Advent 2010: Consolation

sermon notes from the Vineyard Church of Milan 12/12/2010

[Audio link not yet available]

3 Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”

²The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, ³but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’ ”

⁴“You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. ⁵“For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

⁶When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. ⁷Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.

⁸Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. ⁹But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?”

¹⁰He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.”

¹¹And he said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?”

¹²The man said, “The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.”

¹³Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?”

The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”

Genesis 3v1-13

Three things are broken in us and are the source of all the pain in our world.

We are alienated from ourselves. Like Adam, we see our nakedness and are ashamed of it. We look at ourselves and instead of taking joy in what we see, we despise ourselves. We look in the mirror and loathe what we see, everything a flaw, not quite right, not enough to make us happy. We hate our weaknesses, the ones in our bodies and the ones in our hearts and the ones in our heads. We are perpetually confident that no one loves us, because no one could, not if they see us the way we see us. Charles Park, a church planter in New York City, has a friend who is a pharmaceutical rep in Manhattan. His friend says that his company alone has two pharmaceutical reps in single 3 block by 3 block area in the Upper East Side, supporting over 300 psychiatrists. That’s like 33 psychiatrists per block. We are alienated from ourselves, and it hurts. Alienated beyond the capacity of drugs to heal.

We are alienated from ourselves, and we have no one to turn to for help, because we are alienated from one another as well. Like Adam, we look at others around us as objects of blame. “The woman you put here with me – it’s her fault!” Our relationships with those closest to us get irreparably fractured over time, sometimes by an accumulation of small wrongs, or too frequent judgments, or sometimes by horrendously awful betrayals. Sometimes we feel like we’re not safe around anyone, and sometimes no one is safe around us. And strangers – those different or foreign in our eyes – appear to us as threats or competitors or enemies, rather than brothers and sisters. [conversation with my dad about studies done with sanitizing stations nearby…] We are alienated from one another, and it leaves us with such pain, the kind of pain we never get over on our own, no matter how many battles we win.

And finally, and most devastatingly, we are alienated from God, the source of our life and the one who might heal us if we would draw close to him. Like Adam, when we hear God approach, we hide. We feel our shame, and we cast our blame, and even though God is the one who can look at us in our brokenness and still love us, and even though God is the one who knows the depth of our guilt and still has mercy on us, he is the one of whom we are most afraid. When he comes near, we hear him in the garden and we are sure our betrayal and rejection of him will come back to haunt us. So we hide from him and run away to other sources of life, sources that we hope will give us comfort in our shame, sources that will keep us company in our alienation from one another. [Mechanics, chiropractors, & God…]

Death by alienation is such a slow and painful way to die, is it not? We become ruins of who we were created to be, our relationships in disrepair, no longer good for shelter, emptied of warmth. The formerly verdant garden becomes a desert, a wasteland in which everything has been consumed and nothing is growing anymore.

This is shattered shalom. What once was peace, embrace, the true comfort of home, gone like the fading memory of dream, at best now an elusive feeling, a feeling of something missing that we are aware of only by the hole it’s left behind.

This is hell on earth, is it not? We’ve all felt some measure of its heat, have we not?

Oh, if only a light would shine in this darkness! If only there would be a rescuer who would come and pursue us unflaggingly across the barren desert and give us a cup of water to drink! If only a repairer of broken walls could come and make the ruins into a home! If only a gardener would appear who could plant seeds that would take root and run riot over the earth. If only a friend of sinners would come who could reconcile all alienated things to himself, in heaven and on earth and under the earth!

We reflected last week on how we are in the season of advent, the moment before the moment, the time when God invites us to anticipate, to look forward to what is coming so that the life of the future can bleed into our lives today.

Today we’re going to explore the question: “What do we have to look forward to, anyway?” This advent, we look forward to a baby who comes into the world in order to reconcile us with ourselves, with one another, and with God. This baby, as we’ll see, is a new Adam: one who embraces the shame, and takes on the blame, and puts an end to all of the hiding from God.

We’ll begin our exploration with an advent story from Luke chapter 2.

²⁵Now there was a man in Jerusalem called Simeon, who was righteous and devout. He was waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was on him. ²⁶It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not die before he had seen the Lord’s Messiah. ²⁷Moved by the Spirit, he went into the temple courts. When the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him what the custom of the Law required, ²⁸Simeon took him in his arms and praised God, saying:

²⁹“Sovereign Lord, as you have promised,

you may now dismiss your servant in peace.

³⁰For my eyes have seen your salvation,

³¹which you have prepared in the sight of all nations:

³²a light for revelation to the Gentiles,

and the glory of your people Israel.”

Let’s zero in on Simeon, a man “waiting for the consolation of Israel.” Waiting here is προσδέχομαι prosdechomai – take up, receive, to look forward to, to welcome. [throw $10.00 paper airplane…]

Simeon is anticipating something. He is looking forward to something promised to him, in a way that brings the joy of the thing coming right into his present circumstances. Circumstances that are not very rosy. He is an old man in a corrupt temple, part of a people in exile and under the oppressive rule of the Roman empire and a brutal, power hungry king. And yet, the Holy Spirit was on him. In his anticipation, his receiving of the future promise, the Spirit of God was present with him in the here and now. A fountain of joy is present to him in his trouble. And not only that, it makes him ready to receive and cooperate with what God is doing at that very moment Jesus arrives before him.

But what exactly had he been anticipating, looking forward to, waiting with expectation for? A rousing victory that would crush the romans and Herod and the corrupt priests? No, nothing that exciting. He was waiting for “the consolation of Israel.” [Not consolation how we usually understand it…] He was waiting for comfort, for healing, for the presence of God that would bring peace. Specifically, Simeon was waiting for what had been promised through the prophet Isaiah.

¹³Shout for joy, you heavens;

rejoice, you earth;

burst into song, you mountains!

For the Lord comforts his people

and will have compassion on his afflicted ones.

Is 49:13

³The Lord will surely comfort Zion

and will look with compassion on all her ruins;

he will make her deserts like Eden,

her wastelands like the garden of the Lord.

Joy and gladness will be found in her,

thanksgiving and the sound of singing.

Is 51:3

⁹Burst into songs of joy together,

you ruins of Jerusalem,

for the Lord has comforted his people,

he has redeemed Jerusalem.

Is 52:9

¹³As a mother comforts her child,

so will I comfort you;

and you will be comforted over Jerusalem.”

Is 66:13

Salvation breaks into our brokenness, affliction, and alienation first as consolation, as comfort, as an answer to our distress. Like a mother coming to the rescue of her child. Yes, she will set everything right. Yes, she’ll take care of the source of the trouble. But first, she is there. Present with the child. And in her presence, there is comfort. And there is promise that the rescue begun with her arrival will surely become a full and present reality.

