(Sermon by Pastor Michael D. Schultz 04/22/07)

INTRODUCTION:

December 7, 1941... September 11, 2001... Now there’s April 16, 2007 – Virginia Tech – another horrible day.  Gas prices are again flirting with the $3 mark.  How many more police-involved shootings will there be?  The city’s finest put their lives on the line for us every day, but will the next shooting spark riots in Atlanta like the ones in L.A. fifteen years ago? 

There’s so much that is bad, but sadly it’s nothing new.  Christians in the first century were having their property confiscated, were being exiled from their homes, were being massacred for sport in horrific ways.  The crisis in our church may not involve the red color of blood, but being in the red financially seems to be sinking us into a real crisis of not knowing how we will train and send out pastors and teachers in this Lutheran church body.  And dare I ask the specific question about morale at Sola Fide?  Is it soaring, sagging, sunk? 

What is the remedy for all that is bad or distressing?  Is there one?  Whether I say it with a soft voice that would seem to betray doubt or scream it with a solid voice that’s brimming with confidence, God’s answer from God’s book is the same: Yes, indeed!  Look what Jesus let John see: countless thousands of angels in heaven, gathered around 24 elders and four angels of high station, singing praise to Jesus like you’ve never heard.  This is not one of those cases where we have to moan, “Yeah, that’s there and this is here.”  What you see there is for us here, specifically for us who can so despairingly feel that we’re mired in a messed up world where things are only going to get worse.  The distressing badness of what’s going on around us and how it affects us is exactly why Jesus gave John this vision.  There’s a highly-charged, purpose-filled reason that God lets the -

Hallelujahs Of Heaven Echo On Earth

God showcases the worship of heaven to calm the hearts of the saints and to form the songs of the church.

A standard answer to why God withholds from us a knowledge of the future is that he knows we couldn’t handle it, that the more we would know about it, the more we would worry about it and the farther we would stray from God because we would try to manage it ourselves.  A better answer is that the future is not ours to know.  Knowledge of the future is part of the majesty that belongs to God.

There’s nothing sinful about having a concern for the future or planning for the future, but the moment we worry about it, we cross a line that God says we’re not to cross.  In your experience, how quickly have you seen concern for the future change into alarm, anxiety, worry or dread?  How often hasn’t the frantic question, “Now what am I going to do?” preceded or even precluded the conviction, “God has this covered.”?  Examining that point is not merely interesting worship service speculation, because beneath excuses and explanations for anxiety, beneath passing it off on stress or trying circumstances lies a heart that’s guilty of smashing the first commandment.  Having no other gods means respecting, loving and trusting God above all things.

Asking it of ourselves (Why have I not trusted God?) becomes appalling and frightening when God asks it of us: “Why have you not trusted me?  Have I ever shown myself to be unfaithful, unloving, unreliable?  I never have, and yet you worry about marriage and income, the well-being of the church and what the future will bring.”  Silently in your own mind, finish God’s sentence: “For living as if I am unable and uninterested in caring for you, I have no choice but to…”

You know how that sentence has to finish.  Here’s how God finished it.  “… I have no choice but to slaughter my Son for you, so strong is my love for you.”  From the God-forsakenness of hell God’s Son cried out, “I always trusted you above all things.  Why have you forsaken me?”  From the halls of heaven where the Lamb who was slain now lives and reigns the answer rings out in your hearing this morning: “Someone had to pay!  My Son, I disowned you to reclaim them.  I condemned you for sins that were not yours so that their sins are no longer theirs.” So saints and angels sing in heaven, “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain…”

From the fifth chapter of Revelation, the hallelujahs of heaven echo on earth to calm the hearts of the saints.  Seeing Jesus who was slain for us now alive and being worshiped in heaven mutes the convicting voice of conscience, mutes the curse our sins called for, mutes the haunting howl of the grave, mutes the accusing voice from hell.  Before God himself you are spotless.  For whatever sin could possibly alarm you before God himself, two words: calm down.  For whatever guilt could possibly trouble you before God himself, two syllables: relax.  For incomprehensible peace with God himself, two words: Christ lives.

For that same calm to fill your soul in the midst of all that is bad in this messed up world, two more words: Christ reigns.  The agonizing battle of suffering our curse to win us for God he won: glory, honor and blessing are his.  He knows what’s going on: wisdom is his.  He controls what’s going on: power and strength are his.  The future is his.  Nothing disastrous or distressing happens that he doesn’t control to bring you through it to his throne.

So what do you say we worship the Lamb who was slain!  I wonder what the survey results would be if we polled the saints and angels circled around the throne.  On a scale of 1 to 10: a) Was the congregation warm and friendly?  b) Could you follow easily through the order of service and was the worship folder user-friendly? c) Do you feel you got something out of the service today?  My sarcasm isn’t meant to have any kind of a bite to it.  Don’t you think the saints and angels circled around the throne absolutely, literally lost themselves in the worship of the Lamb?

The hallelujahs of heaven echo on earth to model the worship of the church.  If there’s one thing out of a hundred that we can take from this snapshot of worship, it’s remembering who’s in the middle of the circle.  In these services of ours, God serves us.  Our faith is fed.  If we don’t get something out of Christ crucified for us and risen from the grave to save and help his people and bring them home, then God help us because there’s plenty to get.  But don’t forget, heaven’s worship is dialed in on Jesus.  In these worship services of ours, Jesus is the audience.  They can be about what we get out of them, but they have to be about glorifying him.

Great was the service?  I hope so, but worthy is the Lamb.  The pre-service music is for him.  The psalms, hymns and spiritual songs are for him.  The choir anthems sound beautiful to us and the lyrics edify us but they’re for him.  In the lessons we hear what he has done and in the creed we say what he has done, but it all proclaims him because it’s all about him, because our worship is for him.  The sermon is for him.  The offerings are for him.  In this place you are one individual worshiper, worshiping together with x number of other worshipers, because worthy is the Lamb.

The day will come when you will be incomprehensibly thrilled to be among the thousands gathered around the throne.  For now, remember what the four angels of high station kept saying about all they were hearing.  They kept saying, “Amen.  Yes, indeed!”  Say it with them.  Christ was slain.  Yes, indeed!  Now he lives.  Yes, indeed!  I am redeemed.  Yes, indeed!  He reigns supreme.  Yes, indeed!  He will see me through and bring me home.  Yes, indeed!  Even in these humble-by-comparison worship services of ours, lose yourself in the worship of the Lamb, only to find yourself filled with the peace and joy he gives.

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