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Sermon for All Saints Sunday – November 1, 2020
Revelation 7:9-17
Dear friends, grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ.
We don’t have a throne room for our leaders in the United States. We have an Oval Office. And while the occupants of that office are indeed powerful, they are in many important ways hemmed in by the two other branches of government. Moreover, whoever sits in the Oval Office needs to reapply for the job every four years! I don’t want to downplay the importance of the election or the power of the executive branch, but it is important to keep in mind that every American president is a temp worker. They work in an office, not a throne room. I think everyone needs to take a deep breath and remember this as we gather on this last Sunday before the presidential election.
But this is a sermon, not a civics lesson, and our reading from Revelation on this All Saints Sunday gives us even more significant reasons to tamp down our election anxieties. This reading lifts our eyes from the Oval Office to the throne room of God. John’s vision recorded here turns our attention from earthly tribulations to the eternal glories of Christ Jesus.
Revelation is probably the most misunderstood and abused book in the Bible, and so it causes anxieties of its own when it is mentioned or referenced, but when you understand the genre and unpack the symbolism, it sings with hope and comfort and promise! It sings with the Good News of Christ Jesus! In parts, it literally sings of the glory of God!
Revelation (and it is singular, not plural!) records a vision John received while in exile on the island of Patmos. It is a vision given to him by Christ. This vision is like a dream in that it can be disjointed and not everything makes logical sense. For instance, how can washing a robe in blood make it white? How can a lamb also be a shepherd? But this vision, not unlike many of the visions given to the prophets, is rich in metaphor and symbolism.
The part of John’s vision we hear today takes us inside God’s throne room. In this throne room there is a great multitude. It isn’t just one political party celebrating. It isn’t even just one nation. There are people from every nation and tribe and people and language there in this throne room. They are robed in white. You see, they have been clothed in Christ! They have been clothed in his forgiveness! They have received his righteousness, his holiness, his purity, his eternal life. They are waving palm branches. These are traditional symbols of victory. Jesus has conquered sin and death, and he has shared that victory with this great multitude! And so as these white robed saints wave their palm branches, they shout: “Salvation belongs to our God who is seated on the throne, and to the Lamb!”
There are angels there too, and they are singing! They sing: “Amen! Blessing and glory and honor and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen!”
There is a funny question nestled into this vision. One of the elders addresses John, asking, “Who are these, robed in white, and where have they come from?” What is this, some kind of quiz? Blessed John has the perfect answer: “Sir, you are the one that knows!” And the elder replies, “These are they who have come out of the great ordeal; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.”
How does washing something in blood make it white? Only Jesus’ blood does that. The blood of Christ washes away sin. The blood of the Lamb washes away every black mark against us, making us as clean and pure as the driven snow.
“Who are these, robed in white?” They are those who have been washed clean in Holy Baptism. They are those who have received Christ’s forgiveness. They are those who have been clothed in Christ. These are those who have come through the ordeals that tested their faith. These are those who have died, who have come through the ordeals of sudden heart failure or the long goodbye of Alzheimer’s disease. These are those who have come through the ordeal of cancer. These are those who were murdered and martyred this past week in France as they prayed in the Notre Dame Basilica. These are all those who have clung to Jesus through every earthly ordeal and now find themselves delivered into eternity, just as he promised.
And so you know who these are. These are our saints. They are our departed loved ones. And so Mike Fankhauser is there. Janice Johnson and Becky Wold are there. All the saints we have lost in the last year and all the saints we remember today are there. They are all in God’s throne room, robed in white, their sins washed away by the blood of the Lamb. They worship God day and night as he shelters them. They hunger and thirst no more. They are not bothered by any scorching heat. The Lamb at the center of the throne is their shepherd, guiding them to the springs of the water of life and wiping away every tear from their eyes. These saints are shouting with joy and singing with the angels in this throne room.
Our sanctuary is an antechamber to this throne room, and the walls are thin. As we hear this vision of John’s it is almost like we can hear the party going on just on the other side. In fact, in our communion liturgy we sing the very song we hear them singing on the other side. Yes, here in the antechamber to God’s throne room the walls are thin indeed.
Someone will declare victory in the election sometime this week. That will be interesting, to be sure, but our lives are centered on another victory. Our lives are centered on the victory of the Lamb. We’ll soon find out who will be in the Oval Office for the next four years, but we already know who sits on the throne forever. Our comfort for today and our hope for tomorrow is found here, in this glimpse we have been given into God’s throne room.
You have a place there in that throne room, for your sins have been washed away by the blood of the Lamb. Your robe is white because of what Christ has done for you, and so you are already dressed for the party! One day you will be waving a palm branch in celebration. One day you will hunger and thirst no more. One day God will wipe away every last tear from your eyes.
In the meantime, here in this antechamber to God’s throne room, we can at least hear the party going on on the other side – and so we join the song and celebrate the victory even now.
Thanks be to God. Amen.
Rev. Jeffrey R. Spencer
Oak Harbor Lutheran Church