“God’s Tissue for Your Issue”
Revelation 7:9-17
7:9 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.
7:10 They cried out in a loud voice, saying, "Salvation belongs to our God who is seated on the throne, and to the Lamb!"
7:11 And all the angels stood around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God,
7:12 singing, "Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen."
7:13 Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, "Who are these, robed in white, and where have they come from?"
7:14 I said to him, "Sir, you are the one that knows." Then he said to me, "These are they who have come out of the great ordeal; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.
7:15 For this reason they are before the throne of God, and worship him day and night within his temple, and the one who is seated on the throne will shelter them.
7:16 They will hunger no more, and thirst no more; the sun will not strike them, nor any scorching heat;
7:17 for the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of the water of life, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes."
First of all, it’s “Mother’s Day,” and when this text from the Book of Revelation is talking about the “great ordeal,” it is probably not talking about motherhood…or maybe it is! At a time when all pregnant women may soon be forced to be mothers by law, an “ordeal” may indeed await. Secondly, being a mother today is more difficult, regardless about what some may say. When Moms send their children out into the world today, more hazards may await them. Oh, sure, there are the obvious ones like drug addictions, gun violence and sexual assault, and human trafficking, but for most middle-class children today, other life-altering threats may lie in wait: crippling student debt; racist or sexist attitudes that seemingly are being mainstreamed and even “welcomed” into our schools and places of work; religious bigotry masquerading as “evangelicalism”; and gender and equity gaps that hold down women and other marginalized peoples. Yes, it is harder to be a “Mom” today, or even a “Dad,” for that matter.
Still, when our kids take notice of the love you offer and the sacrifices you have made for them, Moms, it is indeed rewarding. As many have said, it is nicer when this gratitude grows beyond the second Sunday in May each year, but I’ll bet you are still good with the “Hallmark Sunday” you get.
There are four women in my life that really get me jazzed. My own mother is our last surviving parent, and will turn 92 in July. She is now living happily in a senior care facility in the town in which I grew up, and we visit as often as we can. She even still gets a kick out of it when I call her on the phone. My Mom, who was a registered nurse for over 50 years, made huge sacrifices for me and my two brothers, including working the 11 to 7 shift for most of her career so she could put us to bed, would be there to get us up and send us off to school, and after a brief “nap,” would also be there to welcome us home from school. She made sure we were well fed, which wasn’t easy, as we weren’t a wealthy family, my dad was a REALLY fussy eater, and three boys could be like a thrashing machine when we hit the kitchen. We drank so much milk we should have had a cow, but they weren’t allowed on West Second Street in Oil City. Mom made great casseroles, fed us 99 cent “Apian Way” pizzas out of a box, was a good baker, but could turn almost any piece of meat into a “jerky.” Still, we were nothing but grateful. Interestingly, when we now tell her how much we appreciated all of the sacrifices she made for us and for our late father, she just “t’weren’t nothin’s” it and tells us she would do it all over again. The second woman in my life who totally makes it worth living is my spouse, Dara. She’s amazing! Three things she told me when we married, though, were: We FOLD OUR TOWELS IN THIRDS and don’t “stuff” them into the towel racks; I will do all of the laundry, because I have my system, and I don’t trust you with it; and I am NOT your mother, so never, ever give me a Mother’s Day card! I have tried to heed all three. But I should report that, for a woman who really fretted over motherhood because of a near total lack of “maternal” instincts or feelings, she knocked it out of the park. I can’t imagine a better mother to our two children, and the way they turned out is the undisputed evidence. She was so good, she even made up for my regular “buffoonery” lacing through my attempt at dad-hood. The other two women who have made an indelible mark on my heart are my daughter and HER daughter (my granddaughter), both of whom are just a “blessing blast” to watch experience life and successfully lasso every ounce of joy it may offer. I may be viewing them all through “rose-colored glasses,” but I’ll keep these suckers on until they ship me off to the crematory.
Oh, there was one other “chosen” woman in my life—Hillary Clinton. But we know how that turned out…
If you do nothing else on this Mother’s Day, retell your “Mom” stories. If she is still with you, retell them in her presence, and in the presence of your family. If she is on the other side of the “Great Divide,” retell them to God and say a prayer of gratitude. Moms still like cards, though, too.
