CALVARY BAPTIST CHURCH

 

Rev. Fred Weimert      November 2, 2008

 

“That Can’t Really Work, Can It?"

 

Revelation 7: 9-17

 

 

 

I had a friend in seminary

          who had a horrible scar on his upper arm.

                   It looked as if the skin had been peeled back.

One day he told me that was exactly what had happened.

          When he was a boy he had gotten his arm caught

                   in the wringer on his mother’s wash machine.

I could understand perfectly how that had happened

because as a boy

                   I can remember my fascination with our wringer washer.

                             It was one of the first pieces of machinery

                                       that I was able to get close to,

                                                and I loved to watch my mother

                                                          take the wet clothes from the washer…

                                                                   and send them through the ringer

                                                                             and the clothes would come out

                                                                                      flat as boards.

                                      I am amazed I didn’t have a similar scar

on my arm.

A ringer washer was a fascinating process to me

          it was a marvel of human ingenuity and workmanship.

I can remember seeing missions movies as a boy

from Africa, or Indonesia, South America…

                   some primitive place…

          I remember paying close attention to the women

                   going down to the stream

                             to wash their clothing…

                                       In those dirty streams

                                      the women took the clothing

                                                and beat it over and over against the stones.

                                                          How could they be so foolish to think

that process would make

their clothes clean?

                                      They were such simple people…

                                                They didn’t just need Jesus—

                                                          they needed a wringer washer.

                   But as I saw those primitive people…

                             I couldn’t help but think of my Grandmother, Nan,

                                      My mother’s mother down in Miami.

                             We use to go and stay with her

for a month or two in the winters.

                             Staying at Nan & Pop’s house was always interesting

                                      because they didn’t have many modern conveniences

                                                They didn’t have a telephone…

                                                          You had to run up the street four houses

                                                                   to talk to my dad

when he called from Buffalo.

                                                They didn’t have a Television set

                                                          Pop just listened to the radio.

                                                They didn’t have a furnace,

                                                          and on cold mornings

                                                                   their little kerosene heater

                                                                             didn’t heat much.

                                                Most importantly on wash day

                                                          Nan got out a big galvanized tub

                                                                   and she scrubbed on a wash board.

                                                          They may have had a hand crank wringer

                                                                   but it didn’t impress me much…

                                                                             probably because

                                                                                      I may have cranked it.

                                                                   And the clothes didn’t come out as flat

                                                                             as they did out of my mother’s

                                                                                      mechanical wringer…

                                      How could these clothes be as clean…

                                                The water wasn’t as hot…

                                                The scrubbing wasn’t uniform…

                                                You had to empty the tub

                                                          and scrub the clothes again

                                                                   to get the soap out…

                                      It was so primitive…

                                                How could this work.

 

We who live in this modern world…

          with our washers that spin clothes dry…

                   Maybe with those new steam cycle washers…

                             we see on TV.

                                       Oh my,  We are advanced

so far beyond those primitive peoples…

                    of the distant past

                    and remote places.

 

Our technology has advanced us so far…

          far beyond primitive means…

                   So far that we look back at those futile efforts…

                             and smugly say to ourselves…

                                       Those methods…

                                                can’t possibly work…

                                                          can they?

          But to tell you the truth

                   my clothes were just as clean in Miami…

                             as they were in Buffalo.

 

In our sophistication

we tend to look at the practices of others

          we deem simple or primitive…

                   as if they are impractical…  superstitious…

                             too simple or simplistic for us.

                                      It may have had its place back then…

                                                but not any more.

 

The Book of the Revelation of John

          may fall into that category for many of us.

                   Especially today’s reading from the Seventh chapter…

                             because it talks about…

                                      robes made white

                                                through washing them in the blood of the lamb

                                                                   how primitive.

 

As I have told you before

          I think the Revelation of John

                   was written to be read all at once…

                             as a dramatic reading…

                                      the hymns were probably meant to be chanted…

                                                I’ll try to do that.

          But following that logic

                   we are, of course, breaking into the text

                             by starting in the first thrid of the book

                                      in the middle of a chapter.

          In the sixth chapter “The Lamb”

                   has been opening the seven seals

                             which were found on the scroll

                                      which was spoken of in the 5th chapter.

