Sermon Note


[PDF]Sermon Note - Rackcdn.comhttps://3ce81f2dc8bcab415148-b64e6aa5245cf389560e4570f9e5236e.ssl.cf2.rackcd...

0 downloads 96 Views 772KB Size

And the Lamb

By Pastor Jay Henderson Revelation 5:6-7 March 11, 2018 As It Is In Heaven Sermon Series So, the other day, I was hanging out around our offices here, and I was making small talk with Peter Thavornrat, who is our web support guy. Peter, if you haven’t met Peter you need to, because he is just the coolest guy. If you’re watching this service on Facebook live and interacting with the comments on there – it’s most likely Peter you’re talking to. His wife Jan is also awesome. She helps out sometimes by playing the piano and singing in the praise band for the 11:00 service. So I was talking to Peter, and I said, “Hey – Jan did a pretty good job of tickling the ivories the other day.” And there was a pause and Peter looked at me and said, “OK.” And I realized, “Oh – you probably have no idea what I just said right there.” Because you see, Peter and Jan are both originally from Thailand. Now, they’re perfectly fluent in English. But even if you can speak and understand a language, there are always going to be cultural expressions or idioms or images that will not make sense unless you’re entirely familiar with the culture. So I explained how “tickling the ivories” is a silly way of saying that somebody is playing the piano. Well, of course this started up a fun exchange where we started to try to find the best expressions in Thai that don’t translate into English. And there were several. My personal favorite was, “It’s like trying to catch a butterfly while riding an elephant.” Which basically means to go overkill on something. It’s like if we said, to use an American expression: “using a sledgehammer to crack a nut.” But I would never have understood what that phrase meant unless I had Peter acting as my cultural liaison. So why do I say all of this? That’s because this is how we need to approach the book of Revelation in the Bible. Let’s just be honest – it’s weird. It’s really weird. It uses weird images, and it talks about weird stuff in weird ways… and because it’s so weird, I find that people tend to do one of two things with the book: either they don’t read it at all, or they obsess over it. We want to be somewhere in the middle. It is a very important book, but it’s one that needs to be handled responsibly. If we just run bold-faced right into the text and start 1

assigning meaning to these images and phrases and sequences of events without understanding the culture which they came out of, the people it would have originally been written to, and the literary genre that it represents, or listening to what the Spirit is illuminating for us as we read it: it’s not going to make a lot of sense to us. Or – we’re going to be way off the mark with how we appropriate its meaning to whatever news headline is popular this week. So it is my goal today to help us overcome any obstacles – to just clear out the weirdness of the images, so that we can understand what these mysterious and beautiful images mean. What they mean for us, and what they’ve meant for the church throughout the generations. Our passage this morning is picking up where Pastor Tom left off last week. We’re in REV 5:6-7 (1981). 6 Then I saw a Lamb, looking as if it had been slain, standing at the center of the throne, encircled by the four living creatures and the elders. The Lamb had seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits[a] of God sent out into all the earth. 7 He came and took the scroll from the right hand of him who sat on the throne. Okay – so, right off the bat, what are the weird images in this passage? We’ve got a Lamb, looking as if it had been slain. The Lamb is standing. And the Lamb has 7 horns and 7 eyes. So if you’re anything like me all kinds of weird images come to mind. Here’s what I came up with. My brother drew this artist’s rendering of what I saw (Show Picture).

2

Yeah… good old Lambchop. Yeah… it’s a little creepy. But seriously – if we’re reading this passage, and we start to go down this road of trying to actually visualize every image that is described, it’s going to get really weird really quickly. So instead of trying to think of literal images, let’s focus instead on the meaning behind some of these images. First, let’s back up a little bit. Last week, Pastor Tom talked about the Lion. The Lion. In Rev. 5:5, it says, “The Loin of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has triumphed. He is able to open the scroll and its seven seals.” So to a Jewish audience of the 1st Century, or at least to those who were a little familiar with their beliefs, they would have heard the preceding verses and understood pretty clearly: “Oh, ok. We’re talking about the Jewish Messiah. Because any time we’re talking about the Lion of Judah, or the Root of David, we’re talking about the hopes for the coming of the messiah – God’s anointed one who will act as the deliverer for God’s people.

3

But then we find in verse 6 a shift. This Lion is now a Lamb. The Lion IS the Lamb. If we can come to terms with this shift in imagery, with this new revelation, this new understanding, it unlocks the rest of the entire book of Revelation. Because this transition is the axis upon which the entire book rotates. In fact it is the axis upon which the entire gospel rotates! A lion, quite obviously, represents strength and power and might. But when we introduce the image of a lamb here, the image of a Lion doesn’t go away. No, instead now it has another layer, a more refined understanding. The strength and power and might of the Lion is still contained within the image of the Lamb. But it is strength and power and might manifested in a very different way than what conventional wisdom would suggest. The world tells us that brute strength is the way to go. Look out for number 1, amass your fortune, hedge your bets, set up your security. Be the strong one, be ruthless in business, look out for you and yours, and good luck to the rest of y’all. But Christ shows us a different image of power and strength. Sacrifice, selflessness, giving up one’s self for what is good and noble, that is the real victor in battle. The meek shall inherit the earth. Those who seek to save their life will lose it, but those who lose their life for my sake will find it. Yes, it’s a paradox – but we’re okay with that. The Apostle Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 1:23-25, “We preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength.” Nothing seems powerful about a slaughtered lamb. But then again, nothing seemed powerful about some obscure carpenter being beaten and crucified in an outlying territory of Rome. …But the slaughtered Lamb is still standing. And he’s standing in the center of the throne. And he’s accepting worship from all the powers in the universe. He has seven horns – which means that he’s all powerful. He has seven eyes, which means that he is all wise and all knowing. And he takes the scroll from the right hand of him who is seated on the throne. “When he opens the scroll, the Lamb is about to disclose what the scroll contains. Jesus did not come to change the divine plan for the world, but he unfolds its eternal and unchangeable nature by his obedience, even unto the point of death on a cross.”1 This image of the Lamb is the pivotal axis point because it reveals to us – it gives us a revelation – about the nature and character of God. Strength found in 1

Bruce Metzger, Breaking the Code p.53

4

weakness. Might and glory given to the forgotten dregs of society. Mercy and grace and forgiveness offered to the very creatures that nailed him to a cross. That’s the kind of God we worship. And that’s the God we are called to imitate. A God who stops at nothing to ensure that love and compassion triumphs over hate and indifference. That’s the way God wants us to be. In this season of Lent, let us repent. Let us prepare our souls and clean house a little bit, and seek out God’s forgiveness and healing for where we have screwed up or where we are broken. And then, on Easter Sunday, let’s have a BIG party! Because the message and the hope of Easter is the best news that’s ever been told. Thanks be to God that it is Jesus Christ, love incarnate, who is the Lamb that stands in the center of the throne. PRAYER: O merciful Father, in compassion for your sinful children you sent your Son Jesus Christ to be the Savior of the world. Grant us grace to feel and to lament our share of the evil that made it necessary for him to suffer and to die for our salvation. Help us by self-denial, prayer, and meditation to prepare our hearts for deeper penitence and a better life. And give us a true longing to be free from sin, through the deliverance won by Jesus Christ our Redeemer. Amen. 2

2

United Methodist Book of Worship, 336.

5