St. Paul Lutheran Church, Minden, Nebraska
Sunday Sermon – Fourth Sunday of Easter – April 25, 2010
“A New Thing: Believers Focusing On!”
Text: Revelation 7:10,24
Many years ago, 1966, singer/songwriter John Denver had wrote hit song made famous by “Peter, Paul, & Mary” with the refrain, “Leaving on a jet plane, Don’t know when I’ll be back again”. That’s what thousands upon thousands of stranded airline passengers could have been singing a couple of weeks ago and it would have been true. Talk about frustration, helplessness, being stranded, grounded; we now know that volcanic ash can bring down airplanes.
Amazing, said one news article, how the sudden closing of major European airports because of ash emitted by an “unpronounceable volcano in Iceland,” had given rise to “an army of experts explaining how floating lava dust damages jet engines.”
The article went on to note how others took a more mystical view of the cloud of volcanic ash seeing it as a sign of God’s judgment for the bad things we have done to the earth.” Still others saw it as “the possible beginning of years of volcanic activity, thus heralding the end of civilization as we know it.”
The article concluded with the author’s observation: while a cloud of volcanic ash surely did not signal the end of the world, “Never-the-less, given the frustration, uncertainty, millions of dollars of business lost, thousands upon thousands of passengers stranded; no wonder people feel the need to focus on the scientific or mystical significance of wind patterns, boiling magma & lava dust.
“The need to focus on . . The need to focus on!” In a dark & unpredictable world full of dark & unpredictable clouds, that’s the sentence that gets us into the text before us in the 7thchapter of the Book of Revelation.
For all of the Book of Revelation’s difficult, apocalyptic, mysterious language and images hard to interpret, in the 7th chapter of Revelation, the apostle John sets forth a remarkable set of images for Christians to focus on. And it turns out these are images; majestic, awe-inspiring images, that still hold true for children of God in all walks of life amid all the clouds of life we face today.
I mean, poor, sinful, take-life-as-it-comes human beings that we are, no matter how many thoughtful, positive, rosy sounding e-mails of good advice or heart-touching pictures of mountains & flowers we may find in our electronic mail-boxes & forward to others, we are none of us by nature free to soar & fly above life’s problems & paradoxes as if we were not the least bit intimidated by dark clouds of destructive things to come.
Like some of the “doom & gloom” talk about global warming, or the prospect nuclear weapons falling into the hands of terrorists, or growing political gridlock & greediness in Washington.
Furthermore, if it isn’t a cloud of volcanic ash or cloud of radiation, or a cloud of poisonous chemicals, or some other catastrophe, what about personal tragedies & uncertainties that cloud over us and leave us feeling grounded, stranded, lost, helplessness. One doesn’t have to do a lot of flying to realize it is a one, big, dark, scary, unpredictable world we live in . . even here in the midwest . . in the middle of Nebraska.
But the divinely inspired words of Revelation 7 proclaim to believers in every age that this dark, broken, cloud-filled world we live in is also God’s World, and sinful, broken, perplexing, painful world that it can be and it is for many people, still God has acted in time & in history in His Son on a cross to bring about the one thing this world sorely needs and that is salvation, reconciliation, healing, forgiveness, new creation, a new heaven & a new earth.
After this I looked, writes the author in our text, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages; a great multitude was standing be-fore the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and all were crying out with a loud voice, ‘Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”
It is pretty clear from this text that the focus for believers in Jesus living at the end of the first century & facing hard times & persecution brought upon them by the Romans, the focus was not on what was bad, not on what was falling apart, not on what seemed impossible to overcome, but the focus was & is on the Lamb who is Christ. The focus is on the triumphant & victorious Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the whole world, the Lamb of God who is seated at the right hand of God in great power and glory. The shout goes up: “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the Lamb.”
The author of the letter to the Hebrews puts it this way at the end of his letter in Hebrews 13: Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder of our faith who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.”
Whatever is the scientific significance & danger of various kinds of clouds, leave that to scientists to explain.
Whatever some people might imagine is the mystical, spiritual significance of various kinds of clouds, leave that to mystics & new age gurus to ponder & promote for their own satisfaction.
But as for us, children of God, children of the light, children of the day, we are bold to sing, bold to focus on this that the Lamb of God for sinners slain; Jesus, the Lamb, who endured so much suffering & pain, Jesus is now alive, is now “in reigning on His throne”
The Lamb, the Lamb, one perfect, final offering.
The Lamb, the Lamb, Let earth join heav’n His praise to sing.
Worthy is the Lamb whose death makes me His own!
The Lamb is reigning on His throne. (LSB, no. 547, v.2, Coleman)
It is not just believing that the Lamb is alive, or that the Lamb is Christ the Son of God who has triumphed gloriously over all that’s dark & evil. What matters most is that keeping our faith focused on Christ the Lamb triumphant & glorious at the end of all things, helps get a better grip, get a greater sense of grace & peace from God for getting through the darkness & lost-ness & seeming unfairness of things we have to live with & deal with now.
A true story is a story from a few years ago when a husband & wife, mom & dad, were on their way to celebrate their 25th wedding anniversary in Williamsburg, Va. Traveling thru the mountains on a day of low-lying clouds they slammed into a parked truck sitting half on, half off the shoulder of the highway. The parents were killed instantly and left three sons at home ages 10, 17, and 18.
Eventually, the middle son, age 17, was able to put into words how in the pain of his loss, how in a cloud of great uncertainty & not knowing, he discovered more than once the powerful presence of God. Thanks to a long, keeping-in-touch, on-going conversation with his pastor, he had come to picture God this way.
“These dark days,” he said, “I see God as a shelf. Everything I love, everything beautiful in my life, everything that has given me comfort & security, everything on that shelf has been moved around, scrambled, changed, broken, ended. But the shelf itself is intact.
“God is that shelf, and as I see how life can be rough, dark, uncertain, painful, the shelf never gives way or fails to support me.”
While few of us may be passengers “leaving on a jet plane, don’t know when we’ll back again” we are all of us, every day, coming & going; saying hello, good-bye; waiting, hurrying; looking back, moving forward; never knowing for sure what cloud of something tragic or terrible might suddenly sweep over us & change things forever.
What does not and will not change is this:
Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb . . For the Lamb in the midst of the throne is our shepherd, and he will guide us to springs of living water and God will wipe away every tear from our eyes.”
What this gives us to focus on, to say with confidence is:
I need God’s presence ev’ry passing hour;
What but His grace can foil the tempter’s pow’r?
Who like Himself my guide and stay can be?
Through cloud and sunshine, He abides with me. (LSB, no.878, v.2, H.F.Lyte)
Whether people, friends, loved ones are stranded in an airport, serving in Afghanistan, missing in action, diagnosed with cancer, lost on a mountain, grieving the loss of parents or children, thanks to our risen Lord Jesus Christ Easter is a new thing: holding on, passing on, catching on, focusing on, Amen! Amen! Let it be. Let it be. Through cloud & sunshine, The Lamb is reigning on His throne. This is true! The Lamb abides with me, with you. Amen! Amen!
