As much as I love words, our ability to employ them to express the inexpressible is limited.
Any description of a dream or vision, then, is necessarily inadequate. I've tried, in this sermon, to paint a picture, or compose a symphony in words, that gives the hearer or reader a sense of the indescribable.
The Mighty…Lamb?
Revelation
4 and 5
February
24, 2013
First
Presbyterian Church, Sterling, IL
Christina
Berry
Revelation 4:1-11
1 After this I looked, and there
in heaven a door stood open! And the first voice, which I had heard speaking to
me like a trumpet, said, "Come up here, and I will show you what must take
place after this." 2 At once I was in the spirit, and there in heaven
stood a throne, with one seated on the throne! 3 And the one seated there looks
like jasper and carnelian, and around the throne is a rainbow that looks like
an emerald. 4 Around the throne are twenty-four thrones, and seated on the
thrones are twenty-four elders, dressed in white robes, with golden crowns on
their heads. 5 Coming from the throne are flashes of lightning, and rumblings
and peals of thunder, and in front of the throne burn seven flaming torches,
which are the seven spirits of God; 6 and in front of the throne there is
something like a sea of glass, like crystal. Around the throne, and on each
side of the throne, are four living creatures, full of eyes in front and
behind: 7 the first living creature like a lion, the second living creature like
an ox, the third living creature with a face like a human face, and the fourth
living creature like a flying eagle. 8 And the four living creatures, each of
them with six wings, are full of eyes all around and inside. Day and night
without ceasing they sing, "Holy, holy, holy, the Lord God the Almighty,
who was and is and is to come." 9 And whenever the living creatures give
glory and honor and thanks to the one who is seated on the throne, who lives
forever and ever, 10 the twenty-four elders fall before the one who is seated
on the throne and worship the one who lives forever and ever; they cast their
crowns before the throne, singing, 11 "You are worthy, our Lord and God,
to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your
will they existed and were created."
Imagine that you are asleep in a
mountain cabin in the woods, and a sound wakes you.
You look out into the forest and
the sound of distant music draws you out of the cabin toward a moonlit meadow. The
starlight dances off the drops of dew on the tall grass and you can hear a
silver brook tumbling down the rocks. It’s a splendid night, magical, and it
feels like a dream as you walk.
Suddenly, in front of you, a doorway
appears, the door opens, and light streams out of the opening. A voice says,
“Come up here!” You step forward and peek through the door, where you see the
great hall of a palace.
You know it is a palace, because
you’ve been in a palace before, on a tour somewhere. You remember the tour
guide took you into the throne room and up the red carpet to see the golden
chair and the royal diadem. But when you looked more closely, the carpet was
nylon, indoor-outdoor, and the throne was made of plastic with a veneer of gold
paint, and the bejeweled crown was cheap metal and glass. The royal robe that
looked like velvet and ermine was polyester and fake fur. It was all façade,
cheap imitation, artificial grandeur. But that was in the real world, all that
sham and phony glitter.
This is a vision, not a guided
tour, and now you are taken up into a throne room. You can’t say how you got
there. You gaze around you in complete awe. The word AWFUL comes to mind, not
the way we use it now, but the original meaning of it – inspiring awe or
reverence – which is what awesome used to mean! So it is AWE-full—what you see
in this vision:
There is a being seated on a
throne, who looks like polished precious gemstones, surrounded by a rainbow
that looks like an emerald. Around that breathtaking being, you see twenty-four
elders on twenty-four thrones, the twelve tribes, the twelve apostles, all
dressed in sparkling white robes and wearing golden crowns. There is the sound
of thunder, and voices, and flashes of lightning. You look toward the front of
the throne and see seven flaming torches, surrounding a glassy sea, like
crystal.
You are transfixed watching the
flickering of the torches reflected in the crystal. Then you see four living
creatures – winged and many-eyed, all seeing, and powerful – they look like a
man, an ox, a lion, and an eagle. They sing unceasingly, songs like tiny
hammers hurled at beveled mirrors in empty halls[1],
songs like a symphony of all of nature, songs like the music of the spheres, "Holy,
holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is coming."
