Revelation 7 Is Not Just a Dream
Political extremists are vying to control the center of the country. Protests sparked by calls for justice devolve into riots across the nation’s cities. Cultural and counter- cultural forces are pulling in opposite directions. Racial tensions are thick in the air and American life is fractured, assuming it was ever whole. Early in the tumult of the decade, a pastor stood on the National Mall in Washington D.C. and told the crowd of a dream - a dream for the country - of justice and equality before the law and unity before Almighty God.
More than 50 years removed from that decade, one may scan the American landscape and say, “’Twas just a dream, brother Martin. Just a dream.” There is plenty to make one wonder if there can ever be true unity in diversity. I have good news for you. It is possible. More than that, it is not a dream but a reality. And there is only one way to get there.
Dreams are fantasy overlaid on reality - most of the time. Dreams from God can be different. In our current sermon series in Revelation we are walking through a dream, or vision, given by God to the Apostle John. In John’s vision from God, reality is not obscured by the dream but rather the dream reveals reality.
In chapter 7 of the Revelation to John, we read, “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!’”
Many of us are familiar with this text but I fear that we think of it wrongly. I fear we think of this scene as a future possibility. We think of it as a New Year’s resolution. One of Jesus’ five things to accomplish in the next five years, maybe. If everything works out just right, we might be there. We see it as a goal or a hope or ... a dream. Revelation 7 is not a dream, though. It is a reality - a reality purchased and secured by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Sin, from the time of Adam and Eve, has done what sin always does. Sin lies and divides and builds up walls between God and Man and husbands and wives and parents and children and families and tribes and nations and states. It seeks power and control for selfish gain and stirs up hostility and bloodlust between competing ideologies. Anything to increase the fog and to keep people from seeing God for who he is and ourselves for who we are before him.
But God - the rich in mercy, abounding in steadfast love, curtain tearing, wall tumbling, truth revealing, fog lifting, death defying, serpent crushing, swords into plowshares forming, peace sustaining God - that one and only God sent his own son, Jesus, the Christ, to secure for himself a people from all nations and tribes and peoples and languages. A people redeemed by his blood. A people reflecting his glory. Revelation 7 is real because Jesus is real.
This means, dear sisters and brothers, that when you and I take our places in that multitude before the throne of God, we will find that we will have a stronger bond with the saints around us - as varied as they will be - than we have with our closest unbelieving political allies today. We will have a deeper affection for the saints around us on that day than we have for any worldly group we find ourselves in today. The Church of Jesus Christ, united in worship around the throne of God, is the plausibility structure that shows that Revelation 7 is not a dream - it is reality.
This reminds us of our need to confess out sins.
Father, in sin we constantly look inward and the effects are devastating. We seek to build our earthly tribes or parties over your kingdom. We defend our earthly theories more than we defend your truth. We cling to our earthly ideas of governance over your sovereign rule. We love our earthly movements more than we love the moving of your Spirit. We join the world in drawing hateful divisions between people based on color of skin or language or citizenship. We acquiesce to the wickedness of the world if we think we might gain for ourselves some footing in the political arena. We stand apart less and less and look more and more like those who do not see fit to acknowledge you. We mute the witness of your Church by our selfish words and deeds. These are great evils, God, and we know that if we regard sin in our own midst our prayers will be ineffectual so we bring these with our personal confessions before you in this time of silence.
Prayer: Thank you, Father, for sending your son, Jesus. He who the Son sets free is free indeed. We are free from the shackles of this world because of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection. He has modeled for us how to walk in freedom. Like Jesus, we are free to affirm your truth wherever it is found and we are free to condemn wrong without bias. We are free to love the unlovely. We are free to help in the hard places. We are free to wash feet and free to care for orphans and widows. We are free to help the poor. We are free to speak your truth to the powers of this world. God, help us, by your Spirit, to live as free people. Quicken our feet to run where you are needed. Strengthen our hands to serve you. Open our mouths to speak your Word. And when at last our time has come, bring us to that multitude from every tribe and nation that we might join in the chorus proclaiming, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” In Jesus’ name. Amen.