Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Sermon for Good Shepherd Sunday, the Fourth Sunday of Easter

Have you ever heard the phrase, a little taste of heaven? Usually this phrase refers to something that we consider to be perfectly made, whether it be a piece of chocolate cake, a perfectly done steak or a ride in the lap of luxury. These experiences make us feel so good that we think that this must be a glimpse of what heaven is like. But because no one here knows what heaven will be like completely, we have to say that our experiences are just a little taste of heaven.

In our reading from Revelation today that is exactly what St. John gives us, a little taste of heaven. We catch a glimpse of all the saints in heaven praising God with the angels right before the throne of God. It is in this heavenly scene that we see a restoration of the relationship that God intended to have with us. God and man enjoy a direct fellowship with no veil between them to cover the complete glory of God. Just as God walked with Adam in the Garden of Eden God will walk with us in heaven. Yet as vivid as this description of heaven is, it still gives us just a little taste of what heaven will be like. But even still, we are given enough for our faith to rejoice in what God has done for us and to cling to the promise of this heavenly reality guaranteed for us.

Within this book as a whole, John is taken up to this heavenly reality by God in order to bring some comfort to the churches of his time. The purpose of this comfort is to show Christians that while life may be difficult now, God is leading us to a far better reality in heaven with Himself.

St. John is writing this vision down to show that this is where God is leading us and where all this trouble is going to end. In the Gospel reading today, which also comes from the pen of St. John, Jesus is quoted as saying, “My sheep hear my voice and they follow me” (John 10:27). St. John is showing the Christians that they will participate in the heavenly scene that he has witnessed. He wants them to know that they are included in those people dressed in white and singing praises to God with the angels. It is a comfort that we can take home too. This is where God is leading all of us, gathered here today. We will also be gathered among that great throng, clothed in white and dwelling with our God in paradise.

St. John shows readers that reaching this heavenly reward does not depend upon them, but upon God, and His work alone. That is the greatest comfort that we could ever receive. And yet we have such a problem with it. We don't like thinking that we can do nothing to earn it, and I doubt that the people that John was writing to liked it very much either. Why? Because we all want to be worth something and what's more, we want to earn it. I want to get there on my own because that means that I am better, I did it all by myself. I earned it. It was the problem then, and it's the problem now. We want to earn it. Well, okay, but we're not going to earn those bright, white robes. Do you know what I am wearing underneath this white robe? Black. Do you want to know what's underneath Pastor's and Mark's white robes? Black. Why? Because that's what we've earned. Our sinful flesh has earned these black clothes, or as the prophet Zechariah describes it, we've earned nothing but horrible, filthy rags. In his own vision Zechariah describes Joshua, representing all Israel, standing before the angel of Lord in heaven wearing nothing but shameful rags (Zechariah 3:3). That is all we've earned. Unfortunately we don't fit heaven's dress code.

But Zechariah's vision does not end there. Joshua's rags are removed, and a new set of pure and clean robes are put on him. Not because of anything he's done, or that he has earned, but because of the work and promise of God (Zechariah 3:4-5).

And here in this text, just like Joshua, we too are given the white robes that St. John describes. The black clothes that your sin has earned you are washed clean in the blood of the Lamb, Jesus Christ and become white. The blood of Christ, spilt for you on the cross on that one Friday afternoon, cleanses you from all sin (1 John 1:7). The prophet Isaiah puts it this way: “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson they shall become like wool” (Isaiah 1:18). It why I wear this white robe, that even though I am black with sin, through the blood of Christ that sinfulness is washed away and I wear the white robe of righteousness. And this is also why we come to this very altar, to receive the very body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. Where you take and drink the blood of Christ, and you are washed white in the forgiveness of sins. It is at this altar that we receive a little taste of heaven as we are renewed in the washing of His blood.

Through this vision of the saints gathered together, who have received white robes through the washing of the blood of the Lamb, St. John gives his hearers yet another source of comfort that they can hold on to. And that is that even though we all suffer in this world, we will be absolutely free of all suffering in heaven with our God.

