What Are We Doing Here?
Scripture: Revelation 4
Rev. Richard H. Thompson, Jun 13, 2010
The last book in our Bibles called "Revelation" is addressed to seven churches in Asia Minor. From the context we can tell they were discouraged by the intimidating power of Rome and the pressures they felt all around them to conform.
The church at Ephesus had forgotten their "first love. The church at Pergamum needed to turn around. Thyratira needed to stay the course. Sardis had to wake up and remember what they had been told. Philadelphia needed to keep the faith and Laodicea had gone luke warm.
Does any of this sound familiar? Because this is what happens. We burn down, or even out. We forget. We feel like all we want to do is blend in. Our grip on why we are Christians loosens. We can feel ourselves slipping.
Recently a young mom shared with me, "I come to church and hear that God loves me and an hour later I've already forgotten."
She is hardly alone. Let's face it, we are all spiritual amnesiacs. So when we walk in here on Sundays at least some of us have a question on our minds, "What are we doing here?"
Why do we get like this?
There's an Old Testament proverb that often gets quoted as "Where there is no vision the people perish." But a more correct rendering would be, "Where there is no vision the people wander off."
Because without a point of reference we head off in all kinds of directions. We forget to take our eyes off the trail and look up to see the mountain. We're like sheep that never look beyond the next clump of grass. I'm told sheep have been known to graze themselves right off cliffs! If we don't falloff a cliff we get buried in details. We see trees, but not the forest. And when we get like this we get grumpy.
It's possible that someone in this frame of mind could walk in here on Sunday and think, "Well what we are doing here is some wear robes, others play notes, while most of us sit in these hard pews with lousy lumbar support. They make us shake hands. We stand .. We sit. We put money in a plate. Then the guy in the black robe gives a talk that sometimes feels like it goes on forever. Then somebody else in a black robe stands up and prays. Then we sing if we feel like it and then we go get some coffee. The whole thing is over in an hour, or at least it's supposed to be!"
Not that this person is wrong. It's just that something is missing in this description. What is missing is what happens here on Sundays means. What it signifies. I've often thought about this place where we gather Sunday after Sunday. What is this place really? It's concrete block, glu-lam beams, colored glass, wiring, tile, carpet and brick. What did I miss? Anything? I missed what this place means. I missed what happens here, and what has happened here over the years. This is not a space. It's a place where people we know gather to be reminded that there is more to life than brick and mortar, budgets and deadlines. When I reduce what happens here down to just stuff, I miss what we are really doing here.
What's missing is vision.
So those seven discouraged churches full of beaten down and probably grumpy Christians were invited by the John the Seer to look up. Because while it's true that without vision the people wander off, with vision they come together and then amazing things happen.
So now it's our turn. I invite you not just to listen to this word. You have to close your eyes and use your faithful imaginations and try and see this word. See this vision. Revelation 4:
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." At once I was in the spirit, and there in heaven stood a throne, with one seated on the throne! And the one seated there looks like jasper and carnelian, and around the throne is a rainbow that looks like an emerald. 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. 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; 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: 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.
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." 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, 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, "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."
The Greek word for "Revelation" is "Apocalypse, literally "Pulled back curtain". John the Seer has just pulled back the curtain to give us a peek of what's behind, what we usually miss, and forget, and come to doubt it's true. That there is a throne in heaven, and that there is One seated on that throne. That he is one like the Son of Man, clothed with a long robe, a golden sash across his chest his head and hair as white as snow. This vision is hard to describe. It demands stretching language. John has to use the word "like", and then make comparisons,
-His feet like burnished bronze
-His voice like the sound of many waters
-He looks like jasper and carnelian (precious stones and metals)
-a voice like a trumpet sounds
-around the throne is a rainbow that looks like an emerald
A grumpy Christian could hear this and say, "Well that's dumb, how can a rainbow look like an emerald?" So there's metal, water, trumpets and somebody seated on a big chair. I wonder how his lumbar support is?"