Look at that Isaiah 51 promise again. The description of ruins and desert and wastelands becoming like Eden, the garden of the Lord, full of joy and gladness and thanksgiving and the sound of singing. It’s the promise of a place where there is no shame, no blame, no hiding from God, isn’t it?

And to Simeon, Jesus is the one who makes all these promises a reality. He is the consolation of Israel. What does Jesus have to do with this kind of comfort, of consolation? How is he the one Simeon has been waiting for? How is he the one we’ve all been waiting for?

Jesus is consolation for our alienation. In Jesus, God brings comfort to all three expressions of alienation, healing them and opening the door to reconciliation. Jesus ends the shame, ends the blame, ends the hiding from God.

Jesus is what Paul, in his letter to the Romans, calls the firstborn of a new creation. He is the first human being reconciled fully to himself, fully reconciled to every other human being – even to his enemies, and fully reconciled to God.

Listen to this verse from Romans 8, from the message translation:

In his Son Jesus, he personally took on the human condition, entered the disordered mess of struggling humanity in order to set it right once and for all.

[For those in the know, you already know what it means for Jesus to set right what shame has set wrong, what it means for him to set right what blame has set wrong, what it means for him to set right what all the hiding from God has set wrong, in many cases because you’ve already experienced a taste of it. But allow me to unpack it a little bit for those who are still exploring what Christianity is all about…]

Jesus arrives as an outcast, poor, born among beasts, with questionable parentage [a Mamzer…]. God himself inhabiting the deepest shames of humanity, without shame. The shame and alienation came to human beings when we aimed to be like gods. The shame is healed and the reconciliation begins when Jesus humbles himself to take on the flesh of his own broken creation.

And look at the reconciling impact Jesus has between people once alienated from each other. The angels announce him as good news of great joy for all the people. He draws all sorts of people into fellowship with one another. The outcast shepherds are drawn into the city of Bethlehem to worship the baby. The Wiseman from the east. Simeon, and Anna, old people blessing this young baby brought to the temple by this young family. And later the tax collectors and prostitutes and fishermen and scholars and rich men and centurions and servants and children. And he never casts a word of blame at any of them. Not even those caught in the midst of their sin. Instead, he offers them forgiveness and sets his face like flint towards the day when he can bear the weight of all of our sins on his shoulders. On the cross, when we all are to blame directly for his suffering, he looks at us and says: “Father, forgive them for they know not what they are doing.” He owns it all, takes it all on himself.

And where does the power for this reconciliation to himself and to others come from? It comes from the fact that Jesus is human being fully reconciled to God himself. He is conceived by the Holy Spirit. Anointed by the Holy Spirit at his baptism. Doesn’t hide from God, but has such a nearness and intimacy with him that he calls him “Father.”

All of this alienation and reconciliation business comes full circle in Jesus’ death and resurrection. In his death on the cross, Jesus experiences with us the full exile from the garden. And then, Jesus breaks back into the garden at his resurrection. He’s literally in a garden, outside his tomb, 1 man, 1 woman. But no blame, no shame, just naming each other and embracing. In his resurrection body, he’s fully at home on the earth and in the heavens. Breathing his holy spirit on his followers, so that they too can be reconciled to themselves, and to one another, and to the Father. Truly, he is the firstborn of a new creation. A creation in which we are all adopted by the Father as his brothers and sisters, a creation in which we do not receive the spirit of fear, but the spirit that cries out, “Abba, Father.”

These things we can look forward to because of the arrival of Jesus. These are all coming in fullness through the Lordship of Jesus, as he brings his kingdom among us, to us, within us, through us. We will be fully reconciled to ourselves. We will be fully reconciled to one another. We will be fully reconciled to God. No shame, no blame, no hiding from the source of life.

This is heaven on earth. This is the consolation of humanity. This is the restoration of shalom. We can be free to anticipate these things. They are not false promises. Their fulfillment has already begun in the birth of Jesus. Their fulfillment has already been secured by his death and in his resurrection. The life present in their fulfillment is available to us through expectant, anticipating faith.

This advent, may we look forward to being at peace with ourselves. May we look forward to experiencing peace with one another. May we look forward to knowing, at the deepest level of our being, Shalom with our heavenly father. It is all surely coming in the fullness of time. Its life and power is available to us even now through the Holy Spirit. May we, like Simeon, welcome it in faith, receive it in anticipation this advent, this season of the moment before the moment.

from Romans 8:

This resurrection life you received from God is not a timid, grave-tending life. It’s adventurously expectant, greeting God with a childlike “What’s next, Papa?” God’s Spirit touches our spirits and confirms who we really are. We know who he is, and we know who we are: Father and children.

That’s why I don’t think there’s any comparison between the present hard times and the coming good times. The created world itself can hardly wait for what’s coming next. Everything in creation is being more or less held back. God reins it in until both creation and all the creatures are ready and can be released at the same moment into the glorious times ahead. Meanwhile, the joyful anticipation deepens.

All around us we observe a pregnant creation. The difficult times of pain throughout the world are simply birth pangs. But it’s not only around us; it’s within us. The Spirit of God is arousing us within. We’re also feeling the birth pangs. These sterile and barren bodies of ours are yearning for full deliverance. That is why waiting does not diminish us, any more than waiting diminishes a pregnant mother. We are enlarged in the waiting. We, of course, don’t see what is enlarging us. But the longer we wait, the larger we become, and the more joyful our expectancy.

Meanwhile, the moment we get tired in the waiting, God’s Spirit is right alongside helping us along. If we don’t know how or what to pray, it doesn’t matter. He does our praying in and for us, making prayer out of our wordless sighs, our aching groans. He knows us far better than we know ourselves, knows our pregnant condition, and keeps us present before God. That’s why we can be so sure that every detail in our lives of love for God is worked into something good.

Practical Tips:

1. Make an Advent Peace list.

2. Receive Jesus.

3. Ask for the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Advent: Anticipation

sermon notes from the Vineyard Church of Milan 12/06/2010

[audio link not yet available]

[Hammer time…]

Life finds its stride in rhythms and melody.

The beating of our hearts. Breathing in and out. The contraction and relaxation of our muscles. The cadence of our footsteps and the swinging of our arms. Waking, sleeping. Meals and prayers punctuating the day.

It’s no accident the scriptures begin with a poem. What better way to show us the creation of all things then through words ordered by creative rhythm and melody. Vocalized sounds woven into primitive song, the hustle and the flow that creates worlds in our minds, in our bodies, in our hearts.

[Genesis 1v14…]

¹⁴And God said, “Let there be lights in the vault of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark seasons and days and years, ¹⁵and let them be lights in the vault of the sky to give light on the earth.” And it was so. ¹⁶God made two great lights—the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars. ¹⁷God set them in the vault of the sky to give light on the earth, ¹⁸to govern the day and the night, and to separate light from darkness. And God saw that it was good. ¹⁹And there was evening, and there was morning—the fourth day.

