"The Future Glory" 
Building on the foundation laid by those who have gone before us
Sermon Preached by
The Rev. Dr. Andrew Stirling
Sunday, November 2, 2008
Text: Revelation 7:9-17
As many of you will appreciate, there is nothing you like more when you are a student than a good, hot meal prepared by somebody else. Even though I was a little older, I used to go to a church in Massachusetts on the weekends because one of the things they offered students after the service was a free, hot meal. It was fantastic! I have gone back to that church over the years. In fact, when I am in Massachusetts, I often worship there. I have been going back for 17 years - nearly every year. The problem is that when I go back now, they don't give me the free meal anymore and I am really upset about that - but they still welcome me with open arms.
A few years ago, I attended one particularly poignant service. It was about this time of the year and I was on my study leave. A small Congregational Church in a small Massachusetts town had a sign on the front that said, “Saints Day.” So I walked in, expecting to hear a sermon, prayers and music on maybe St. Anselm, St. Ignatius, St. Theresa of Avila or St. Francis of Assisi. But no. Rather, at the bottom of the order of service was a “Saints' Box” that listed the names of all the people in the congregation who had died that year. To my absolute surprise, I recognized one of the names. It was the mother of a member of my congregation in Ottawa. I took the order of service back to her and she was overwhelmed. As we do in our congregational meeting, they read out the names and had a memorial moment of silence. Saints' Day! I even remember the sermon - Lord knows, I don't remember the sermon that I preached three weeks ago, but I remember that one. I most definitely recall its title: We Build on Their Witness.
After this emotional service, there was once again a lunch served downstairs - for which I had to pay! We gathered, and people talked about the names on the list and what those souls had meant to them. They were, according to the minister that day, the “saints.” In the Protestant tradition, we do not venerate people who have been assigned special roles or places as “saints.” Rather, we look at the whole body of believers as a body of saints. The Greek word used to describe these saints is hagioi. We see those who have gone before, who have prepared a place for us, who have built a witness, who have withstood time and challenges, as the saints.
The more I thought about that Sunday, knowing that this is All Saints weekend, I couldn't help but think that today we live in a dialectic between, on the one hand, the past and all those who have gone before us, and on the other, the future and all that it promises. In this moment, we have a challenge: We bear witness at this singular stage in the history of the world. You and I are called to bear witness to the faith, knowing that we stand on the tradition of those who have gone before us and hopeful about what lies ahead of us. We stand and bear witness today.
Nothing could sum up that reality more than this passage from the Book of Revelation. It was a time of great persecution for Christians. Domitian, the emperor, was crushing the Christians by imprisoning them. Many of them were abused and violently attacked. In trying to give them some hope as he writes from the Island of Patmos, John gives a vision of the saints, robed in white, coming before the Lord. It was a way to remember those who had paved the way; those who had paid the cost; those who had maintained the faith in difficult times. But, like all manifestations of the Book of Revelation, there is a future here. There is a vision of what will come: Christ receiving those who will be his own. Those facing persecution were building on the foundation of saints who had borne witness to the faith in the hope that Christ would be there for them.
Why do I want to look at this? It is because I feel that it is a word of encouragement. We live in uncertain times, not only for the economy, not only for the world, not only politically, as our brothers and sisters to the south make a very important decision in the coming days, not only because of the unstable nature of the geo-political world. Even in the church, there is a feeling that we are somehow “between-times,” not knowing where to stand or how to be strong. In this uncertainty, the vision of John in Revelation speaks to us clearly, and it speaks to us most especially about how we need to honour the past.
Recently, I spent two days in a retreat with other ministers. There are nine of us, and we go to a cottage north of Kingston. The rule of the cottage is that whatever happens there, stays there. We never tell the full truth and you will never know! We eat too much; we sleep too little; we pray too much; we argue too much. Nine ministers alone for 48 hours can be pretty intense! It is all the more intense because early in the morning, one of our Anglican friends leads us in prayer from the Prayer Book. In the evening, we have the Liturgy of Evensong, and the next morning we have a Bible study. We compare notes; we gossip about each other; we talk about many things. But this week, as we sat around through one of the worship times and each opened our Bibles, one of the guys made a fascinating comment. He said, “You know, this is a tremendous gift, this Bible that we have. We give thanks for all kinds of things and we praise God for many things, but sometimes we take this Bible for granted.”