And when they sing, the twenty
four elders fall down on their faces and worship the one on the throne. They throw
down their crowns before the throne and sing of glory and honor and power.
Then you see the one on the
throne is holding a scroll. The scroll has seven seals upon it, and writing on
the front and back. An angel calls out a question: “Who is worthy to open the
scroll?”
But there is no one, no one who
is worthy to break the seven seals, no one who is worthy, in heaven or on
earth. And you can see that this scroll contains the redemption of the world, the
secret plan of God to overthrow destruction and evil and violence, to overwhelm
them with nurturing and world-rescuing.
You can see that inside this
scroll there is a new creation, a new heaven and a new earth: liberation,
emancipation, release to the captive. But there is no one who is worthy, not
one who can open the seven seals. And you are overcome with sorrow, overcome
with weeping, distraught– no one will open the scroll!
Then, one of the elders speaks,
promising a lion, a lion who has emerged victorious, the king of beasts, the
mighty hunter, who roars and makes the world tremble. He will open the seven
seals. You look to see this glorious beast. But what you see is not a lion!
You see only a lamb, a slain
lamb, like a sacrifice. When he comes forward to take the scroll, all the
elders fall down and worship him. They each hold a harp. They each hold golden
bowls full of incense, the prayers of the saints. And they begin to sing:
“You are worthy to take the
scroll and open its seals, because you were slain, and by your blood you
purchased for God persons from every tribe, language, people, and nation. You
made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they will rule on earth."
As you lift your eyes from this
lamb, you hear the sound of angels – millions of angels, thousands upon
thousands. And the angels begin to sing:
“Worthy is the slaughtered Lamb
to receive power, wealth, wisdom,
and might, and honor, glory, and
blessing."
And joining in the angels song,
you hear every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the
sea -- everything, everywhere saying,
“Blessing, honor, glory, and
power belong to the one seated on the throne
and to the Lamb forever and
always.”
And from the eagle, the ox, the
lion and man, those winged creatures, arises a great “Amen”
and all the elders fall down and
worship. And you fall down and worship too, but you are looking for the mighty
lion of Judah, for the one who was and is and is to come, looking for the king
and ruler, whose power and might will bring his kingdom to bear, whose sudden
and violent return will bring his enemies to their knees.
Where is the true king, the one
in whose presence the people tremble? You are looking for the strength of
muscle and weapon, dominance and superiority. You are familiar with the system
of domination that sets one above another, that subjects a people by force, and
demands that you bow to Caesar.
As you remember that plastic and
synthetic palace you once saw, with its false wealth and faked splendor, loyalty
won at the point of a spear, the blade of a sword, the barrel of a gun, you
realize that true reality is not the death and despair of your waking life, not
the greed and exploitation of the kingdoms of this world, not the
monstrous distortions of systems of
domination, not the evil of despair and
hopelessness.
In this lamb who was slain, now
you can see: his vision is reality;
his is the kingdom that truly has
come; his will shall be done; his victory is won!
Now you can see that this
heavenly realm in which you stand is the true kingdom!
This is the true kingdom, not the
sham and fakery of the world!
This Lamb upon the throne has
triumphed, he has reclaimed the world that God created.
He has come to put things right, not because creation is bad and he is angry with
it, but because it is good and he is
angry at the forces that have corrupted and defaced it, and which threaten to
destroy it.[2]
He comes not with the brute force
of a punishing conqueror, but with the giving love of a lamb, to turn us from
hopeless rebels, from slaves to sin and death, into princes and princesses,
into priests. He is the one who is worthy to open the seven seals; he is the
one who is worthy of praise and worship. He comes not as a raging lion but as
the lamb who was sacrificed, a self-giving monarch who rules the world with
power –
the law of love,
the
dominance of grace,
the
force of forgiveness,
and
he is the true king, worthy to be praised,
who
was and is and is to come,
To him be all glory and honor and
power, forever and ever!
Maranatha! Come, Lord Jesus!
Come, Mighty Lamb!
Amen!
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