Genesis 1v14–19

Rhythms and melody from the beginning, surrounding and penetrating every experience. Night, day. 6 days of work, 1 day of rest. Fortnights and months from the waxing and waning moon. Seasons from the tilt of the earth’s axis and the wheeling path around the sun. Planting and harvesting. Hunting and hibernating. Feasts and festivals, holidays and holy days.

We are in a season now called Advent, which is Latin for “the coming.” If seasons make up the stride of life, Advent is the moment before the footfall. A holy moment. What Rob Bell calls “the moment before the moment.”

Advent is a season of anticipation, of looking forward. It is dark, but the pregnant stillness in air says that light is about to appear on the horizon. The tracks are empty, but an ear pressed against them can feel a vibration that promises the train’s a-coming. The package hasn’t arrived, but the tracking status has changed to “out for delivery.”

Let’s look at an advent story this morning, and hear what the scriptures are teaching us about anticipation, about looking forward to what God is about to do.

Read and comment on Luke 1v5-23…

⁵In the time of Herod king of Judea there was a priest named Zechariah, who belonged to the priestly division of Abijah; his wife Elizabeth was also a descendant of Aaron. ⁶Both of them were righteous in the sight of God, observing all the Lord’s commands and decrees blamelessly. ⁷But they were childless because Elizabeth was not able to conceive, and they were both well advanced in years.

⁸Once when Zechariah’s division was on duty and he was serving as priest before God, ⁹he was chosen by lot, according to the custom of the priesthood, to go into the temple of the Lord and burn incense. ¹⁰And when the time for the burning of incense came, all the assembled worshipers were praying outside.

¹¹Then an angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing at the right side of the altar of incense. ¹²When Zechariah saw him, he was startled and was gripped with fear. ¹³But the angel said to him: “Do not be afraid, Zechariah; your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to call him John. ¹⁴He will be a joy and delight to you, and many will rejoice because of his birth, ¹⁵for he will be great in the sight of the Lord. He is never to take wine or other fermented drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit even before he is born. ¹⁶Many of the people of Israel will he bring back to the Lord their God. ¹⁷And he will go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the parents to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous—to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.”

¹⁸Zechariah asked the angel, “How can I be sure of this? I am an old man and my wife is well along in years.”

¹⁹The angel said to him, “I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God, and I have been sent to speak to you and to tell you this good news. ²⁰And now you will be silent and not able to speak until the day this happens, because you did not believe my words, which will come true at their appointed time.”

²¹Meanwhile, the people were waiting for Zechariah and wondering why he stayed so long in the temple. ²²When he came out, he could not speak to them. They realized he had seen a vision in the temple, for he kept making signs to them but remained unable to speak.

²³When his time of service was completed, he returned home. ²⁴After this his wife Elizabeth became pregnant and for five months remained in seclusion. ²⁵“The Lord has done this for me,” she said. “In these days he has shown his favor and taken away my disgrace among the people.”

Notice - something significant is happening in this passage, but it all feels like prelude, doesn’t it? Such a sense of pause, of presence in the moment, of a pace yet to quicken. Once. Meanwhile. Remained unable to speak. Were waiting and wondering. Returned home. Remained in seclusion. And listen for all the future language: “Will bear…will be a joy…many will rejoice…he will be filled with the Holy Spirit…many will he bring back…he will go on...to make ready a people prepared…you will be silent…which will come true…”

Another way to reflect on it would be to say that the moment before the moment matters. This moment (the moment of these advent prophecies and pregnancies) has a particular kind of life in it because of what is coming next (God himself entering into the world through flesh and blood in Jesus of Nazareth), and the life available in what is coming next is accessible to us because of what happens in this moment (it allows us to see what’s next for what it is, to not miss it, to be prepared to receive it, respond to it). The two moments – the moment before the moment, and the moment itself – are joined together in meaning and power.

We see this in the way kids love hearing stories again and again, filling in the blanks; then when something comes at the right time, even perhaps in a surprising way, it gives delight - delight whose power was born in the moment before the moment. [telling Elle she is a great daughter…]

Many of us know what is arguably the greatest single moment in all of pop music. And that, of course, is Phil Colin’s drum solo three minutes and forty three seconds into “In The Air Tonight.” [play short clip] But would that moment be what it is without the 3:43 that come before it? Would we know what to do when it came without experiencing the moments before the moment? [play the few seconds before and the moment itself…] For those who know the song, would the 3:43 before it be what it is without what we all know is coming? Those 3:43 are what they are because of the anticipation present in them, the drum solo inhabiting them like a baby in the womb, waiting to be born out of them.

Anticipation, looking forward to something, is a way of making the future blessing present now. Through anticipating it, you receive life today from the future that hasn’t yet arrived, but is surely coming. [examples…] This is what the season of Advent is all about.

Look again at Zachariah’s experience with the angel. Gabriel makes him a promise about God’s answer to his prayers. A son is coming to him and Elizabeth. A son who will be a big time player in the coming of the Messiah.

The whole point of prophecy is that those who hear it would begin to anticipate its fulfillment. Because in their anticipation, they are prepared to receive what God is going to do. And because in their anticipation, they receive life today from what God is going to do in the future. (After all, God could just do what he’s going to do without telling anyone right? But we’d be left in the dark, and everything God is doing is precisely so that light would chase away the darkness in which we are dying.) Anticipation is the first thing we do to join with God in his salvation.

But Zachariah’s capacity to anticipate God’s promises, to look forward to their fulfillment, has been destroyed by the work of the enemy in his life, hasn’t it? They were childless. One disappointment after another, and now they are advanced in years. And so he doesn’t receive the promise, doesn’t begin to anticipate its fulfillment. Instead he resists it. “How can I be sure of this? I’m old. My wife’s no spring chicken either.”

It’s the sort of thing that happens to many of us.

When you look forward to something that doesn’t happen, it can sour the anticipated joy you carried into that moment. [Carmel apple/onion prank…]

So sometimes, we protect ourselves from that disappointment by choosing to be skeptical about any good thing promised. We’ll believe it when we see it, we say.

Perhaps there are times when that’s wise [Lions football…].

But no matter how wise it may be, it closes the door to the life intended for us now from God’s good future. [Share my inability to look forward to anything unsecured and the bad fruit of that…the joys un-looked-forward-to would certainly outweigh the disappointments avoided on balance]

Sometimes, not only are we not anticipating the good thing promised, we are actually anticipating the bad thing that we anticipate will take away the good thing promised. [examples…] Which brings the ill effects of future disappointment into our present nows, and which are carried with us into the future, whether or not our disappointments are realized.