I thought about it and that night my mind turned to William Tyndale, who was a brilliant academic and a quiet man who studied at Oxford and Cambridge. His great gift was the ability to translate biblical passages from Latin and from original languages like Greek and Hebrew into English. A brilliant mind! But as he did this work, some in the church took great exception to it. In fact, there were clerics and bishops who didn't want ordinary people to be able to read the Bible themselves. But Tyndale said, “By the time I am finished translating the Bible, the farm hand will be able to know the Bible as well as the priest.”
Many of those in religious positions found that disdainful. Why? They wanted control over what the people heard. They didn't want the ordinary person to be able to read the Bible in the vernacular, but Tyndale persisted in his translations. Word went out and his name was sullied. There were people who wanted him removed from the university; they wanted him removed from the church; they wanted him removed from England. In 1524, he fled to Germany and found a printer in Cologne. Even there, once people realized what he was doing, there was a movement against him. He had to move to Hamburg where, again, he met more resistance and then moved to Worms.
It became even more difficult for Tyndale when the Archbishop of Canterbury wanted to put an end to his work completely. The archbishop had heard that these translations were coming to England so he sent out an edict - this is beautiful - to buy up all of Tyndale's translations and have them burned. He spent a great deal of money buying these Bibles and burning them, thinking that this would be the end of it. The only problem was that the publisher made so much money from the sales that he put out a second edition, which was better than the first, easier to read. Sales were more than he could ever have imagined! This really raised the ire of religious leaders. Tyndale was forced out of Germany and had to go to Holland, where he was arrested. Finally, he was jailed in Belgium and rotted there for 18 months until, finally, it was decided that he was too big a threat to the world. He was burned at the stake - they burned him! That was 1536. As Tyndale was being burned he prayed, “Lord, open the eyes of the King of England.” What is amazing is that, three years later, there was a new Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Cranmer. He so loved Tyndale's writings that he declared that every single parish throughout the whole of the British Isles was to have a copy of Tyndale's translation of the Bible placed in it.
When I pick up the Word, I think of how rich it is and how wonderful it is to read it for myself. To think that nine of us were sitting in a cottage, weighing up every word, looking at what it says about God. I couldn't help but think that someone gave his life for that to happen. Other translators may have come along, but it was Tyndale who led the way. That is why, my friends, I profoundly disagree with all those New Age religions that come along and the so-called “progressive” Christianity that maintain that it's only what we believe now that matters - that we are somehow better than previous generations. I profoundly disagree with those who say that we do not need the past, that we can walk away from it. On the contrary, we need to honour the past.
Where would we be if John of Patmos had not been willing to be exiled to an island and continue to bear witness, even though his life was challenged? From where would we have received this great vision contained in the Book of Revelation had it not been for his witness? What would have happened to the Church had there not been a Saint Athanasius, who believed so much in the divinity of Jesus, that Jesus and the Father are of one substance and that when you see Jesus, you see God the Father? He also was driven out of his native land of Germany and was three times removed from places where he had settled. Where would we be if the Athanasiuses of this world had not borne witness? Surely, we would simply see Jesus as a good man rather than the Son of the Living God.
Where would we be if Barbara Heck, a beautiful Christian, Methodist woman who came from Germany, grew up in Ireland, moved to the United States and helped found the Methodist community in New York City, had not been so strong in the faith and part of the whole Methodist revival? She was driven from country to country. She was driven from New York City to northern New York State, and from there across the border to a new country called Canada to a place called Brockville where, because of her commitment to Jesus Christ, she formed the first Methodist class in Canada.
Where would Timothy Eaton Memorial Church be, originally a Methodist church, had it not been for Barbara Heck? Just think what we would be missing if there was no Timothy Eaton Memorial Church. I wouldn't be paid! If I wasn't paid, I wouldn't get my coffee in the morning! And if I didn't get my coffee in the morning, all hell would break loose in Toronto! All because of Barbara Heck! Where would we be?
