A Sermon for the Fourth Sunday of Easter, Year C

 

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….

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…

 

Today's reading from Revelation is, like much of that strange book, full of astounding imagery:  people from the broad diversity of God’s creation -- from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and language-- angels, elders and strange heavenly creatures all gathered around the throne of God, where the worshiping multitude fall down on their faces, singing God’s praise.  Later, we’re told, the Lamb at the center of the throne – who is also a shepherd (!) –  will guide them to springs of the water of life.  

 

Its all wonderful stuff –  rich poetry, glorious vision, holy imagination and in it all, there is one constant.  The multitude are before the throne of God.  The angels and elders stand around the throne of God.  The Lamb is in the center of the throne.  Always, always, always God is the focus; The Lamb stands in the midst of the multitude; God and the Lamb are always the center.  In this visionary world, every creature in heaven is gathered around a single central point –  the throne of God.  

 

This physical lay-out speaks a vital spiritual truth that the author wanted his first hearers to understand and understand well:  that God is at the center of the universe and is to be at the center of their lives, also.  Much is disputed about the meaning and intent of the Book of Revelation, but this much at least is clear –  it was written to Christians undergoing persecution for their faith.  In that situation, it was critical for them to know that everything in the universe, including their very being, was centered on the God for whom they were risking their lives.  They needed to know that Jesus the Lamb and the God whom Jesus had revealed were indeed the center of all that is – even as they strove to live with God and Jesus as the center of their own lives.

 

We need to know the centrality of God and to live with God as the center of our lives no less than they -- and that is a challenge in our time, as it was in theirs.  Mostly, we don’t live in a world where we risk our lives for our faith  -- though we might if we lived as faithfully, say, as Martin Luther King, Jr. or Salvadoran Bishop Oscar Romero.  Mostly, we live in a world in which, despite much pious public rhetoric to the contrary, God is the not center of people’s lives – not, even, sometimes, the center of the lives of people of faith.  

 

For all of us have been shaped by the largely secular culture in which we live, a culture in which human beings, not God, are the measure of what matters;  where human understanding, human desires, human needs, human projects routinely take center stage.  God – if noticed at all – is not at the center, but is rather brought in as a kind of afterthought, a divine good guy called in to bless – or perhaps rescue – lives that are essentially human endeavors.  

 

My point in saying this is not to rail against secular culture -- it is what it is, and it is not all bad.  My point, rather, is to remind Christians – we here in church this morning -- that, like those who first heard the visions of the Book of Revelation, we are called to live with God as the center of our lives, whatever the world around us happens to be doing. But since we’ve lived most of our lives in a world where God is not the center of  life, it takes intentionality, choice and practice to live that way.

 

Today’s reading from Revelation points us to the first and most important place where we experience and practice the centrality of God, which is what we are doing right now – worship.  Remember that crowd gathered around the throne?  They gather there to worship God, falling prostrate before God and the Lamb, singing God’s praises:

 

Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom

and thanksgiving and honor

and power and might

be to our God forever and ever! Amen!

 

We do the same every week when we sing:

 

Glory to God in the highest…

or

Holy, holy, holy Lord,

God of power and might.

Heaven and earth are full of your glory –

Hosanna in the highest!

 

These words and many others like them make clear that worship is about God, first and foremost: God as the center of life, the church’s life, the life of the whole creation. 

 

Obvious as this is in the images of Revelation and in the language of our worship, we often lose sight of this truth in practice.  When we gather for worship, we sometimes are more concerned with connecting with one another than centering on God.  Perhaps, if you are all like me, you can get distracted by some projects or worries in the mental baggage you've brought into church with you.  Or, if you have some practical role in worship – as usher, reader, acolyte, choir member, organist, deacon or priest – it is easy to focus on what it is you need to do in the course of the service, and forget the God for whom you are doing it.

 

I had a wake-up call about this during my prayer time at the Altar of Repose over Maundy Thursday night to Good Friday.  I found myself thinking about the  Holy Week services we were in the midst of and my own investment in them all working well.  And as I got caught up in these musings and in all I wanted to be sure happened, this thought came to me --

“This isn’t about you, Jack.  It is not even about us as a congregation.  This is about Jesus.