The ways in which our capacity to look forward, to anticipate is compromised by any number of things: the disappointments of life, the unreliability of others, misplaced expectations…

[Quote from SI about LeBron James’ first game back in Cleveland after leaving his old team to go play in Miami: The basketball lesson for the day was that ‘tis better to have LeBron James than to have loved and lost him. But this night was never really about basketball. It was about Cleveland….It was about Cavs fan Bart Gruber, who brought his 8-year-old son to the game – not so much to cheer or boo, but because they are Cavs fans. I asked Gruber what he told his son after “The Decision.” “After he cried for two hours,” Gruber said, “I just told him this was life.”]

This may be life in this world. But it is not life in the kingdom of God. In the kingdom of God, joy awaits, not sorrow. Promises are kept. Every disappointment swallowed up in a beauty that takes our breath away and fills our lungs with laughter. Love wins. The King comes home to stay.

Look at children. They can delight in what they think is coming, no matter its likelihood… [examples…]

Why not us? Because we don’t want to look foolish. Jesus says to inherit the kingdom of God, we must become like little children. This, I believe, is part of that kind of faith. Faith that risks looking a fool for the sake of the Kingdom.

Which is why Gabriel shuts Zachariah up. He’s not able to speak until the promise is fulfilled. Which is an interesting thing, isn’t it?

First, who looks like the fool now? See, that’s the truth about not trusting God’s promises; it means we are trusting the enemies promises, and that is true folly.

Second, every time Zachariah can’t speak, he’s reminded of God’s supernatural power, which in turn encourages him to anticipate the promise, doesn’t it?

And finally, every time he can’t speak, he’s reminded that he can’t speak because he used his speech to push back against faithfully anticipating the good thing God was promising him. Which encourages him to look forward to its fulfillment, because it’s when the prophecy is fulfilled that he will get his speech back.

God’s a genius.

Anticipation is an act of faith, faith that opens the door to life from the heavens. This advent, may we take advantage of the moments before the moment. May we open our eyes to look forward to what God has promised us. May we open our hearts to look forward to the arrival of a savior in the midst of our deepest pain. May we embrace the life that finds its stride in the rhythms of looking forward and waiting and receiving, of longing and celebration, of anticipation and fulfillment.

Practical Tips…

1. Look forward like a fool to something inconsequential but potentially joy-filled for you. Go public with it. Make some kind of daily reminder for yourself. When you see the reminder, welcome the joy trying to poke in to your heart from the future.

2. Make an Advent List. In prayer, list the things you are looking forward to God doing in your life and in the world. [The Advent Prayer Hour as a great opportunity…] As you do, anticipate the joy that’s coming in their fulfillment.

3. Repent of foolish foolishness. Resolve to be God’s fool and no one else’s. Turn doubts and fears into prayers. Change your “We’ll see” to “Amen.” (Mary’s “May it be to me according to your word.”) Every prayer contains at least seed of anticipation that God might act, can act, may want to act on our behalf.

Revelation: The Lamb at the Center

[sermon notes from the Vineyard Church of Milan 11/28/2010]

[audio link not yet available]

Invitation to open to Revelation, chapter 5.

Part 2 in a 2 part series on the Apocalypse. Apocalypse meaning “to lay bare, to make naked, to reveal, as in the lifting of a veil.” St. John’s Apocalypse is not a book about the end of the world, as many assume, but a book that helps us see reality as it really is, helps us see what’s going on behind the scenes of our everyday, ordinary lives.

[Biggest loser race for the car…Revelation 5 shows us what was really going on there…]

Reiterate key idea from last week:

Apocalyptic language is designed to engage our imaginations, to wake us up to things that have already been revealed, but that are easy to forget as we get numbed to them by ordinary life. Kind of like smelling salts for our souls. Revelation brings us to our senses.

Like a stylized painting, not a Polaroid picture…

For example, 4v4 says: Surrounding the throne were twenty-four other thrones, and seated on them were twenty-four elders. They were dressed in white and had crowns of gold on their heads.

Option A: There are 24 people in heaven with crowns and front row seats to God. This is good information because if you do get to heaven and you meet one of these blokes, you really should ask for an autograph. Plus, it makes God look kind of cool because he’s got these guys falling down before him several times a day, singing songs to him. Or…

Option B: The crowns and thrones and white clothes are all meant to paint a picture of people in whom the image of God has been restored, who are now able to finally take their proper place in the purposes of God in creation. The picture of 24 elders in thrones is meant to reveal to us that when we place God at the center of our lives, his image in us is restored, and every surrendered, faith-filled action becomes an image-bearing action, filled with the restorative authority of the creator of all things.

(So when you serve the needy out of love for the God who says that when you serve the least of our brothers and sisters you are really serving him, or when you love your enemies, or forgive those who wrong you, or give hospitality to the stranger, or mourn with those who mourn, or rejoice with those who rejoice, or give generously out of faith in God’s generosity, or confess your sins to your friend and repent so that their power over your life comes undone, when you pray for the sick, or intercede for the weary, or encourage the broken hearted, or seek justice for the oppressed, or rouse yourself from your bed so that you can join the church in worship and sing glory to the saving one, when you do any of these or countless other faith-filled actions, you are in fact taking your proper place in the universe with the children of God, the princes of the king.)

What seems to be mundane and ordinary actions are, in fact, noble and holy, and humming with the energetic power of the heavens.

For what it’s worth, I’ll take option B.

As we discussed at length last week, the first thing we notice in Revelation 4 and 5 is that we are not the center, that there is another center to the universe, a true center, a throne which is not ours and on which we are not meant to sit. Which of course, gives us great freedom when we apprehend and make our peace with that reality.

But the second thing we notice, the thing which is really meant to arrest our attention in this apocalyptic vision, are the ones who are at the center of everything. The one on the throne, and the lamb.

[play Revelation 4&5 composition, inviting congregation to join their voices to the 5 songs contained in it...]

Revelation 4 & 5 composition

4 After this I looked, and there before me was a door standing open in heaven. And the voice I had first heard speaking to me like a trumpet said, “Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this.” ²At once I was in the Spirit, and there before me was a throne in heaven with someone sitting on it. ³And the one who sat there had the appearance of jasper and ruby. A rainbow that shone like an emerald encircled the throne. ⁴Surrounding the throne were twenty-four other thrones, and seated on them were twenty-four elders. They were dressed in white and had crowns of gold on their heads. ⁵From the throne came flashes of lightning, rumblings and peals of thunder. Before the throne, seven lamps were blazing. These are the seven spirits of God. ⁶Also before the throne there was what looked like a sea of glass, clear as crystal.

In the center, around the throne, were four living creatures, and they were covered with eyes, in front and in back. ⁷The first living creature was like a lion, the second was like an ox, the third had a face like a man, the fourth was like a flying eagle. ⁸Each of the four living creatures had six wings and was covered with eyes all around, even under its wings. Day and night they never stop saying:

“ ‘Holy, holy, holy

is the Lord God Almighty,’

who was, and is, and is to come.”

