “Lion of Judah”?
To which Fluffy probably replies, “Get over it.”
The Lamb who was slain is the one to whom God gives the scroll.
The Lamb who was slain is Jesus.
The Lion of Judah is never heard from again.
From now on, Jesus is referred as the lambkin: 28 times in the Book of Revelation.
The lamb who was slain is Jesus’s primary title in the book.
Jesus, the slain lamb, is the one who will oversee all the difficulty, all the suffering,
all the violence, all the poverty and who will see to it that
God’s intended future finally comes.
And how will the lambkin do that?
What is the lambkin’s special super-power?
If Darth Vader has the dark side of the force,
if the Hulk has almost unlimited strength,
then the lambkin’s super-power is . . . lamb-power!
Lamb power is the power of self-giving love.
Lamb power is the power of forgiveness, even of enemies.
Lamb power is the power of inclusion and compassion.
This is the power that will see us through all the difficulties of this world until
God’s promised future comes.
Lamb power is the power that can bring us to that future.
And it is the power that can bring that future to us.
It’s unexpected to see the slaughtered lambkin at this point of the vision.
And yet, John is affirming that this lambkin has what it takes.
What do you need to carry out the task of defeating evil?
Lamb-power: relentless, faithful, constant, forgiving love.
The lambkin who is slaughtered but standing is of course the crucified and risen Jesus.
John’s affirmation this morning – John’s good news – is that this
slaughtered but standing Jesus is reigning right now.
And reigning not only in heaven but right now overseeing all things until
in the end they are redeemed: he is worthy to hold and open the scroll and
he will not let go of it until God’s intended future comes!
The slaughtered but standing Jesus is in the midst of violence, standing with us.
The slaughtered but standing Jesus is in the midst of hunger and poverty, standing with us.
The slaughtered but standing Jesus is in the hospital room and in the prison cell,
standing with us.
Bringing healing where there is dis-ease,
bringing light where there is darkness,
bringing life where there is death,
bringing forgiveness where there is guilt,
bringing love where there is hatred.
Bringing lamb-power.
Jesus is the one who is worthy to open the scroll in John’s vision, not the Caesars of this world.
They will not bring us to healing, and life, and love:
but Jesus the slaughtered but standing lamb will.
And so the response is praise and a mighty “Amen!” from all concerned.
You’ll notice how inclusive the worship is in John’s vision.
It’s not only the four creatures and the angels and the elders worshipping the slain lambkin.
It’s every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and
in the sea and all that is in them.
This slaughtered but standing Jesus will oversee the renewing of the whole earth and
of all that is in it, for his care extends to every man woman and child,
every living thing, every tree rock and hill, every river lake and ocean:
lamb-power will see to it that God’s intended future comes to every one.
That’s why a representation of everyone and everything in all creation is
shown praising him in the vision.
It’s not for nothing that in the Easter Preface we sing praises to the slaughtered but
standing one with Mary Magdalene and Peter and all the witnesses of the resurrection,
with earth and sea and all its creature,
with angels and archangels and cherubim and seraphim.
The slaughtered but standing lamb has a generous inclusive vision for worship and wants us,
on this day when we join with what is already going on heaven, to
mirror in our assembly that intended future for all creation.
With our joyful, confident praise, certainly, but also in the way we treat one another,
and in the way we treat the gifts of the earth: water, bread and wine.
The slaughtered but standing lamb wants lamb-power to come take root among us right now.
And of course, our worship won’t be complete until we follow the lamb to where he leads us,
out into all the nooks and crannies of this world where he is already reigning.
Our true worship includes not just praise but following.
The crucified risen one, after all, isn’t just reigning in heaven right now.
He comes here, to us, to confront, to invite, to encourage.
He comes to Saul the murderer and Saul the hater this morning, and forgives him,
and invites him into a new way of living, filled with the Holy Spirit of Lamb power,
and the new Paul will be compelled to follow this slaughtered but standing lamb
into all the nooks and crannies of the empire creating assemblies of
inclusion and justice and peace and sharing just like this one.
He comes to Peter the denier and abandoner and feeds him and his friends and having already
forgiven them and breathed on them the Holy Spirit of Lamb power, he invites Peter to
leave his nets on the beach and to feed the hungry poor.
It turns out that the way we truly worship this slaughtered but slain lamb, the way we
truly express our confidence in his worthiness to bring to completion all that God intends,
is by following him into all the nooks and crannies of his world to feed his sheep.
He came to Paul, he came to Peter, and he comes this morning to us,
this crucified and risen one who is worthy to hold and open that scroll of the future.
To be fed by him is to be forgiven by him.
To be fed by him is to be strengthened by him.
To be fed by him is to take his life of self-giving lamb power into yourself.
To love him and worship him is to follow him, confident that because he oversees all things,
the four awful horsemen are not the end, the plagues are not the end,
the violence is not the end.
The end, as we will see, is healing, the end is justice, the end is generosity and sharing.
The end is communion.
So, with the earth and sea and all that is in them, let us say together, “Amen.”
Pastor Michael Kurtz
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