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.”
Revelation 7:9-17
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.”
My sermon from All Saints’ Day (November 1, 2020) on Revelation 7:9-17.
A few weeks ago, during my weekly bible study with other Lutheran pastors in our area, the conversation somehow turned to graphic novels. Now, if you’ve heard me preach before, you know talking about the bible and comic books is pretty on brand for me. But sometimes I even surprise myself at how nerdy I can be. The graphic novel we were discussing was about the life of Martin Luther. We dug deep into its plot, the art, and who might enjoy receiving the book as a gift. All of that is pretty basic stuff but then I took the conversation one step further by pointing out how text and the art interacted on the page. One of the neat things about comic books is that you get to physically see the choices the writer and artist made to tell their story. And sometimes the written words are more important than anything else. Every character in every panel is required to say, out loud, exactly what they’re doing and thinking. And in those comics, you don’t even need pictures to fully understand what’s going on. But other comics let the art tell the story. Instead of using a mountain of words to control how we experience it, they let our imagination do the work. The art invites us to step into the story and discover what it’s all about. When the book of Revelation appeared 1900 years ago, graphic novels didn’t exist. But we can use our experience of reading comics as a way to dig deeper into the book itself. If we chose to read Revelation as if it’s a comic book using a mountain of words to control our experience of it, then maybe it really is some strange roadmap describing the end of the world. But if we let the words in Revelation create an art focused graphic novel in our heads – then we might connect with the book in a different way. Revelation isn’t, I believe, a chronological step-by-step guide to the end of the world. Rather, it’s a series of intersecting images, spiraling into one another, so that we see hope during a difficult time.
Today’s reading from Revelation takes place during a very specific cycle in the book. The Lamb, aka Jesus, has begun to break open a series of seven seals on a very large scroll. When the first seal was broken, a horseman appeared wielding a bow and riding a white horse. We’re told they were given a crown and commanded to conquer. The second, third, and forth seals brought even more horsemen of the apocalypse. The author only used a few words to describe who they were – such as identifying their weapons, the color of their horses, and what their missions are in the world. Each one was invited to disrupt the world through war, violence, uncertainty, disease, and economic suffering. The very thin outline we’re given is enough for our minds to fill in the rest. And the picture we form of them would fit in any elaborate Halloween display or next to the fiery eyed horse statue that welcomes you to Denver International Airport. As we create this page of our graphic novel in our heads, we might find ourselves filled with different kinds of emotions. We might feel anxious, worried, and maybe concerned because we know there’s three more seals to go. The book of Revelation moves quickly and when the fifth seal was broken, we got to see everyone who was martyred for their faith. If that wasn’t emotionally charged enough, the six seal really lets our imagination run wild. We’re told that a great earthquake shook the entire world and the sun turned black. The moon became like blood and the stars fell from the sky. So with that terrifying page of the graphic novel we’re creating in our heads finally done – we’re asked to do an anxiety inducing thing. We’re told to turn the page and see what the breaking of the seventh seal might bring.
But before that happens – the story is interrupted by our reading today. The violence violence, destruction, and dread from the previous page has been replaced by a heavenly choir that’s so large, it can’t be counted. Every nation, tribe, race, and gender is gathered in that space. And unlike the four horsemen that were released earlier, the choir wears merely their baptismal gowns and a palm branch as their swords. The terrifying images we just heard are met by a mass of humanity that’s busy singing in a place where hunger, thirst, worry, and tears are no more. This isn’t the page we expect to see. We were ready for more death and destruction because we’re full of uncertainty since we don’t know what the breaking of the seventh seal would bring. But what we get, instead, is an image of what it’s like to be with God. The page of doom and gloom is side-by-side with the page of love and peace. We might want to act as if we can stay on one page rather than on the other. Yet we can’t because the seventh seal will be broken. The uncertainty rooted in that doom and gloom is met by this truth of who we are. In Christ, through faith, and in our baptism – we are always beloved children of God. And in the face of whatever might come – God’s promise doesn’t change.
If we were, right now, to name every uncertainty in our life – this sermon would probably be pretty long. There’s a lot of things about the future we don’t know – and much of that is rooted in a worsening pandemic that we’re all living through. There’s also the upcoming election and the concerns about what might happen in the days and weeks to come. And there’s all those other concerns – like, can our school stay open? Can we visit family during the holidays? Will our job ever come back or will we be employed come December? That’s a lot to hold on top of all the other struggles we deal with that most people know nothing about. I think each one of us would love some positive interruptions to our story that would make all the uncertainties feel way more sure. There are days when the doom and gloom of those six opened seals feels a tad more real than the image of a choir singing around the throne. And that might be why – when things seem the most uncertain – God chose to interrupt the story so that you could remember who you are. You are, right now, loved. And you are already with God. No matter what comes – and no matter what will come – your spot in the heavenly choir is already rooted in the one who lived, died, and rose for you.
Now if that promise from God is a little difficult to hear today, I then invite you to remember those in your life who were embraced by that promise and make sure to light a candle for them today. The promise of love; the promise of justice; the promise of mercy and the gift of the Holy Spirit inspired every special person who made a difference in your lives. Their inclusion in God’s eternal choir is what helped them, in their own broken and holy ways, to let that page of love and peace speak a word of grace into that page of gloom. Even if our time with them was too short and even if there were uncertainties that were left unsettled, they will always be our saints because Jesus never left them. They, with God’s help, offered us a different kind of story that took seriously everything life brings and showed us what God’s love is all about. The saints of our lives have a place in God’s choir. And when you build the graphic novel of the book of Revelation in your mind – make sure you picture them in that choir. Pay attention to the song they’re singing because God kept singing through every one of their uncertainties. And once you’ve added them to that paeg in your graphic novel – make sure to take one long good look at that scene. Because – whether you realize it or not – you’re singing with them too.
Amen.