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. 10 They cried out in a loud voice, saying,
“Salvation belongs to our God who is seated on the throne, and to the Lamb!”
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, 12 singing,
“Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom
and thanksgiving and honor
and power and might
be to our God forever and ever! Amen.”
13 Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, “Who are these, robed in white, and where have they come from?” 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.
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.
16
They will hunger no more, and thirst no more;
the sun will not strike them,
nor any scorching heat;
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.”
******************************************************************
Good morning on this All Saints Day, a day known to most children in the United States as the day after Halloween, when there is a bag full of candy to be eaten. (That is, there is a bag full of candy if parents have not confiscated most of it.).
Today is also the Sunday before Election Day. IF you are registered to vote but have not yet done so, PLEASE go vote. It is your right and your duty as a citizen to elect the people in leadership in our city, county, state and nation - and to make decisions on Propositions. So please, vote.
This year Halloween is strange. Traditional door-to-door Trick or Treating was discouraged because of the potential for transmitting Covid19. Mind you, the numbers of children going door-to-door is much lower anyway than it was years ago because of the potential risk of running into someone who means the children harm. Trunk or Treat has become popular - where a group of people, often from a church, gather in a parking lot with the trunks of their cars decorated and filled with goodies. Malls and other public venues likewise provide places for kids to get candy and show off costumes safely. Instead of going door-to-door, the children just show up where the treats are.
The day after Halloween - All Saints Day - my family always headed to mass to celebrate the 10,000 or so saints and martyrs of the Catholic Church, with everyone else who has died honored the next day, All Souls Day. In Protestant churches, where we consider all who have accepted Christ to be saints, we honor all those who have gone before us. Latinx families celebrate today as Dia de los Muertos, Day of the Dead, with meals at their loved ones’ gravesides, sugar skulls, and parties. It is a wonderful celebration. Disney fans who didn’t know what it was learned when they watched the animated film Coco. But however we celebrate, this is a special day in the life of the church. It is appropriate that this passage from the Book of the Revelation to John be our focus today.
As John looks on, he sees a great multitude - so many people no one could count them all - from every nation and tribe, speaking every language - standing at the foot of the Throne, worshipping God and the Lamb of God. An elder asked him who these people were, but John turns the question back on the questioner, who tells him that these are the ones who have come out of the great ordeal, those who have washed their robes and had them made white in the blood of the Lamb.
It is hard to know with this book just when John was visiting heaven in his vision. If it was at the time he was living there not anywhere near that many believers in the whole world yet, never mind believers who have already died. People who lean toward the idea of universal salvation point to this reading as a confirmation of their belief.
On the other hand, given that we believe God is eternal, and heaven is eternal, it is quite possible his vision was of the far future, when this huge number of believers who have gone before seems much more reasonable to us. After all, it seems to us that being washed in the blood of the Lamb means believers, Christians. And given that his vision is of the End of Days and that hasn’t happened yet, it is reasonable to think this is a vision of the far future. Far from John’s time, at least.
Mind you, that has not kept a huge number of false prophets from arising on a pretty regular basis and convincing people that the end is near, next week, or month from now, or on January 1, 2000. Multitudes have believed them, and given away all their possessions, gone to the mountaintop with their prophet and waited to be raptured - or committed mass suicide. At best they are embarrassed, many are impoverished. People keep thinking they can see the signs . . .And I keep coming back to Matthew 24, when Jesus says very clearly that no one knows the day or the hour, not the angels nor the Son, but only the Father.
But these, this multitude at the foot of the throne, these are those who have already gone through the great ordeal. These have lived their lives and died. They have suffered pain and loss. They have celebrated and loved. How they died, or when they died, is less important than that they lived, ordinary human lives. And life, all by itself, is an ordeal. In the musical, Alexander Hamilton is eager to go into battle, to fight and die a martyr to the revolution. General Washington tells him, “Dying is easy, young man. Living is harder.”
As Christians we are told, and we believe, that we do not have to grieve as others do, who have no hope. Even so, living with the grief of losing a loved one is hard. And grief does not end. It may become easier to live with, but it is always a part of us. It is part of the great ordeal that is life. Oh, we get some encouragement when we hear,
They will hunger no more, and thirst no more;
the sun will not strike them,
nor any scorching heat;
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.”
Hearing these words helps us to know that our loved ones, our dearly departed, are well, and waiting for us. Also helpful are our rituals around death and dying. We gather at the bedside when the end is near. Family comes from near and far. We all come together for viewings and wakes and funerals and meals after funerals. Sharing the stories of their lives, sharing our grief and our laughter, getting to see cousins or even siblings we haven’t seen in years, and their children and grandchildren. All this is part of that ritual. It is part of how we grieve.
But there’s this pandemic. Everything has changed. We can’t visit our loved ones in the hospital. We can’t have funerals the way we are accustomed to. Even graveside services are limited to 10 people. Large family gatherings are discouraged. Flying is riskier than usual, so traveling to see our families in our time of grief is so much more difficult. And so we must grieve alone. Oh there’s FaceTime and Zoom and Google Meet . . . but there are no hugs. No gentle touch on our shoulder.
And there are so many more deaths this year. As of Friday there have been 228,100 in the US so far this year from Covid19. 1,200,000 Covid deaths worldwide. That’s a lot of families grieving. My friends and colleagues in places where Covid is surging are overwhelmed by the sheer magnitude of deaths, and their feelings of helplessness.
And so we come to All Saints Day, bearing our grief and our confusion. Typically, any other year, the Table would hold small candles, lots of candles. We would come forward and light one or more for the people we are grieving. We might speak their names, or light the candles in silence. We would come together to recognize and share our losses.
We cannot do that today. What we can do, and will do, is have the Quarantine Qrew light candles for us. As they do so, I would invite you to name your loved ones just as you would if we were together in person. If you can, you may light your own candles at home for your dearly departed. And be comforted, for they are before the throne of God, worshipping day and night, sheltered from all harm. And know that they will hunger and thirst no more, and God will wipe every tear from their eyes.
Amen.
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