More seriously, how arrogant we are if we do not recognize those who have gone before us. This is what John realized in the Book of Revelation. This was his vision of people with white robes around the Throne of Grace and the Lamb of God coming, because they had suffered for what they believed in during their time, bearing witness, not knowing what the future would hold, simply glorifying God with their lives. We need to honour the past, but we don't stay there. We also need to celebrate the future. If there is something I like about the environmentalists, it is that many of them are genuinely concerned about the future. They are even willing to pay the price right now for the sake of their children, their children's children, and their children's children's children. They have an understanding of the future, and they are concerned for it. I admire many of them for their commitment. Only the blind, only those who are self-absorbed, do not have that passion and concern. They know the future is important, but they know a cost sometimes has to be paid in the present. We live in a time in which we want quick-fixes; we want everything solved right now. Maybe we are moving into an era in which we won't have that luxury and a more long-term approach will have to be taken toward many things. It may not be altogether bad to really look at the future as well as the present.
Recently, I heard a very moving message at Wycliffe College by the first indigenous bishop in Canada, The Right Reverend Mark MacDonald. I listened to him speak and he was really profound. As the first bishop of native peoples in Canada, he talked about a man who I hadn't thought about for a while, Elijah Harper. When you bring up Elijah Harper, everyone goes, “Whoa, Meech Lake!” and it all gets bent out of shape. However, Bishop MacDonald reminded us of something: Elijah Harper is a very devout Christian. He has always been concerned for the reconciliation between native peoples and the Church and the whole reconciliation process is dear to his heart. What a lot of people don't realize is why he has this passion. Elijah Harper has this passion because he is concerned that young native people might find a faith in Jesus Christ, but the problems of the past might be a stumbling block from them really serving Christ in the church. He said that his mission is to bring the church and native peoples together for the sake of the Gospel. That is something you don't hear much in the media!
When I heard that, I thought it was true because he knows that the decisions you make now, and the witness that you bear has an impact on generations to come. The future is important, not just in worldly terms, but also in spiritual terms. John, in this incredible, prophetic tableau in the Book of Revelation, paints a picture of the Lamb of God sitting on a throne surrounded by those in white robes - the saints, those who have gone before, surrounded by people waving palm branches like the Feast of Tabernacle, the Maccabean joy (this is pre-Christ!) and Palm Sunday. A picture of those who praise the risen Christ - of the whole world gathered around from every nation on earth.
As I read this story I realized that, if you are facing persecution, this gives you a great sense of hope. It gives you a sense of hope in the life that is still to come to know that is Christ sitting, waiting for us. But then something hit me for the first time. I have read this text many times but this was the first time it dawned on me that the Lamb is called the Shepherd. You don't think of the Lamb as the Shepherd! But here, in the Book of Revelation, the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ, is the Shepherd of the flock who gathers the flock around the throne. Those who have gone before, those who have been faithful, those who have withstood the suffering of their times will finally be there with the Lamb of God waiting for you. As they kneel before him, they serve him. As they are gathered around him, they are sheltered by him. They are “tabernacled” by him and as they come before Him, they are assured of their security.
People sometimes ask me, “Andrew, why is it that you believe so firmly in the person of Jesus Christ? Why such commitment to him? ”
Well, my commitment is that when I look at God, I see the Lamb. I see a suffering God, a God who has paved the way out of self-giving love. When I see this self-giving God, I realize that all judgment passes away and there is grace. All sin is forgiven and there is redemption. All pain and suffering come to an end and there is peace. All injustice is washed away, and there is truth. Because the Lamb of God gathers the whole world at his feet.
In the end, when it is all over, there is the Lamb calling us home. I love these words from Revelation. When I think about those who have gone before us and the commitments they made, when I think of when our day is done, of the glorious future and the presence of Christ, these words come again:
Never again will they hunger, never again will they thirst; the sun will not beat upon them, nor any scorching heat; for the Lamb at the center of the Throne will be their Shepherd, He will lead them to springs of living water and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.
This is the future glory, the honourable past, and the challenge of the present. Amen.