Clothing of the Saints

Revelation 7:9-17, CEB

9 After this I looked, and there was a great crowd that no one could number. They were from every nation, tribe, people, and language. They were standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They wore white robes and held palm branches in their hands. 10 They cried out with a loud voice: “Victory belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.”

11 All the angels stood in a circle around the throne, and around the elders and the four living creatures. They fell facedown before the throne and worshipped God, 12 saying,“Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and always. Amen.

”13 Then one of the elders said to me, “Who are these people wearing white robes, and where did they come from?” 14 I said to him, “Sir, you know.” Then he said to me, “These people have come out of great hardship. They have washed their robes and made them white in the Lamb’s blood. 15 This is the reason they are before God’s throne. They worship him day and night in his temple, and the one seated on the throne will shelter them. 16 They won’t hunger or thirst anymore. No sun or scorching heat will beat down on them, 17 because the Lamb who is in the midst of the throne will shepherd them. He will lead them to the springs of life-giving water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”

INTRO

Close your eyes. Picture the scene we have just read. People from every nation, tribe, ability, and language are standing all around the throne of Jesus. Hear them as they speak in their own languages, “Victory belongs to God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” Or maybe we hear their ongoing praise of “Holy, holy, holy Lord, God of power and might, heaven and earth are full of your glory. Hosanna in the highest. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest.”

Who are these people? Do they look familiar to you? According to the scriptures, the elders say that we know who the people are. But do we really?

More often than not, when we see that Revelation is the text being preached on, we bring all of our interpretative baggage with us. Whether it’s the Left Behind Series, TV shows, non-denominational preachers, or predictions of the end times, so much of popular culture has influenced our views of the Book of Revelation. Some approach the text because of its apocalyptic nature. Others use the book and apply the “Left Behind” theology to it. They look to the Book of Revelation as a manual for what will happen step by step in the end times. While the book can be interpreted in a variety of ways, I want to be clear here it is not a step-by-step guide to the end times.

Revelation is not meant to be dissected verse by verse; rather, it is meant to be read out loud and all at once. When the priest would read it, everyone would hear the entire book. It was meant not to give one prediction or another but to share an overarching theme of the whole book and give glimpses into who God is and how God acts in the world. As one theologian puts it, “this book offers a forceful theological critique of empire, issuing an urgent warning to follow the ways of God, rather than become complicit in an unjust world order.” In other words, Revelation is meant to show us how God acts when faced with the realities of the evil of empires and powers and principalities of this world. It’s about how the followers of Christ cling to God’s grace in the ups and downs of life.

Now, you may be thinking, what on earth does this passage have to do with All Saints’ Day? On this All Saints’ Sunday, we often think of saints as big figures in the life of the church. Maybe you think of St. Peter, St. John, St. Luke. Maybe you think of someone like Mother Teresa, John Wesley, or Augustine. However, our United Methodist understanding of saints incorporates all those who have gone before us in the faith. Anyone who has lived, died, and is united in Christ is a saint. Anyone who has influenced us in our own walk with Christ is a saint. That Sunday school teacher or youth director - they are saints. Our parents, grandparents, or other family members who walked with us in our faith journey, they too, are saints.

But our understanding doesn’t stop there. In fact, saints are not just those who have passed on; rather, saints are any person who believes or will come to believe in the Lordship of Christ, whether past, present, or even future saints who are not yet born. I love the hymn “I Sing a Song of the Saints of God.” This hymn of the church helps show us that ordinary, everyday people are saints. “One was a doctor, and one was a queen, and one was a shepherdess on the green” and “one was a soldier, and one was a priest, and one was slain by a fierce wild beast.” In our text this morning, these are the multitude gathered around the throne. Those of different nations, backgrounds, and languages are the saints of the church.

This is no passive audience. The assembled saints have persevered through the horrors of life and death, persecution and disgrace. They are celebrating their ultimate victory won for them by their champion, the Lamb of God. They have realized that the calling of following Christ is to be humbled, to be a servant, to give themselves for others, that their hope is not in the empire, the government, but in Christ to whom they offer their praise and thanksgiving.

You see, Revelation stands as a stark theological critique of the empire, not just the Roman Empire, but any government that promises security through the use of force, domination, and other unjust systems such as sexism, poverty, or even racism. The source of all prosperity, health, and safety does not come at the hand of the government, how well the stock market does, or Gross domestic product metrics. The well-being, the sustainment, the hope that we cling to is God, who is seated on the throne.

Qualities of true saints, then, are not those who conform to the government or those who are religiously following all the rules. Those sitting around the throne of God, in their worship, see a different vision of the world. They know the world is not run by governments, by systems of injustice and oppression, or of the powers and principalities of the world. Rather, they are empowered in their worship to see the world as it truly is: one that belongs to God.

They see the true power on the throne that does not seem to dominate but empowers through love. They see hope. They see the power and freedom God gives them in their worship not only to resist evil but to proclaim the love of God, which dispels all the evil, injustice, and oppression in the world. They proclaim that you are sacred, you are worthy, and you matter to Christ. Or in the communion liturgy, “we offer ourselves in praise and thanksgiving as a holy and living sacrifice in union with Christ’s offering for us.” We have been empowered, clothed by Christ to give ourselves for others, not in the name of the government, not in the name of the United Methodist Church, not in the name of individualism, but in the name of Jesus Christ, who embodies love for the whole of creation.

This Sunday, those that we name and commemorate as saints this day, are the ones who showed us glimpses of Christ’s love. The candles that we light proclaim to us the hope found in Revelation. There is a magnitude of witnesses who have walked this race before us. As we worship with and alongside of them and with Christ, we too will be empowered to give ourselves for others. The truth is that one day, a candle will be lit in our honor because if we live into the themes of Revelation, then love has the last word, and we, through our worship and through becoming humble servants, will show glimpses of Christ’s love for others.

This all Saints Day, may we strive to be Saints in the here and now that one day we too will be a part of the multitude seated around the throne. That when people see us, they will now that we are clothed in Christ. The hymn “I Sing a Song of the Saints of God” concludes like this: “They lived not only in ages past; there are hundred of thousands still. The world is bright with the joyous saints who loved to do Jesus’ will. You can meet them in school, on the street, in the store, in the church, by the sea, in the house next door, they are saints of God, whether rich or poor, and I mean to be one too.”

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.