The Lamb

The Lamb

Grace, mercy and peace be unto you from God who is Creator, Christ and Comforter.  Amen

Here we are in week 2 of a 4 week quick run-through of the book of Revelation – probably the most confusing books written for 21^st modern people.  It’s chock full of imagery and flip-flopping scenes of earthly violence and heavenly praise! 

What is its significance for us today?

Let’s back up one chapter to Chapter 4 of Revelation and start with who God is in this book.  God is introduced as the God of all creation who is holy, holy, holy.  For those of you who know and love liturgy, these words should send you into many hymns and pieces of liturgy that we have sung for years.  Chapter 5 continues this liturgy by telling us: worthy is Christ the Lamb who was slain.  Again, beautiful liturgical settings sung through the years come to mind! 

And, quite honestly, those of us who love praise music the whole industry would fall apart without Revelation 4 & 5’s imagery!  Worthy…lamb…holy…words we sing with all our hearts!  These two chapters of Revelation are THE most sung passages in all of Scripture?

So there it is – in and of itself – musicians and poets through the centuries right up to today have used the images of these two chapters to proclaim our faith! 

But why?  John uses the powerful image of Jesus as the Lamb who was slain – something that people of his day would know – both from the marketplace and from their own Jewish roots – to reveal the most important character of God, of Jesus, of the church, of hope. 

A slain lamb.

Who is Jesus, the son of God, the son of Mary the peasant-woman of Palestine.

Who has shown us in how he lived, and taught, and love and accepted everyone how to be more fully, completely, totally human

Who shows us how to be church in the world in which we live – as crazy and scary and confusing and convoluted as it is.

Which, in the middle of all of these feelings – as we look at that slain lamb (Jesus of Nazareth – who lived and died and was resurrected) we know that God’s love is real and tangible and available for EVERYONE. 

And, this brings us hope. 

Hope, even when we see people dying at the hand of ideologies that condone violence like in Barcelona, or Paris, or London, or Boston, or you-name-the-city.

Hope, even when our government is spending so much time infighting and NOT doing the work that our government should be doing – of the people, by the people and for the people. 

Hope, hope that is deeper than our most sincere wishes and wider than our most sincere desires and taller than our aspirations. 

We have hope – hope that God who is the Creator of all things is still in control of our world and holds this loving creation in cosmic hands.

We have hope – hope that the Holy Spirit is still alive and well and working and moving in our congregation, our community, our country and our planet, changing lives.

We have hope – hope that the powerful message of Jesus and his love for all people is real and relevant and as necessary for those of us who are Christians as breathing is! 

We find this hope here in this place where we gather to sing, and pray, and be that beloved community.  We come here to be loved, to give love, and most of all to be fed by the music and the Word of God, and by Jesus, the Lamb who was slain!

Just like John, we look around us weeping, wanting to know just who is worthy of our praise and adoration.  Just like John, we expect it will be someone powerful and strong, with charisma and an honesty of character, a real lion of a person.  And we are so surprised to find a lamb, a gentle lamb who has been slaughtered, whose love and self-sacrifice has changed our world for the last 2,000 years! 

I heard the story of a Lutheran pastor, now retired and living in Carlsbad.  He was raised in Guyana, his father was from India and Hindu, his mother was Muslim.  His dad converted to Islam to marry his mother.  But this boy was fascinated and compelled by the Holy Spirit to become a Christian – no matter how much he was punished for going to hear the missionaries.  He came to the US to study and felt called to become a pastor.  After graduation from college before seminary, he took a job at a Lutheran camp in upstate New York.  At Union Station he asked a young woman directions and it just so happened she was on her way to the very same camp as the camp nurse.  She was an Orthodox Jew.  They fell in love and she converted to Christianity.  They served God faithfully in our church, the ELCA until retirement. 

If that slaughtered lamb we know as Jesus can do that…