All Saints Sunday, Year A | Revelation 7:9-17
St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church
November 5, 2023
the Rev. Jonathan Hanneman
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“After this I looked, and there was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, robed in white, with palm branches in their hands. They cried out in a loud voice, saying,
‘Salvation belongs to our God who is seated on the throne, and to the Lamb!’” – Revelation 7:9-10[1]
We don’t often run into the Book of Revelation on a Sunday, but when we do, it’s something we generally need to talk about—and especially right now with everything going on in Israel and the broader Middle East. Revelation, along with Daniel from the Hebrew Bible, are two of the most challenging books contained in our Scriptures. Both are openly apocalyptic literature, which means that people throughout history have tended to read them as prophecies. However, rather than studying them in light of how real-world prophecy functions, we read onto them the sort of fantasy-realm, movie style “prophecy” we’re used to seeing in today’s fiction: a cryptic prediction with one, absolute fulfilment that involves a preordained protagonist destined to square off against the forces of evil, overcome them (hopefully), and ultimately usher in a new age of peace. Bilbo Baggins versus Smaug; Harry Potter versus Voldemort; Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy Pevensie versus the White Witch—that sort of thing.
Unfortunately, our modern way of reading doesn’t pay attention to what either apocalyptic or prophetic Scripture actually is. We’ve talked before about how a prophecy, in the “predictive” sense, is simply God making clear to someone a pattern that keeps repeating itself throughout history. The person then expresses what they’ve seen in a memorable way, and now aware of it, we keep observing that same pattern as it echoes throughout time and different cultures. So if we’re approaching them correctly, we can expect prophecies to have multiple, continuing applications rather than a singular, definitive fulfilment. Because of prophecy’s repeating nature, scholars looking back at the era Revelation was written can clearly point out how the author was addressing events of the late 1st and early 2nd Centuries while hundreds of years later during the fall of the Roman Empire people could watch as the events of Revelation unfolded in front of their eyes and a thousand years after that Martin Luther could claim the same thing about the Reformation Era and, once again well after that, Americans knew for certain that John was writing about the Civil War. And so on until today.
Complicating our misunderstanding of how prophecy functions, we also have the fact that we’re dealing with apocalyptic literature. Apocalyptic literature inherently focuses on “the End.” The word “apocalypse” essentially means “unveiling.” However, the language chosen actively obscures what the author is writing about, couching their vision[2] in phrases, imagery, and jargon that conveys a message only a specific subset of people would be able to fully interpret. Those outside the target group often can’t make heads or tails of it. They might be able to recognize a few veiled references, but it’s nearly impossible for them to put together enough information to know for certain what the author intended. People tend to write in this fashion when they’re either facing active oppression or fear that what they’re saying could easily lead to trouble if it appeared in plain, everyday language. So apocalyptic writing uses imagery of “the End,” but only as a way of discussing things occurring in the author’s Now.
Put those types of literature together and plop it into a far-removed, far more literalistic culture thousands of years after the fact, and you have a perfect recipe for misunderstanding, fear mongering, and just plain chaos. You end up with people focusing so hard on determining who to fear and attempting to identify the Antichrist that they miss the fact that elsewhere, like in I John, the Bible references multiple antichrists or various people under the influence of “a spirit of antichrist.” In our constant panic of looking for some pre-defined Evil One, we completely overlook how our own actions and presumptions might be guided by that same sort of energy or thought antithetical to the Christian life. Rather than living by Jesus’ example or applying what the Bible teaches us, we continue blissfully along a path of destruction, further decorating the mosaic of Empire with our own shattered realms instead of seeking, revealing, and truly becoming the Kingdom God calls us to be.
That said, if you’re concerned about what’s happening over in Israel right now being a sign of The End, I’ll refer you to Jesus’ own words: “Beware that no one leads you astray. For many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am the Messiah!’”—or “an anointed one,” terminology that can refer to absolutely anyone demanding loyalty to their cause, especially when claiming God’s authority—which is likely why Jesus continues, saying, “and they will lead many astray. And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars; see that you are not alarmed; for this must take place, but the end is not yet.”