⁹Whenever the living creatures give glory, honor and thanks to him who sits on the throne and who lives for ever and ever, ¹⁰the twenty-four elders fall down before him who sits on the throne and worship him who lives for ever and ever. They lay their crowns before the throne and say:

¹¹“You are worthy, our Lord and God,

to receive glory and honor and power,

for you created all things,

and by your will they were created

and have their being.”

The Scroll and the Lamb

5 Then I saw in the right hand of him who sat on the throne a scroll with writing on both sides and sealed with seven seals. ²And I saw a mighty angel proclaiming in a loud voice, “Who is worthy to break the seals and open the scroll?” ³But no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth could open the scroll or even look inside it. ⁴I wept and wept because no one was found who was worthy to open the scroll or look inside. ⁵Then one of the elders said to me, “Do not weep! See, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has triumphed. He is able to open the scroll and its seven seals.”

⁶Then I saw a Lamb, looking as if it had been slain, standing in the center before the throne, encircled by the four living creatures and the elders. The Lamb had seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth. ⁷He went and took the scroll from the right hand of him who sat on the throne. ⁸And when he had taken it, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb. Each one had a harp and they were holding golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of God’s people. ⁹And they sang a new song, saying:

“You are worthy to take the scroll

and to open its seals,

because you were slain,

and with your blood you purchased for God

members of every tribe and language and people and nation.

¹⁰You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God,

and they will reign on the earth.”

¹¹Then I looked and heard the voice of many angels, numbering thousands upon thousands, and ten thousand times ten thousand. They encircled the throne and the living creatures and the elders. ¹²In a loud voice they were saying:

“Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain,

to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength

and honor and glory and praise!”

¹³Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all that is in them, saying:

“To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb

be praise and honor and glory and power,

for ever and ever!”

¹⁴The four living creatures said, “Amen,” and the elders fell down and worshiped.

The entrance of the lamb is the climax of everything. St. John wants us to be awakened to the lamb at the center of it all. Because everything in the universe must one day come to terms with the one at the center, the one who is the gravity drawing all things unto himself. Because everything in the universe is shaped by its center, and what is at the center determines where everything is heading and how everything is going to get there.

Notice how the lamb’s entrance is made dramatic by everything that precedes it. The stage is set with the throne, and the elders, and the creatures, and the sea of glass. Visual splendor. Majestic figures. John has our attention. Then he directs it at a mystery: this scroll.

A sealed scroll in the right hand of the one who sits on the throne. And a loud voice talking about the scroll, asking a question, bringing all of the worshippers’ attention to that one question.

Who? Who? Clearly, it matters who.

This is the question of the hour, the century, the millennium, the ages. Who?

That’s why there is weeping when no one is found.

What’s up with that? Have you ever seen someone weeping when something is lost? We don’t weep when we can’t find our toothbrush, or even our keys. [my experiences…emotions a far cry from tears…] But have you seen a child when they cannot find their special blanket or stuffed animal? The world collapses around them. Or, perhaps closer to the sense of this passage, a mother who can’t find her child? (wept and wept, the grief of the mourner…)

We only weep when we cannot find something of supreme value, something that cannot be replaced. That’s what’s going on here. There is something absent from the throne room of the universe - from the center of everything - that is of supreme value. And the heartrending image of John’s weeping helps us see that, feel that, share in that devastating absence. It brings to mind a woman named Mary, doesn’t it, weeping in a garden one Sunday morning outside of a tomb because she cannot find the one who was buried there, the one who cast 7 demons out of her and saved her life.

What is the importance of someone to open this scroll sealed with 7 seals that would inspire such terrible grief if he could not be found?

It was ancient Roman custom that last wills and testaments be written on a scroll, wrapped in 7 strings, and each string would be sealed with a wax seal to verify and protect its integrity, its contents a mystery locked away and impotent until the authorized executer of the will opened it. This will is no ordinary will, though, is it? It is in the right hand of the one seated on the throne at the center of the universe, the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come. What does this Father of all things leave to his children, to his creation? And who will carry out his will, ensure that it is perfectly executed?

In the text, the moment passes by in a heartbeat, but if you’ve ever experienced one of those heartbeats where you thought everything was lost, you know it feels like an eternity, doesn’t it? Time stops. And we are meant to feel that stoppage of time in John’s weeping. He wept. And wept. Because no one was found. Which implies a search was underway, and the results were not promising.

If no one is found, what does that mean? Does that mean there is no true heir to the life and glory of the heavens? Does that mean this Father’s sons have all died before him, or been disowned? Does that mean it all is coming to an end?

And then, “Don’t weep, see!” Something had happened while he was weeping, and his tears were obscuring his vision. Don’t weep. See! See what?

The Lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David.

When the patriarch Jacob (Israel) blessed his sons, this was his blessing to his son, Judah:

⁹You are a lion’s cub, Judah;

you return from the prey, my son.

Like a lion he crouches and lies down,

like a lioness—who dares to rouse him?

¹⁰The scepter will not depart from Judah,

nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet,

until he to whom it belongs shall come

and the obedience of the nations be his.

Genesis 49:9-10

The root of David is a reference to the prophecies that the Messiah would come from ancient King David’s lineage. Here, in the throne room, in other words, the Messiah has arrived. The strong one promised in Judah’s blessing who will rule over all the earth. He, the elder says, has triumphed, and is standing in front of you, able to open the scroll and the 7 seals.

Only, when John looks, he doesn’t see a lion, does he? He sees a Lamb. Talk about a double take. Lions were the ultimate symbol of power, and lambs were considered powerless. And this lamb looked as if it had been slain (although, at the same time, it was standing, alive before the throne).

This lion/lamb is Jesus of Nazareth, the one worthy son of the Almighty God. The one who has triumphed over death and now is ready to take the scroll from his Father, the almighty God, and open it up so that he can carry out his Father’s perfect will. And so that the inheritance of the adopted children of God can be generously distributed.

Did you see the recent Robin Hood film with Russell Crowe? In it, the central mystery revolves around a sword the inscription: “Rise, and rise again, until Lambs become lions.” A stirring quote, is it not? Yet, it is exactly the opposite of what has taken place here in Revelation.

John is painting a word picture of a Lion who stooped, and stooped again until he became a lamb. A Lion, the son of the living God, the word of God through whom all things were made, in heaven and on the earth, stooped down to be clothed in human flesh. Jesus, the son of Mary and Joseph. And he stooped to live the life of a servant to all. And he stooped again to die as the worst kind of criminal, a sacrificial offering for the redemption of all human kind. And in so doing became the Lamb of God, the lamb who was slain for our transgressions.

