On the Other Side of Glory
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| "The Revelation of St. John" from woodcut Biblical illustrations by Julius Schnoor von Carolsfeld. They were copied from the book "Das Buch der Bücher in Bilden." Used with permission of Multi-Language Publications - WELS |
The text for today is Revelation 7:9-10: “After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that
no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages,
standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with
palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, ‘Salvation
belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!’”
Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God the Father
and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
This certainly is a very diverse group. They come from all economic strata, ethnic
heritages, skin tones, and eras of history.
Some struggled with this sin and some with that. Some thought one thing and some another. Some came into the kingdom early and others
late in the day. But the thing that
holds them together as one crowd is
the object on which their eyes and hearts are fixed, and the love and awe that
shines from them as they rejoice to look upon that which they gaze.
Still, one must not analyze that look and imitate it
outwardly so that he can sort of “fit into the crowd.” That’s to be what Dr. Luther calls a “paper saint.” Instead, one pushes this way and that to get
in and to get a glimpse of what they are all so intent to look upon! Because if you do that, you too—no matter
what the unique struggles and burdens of your life—will come to wear that same
look of astonishment and awe and love on your face. Not because you are trying to be like the
crowd, but because you also see what the crowd sees—and you’ll drop to your
knees too, and awe and love will shine from your face as well.
So what is it that they are focused on? They are all facing the throne of God and of
the Lamb. And they sing aloud one song
in perfect harmony: “Salvation belongs to our God who sits
on the throne, and to the Lamb!” These
saints are truly blessed, because they have been granted the privilege to come
before the throne of God and serve Him day and night in His temple. And He shelters them with His presence. Nothing in all creation can harm them!
The blessedness our Lord describes in His
mountainside sermon of our Gospel, St.
John
And notice this: He sees no celebrities, no spiritual
superstars. He does not name the
apostles, martyrs, or prophets. He does
not name the kings or reformers or saints commemorated by the Church. Oh, they are there, to be sure. But St.
John
This is not to say that they are nondescript or
blended into one New Age universal consciousness. They are individuals—from every tribe and
nation. Heaven is not a place where the
self is lost, like some imaginary Marxist ideal, where every saint is interchangeable. Rather, heaven is where the self finally
becomes most fully self—free of sin.
Your gifts and talents, personality and intellect, will be finally free
of all envy, malice, and greed. You will
be that person God created you to be, still with your nation, tribe, people,
and language, but no longer as divisions fraught with jealousy, fear, and
enmity, but rather as distinctions of your unique character. You will honor God and shine according to the
grace given you as only you can honor and shine. But you will be united to your brothers and
sisters in the object of your affection, the Lamb.
Salvation belongs to the Lamb, to Jesus, and to Him
alone; yet He gives it to men. Blessing
and glory and wisdom, thanksgiving and honor and power and might are His; but He
bestows these upon men. He has brought
them out of the great tribulation. He
has purified them with fire. They suffer
no more slander and false accusations.
No one steals from them, betrays them, or hurts them. They are free of gossip, jealousy, lust,
anger, and fear. No one sins against
them and they commit no sins. Cleansing their
hearts and consciences, Christ has distilled them to their finest essence,
their truest selves. For in removing
guilt and regret, shame and fear, He has made them truly men, just as He is
truly Man.
The saints on the other side of glory hold palms of
victory in their hands. Their robes are
white. They have overcome the evil one
by the blood of the Lamb. They reap the
benefits, the plunder, and the glory of His sacrifice. He relieves them of all burdens and bestows
His own inheritance and perfect love upon them.
And of all of their joys, here is the greatest: Jesus Christ, the Lamb
of God who takes away the sins of the world is with them. That is the definition of “saint” or “holy
one,” one who is declared righteous or holy by grace through faith in the
merits of Christ. That is the definition
of “blessed”—to be with Jesus for eternity.
Jesus is the Lamb who was slain but who lives. He did not love His life to death. Instead He loved them to the end; for He
loves His Father in perfect obedience.
He does not ask, “Where is the Lamb?” as Isaac did, for He is the perfect
sacrificial Lamb. He looks for no
scapegoat, no mercy, no rescue. He lays
down His life in order to draw all men to Himself and show His love to
creation.
Thus does His Father love Him and in Him He loves
them. He loves His saints, washed in the
blood, drowned and raised again in the water, fed with His body once hung on
the cross, anointed with His own Holy Spirit.
His name is upon them. And as He
is holy so they are holy. The kingdom is
theirs. They are His; He is theirs. The Bridegroom is joined for eternity by the
Bride, His Church.
That is the view from the other side of glory—the
Church Triumphant, the saints, the holy ones who are with the Lord in heaven,
living in eternal bliss. It sounds so… well,
so heavenly… doesn’t it? But as you gaze
upon Christ’s Church from this side of glory, here on earth—it doesn’t look quite
so glorious, does it? And sadly, much of
the damage is self-inflicted. So often it
seems we’ve earned the name Church Militant, not because we’re Christian soldiers
marching off to war against the forces of evil, but because we’re a bunch of
tyrants and rebels, engaged in a dangerous, deadly civil war amongst ourselves.
Congregations struggle financially, some unable or
unwilling to afford a full-time pastor.
Pastors run roughshod over congregations. Congregations run out pastors. Politics replaces churchmanship. Sound doctrine and practice gives way to expediency. Grace gives way to grudges. And many people, so fed up with all the
troubles, are tempted give up involvement with organized religion, and sit at
home with their Bible and spouse, until they decide he or she might not be able
to be trusted, either.