If we stop layering our own times over an apocalyptic letter and keep from trying to force a patchwork of unrelated details to fit the nooks and crannies of an ancient mold, maybe we could finally see the bigger picture of what John has been telling us through Revelation all along!
The Book of Revelation doesn’t exist to give us secret knowledge[3] or to alert us to signs of “the End;” it isn’t a warning to eventually straighten ourselves out or start getting our lives in order once we notice certain troubling coincidences happening around us. Revelation is a vision of renewal and re-creation, of returning our worship to the one who truly deserves it: “to our God…and to the Lamb.”
The Lamb is an intriguing character in this book. Initially announced as a Lion, John turns to see “a Lamb standing as if it had been slaughtered.”[4] This Lamb alone is worthy to open these seven wax seals that John has seen. Seven unspecified forces have bound a powerful manuscript. Each may have the authority to undo their own seal, but none could break the seal of another. The Lamb, though, can—and does—release all the seals, revealing an authority far above anyone else.
That “slaughtered” detail is also important. We tend to think of the blood and violence surrounding the Lamb as Revelation’s references to ancient Hebrew sacrificial practices, but a careful reading suggests the trauma comes from the hands of Empire. This makes the Lamb one who endured our world’s wrath, one who was tortured and torn apart. Yet, by God’s power alone, the Lamb still moves and breathes. The Lamb didn’t avoid or bypass Empire’s brutality. It arrives at the celestial throne having come through that fury, having borne the brunt of its attacks. Yet there it stands before the entire company of Heaven, still wounded, still bleeding from its ordeal. Somehow, this Lamb lives!
That is the image of our God and our Savior that John has been trying to convey: God has given all authority to the Lamb, and the Lamb still lives. Without having forgotten its own trials and struggles, the Lamb still lives. Bearing active evidence of its own destruction at the hands of oppression, the Lamb still lives. Despite having openly walked through the Gates of Hell, this Lamb does more than simply live: this Lamb reigns!
This Lamb is the Jesus we come together to worship today. This is the Jesus all those who were faithful before us still acclaim before God’s throne. This is the Christ of whom we are his body, his pierced yet capable hands and feet. This is the Lamb who keeps us and guides us and leads us, walking with and through us even as we endure under the many faces of Empire. By the hand of God, the Lamb still lives, and in, by, beside, around, because of, and within him, all saints—us among them—still live!
So when you look around you and hear of frightening events, when the world continues to beat “wars and rumors of wars” into your brain, when those who claim Christ’s name try to manipulate you into joining their causes and securing their agendas, “Beware that no one leads you astray.” “See that you are not alarmed; for…the end is not yet.” These parties simply want you to affirm their own fear, to share the terror of knowing that their plans can never stand before the eyes of Eternal Wisdom, Justice, and Love.
John didn’t write Revelation to bring God’s people confusion or to draw us into panic—earlier today we heard the same author[5] write about the “love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and that is what we are.”[6] Elsewhere in that same letter he tells us that “perfect love casts out fear.”[7] Fear is a tool Empire employs to deceive us—to cause us to draw back at the face of Death, to cower us into abandoning the life of faithfulness to which we as God’s children are called. But Death did not and will not win. Despite Empire’s rage and terror, the Lamb lives and breathes and reigns. Fear and death have no rightful hold upon us. The Lamb still stands, bleeding yet whole, before the throne of God, a testament to an ever-beating the heart of Love.
So we need not worry. Empire may rage, but it has already fallen. The fear that so long threatened and intimidated is bound in chains. Death, which stood so imposing and proud, lies decaying in its own grave. The Lamb has overcome, and so shall we. The Lamb stands secure, and so shall we. The Lamb still lives, and so must we.
“I looked, and there was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, robed in white, with palm branches in their hands. They cried out in a loud voice, saying,
‘Salvation belongs to our God who is seated on the throne, and to the Lamb!’”
[1] All Bible quotations are from the NRSV unless otherwise noted.
[2] Which has its own distinctions from prophecy or apocalyptic literature, adding yet another layer of complexity to the mix!
[3] Which would make it a Gnostic text, not a Christian one
[4] Revelation 5:6
[5] According to tradition
[6] I John 3:1
[7] I John 4:18