At the center of everything is a Lamb, looking as if it had been slain.

You and I are shaped by our center… Families are shaped by their center… Crowds are shaped by their center… Nations and kings are shaped by their center… The earth is shaped by its center… The solar system is shaped by its center…The universe is shaped by its center…

At the center of everything is a lamb looking as if it had been slain.

The real power at the center of everything is one who emptied himself of power. So that the love of power would be defeated by the power of love. If we want to be tapped into the power at the center of the universe, that is the kind of power we must be tapped into.

We’ve heard the expression: “You become what you worship.” It is absolutely true. Worship money and you will become cold and hard, like cash. Worship success and you will come out on top, and empty. Worship popularity and you will become nothing but surface and image, weightless and blown by every passing breeze.

But when we worship at the throne, at the true center, we worship the Lamb, looking as if it had been slain. And it is like him that we are becoming as we worship him. Humble, generous, servants of all, living sacrifices.

Because notice, he looks as if he had been slain. He had been, but He is no longer. He is alive now. Brimming with life, life that spills over as his blood had previously done, and makes members of every tribe and language and people and nation into a kingdom and priests to serve our God and they will reign on the earth. And triumphant, as the elder first describes him.

This is the way of triumph in the kingdom of God. We follow our savior in dying to ourselves, and resurrection life fills our veins. It is in embracing powerlessness that God’s power is released for new creation, and everything is set right.

Those who have as themselves the center look at those who embrace powerlessness, and they mock. It looks like foolishness. (Worthy is the Lion who takes down his prey to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise!”) [The Apprentice boardroom…]

But John’s apocalyptic vision reveals that the way of the Lion who becomes a Lamb is the wisdom of God. (Worthy is the Lamb who was slain to receive…)

And so we, the community of worshippers gathered around the lamb looking as if it had been slain, when we’ve seen the one who is at the center, and we see how he looks, are to say “Amen.” Yes. So be it. Believe. May it be fulfilled. Yes! Whenever we see forgiveness. Amen. Whenever we see generosity. Amen. Whenever we see sacrificial suffering. Amen. Whenever we see someone dying to themselves so that others might live. Whenever we see someone enduring judgment in favor of casting judgment. Whenever we see someone serving under instead of lording over. Amen. Amen. Amen. Wherever we Lions looking like lambs, we say, Yes, that is what the Lion looks like now.

Practical Tips:

1. Look at yourself in the mirror of your most important relationships. What are you starting to look like? More like a lion or more like a lamb? More angry? Or more gentle? More powerful but less loving? Or less powerful but more loving? More defensive and aggressive? Or more willing to lose so others can gain? If you’re brave enough, ask one of those people for their opinion. The answer you come up with may show you what’s at the center of your life. The Lamb who was slain, or something else.

2. Go do something lamb-like this week. If we want Jesus to be worshipped as the Lion that he is, we would do well to reveal him by being lambs.

3. Write a note applauding someone who is imitating the Lamb. Tell them the strength and triumph you observe in their lives. You may think you sound like a lone voice, but your voice will be joined by myriads and myriads, and it will swell up louder than every other voice in their life.

4. Celebrate the Lord’s supper. Regularly. Nothing keeps lions at bay as well.

Revelation: We Are Not the Center

sermon notes from the Vineyard Church of Milan 11/21/2010

[audio link not yet available]

Invitation to open to Revelation, chapter 4.

The last book of the bible was written by a pastor who had been sent into exile on the Isle of Patmos, 13 square miles of land off the coast of Greece, in the Aegean Sea. The pastor is named John, and tradition holds that he is the same John who wrote the 4th Gospel, the gospel of John. In Greek, the original language of the New Testament, the book is called "the Apocalypse". Although apocalypse is often used by people to refer to the end of the world, that’s not what it means. Apocalypse just means "to lay bare, to make naked, to reveal, as in the lifting of a veil." Which is why we call it the book of Revelation. There are things going on around us that are hidden, covered in a veil, as it were, but if we could see them as they really are, there would be power in beholding them.

Revelation is written in a unique style, using a particular kind of language, common at the time, but uncommon today, called apocalyptic language. Which can make Revelation seem foreign to us, intimidating, inaccessible, mysterious, wild - especially since we are accustomed to reading in order to gain information. Apocalyptic literature, however, is not written primarily to give us information. It's designed to engage our imaginations, so that we can see the truth that is hidden behind the veil of our ordinary lives and world.

Wendell Berry writes: The imagination is our way into the divine imagination, permitting us to see wholly - as whole and holy - what we perceive as scattered, as order what we perceive as random.

Eugene Peterson says of the book of Revelation: Everything in the Revelation can be found in the previous 65 books of the Bible. The Revelation adds nothing of substance to what we already know. The truth of the gospel is already complete, revealed in Jesus Christ. There is nothing new to say on the subject. But there is a new way to say it. I read the Revelation not to get more information, but to revive my imagination. St. John uses words the way poets do, recombining them in fresh ways so that old truth is freshly perceived...Familiarity dulls my perceptions. Hurry scatters my attention. Ambition fogs my intelligence. Selfishness restricts my range. Anxiety robs me of appetite. Envy distracts me from what is good and blessed right before me. And then St. John's apocalyptic vision brings me to my senses, body and soul.

This morning we are going to look at chapters 4 and 5 of revelation to see what it means to be brought to our senses about worship. This very thing we do on Sunday mornings, or in our cars, or in our small groups, or with our families, or alone walking through the woods. Worship. What is really going on in worship? What's the point? Why do we do it? When we worship, what's happening, anyway?

Keep in mind, what you are going to see is an apocalyptic picture - a revealing picture - not a literal picture. In other words, the scene that will be described is not intended to be what we see if we were to take a photograph of the worship going on to God; it's intended to be an artistic rendering of what goes on in worship that helps us see what a photograph might not reveal. For example, there is a picture of a lamb with 7 horns and 7 eyes. Does that mean there actually exists a lamb with 7 horns and 7 eyes? Not at all. It means that the person represented by the lamb has perfect authority and sees reality perfectly, as it really, truly is.

It is through our imagination that we are woken up, that the revelation of truth happens, so let us begin with our imaginations fully engaged to receive what Jesus wants us to receive today...

Look around you. You see the walls, the pews, the carpet, the people, yourself, the windows, some of the landscape around. The lights, the roof. Your eyes see accurately enough, but not truly enough. What if there is more to see this morning than your eyes are capable of perceiving? What if you could be awakened through your imagination to truth hidden by these familiar, ordinary sights? May you and I, may all of us together, share in an apocalypse today...

[play Revelation 4&5 composition, inviting congregation to join their voices to the 5 songs contained in it...]