Get over yourself. God is the center.”

 

 

 

That God is always to be the center of worship is reality of our eternal destiny. The Westminster Catechism [1] of the 17^th century (written by Anglicans, though it has ended up of more importance in other Christian traditions) puts it this way: “The chief end of [humanity] is to glorify and enjoy God forever.”  “The chief end of [humanity] is to glorify and enjoy God forever.”

 

God is the center, and worshiping God is the central activity for which human beings were made.  In fact, if we believe, in the words of the 23^rd Psalm, that we will dwell in the house of the Lord forever, we will likely spend a lot of eternity worshiping God.  It would be a good thing for us to start practicing that now.  And, as the Westminster Catechism says, we will find joy  in so doing, because we will be living the destiny we were made for. joy.

 

The centrality of God in worship tells us that God is also to be the center of the whole of the Church’s life – and this can be where the challenge really takes hold. After all, in worship it is pretty clear that God is supposed to be the center, even if we sometimes forget that in practice.  But in the rest of parish life, there is a lot of stuff that absorbs our attention and energy in which God's centrality isn't nearly so obvious.  It might be issues with parish buildings, finances, organization or planning.  It might be the fellowship, shared work and fun we have in what we do together.  It might be the support we give to and receive from each other when facing challenging times in our lives. These are all good and important parts of parish life, and God may well be present in them all.  But none of these is the center of the church’s life: God is.

 

So, the challenge for us is to live these aspects of parish life in ways that allow them to take their proper place around God, the divine Center.  So, for instance, if we’re engaged in a fund-raising or social event we need to seek God as the center of our gathering.  That doesn’t mean that what we need to be preachy or pious --  frankly Jesus didn’t seem very interested in the preachy, pious folk of his day.  But it might mean that we look to recognize and love God in each other, especially, maybe, in that  parishioner who makes us a little nuts.  It might mean making sure that the guest, the stranger, the person who seems like he or she doesn’t quite “belong” is welcomed into the center of our common life –  for God may very well be most present in that seeming outsider.

 

Or if the Vestry is considering a financial matter or a physical plant issue, we need to see it as more than a practical problem to be solved.  Rather, we need to be asking questions like:

“How does all that stuff we've got to take care of serve the purposes of the God who is our center?”  “How do we bear witness to and glorify God as we go about fixing the roof or balancing the budget?” The questions of how best to live with God as the center of St. Francis' life and ministry will, I trust, be part of what the Vestry explores when we go on retreat in two weeks.  The life and ministry of St. Francis' –as every Christian Church is, in the end, not about us.  It is about God, who is the center.

 

I could go on about living with God as the center of each of our daily lives:  the importance of prayer; of asking each day what God desires of us and for us; of seeking to make ourselves available for God's agenda and not merely our own.  I could do that and I will – in another sermon another day.  

Today I want to conclude with this.  It is possible that you have heard much of what I've said about living with God as the center of the church's life as a matter of duty: something we are “supposed” to do because the Bible says so – and, of course, it is.  But there is something more gracious about God's centrality in our lives that I want to leave you with.

 

The concluding image of our text from Revelation is this:

 

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.

 

Do you hear the shift in tone from the prostrate multitude gathered in  worship with which we began?  Now the Lamb comes downs from the center of the throne to guide God's people to the springs of the water of life and to wipe away their tears.  God is in the center, it turns out, not only as the awe-inspiring object of human worship, but as the one who gives intimate, loving care to all gathered around.

 

As the 23^rd Psalm which we prayed together earlier reminds us, the Good Shepherd is in the center of the flock in order to feed, comfort, heal and save us.  We experience that in worship every Sunday when, at the center, on the Altar, Jesus comes to feed us with his body and blood. Jesus has come to the center of human life because he love us.  If such healing, feeding,  saving divine love is at the center of our  all that is, how can we not seek to live our lives and the life of this parish with God as the center?

  

The Rev. Jack Zamboni

April 26^th, 2010