What of the other “ordeals” we face in life that this text from Revelation addresses? It is important to remember that Revelation is a REALLY WEIRD BOOK, and should not be taken literally. This is just a fact. First of all, it is mostly “someone else’s mail,” written to sooth, comfort and encourage an early Christian church that was besieged by persecution, especially by the leaders of the Roman Empire. We call this “apocalyptic literature.” Most of any “prophecies” found in Revelation have already come and gone in the rise and fall of the Roman Empire. Still, there are a good many “encouragements” found in this book that are valid eternally, such as what we read in today’s text.
There is a strong temptation to couch these verses in what we typically call “heaven,” as its metaphors of “great multitudes,” “the one seated on the throne,” and the really weird “elders and four living creatures” offer praise and adoration to “the lamb.” All of this may simply be the author’s way of giving the weight of what he is writing eternal significance, knowing full well that his era of “ordeals” will not be the last one faced by the people of God. I know that the text says this was a great “vision” given to the author, but people were having visions all the time in the Bible, and we really don’t know what they were “seeing” beyond what they wrote down. Their take on these visions may be as warped or biased as witness accounts of an accident, or a politician’s take on what she or he thinks is “the biggest problem facing us.” We have to do our best to filter out what may be the central truths the “vision-ee” is attempting to communicate.
Things start to get “unHollywooded” when one of the “elders” asks, “Who are these robed in white, and where have they come from?” Note, however, that the elder asks the AUTHOR of the account who they are! Is this rhetorical? Or is the one receiving the “vision” having some kind of a test, here? Once a teacher asked me a question in class, and I gave the impudent answer, “You’re the teacher, you should know that!” It didn’t go well, either. Thankfully, the weird elder in today’s story didn’t shoot a lightning bolt out of one of his numerous eyes or gore the poor inquire-ee with one of his horns. Instead, he tells him that they are the ones who have come out of “the great ordeal.” Is this “great ordeal” life on Earth? Is it referencing the persecution the church is facing at that time? Or is it referring to various ordeals God’s people may be facing then, or throughout the countless “thens” of human history? My answer to these questions would be “YES.”
I think the “great ordeal” is a label for any challenge we may face that has the power to overwhelm us. It is relative. Like all problems, the magnitude is best defined by the one experiencing it. When I have a bad cold, it is a huge thing to me, genuinely. It puts me down, makes me miserable, and disrupts my schedule. It even sours my usual peppy and delightful disposition, which may be the reason my wife often threatens to pack a bag and head off to a motel when I start sniffling. But is it like having cancer? Of course not. We are told in the scriptures to “judge not,” and this should apply to not judging how other people assess and face their troubles. This is why as a pastor, I never pshawed a parishioner’s request to pray for their sick cat. It was a BIG DEAL for that pet lover, and praying for the ailing “furby” alongside my prayer for a dying father or someone recovering from serious surgery is just part of what we DO in the Body of Christ. Don’t JUDGE, people! An ordeal is an ordeal, no matter how we define it. To paraphrase an old adage: “Trouble is in the mind of the beholder.”