When Christ returns to earth on the Last Day or when we ourselves die and rise before that Day arrives God has promised that He will deliver us from all evil. In heaven, there will be no suffering or hunger, for we will be with God and He will be our shepherd and our protector. Jesus' warns His disciples in many places that they will experience trouble, that people will be persecuted for their faith and that there will be suffering in life. Yet even in that suffering, He invites us to look to Him and trust in Him as the one who owns the victory for us. It is not a victory that God has not won by hurting our enemies, but by allowing Himself to be hurt and die for us.

Unfortunately, this world, which has been corrupted by sin, is so full of suffering that we might begin to doubt the victory that God has won for us. St. John had written the book of Revelation to churches who were being persecuted and suffering, and many of the people might have been questioning why God would allow such suffering to come upon them. Some of them were even on the verge of rejecting their faith just so their life could be just a little bit easier. We too join in the wonder about this sometimes—why God would allow such bad things to happen. We might begin to suffer and doubt God's will for our lives and so we ask why a loving God would do this? If God loves me why am I in such a bad spot right now? Suffering touches all of us at one time or another in all kinds of different ways, whether it be illness, or pain, or stress, or depression we all feel it. At times the world seems so full of suffering that we might join with my favourite golden boy and say, “We seem to be made to suffer. It's our lot in life.” This world is not perfect, everything God created to be good and without suffering, has been corrupted ever since the sin of Adam that continues in our own flesh. When we suffer we are driven to hopelessness, to despair. We feel isolated and alone.

Perhaps you are one of those who are suffering right now, or you know of someone who is suffering; comfort them, and be comforted, with the promise of God that suffering will not last forever. John records His promise later in chapter 21: “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God Himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” We have been claimed by God through baptism and have been brought to faith through the work of the Holy Spirit and when we join that heavenly host we will experience this everlasting joy that is ours now through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ our Lord. Jesus Christ is our good shepherd (John 10:11). As we heard from the Gospel of John earlier, “I give them eternal life and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand” (John 10:28). “The Lord is my shepherd,” David writes, “I shall not want, He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters” (Psalm 23:1-2). Just as Christ is your shepherd now and leads you here to feed you with His Word and the news of your sins forgiven, He will personally lead you to “springs of living water.” This living water is described in the Psalms as the “fountain of life” (Psalm 36:9). As Jesus Himself said to the Samaritan woman at the well “whoever drinks of the water that I give him will never be thirsty again” (John 4:14). Just as Jesus gives us His body and blood so that we might be fed and nourished and strengthened to life everlasting, so also will Christ give us this feast in heaven so that we may celebrate with Him and all the saints the complete fulfilment of the hope given to us by God. Even though this world is full of suffering, we take comfort and we are joyful, in the hope and promise that we have in our shepherd Jesus Christ, that He will lead us to heaven where we will never feel the sufferings of sin and death.

At times this world to offers us small glimpses of heaven, the problem is that they are all too fleeting, and can never match up to the glory that is described in Scripture and are too soon replaced by hardship, stress and pain. But through the promise of Christ we will be a part of this heavenly scene, walking with God and singing praises to God with all the faithful. It is in the Sacrament of the Altar that we are given a true and real glimpse of heaven as we participate in a foretaste of this heavenly joy and are strengthened by God to endure our sufferings and be brought into our heavenly home. In our struggles during this life we can be comforted by the promise that through the death and resurrection of Christ we will be brought to this heavenly throne room. So receive this comfort that God will bring you to His heavenly throne room where all suffering will cease and the relationship that Adam and Eve enjoyed with the Lord in the Garden will once again be restored. Comfort others, too, with the hope that you have in Christ that when He returns your body will be restored and perfect. Clinging to this, our hope and our joy, we go out to bring this promise to all the world so that everyone might know and believe, so that all people might also cling to the hope that is found in Christ.

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