 

Revelation 4 & 5

4 After this I looked, and there before me was a door standing open in heaven. And the voice I had first heard speaking to me like a trumpet said, “Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this.” ²At once I was in the Spirit, and there before me was a throne in heaven with someone sitting on it. ³And the one who sat there had the appearance of jasper and ruby. A rainbow that shone like an emerald encircled the throne. ⁴Surrounding the throne were twenty-four other thrones, and seated on them were twenty-four elders. They were dressed in white and had crowns of gold on their heads. ⁵From the throne came flashes of lightning, rumblings and peals of thunder. Before the throne, seven lamps were blazing. These are the seven spirits of God. ⁶Also before the throne there was what looked like a sea of glass, clear as crystal.

In the center, around the throne, were four living creatures, and they were covered with eyes, in front and in back. ⁷The first living creature was like a lion, the second was like an ox, the third had a face like a man, the fourth was like a flying eagle. ⁸Each of the four living creatures had six wings and was covered with eyes all around, even under its wings. Day and night they never stop saying:

“ ‘Holy, holy, holy

is the Lord God Almighty,’

who was, and is, and is to come.”

⁹Whenever the living creatures give glory, honor and thanks to him who sits on the throne and who lives for ever and ever, ¹⁰the twenty-four elders fall down before him who sits on the throne and worship him who lives for ever and ever. They lay their crowns before the throne and say:

¹¹“You are worthy, our Lord and God,

to receive glory and honor and power,

for you created all things,

and by your will they were created

and have their being.”

The Scroll and the Lamb

5 Then I saw in the right hand of him who sat on the throne a scroll with writing on both sides and sealed with seven seals. ²And I saw a mighty angel proclaiming in a loud voice, “Who is worthy to break the seals and open the scroll?” ³But no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth could open the scroll or even look inside it. ⁴I wept and wept because no one was found who was worthy to open the scroll or look inside. ⁵Then one of the elders said to me, “Do not weep! See, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has triumphed. He is able to open the scroll and its seven seals.”

⁶Then I saw a Lamb, looking as if it had been slain, standing in the center before the throne, encircled by the four living creatures and the elders. The Lamb had seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth. ⁷He went and took the scroll from the right hand of him who sat on the throne. ⁸And when he had taken it, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb. Each one had a harp and they were holding golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of God’s people. ⁹And they sang a new song, saying:

“You are worthy to take the scroll

and to open its seals,

because you were slain,

and with your blood you purchased for God

members of every tribe and language and people and nation.

¹⁰You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God,

and they will reign on the earth.”

¹¹Then I looked and heard the voice of many angels, numbering thousands upon thousands, and ten thousand times ten thousand. They encircled the throne and the living creatures and the elders. ¹²In a loud voice they were saying:

“Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain,

to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength

and honor and glory and praise!”

¹³Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all that is in them, saying:

“To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb

be praise and honor and glory and power,

for ever and ever!”

¹⁴The four living creatures said, “Amen,” and the elders fell down and worshiped.

The throne. Everything revolves around the throne.

Our attention is drawn at first to the throne at the center of the picture.

John says he sees a door standing open. It must be open to something. The first thing we wonder is: what is on the other side of that door? And then there is an invitation: Come up here and I will show you what must take place after this. We're curious, breathless, anticipating, what will we see?

And what do we see?

A throne. Occupied by an initially nameless and extraordinary someone. And all of the action starts at the throne, and comes from the throne, and centers around the throne, and flows back to the throne. Lightning. Rumbles. Peals of thunder. Pulsing, dynamic power, emanating from the center of the scene, crashing outward, rippling back again. Lamps, blazing light, rainbows, a sea of glass.

Then, our attention goes to those surrounding the throne.

Twenty four other thrones. Elders dressed in white with crowns on their heads.

And a tireless zoological quartet. Living creatures, with eyes and wings aplenty.

Not to mention Angels. Myriads of them, thousands, tens of thousands of angels. Filling the stands.

And from the upper decks and the parking lots and the apartment buildings surrounding the stadium, there is a roar. The voices of every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all that is in them.

All of them, around the throne and the one seated on the throne. All of them worshipping. Laying down crowns. Falling down. Surrendered,

centered,

focused.

Eyes and voices fixed on the throne, on the center of everything.

Notice what this scene does to our attention: starting with the center, moving out to take in the scene, back to the center, then back out further and further, then back to the center, waves coming from and crashing back towards the center. The center of the scene is now the center of our attention.

When our imaginations take in this scene, we cannot help but become aware of one undeniable fact.

We are not the center.

There is a center to the universe, to life, to power and activity, to all that is and ever has been and ever will be and all that happens and has happened and is yet to happen. And we are not it.

The throne at the center is not ours and we are not on it.

And the whole universe is not standing at attention in response to us. The whole universe is not giving us its worship. Not me. Not you either. Not anyone in the Milan News Leader or the New York Times or the Washington Post or People magazine or Forbes or Rolling Stone or Sports Illustrated or even Marvel Comics.

John's apocalypse lays bare the reality that the universe is preoccupied with only one throne, and with the one seated on that throne. And when we enter into worship, we too are invited to be preoccupied and reoccupied. [Mackinac Island, guy one with nature...]

First and foremost, when we enter into worship, we are reminded that we are not the center.

When you awoke this morning, there was an open door before you. An opportunity to escape a false world that had been built up around you where you were the center of everything, and step into the true world, the real world, where there is another center, a worthy center.

When you joined together with your sisters and your brothers, you joined together with others who were, like you, escaping that false world, leaving it behind to plant your feet firmly in the universe that has a glorious center, a gravity that will never fail to hold it together.

And when the first note was played, and you joined your voices in the first words, you said, loudly enough for your self to hear: "Self, you are not the center of the universe. There is a throne, and there is someone on it, and it is not you."

We need to know this. We need to be reminded of this regularly. We are not the center. This is freedom. This is life for us. We are not the center. Hallelujah!

Think about your responsibilities, your work, the place you go to earn a living, the children you spend the day caring for, the household you run. The stress, the challenges, the pressure, the anxieties. Like it's all coming down on you.

Think about your relationships. Your friends, your family, the people that matter in your life. The drama, the concerns, the fine lines you walk, the judgments, the worries, the demands placed on you.

Think about your inner life. The struggles, the hopes, the confusion, the striving, the doubts, the pressure you place on yourself, the hopelessness that sometimes creeps in.

And then you are awakened to this simple fact. You are not the center. It's not all about you. You are not the center of your work. You are not the center of your relationships. You are not even the center of your own life.

Can you feel the freedom that truth brings? The fresh breeze that washes over you as you awaken to that truth?

As long as we are the center of anything that God is meant to be the center of, our destruction is inevitable. Not because God will come and kick us out, but because we are no longer under the influence of his gravity, no longer connected to the waves of life emanating from his throne. It happens gradually to us at first, but it does happen, sure as the sun sets in the west. It is the first thing the snake said to Eve. "You won't die...your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God." What he was saying, in essence, was: God isn't the only one fit to be on the throne; why don't you make your own throne and sit on it?