God seeks to lift us up from our “ordeals.” This is not just a reference to snatching us awayfrom them into heaven. God “lifts us up” in the midst of them, even occasionally offering some kind of temporary respite from them. This may be where others in the Body of Christ come in—to be the presence of our “lifting up” God for the one who is suffering. It certainly is the reason “pastoral care” is so important in ministry. Hospital and senior care facility visits are HUGE for people. Having their pastor show up to pray with them, and to “be” God’s presence for a while with them is something people never forget. (And pastors, don’t “go negative” because some people “expect” you to do this! Just do it! It is one of the easiest and most blessed things you will do in ministry!) Two quick stories about pastoral visits:
Don’t be alarmed when people AREN’T expecting your visit, and are extremely grateful for them. And don’t be thrown off by the wiseacre who exclaims when you walk into the hospital room, “UH oh, it’s WORSE than I thought!” My brother (who is also a pastor) and I once visited a Pittsburgh hospital where our goofy uncle was recovering from surgery, and when we walked into his room together, he made this exact comment, given that TWO clergy had descended on him. Of course, be aware that some of our YOUNGER parishioners, who maybe don’t KNOW it is fairly routine for their pastor to visit them in the hospital, may ACTUALLY be concerned that we have shown up. And if they grew up with a Roman Catholic background, the specter of “last rites” is always looming…
My second story is one I’ve told before, but it bears repeating. A fellow goes to visit a close friend who just lost his spouse to cancer. His bereaved friend has taken great consolation in his church, and begs this friend to join him at worship that Sunday—“You just HAVE to hear my pastor!” So the comforting friend attends, and is less than whelmed by the pedestrian message the pastor offers. At lunch afterwards, he asks his grieving friend, “What is it you think is so great about your pastor’s preaching?” With pathos, his friend replies, “He sat with me and held my hand for hours while my wife was dying. I’d walk across hot coals to hear what he has to say.”
Helping people out when they are experiencing a “great ordeal” is like “washing their robes” white. Don’t make the mistake of believing that this “robe washing” is just about being “cleansed” of sin. Sure it is, but the “power of the blood” of Christ has much more cleansing and uplifting power than just that! The “Lamb of God” is about being a “Good Shepherd,” about “feeding my lambs,” and about life being in the blood. You had better believe that the sacrifice of Jesus Christ is about SO MUCH MORE than just “washing away” sin! It is also about walking with people through their “ordeals” and suffering. It is about helping them find solutions to the problems they face. It is about offering comfort in a world that can be so cruel to those beaten down by life. Our “robes” get very, very dirty, and sin is not the only “dirt” they get tarnished with. In fact, sin is the easiest stain to “wash out” for God, as it just requires pardon. The stains left by suffering, addiction, racism, sexism, caste divisions, economic hardship, violence, and other things that devalue and divide persons are so much harder to erase, even for God. This is why the Bible gives us verses like “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for THOU ART WITH ME.” Sometimes God and God’s people “lift us out of the ordeal” by just helping us get to our feet.
John Wesley believed that Jesus was about saving PEOPLE, not just “souls.” Atonement for sin was just part of a much larger redemptive “package.” Otherwise, Wesley would have spent his entire time just “preaching the Word,” and less time feeding the hungry, helping the widows and orphans, and working for justice in the corrupt and inhuman prison system in 18th century England. Wesley was a “robe washer,” and he encouraged his people to be so, too. His view of the Kingdom of God was colored by the words of Jesus, who said that it is “like a great dragnet that is lowered into the sea and catches all kinds of fish” [Matthew 13:47]. Why do so many seem to want to turn it into a kitchen strainer, screening out those they can’t abide?
Note two final things about this Revelation passage: the “remedies” promised by God are temporal ones, not “pie in the sky, by and by” ones. Hunger, thirst, and shelter are cared for. The “Good Shepherd” offers guidance and protection. And God will “wipe away the tears from their eyes.” Friends, God WALKS WITH US during “the great ordeal,” offering comfort, grace, and a warm embrace. Most of the time, God uses some of God’s people as the delivery agents of these. If God chose to be some kind of “genie” that just snaps the fingers and snatches us away from our suffering, there would be no tears. God understands the human condition because God “dwelt among us,” but did so “full of grace and truth.” It’s the grace that leads to the wiping of tears.
Why would God “allow” such suffering, rather than just “genie” it away? Because suffering is part of what makes us human, and forms our “heart.” Suffering sensitizes us to the needs and hurts of others. Without it, our penchant for turning inward and selfish would run amok, destroying us AND the community of faith. Today’s passage reveals God’s “tissue for our issues”—the Lord Jesus Christ, and the “body” he left behind, which we call the church. Never believe that God doesn’t care about whatever “ordeal” you may be facing, but also never believe that your ordeal is somehow greater than that of your neighbor, or that you are entitled to “better treatment” because of your Christianity. Tears are tears, and grace is grace. They are available to all. Amen, Dear Ones!
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