Who Are These?

Scripture Lessons: 1 John 3: 1-3 and Revelation 7: 9-17 Sermon Title: Who Are These? Preached on November 1, 2020 Last Sunday my brother was in town and we were all having lunch, outside, after church at McCallister’s by the hospital. We were discussing etiquette and appropriate wardrobe for Zoom meetings. Because he’s now an English Composition professor at a community college in Charlotte, teaching all his classes on-line rather than in person, one of our girls asked him if he ever taught his classes while wearing pjs. Generally, we agreed that wearing pjs to teach a college class sends the wrong message, but my brother and our girls also thought it would be nice if there was a line of formal pjs, that looked sort of like a suit and tie to wear while lecturing a class from home during a pandemic. (If someone takes this idea and runs with it, just tithe back 10% to the church, please.) My point is that clothes matter this way. What you have on says a lot about you. I once met a pastor who had served great big churches in great big cities and I asked him, “What should I be working on as I prepare for a life in ordained ministry?” Thinking he might emphasize a healthy prayer life or a disciplined routine for studying Scripture, instead he looked at my outfit and told me to shine my shoes. “People judge you by what you wear. If you want people to think that you’re taking ministry seriously, show them by dressing seriously.” That’s what he said, and I think he’s right about that. I’ve challenged myself to live by that advice and I’ve repeated his words more than once, only consider what the saints were wearing. We’ve just read a beautiful passage of Scripture from the book of Revelation. I believe it’s this passage that inspired the hymn: When the Saints Go Marching In. Here in Revelation is this great multitude, made up of all tribes and peoples and languages. Surely, we all want to be in that number, but what does it take? What is required? Do you have to shine your shoes to be one of the saints in light? No. That’s not it. Notice what they’re wearing. Their wardrobe is explained by one of the elders: “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.” Their wardrobe says a lot about them, though what their white robes mean isn’t necessarily obvious, so let me try and clarify. I always wear white, pressed shirts to lead worship. When I’m getting dressed, I flip up the collar to put on my tie. (This isn’t a clip-on.) However, because I’m not very good at shaving, sometimes I’ll get a little blood on my collar, and if it’s too obvious I’ll put that shirt aside to get another, for in this case a spot of blood is an imperfection. For them, having been washed in the blood of Christ’s sacrifice, it is their salvation, as his death washes away all imperfection. His blood makes us clean and new. It is because he died that we are saved, not because we are perfect. So often when we think about being a saint, and oh, how I want to be in that number, we think about being good, pure, steadfast, and holy, only that’s not what makes this multitude different. That’s not what set them apart. It’s that they’ve been washed in his sacrifice. It’s that they’ve accepted his mercy. It’s that they’re not waiting until their world is perfect to stop and sing. They know who is in control, so even as the sky falls, they’re singing praises already. Notice how they sing. Notice what they’re wearing. Consider what they’ve been through. We read that “These are they who have come out of the great ordeal.” What was that? Some might say that we’re in the middle of one right now. Some of you are working hard to get out of it, by urging your friends to wear their masks so that this virus gets under control or making sure that your friends vote so that we’re either delivered from tyranny or protected from it, depending on your political persuasion. How did they make it through their great ordeal? You may know that the book of Revelation was written in the time of the Roman Empire, and when the book speaks of evil at work in the world and the rule of the anti-Christ, it’s the Roman Empire which Revelation refers to, however, we keep reading this book, hundreds of years after the fall of Rome, because Christians in every age must struggle to live in a society that doesn’t always reflect their values. The question for us today, is what are we to do and what do we learn from them? Are we saved once we’ve fought back all the evil? Are we saved once we’ve voted all the right people into office? Are we saved once we’ve finally created a holy society and a more perfect union, with shoes shined and clean white shirts? Certainly, many act as though this were the case, for some will storm the streets next week if the vote doesn’t go their way. Is that what it takes to be a Saint? Some of you have voted already. Others of you will vote on Tuesday. I don’t feel that it’s appropriate for me as your preacher to tell you who you ought to vote for, though I do have a strong opinion, because politics is not my area of expertise. This is: the one who will be elected might be president but he’s not really in control. Regardless of who wins, he might think he’s running the show, but he reports to a higher power. Some think that “if our man wins,” everything is going to turn in our favor, and if the other wins, the world will fall apart while the Saints know that Christ has already saved and redeemed them. We have to remember that. Politically, we’re a split congregation. Half of you are going to be disappointed this week. Some of you are going to watch the results come in and you’ll worry about the future of our nation. Some of you are going to wish your spouse didn’t vote for the other guy and cancelled your vote out. If you find yourself devastated on November 5th or whenever all the votes are really counted, the ones who trust only in human power will storm the streets but the Saints among us will remember that God is in control. If the next president is good, great. Glory to God. But if he’s bad, God will still be at work, revealing the sins of our nation and reminding us that we were fools to put so much trust in one mortal. That’s the difference: some of us think the world and the future rests in our hands, while Saints are always putting their trust, not in human power but in God’s, regardless. So, I hope you’ll vote. I hope you’ll vote like the future depends on it, because it does. But I also hope you’ll sing, because God is in control. I hope you’ll stand up for what you believe in, because you are powerful, but I also hope you’ll kneel to pray, because you are not all powerful. I also hope you’ll choose your candidates and advocate for them, but remember that there’s a whole multitude of people up there whom we must join, and if we don’t get better at unity now we’re going to have a long learning curve once we get to heaven. Today we’ll name those of our congregation who joined the ranks of that great multitude this past year. What we’ll remember about them is not just what they did or failed to do. All their accomplishments and all their sins are nothing compared to this one commonality: they were washed in the blood of the lamb. Knowing that he can do for us what we could never do for ourselves, we remember those who have died, not with sorrow only. We’ll remember them knowing that they join that great multitude who has been welcomed into everlasting life because of the power of God. A man in a former church named Rufus Ross gave me a small booklet full of tips for writing difficult letters. It includes an example for help in writing that most difficult of letters, the acknowledgement at the time of death. This one is from Benjamin Franklin, which he wrote to a friend who had just lost his son to suicide: We have lost a most dear and valuable friend. But it is the will of God and nature, that these mortal bodies be laid aside, when the soul is to enter into real life… Death is that way. A mangled painful limb, which cannot be restored, we willingly cut off. He who plucks out a tooth, parts with it freely, since the pain goes with it, and he who quits the whole body parts at once with all pains and possibilities of pains and diseases which it was liable to, or capable of making him suffer. Our friend and we were invited abroad on a party of pleasure, which is to last forever. His chair was ready first, and he is gone before us. We could not all conveniently start together, and why should you and I be grieved at this, since we are soon to follow and know where to find him? Their chairs were ready first, but we are soon to follow. Notice their robes and be washed in the blood of the lamb. Lean not on your own understanding or your own strength, for we are all limited in our understanding and we are all fading away like grass. May our legacy be, not what we fought for or held onto, but who we trusted. On Christ the solid rock I stand, all other ground in sinking sand. All other ground is sinking sand. Amen.