                   As the first six seals were opened…

                             The four horsemen of the apocalypse rode out,

                                      conquest, bloodshed, famine, pestilence.

                   The fifth seal was opened

and the souls of the martyrs

                                      cry out from under the altar.

                   The sixth seal brings an earthquake and darkened skies…

and then there is a break in the action…

                   One seal is left unopened,

                             but John moves on to speak of the action of angels

                                      who are at work sealing…

                                                people…

                                                          12,000 from each of the 12 tribes of Israel.

                                                                   Sealed with a mark on their forehead.

                                                Certainly the people

 and the numbers are symbolic…

But symbols of what?

or who?

                                                          are they Jews…

                                                                   saved in the last days?

                                                          or is this the Church the new Israel for John

                                                                   still on earth,

                                                                             but sealed by God?

                                                                   who knows…

 

          In verse 9 we move back to heaven

                   as the text begins,

                             and speaks of those up there, in heaven…

                                      possibly an extension of the 144,000

                                                who had been sealed down here.

 

                                                Revelation 7: 9-17

After this I looked,

and there was a great multitude

that no one could count,

from every nation,

from all tribes and peoples and languages,

standing before the throne

and before the Lamb,

robed in white,

with palm branches in their hands.

They cried out in a loud voice, saying,

"Salvation belongs to our God

who is seated on the throne,

and to the Lamb!"

And all the angels stood around the throne

and around the elders

and the four living creatures,

and they fell on their faces before the throne

and worshiped God,

singing,

"Amen!

Blessing and glory

and wisdom and thanksgiving

and honor and power and might

be to our God forever and ever! Amen."

Then one of the elders addressed me, saying,

"Who are these, robed in white,

and where have they come from?"

I said to him,

"Sir, you are the one that knows."

Then he said to me,

"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.

For this reason they are before the throne of God,

and worship him day and night within his temple,

and the one who is seated on the throne

will shelter them.

They will hunger no more,

and thirst no more;

the sun will not strike them,

nor any scorching heat;

for the Lamb at the center of the throne

will be their shepherd,

and he will guide them to springs of the water of life,

and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes."

 

                                                                                      Here ends the reading.

 

While the passage is confusing

          it is obviously about salvation…

          "Salvation belongs to our God

          But what is meant by that word… salvation.

                   In a book written by Brian McLaren

(a bright light of the emerging church)

                   and Tony Campolo

                             (A very evangelical American Baptist)

          The title of the book is Adventures in Missing the Point…      

McLaren writes of salvation:        

                   “For starters, in the Old Testament the Hebrew word that is translated salvation means rescue—especially rescue from sickness, trouble, distress, fear, or (this especially) from           enemies and their violence.” pg. 20

          and Campolo responds at the end of the chapter:

 

“Brian is on target when he contends that the salvation Jesus preached was primarily for the here and now.  Life in the next world is not where the attention of Jesus was focused.  What Jesus offered to people, Brian points out, was a spiritual transformation that would make them into a new kind of people—a people delivered from the animosities, fears, and guilt that drains life of its joys.  The salvation that Christ offers involves becoming new persons who live out love and justice in the world.”  pg. 28

 

I would agree with these two writers…

Salvation is, in the main, about the here and now…

So why does this scene take place in heaven?

          I think for two reasons:

          first to remind us

                   that the here and now has eternal significance…

          and secondly to remind us

that salvation begins with God…

          the eternal one.

                   God is the source of our salvation…

                             and an important symbol of that deliverance

                                      for us in need of atonement…

                                                is the blood of the lamb…

                             It addresses that issue of guilt

                                      that Campolo talked about…

                             I’ll take you back to that prayer of confession

                                      and the gospel reading…

                             Have any of you been perfect in those

                                      beatific qualities…

                                                like humility, peacemaking…etc?

                                      So you are guilty of failure…

                                      As am I…

                                                we all are.

                                                          but that doesn’t mean

we don’t strive toward ideals.

                                                                             It just means we aren’t perfect.

          Notice these people here in the Revelation…

in white…

they didn’t just get that way

by believing in the blood of the Lamb…

                             they washed their robes in it…

                   Gerhard Krodel in his commentary on the Revelation says:

 

          “They experienced suffering because of their witness to Christ, and thereby they participated in the suffering of the Lamb.  Through their perseverance they retained the redemption bought      by his blood and received in baptism.”  pg. 186

         

The Revelation of John is not about faith without works…

 

                   Earlier in this revelation

John says to the churches…

                                      “I know your works.”