The experience of being the center is intoxicating at first. But is always dangerous to be intoxicated, despite its allure. That balloon will always pop. It happens so often to celebrities and athletes and the ego driven and the power hungry. [kids at their own birthday party...]

When we are the center, when we become pretenders to the throne, when it occurs to us that worship would be a nice thing to receive, then Shalom is disrupted, and life leaks from us at an accelerated pace.

Others are there to be taken from. Others are there to be afraid of. Others are there to be competed with. Others are there to get in our way.

We exist only for our own pleasure. For our own sakes. Yet we will never be enough for ourselves, and after we have consumed everyone else, we will consume ourselves and there will be nothing left, not even for the vultures.

The truth is, we are made to be near the center. We are made in the image of the one on the throne. That's who the 24 elders are - they represent those in whom the image of God has been restored: the 12 tribes of Israel and the 12 disciples of Jesus, the 24 orders of priests. They have crowns, like the crown of the one on the throne. They have thrones of their own, thrones given to them by God from which they are to bear his image to all of creation. But they are not on the throne.

"Failure to worship consigns us to a life of spasms and jerks, at the mercy of every advertisement, every seduction, and every siren. Without worship we live manipulated and manipulating lives. We move in either frightened panic or deluded lethargy as we are, in turn, alarmed by specters and soothed by placebos. If there is no center, there is no circumference. People who do not worship are swept into a vast restlessness, epidemic in the world, with no steady direction and no sustaining purpose." - Eugene Peterson.

When we are the center, we aren't enough for ourselves, so advertisements appeal to us. Perhaps that is what I need. Or that. Or that! And so we run this way and that, after this and after that. And we go nowhere but further in debt.

When we are at the center, our primary aim is our pleasure and glory, and so we are susceptible to seduction. Anything that wants to use or enslave us can simply promise us pleasure or glory, and we run after it like dogs after a bone, tongues slobbering out of our mouths. Oh, you'll promote me if I just do this? Oh, you'll love me if I just do this? Oh, you'll give me your attention if I just do this?

When we are at the center, we have everything to lose, and so every alarming thing gets us running for shelter, for safety, for security. We become afraid of everything, and willing to do anything that will save us from our fears coming true.

The revelation of St. John says to us that when we worship, we gather together around another center, a center that is not us. And so when we worship, our lives become lives that are a response to the true center. We live lives that flow from the true center.

At the center is a throne.

Everything that is good and true, starts and ends with the throne, and with the one who is on the throne.

When we worship, we join something that was going on forever before and will be going on forever after (Day and Night they never stop saying). It doesn't start with us. It doesn't end with us.

And look what happens when we worship:

We fall down.

The crowns come off our heads (tumbling, perhaps?) and we lay them on the ground, surrendered to the one on the throne at the center.

And we say, and we sing.

We say and we sing. These are no small things.

Consider this question. How does the world get set right when billions of egos are the centers of their own existence? Is this not why there are wars and oppression and conflict and jealousy and hatred and misunderstandings and addictions and fears and road rage and black friday tramplings? Is this not the ultimate source of death?

The world gets set right when we find a way to gather together around the true center, from which love flows, and life, and healing, and truth. When we have something else we are surrendered to who has surrendered himself to us and calls us to be surrendered for his sake and for the sake of those for whom he has surrendered himself.

And the way to gather around the true center, the way that is natural for us, even if it feels at first unnatural, is for us to join our voices together in saying and in song.

Words and melodies and harmonies and rhythms are those things which we can join in together that carry us together, that point us together, with all of our egos and desires and worries and anxieties and brokenness, and center us around the throne.

[Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come...]

[Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now am found, was blind but now I see...]

And in that throng, and at that throne, we do not lose ourselves, we do not become muddied and gray. But instead, because of the radiance of the one on the throne, our true colors are revealed. (the value of precious stones in ancient culture was not their capacity for decoration, but what they did with light, the way they brought the invisible colors of light into the light, scattering them about for our eyes to see). Jasper and ruby, emeralds, rainbows bathing the worshippers in the light of the one they worshipped.

This is why when we sing, when we give all of ourselves to it, each of us in our own way, with our own weaknesses and strengths, with our bodies, our minds, our hearts, each one of us bringing something different to it, each one of us getting something different out of it, we are caught up in the Spirit of God that brings us to life.

And we help each other come around the center as we sing together, too. Oh, he is not the center, she is not the center, oh, I am not the center either. Who is she looking to...? who is he laying his crown before...? aha, there is the throne! There is the my center too. And oh what a center that would have to be to be the center to a group as diverse as this group, to be the center to one who is as different from me as that person is from me and I from him and I from her. [going to a concert and looking around at the crowd...] [this is why the worship with Agape was so powerful and life-laden last week, and by the grace of God will be tonight as well...]

Notice the four living creatures.

They represent all of sentient life on planet earth: the lion, the noblest, the ox the strongest, the man the wisest, the eagle the swiftest. They all share something in common: eyes and wings. Each one in worship is fully alert (covered in eyes), soaring on 6 wings... We come to life in worship! Because we are gathered around the true center of all life, the Lord God Almighty, the source of life.

And of course, there is at the center the one who sits on the throne, and there is also the Lamb.

Oh, the lamb! Next week we talk about the Lamb. Because not only does it matter that we are not the center. It matters most the one who is the center. The Lamb who was slain. Jesus, the Christ.

Practical Tips:

1. Do an advertisement, seduction, and siren inventory. Consider the intended course of your life, and ask yourself if you have been derailed in any way by your responses to advertising, seductions, or sirens. May this inventory awaken you to ways in which you have bought the snake's lie that you are the center of your universe. Repent, and respond to the door Jesus has opened to you for wakeful worship.

2. Worship like your life depends on it. And with others, as often as possible. And when you do, start by saying to yourself: There is a center to this universe, and I am not it. And we are not it.

3. Memorize "Holy, Holy, Holy..." Commit "Holy Holy Holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is and is to come" to memory. Say it at the first sighting of every advertisement, seduction, and siren. And every time you say it, remember that you are not alone in saying it, and you are not the first to say it, and you will not be the last to say it; your voice is joining countless other voices in the stream of eternity.

4. Coax all of your self into worship. Involve as much of yourself as you are able in your worship. Involve a little bit more of yourself than you did the last time you worshipped. More mind (use your imagination), more body (use your voice, your hands, your arms, your legs, your knees), more heart (choose to yield your place at the center), more soul (we come with cracked and brittle relationships - bring yourself to the one on the throne, inviting him to be the center of each of those others).

additional resources:  Reversed Thunder, by Eugene Peterson