May 12, 2019 – Revelation 7:9-17, Acts 9:36-43
Revelation 7:9-17; Acts 9:36-43
Who Can Stand?
4th Sunday of Easter – May 12, 2019
First Lutheran Church – Winnipeg, MB
Revelation is a strange and mysterious book.
It is purposely placed at the end of the Bible – for John’s vision is one of the culmination and
fulfillment of God’s plan for creation.
John received this vision and wrote his book in order to encourage those Christians
who were having a hard time way back in the day.
Some were being persecuted.
Some were simply suffering the consequences of not fitting in,
of refusing to worship Caesar and play the game, of having different values than
the culture around them.
And of course John sees many suffering the consequences of human sinfulness.
John sees the suffering human beings inflict on one another through violence and
greed and apathy.
He sees how sins effects ripple and multiply.
And he sees how even creation suffers as a result of human sinfulness.
In all these ways, this strange book can suddenly seem strangely contemporary.
We witness every day the suffering that human beings inflict on one another and
the consequences of human behavior for the environment and non-human life.
Many of us have a sense that all is not right – that all is not as it could be.
Those of us who are gathered here this morning have a shared longing for transformation.
Those gathered here long for peace and harmony and for the joyful and equitable sharing
of God’s gifts in creation.
But it’s hard to hold on to that hope when the negative consequences of human sinfulness
seem so overwhelmingly strong.
It’s hard to struggle against those forces when all of us in some way share in the
difficulties and the consequences of human sinfulness.
Who among us is untouched, after all, by violence? Or by abuse?
Who among us is untouched by death, and grief, and loss?
Who among us can keep standing when confronted by all this?
That is the question in Revelation: who can stand?
Who is able to stand?
Who is able to withstand all this?
And remain faithful to God’s vision of sharing and compassion?
Who is able to withstand these tremendous difficulties and remain faithful to
God’s mission to love, bless, heal, feed and set free
this whole world and every person in it?
We are in the midst of a devastating section of Revelation.
The first six seals have been opened on earth and all the horrors of
the devastation that human beings can inflict on one another are revealed.
The first four unleash the dreaded four horsemen of the apocalypse.
They are nasty and they represent the four awful qualities of the Roman Empire:
conquest, war, famine, and death.
The fifth seal gives a vision of those who refuse to play Rome’s game and
worship its emperor: the vision is of Christian martyrs who suffer for
worshiping Jesus rather than Caesar.
The sixth seal gives a vision of earthquake and natural disaster,
as if creation itself is reeling from the inhumaneness of Rome.
After this the question is asked: in the midst of all this, who can stand?
Who can withstand all this and remain faithful to God’s vision of peace, and justice, and love?
And then, and then, just as we expect even more destruction with the breaking of the
seventh seal, John pauses for a moment.
And instead of telling us about the breaking of the seventh seal,
he transports us instead to a vision of the heavenly throne room,
of what is happening in heaven right now.
And there we do not see devastation, or grief, or loss.
But rather we see people of every tribe and race, of every colour and language,
women and men, rich and poor, slave and free: and they are all united in
worshipping God and the lamb.
There is no conquest and no war, no famine and no death.
There is just singing.
And they are all, every single one of them, standing.
They are the ones who came through the great tribulation –
the famine, and death, and grief, and loss – and they are still standing.
The lamb – who is Jesus, who is the slain but still standing and resurrected lamb –
who has experienced all this first hand, who has himself suffered at the hands of
an unjust empire – the lamb is the one they are worshipping.
Because it is he and the God who raised him who have sheltered and strengthened their people.
They have dwelt with the people in the midst of their difficulties.
They have surrounded them and sheltered them and the people have endured.
And so John writes to encourage those on earth to persevere.
To live into God’s vision.
To gather week after week and worship Jesus and share the manna and
stay true to God’s vision for this world and
to continue to participate in God’s mission to love, bless and feed this world and
every person in it.
With God’s help, the people are able to withstand
everything arrayed against God’s plan for this world.
With God’s help, the people are able to stand.
This passage we get from Revelation this morning is very hopeful.
It assures us that there is relief in the midst of tremendous difficulty.
It assures us that God and the lamb are standing with us.
It assures us that we – with the ones standing around the heavenly throne right now –
will come through the grief, and the loss, and the devastation with God’s help.
And, you’ll notice, none of them is standing alone.
There is a great multitude – they are an assembly of diverse people:
it is multi-ethnic and multi-national.
It is together that the people stand.
It is together that the people are able to support one another.
For it is only when they are together that they are able to love one another.
After this beautiful, hopeful interlude we return to the opening of the seventh seal on earth.
And we kind of brace ourselves for yet more destruction.
But when the lamb finally opens the seventh seal, all we experience is silence.
A beautiful, calm, peace-filled silence.
It is the silence that is a rebuke to all the noise.
The silence that expresses confidence in the God with whom, finally,
all shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of all things shall be well –
and we shall see it.
It is the silence of the still waters and it is the silence of the table that is set so beautifully
in the midst of all that would confound us and knock us down.
It is the silence in the midst of which we can pour our hearts out to God who promises to listen.
Our table this morning is a respite from the devastations we experience.
It is that place of peace in the midst of our enemies.
It is where the shepherd-lamb leads us to find refreshment and sustenance and strength
to continue to be God’s people of caring in difficult circumstances.
In the end, we will join with those who have come through the difficulties.
In the end, God will wipe every tear from our eyes.
Our stories are not over yet – God’s heaven has not yet come to earth.
But it will.
And in the meantime, we have a token of God’s presence with us here on earth,
we have an assurance of the shepherd-lamb’s care for us here at this table.
Where all are welcome.
Where an assembly of diverse nations and colours and languages have gathered to
witness to God’s presence and God’s care for all people and for this neighbourhood.
So come, experience the silence and the peace, be strengthened for those things that
God calls you to, and be assured of the final fulfilment of God’s plan for this world.
And together let us say, “Amen.”
Pastor Michael Kurtz
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