                             In chapter 13 speaking of the saints it says:

                                      “Their works do follow them.”    

                             In chap. 20: 12,13 speaking of Judgment

                                      we are told itt is done:

“according to their works.”

Salvation comes from God…

                   but it is we who choose

                             and commit ourselves to the task of

                                      washing our robes in the blood.

 

Sometimes I talk about washed in the blood songs

          in derogatory terms…

                   As an invitation hymn today

                             we are going to sing one of them…

                             probably the most famous of them…

                                      “Are you washed in the blood”…

                             when I think of the song

                                      I think of Salvation Army people…

                                      I can almost hear the brass band…

                                                Most of all I think of the poem

I stuck in the bulletin…

          by Vachel Lindsay

which was a tribute to Gen. William Booth,

          the founder of the Salvation Army…

It was written

on the 20th anniversary of his death.

                             On All Saints Day it might be worth

                                      Remembering William Booth

                                      and his care for the poor

                                                His call for them

and all of us

          to be washed in the blood of the Lamb.

                             As you take communion

read the poem …

                                                and think about people who have

                                                          set themselves apart for the service…

                                                                   of robe washing…

                                                                             May we be as faithful.

                                                                                      Amen.

 

'General William Booth Enters Heaven'  by N. Vachel Lindsay

 

(BASS DRUM BEATEN LOUDLY)

Booth led boldly with his big bass drum-
(Are you washed in the Blood of the Lamb?)
The Saints smiled gravely, and they said, 'He's come.'
(Are you washed in the Blood of the Lamb?)
Walking lepers followed, rank on rank,
Lurching bravos from the ditches dank,
Drabs from the alleyways and drug fiends pale-
Minds still passion-ridden, soul-powers frail;
Vermin-eaten saints with mouldy breath,
Unwashed legions with the ways of Death-
(Are you washed in the Blood of the Lamb?)

(BANJOES)

Every slum had sent its half-a-score
The round world over. (Booth had groaned for more.)
Every banner that the wide world flies
Bloomed with glory and transcendent dyes.
Big-voiced lassies made their banjoes bang;
Tranced, fanatical, they shrieked and sang-
'Are you washed in the Blood of the Lamb?'
Hallelujah! It was queer to see
Bull-necked convicts with that land made free.
Loons with trumpets blowed a blare, blare, blare,
On, on, upward through the golden air!
(Are you washed in the Blood of the Lamb?)

II

(BASS DRUMS SLOWER AND SOFTER)

Booth died blind, and still by faith he trod,
Eyes still dazzled by the ways of God.
Booth led boldly, and he looked the chief,
Eagle countenance in sharp relief,
Beard aflying, air of high command,
Unabated in that holy land.

(SWEET FLUTE MUSIC)

Jesus came from out the court-house door,
Stretched His hands above the passing poor.
Booth saw not, but led his queer ones there,
Round and round the mighty courthouse square.
Then in an instant, all that blear review
Marched on spotless, clad in raiment new,
The lame were straightened, withered limbs uncurled,
And blind eyes opened on a new, sweet world.

(BASS DRUMS LOUDER)

Drabs and vixens in a feast made whole!
Gone was the weasel-head, the snout, the jowl!
Sages and sibyls now, and athletes clean,
Rulers of empire, and of forests green!

(GRAND CHORUS OF ALL INSTRUMENTS. TAMBOURINES TO THE FOREGROUND)

The hosts were sandalled, and their wings were fire!
(Are you washed in the Blood of the Lamb?)
But their noise played havoc with the angel-choir.
(Are you washed in the Blood of the Lamb?)
Oh, shout Salvation! It was good to see
Kings and Princes by the Lamb set free.
The banjoes rattled and the tambourines
Jing-jing-jingled in the hands of Queens.

(REVERENTLY SUNG, NO INSTRUMENTS)

And when Booth halted by the curb of prayer,
He saw his Master through the flag-filled air.
Christ came gently with a robe and crown
For Booth the Soldier, while the throng knelt down.
He saw King Jesus. They were face to face,
And he knelt a-weeping in that holy place.

Are you washed in the Blood of the Lamb?