I don't want to be hard on grumpy Christians. I get grumpy too. It's serious business what causes us to get like this. The danger is that left like this we can become not just skeptical. We can become cynical. And then something gets lost that precious. It's called hope. Reason to hang on. To keep in there. To persist. To have courage. To give. To care. To commit.
John the Seer is doing everything he humanly can to evoke in us a sense of awe. To remind us that there is a throne. This alone is huge because so much around doesn't believe there is a throne, a center and a Source, a place where we fix our eyes. If there is no such place then our eyes wander off to fix on other visions. The Lord knows there are lots of options for places to stare, and become fascinated, and enthralled.
So what does this vision say about what we are we doing here? It says there is only One with Whom any of us has to do. That when you and I gather to worship, everything we say, and do, every note we sing and play, every drop of water on a child's forehead, every word we lift up in prayer, every groan and sigh, every penny we give, is to This One sitting on that throne. If worship is a performance, we are all on stage, and we are all playing to an Audience of One.
When we forget this worship quickly becomes something else. When I was an intern I worked in a large church not very far from here. Sunday mornings I liked to worship in the balcony at the back of the sanctuary. In that church the choir was positioned directly behind the pulpit. I quickly noticed two things. One was that the' preacher when he was preaching would tend to stare at the ceiling, or down at his notes, but hardly ever would he look at us. It made me wonder what was up there that was so important. It made it hard to pay attention to him. It made it work to try and follow him. The other thing 1noticed was that during the sermon the lead soprano who had the voice of a nightingale and sat just off to the left would work on her nails. She would sort of buff them on her robe and then hold them up to get a better look. Trouble was we got a better look too. One could legitimately ask, "I wonder what she was doing here?" I suspect if she were being honest she would say, "I'm here to sing." If someone were to press and ask "Why?" maybe she would say, "Because I have a good voice and I can help others sing better." So it would make perfect sense that when she was not singing she could work on other things, like her nails. What's missing?
This vision is missing. It can happen to any of us. It happens to all of us. We get complacent, slip into routine, and settle in to watch the performance.
There's an opportunity here to teach our children who are growing up in a media soaked performance culture that when we worship we are not the audience, the Lord Christ is! So for example when we clap, somehow we want our children to understand that our applause is of thanksgiving and praise to the Lord who watches. This is tricky because applause is usually meant for the performer. That's why in some places people~ don't applaud in worship, and why in other places the worship leader invites applause directed toward the throne. The important thing is that we know what we are doing here. That we teach our children what we are doing here. We are offering ourselves to the One seated on the throne.
John the Seer uses strong visual language. He's like a film maker. He's like the cathedral builders. If you visit the cathedral in Chartres, France you'll see the entire biblical story depicted in sculpture, carving, icon and stained glass. U2's Bono made an astute observation while on tour in Milan that in the churches where sunlight streams through stained glass windows that we have the first cinemas.
The seer is telling us this vision has to be taken in through all of our senses. We see this throne and the sea calm like crystal, there's the sound of waters and trumpet, we feel the rumbling thunder, and smell the smoke of flaming torches. So Christians throughout the centuries have attempted to make their places of worship evocative reminders of what we are really doing when we worship. So that the worshiper doesn't just come and observe. He or she comes to bring it all. So that worship draws us out of ourselves, and out of our small frames of mind where we can become trapped, and grumpy.
This is Music Appreciation Sunday. Notice how music plays in this vision. There's this strange Heavenly Quartet of creatures full of eyes front and behind which means they see it all. They see what you and I can only see in part because we only have eyes in front (except for our mothers). Day and night, without ceasing they sing what we sang in the beginning, "Holy, Holy, Holy." They are like a choir, or a worship band. They inspire the twenty four elders, twelve representing the tribes of Israel, twelve representing the Jesus' apostles, the whole witness to the story of redemption, to cast their golden crowns before the throne while they sing,
"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."
It occurs to me that what we are doing here will stretch us. It will make us think. It will cause us to see what we had not noticed before. It will also remind us not only of what we are doing here, but what we are doing out there.
Without vision the people wander off.
But with vision, this vision, oh man, look out world.
All glory and praise to God.
Hallelujah.
Amen and Amen.
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Westminster Presbyterian Church |