Sound
familiar? If you haven’t seen it yet,
just stick around long enough and you’ll experience it yourself. And the worst part is that the devil can use
that to get your Old Adam to start thinking you might as well give up on your
Savior, too. After all, if Jesus can’t
keep His Church operating smoothly here, in time, how can you count on Him for
eternity?
But in your most honest, soul searching moments, you
must admit there’s trouble even closer to home.
There’s a civil war going on in your own heart, too. St.
Paul
And you are not alone. You are not the only one who grows frustrated
and tired with your own failures. You
are not the only one who thinks that the Church on earth should look and act
more like the Church in heaven.
You are not the only one who believes that the Church
of the Reformation should be more faithful to the Reformation. You are not the only one who is shocked,
scandalized, and disgusted by the Church’s in-fighting and worried about the
impact of that fighting on its mission and witness. That is the way that it is on the side of
glory.
Such anxiety comes from cloudy vision, from judging
by appearance only. Those who live by
sight are betrayed by it. By themselves,
the eyes can only see poverty, meekness, hunger, fighting, and persecution. But faith sees through today and into
tomorrow. It embraces the promise. It sees blessedness in the cross, in suffering,
in fighting, and even in what seems to be death; for faith knows that there is
no death for those who die in the Lord.
They pass through death from this living and temporal death we call
“life” into real and everlasting life.
This is the peace that passes all understanding. It is peace that exists in turmoil, in
sadness, and in the face of tragedy. It
exists and endures because it comes from God.
It lives by faith, by things unseen, things promised, things yet afar
off (though not as far as they used to be).
It is the everlasting hope of the Church which has been bought and
redeemed by the death and resurrection of her Lord. It is peace with God, not men. It is peace not now, but then.
This is how our Lord describes the Christian’s lot on
this side of glory: poor in spirit, mourning, meek, hungry, cursed, reviled and
hated by men, at war, in strife and difficulty—but only for a time. In Christ, you shall be comforted. By grace, you shall inherit the earth. With righteousness, you shall be filled. For you—baptized into His death—shall obtain
mercy. You shall not be judged by your
sins, or by your deeds, but by His perfect life and death. It is enough.
It is enough to make dead men alive, sinners into saints, a people from
people who were no people. In the
resurrection, you shall see God. You
shall be called the son of God, for the kingdom of heaven is yours.
I know. This
all sounds impossible. But remember,
this is how Abraham lived in the Promised Land: in a tent, as a foreigner,
while hostile, pagan people claimed his land as their own and built fortified
cities to prove it. He was an old man,
with a barren wife, with no prospects for children. The Scriptures say that he was as good as
dead. But he waited. He waited for a son, for a people, for a land…
but most of all he waited for the Savior.
Abraham embraced the promise, and in that faith he was blessed. The kingdom of God
It is also yours.
For this is how it is with all saints still on this side of glory. We are waiting. Mostly, this is waiting in the midst of
sorrow and uncertainty…or of hardship and worry. Some days are better than others, but there
are no days when everything is just right.
We are foreigners, not putting down roots, always
outsiders, always suspect. Always a
target for the devil’s lying doctrines of glory now, always the object of the
world’s scorn. Thus the Word of God
calls us to live by faith, to rejoice in things unseen but believed, such as a
communion of saints, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. You see, the great multitude that John saw
was not simply those saints who had already come to heaven up to that point. They were there, of course, but there were
more. For John saw the culmination of
creation. He witnessed the great
multitude after the resurrection on the Last Day. When he was transported to heaven, he was
also transported out of time. So he saw
people who weren’t even born yet, like St.
Augustine
And I bring this up because this means that John also
saw you and your dear loved one who has died in the faith. What he describes in chapter 7 is not about
“those” saints of God. It is about
you. These are your people. This gathering of the saints in heaven and
earth is the Holy Christian Church that we confess each week in the Creed. This is the blest communion, the divine
fellowship we will sing about in our closing hymn, “For All the Saints.”
By God’s grace, you have all been called into the Una Sancta, the one holy Church made up
of believers from every nation, tribe, people, language, denomination, and era
of history. The only difference is they
are on the other side of glory. They
have already passed through death and you must still abide in it. They rest from their labors while you still
toil. They are free from turmoil and
strife while you still live in the midst of it.
They nobly fought and won the victor’s crown. While you feebly struggle, they in glory
shine. Yet all are one in Thee, for all
are Thine. Allelulia! Allelulia!
The other side of glory is your future, too—foretold
in God’s Holy Word and seen by St.
John
But dear people of God—even now on this side of glory
you are blessed: Jesus, the Lamb, is in your midst. He is with you always, as near as His means
of grace. The kingdom of heaven is
yours. You are the temple of the Holy
Spirit, the object of angelic protection and prayers, for you were sealed and
anointed in the holy waters of Baptism with the triune name of God. You are here today to receive anew the
forgiveness of your sins, to be absolved, to hear the Word, to pray and praise
your God, and to finally join in communion, to join your fellow saints of both
sides of glory in a foretaste of the marriage feast of the Lamb.
You are blessed.
You are holy ones. You are saints
of God—because you are forgiven for all of your sins. In the name of the Father and of the Son and
of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Here is a link to the audio version of this sermon:
http://www.christsiouxfalls.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=79:sermons-preached-at-christ-lutheran&catid=28:sermons-preached-at-christ-lutheran&Itemid=13
Here is a link to the audio version of this sermon:
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