Living Creatures
Sermon
Paradise Restored
Sermons From Revelation For Lent And Easter
Dakota tribal wisdom says that when you discover you are riding a dead horse, the best strategy is to dismount.
But in Texas we have other strategies for dead horses, including:
*Buying a stronger whip.
*Changing riders.
*Saying things like "This is the way we always have ridden this horse."
*
Appointing a committee to study the horse.
*
Arranging to visit other sites to see how they ride dead horses.
*
Increasing the standards to ride dead horses.
*
Appointing a tiger team to revive the dead horse.
*
Creating a training session to increase our riding ability.
*
Comparing the state of dead horses in today's environment.
*
Enacting a policy declaring that "This horse is not dead."
*
Blaming the horse's parents.
*
Harnessing several dead horses together for increased speed.
*
Declaring that "No horse is too dead to beat."
*
Providing additional funding to increase the horse's performance.
*
Do a study to see if contractors can ride it cheaper.
*
Procure a COTS (Commercial Off The Shelf) dead horse.
*
Declare the horse is "better, faster, and cheaper" dead.
*
Form a quality circle to find uses for dead horses.
*
Revisit the performance requirements for horses.
*
Say "This horse was procured with cost as an independent variable."
*
Close the horse farm where it was born.
*
Promote the dead horse to a supervisory position.
*
Commission a study to identify ways to improve the product through incremental enhancements, such as adding wheels.
I'm not talking about an old horse, which can still be useful, or deserves its rest. Part of the problem is that the dead horse did have a useful life, which we should give thanks for and rejoice over. But when its useful life is over, let it go. It is no longer a living creature, with the opportunity to learn and grow and the capacity to exult in its life and enjoy its work.
John the elder, in Revelation, pictures "four living creatures" before the throne. They puzzled me. John calls them, not just creatures, but living creatures, and then mentions created things, to contrast the things in creation that are living and the things that are inanimate objects.
Living creatures. The world is full of living creatures. The circle of life. Animals are one kind of living creatures. Human beings are another kind. What John is saying in his vision from Patmos is that every part of creation, living or not, praises God in heaven, or it isn't in heaven. And that's 24 hours a day.
John is saying that in heaven the worship of Christ is central, comes from every living creature, and is sevenfold praise.
The Romans have put John on their prison island, Patmos. The Spirit calls John to write to the seven churches in Asia Minor which lie on a circular road, like the round trip an evangelist or missionary would make to end up near his home. He couches his message in symbolic language, cradled in his vision of the risen Lord who transcends anything in human experience.
The main point of his letter is in the three titles for Jesus he gives in verse 5 of chapter 1: The vision of Patmos is of Jesus the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of rulers on the earth.
Scholars speculate that today's reading in chapter 5 reflects the liturgy of John's vision of heaven, which in turn influences the worship of the church of John's day. After God the Father appears and is praised, God the Son appears, and this paragraph is the praise he receives.
This story came from England: The Duchess called in one of the household employees. He stood stiffly at attention as she said in a stern voice, "Osborne, how long have you been with us? According to my records, you were employed to look after the dog."
Osborne said, "Yes, madam."
The Duchess went on, "Mrs. Bellamy tells me the dog died 27 years ago."
Osborne said, "Yes, madam. What would you like me to do now?"
Life has some purpose. We need to be asking continually, "What would you like me to do now?" Now what is more important than shaping ourselves for heaven?
There was a milk commercial that showed a guy newly arrived in what appears to be heaven. He has a chocolate chip cookie the size of Cookie Monster's head. He takes a bite, then notices a refrigerator. Hmmm, he says. He opens frig. It is (apparently) full of half-gallon cartons of milk. Yea! Then he opens one -- it is empty. He quickly opens another ... empty again. And another and another and another ... Then he says, "Is this heaven, or is it...?"
We really can't know what either heaven or hell actually is; even the Bible can't tell us because they are vast unknowns. The human mind can't grasp either one. The most we can have is what we have here in Revelation: an approximation in word-pictures that give us some idea of heaven or hell.
And John's vision is that in heaven the worship of Christ is central and comes from every living creature.
Revelation can be broken down into a play with seven acts, each act having seven scenes. Act 1 deals with the church in this world, in John's time. In Act 2 we turn to the church in heaven. And there are some bizarre pictures here, but they are not all of John's making. The four living creatures described earlier in chapter 5 come from a vision of Ezekiel, and they have elements of the vision of angels in Isaiah's vision of the temple in heaven. So John carries us back to the Old Testament for some of his imagery.
What he's really saying is that God is the God of the living, in this world and the next. And what we do here, while living in this world, shapes us for the next.
Maybe the milk commercial can remind us that what we seek here on earth may wind up being an empty carton, if we don't fill our cartons with the nourishing, strengthening, filling praise of the living God.
One senior citizen said to the other, "I'm getting so old that my friends up in heaven must think I didn't make it." Don't think of it that way. Instead, consider it time to be used, to better shape yourself for the life to come, or to help shape this world into a better place to live.
C. S. Lewis, the English writer who devoted his life to Christian writing after converting from atheism, spoke of this in his book, Mere Christianity. He said that as we live and make our decisions we are being turned as a piece of wood is being turned on a lathe. But our turnings are not all one direction. We gather and lose speed. We change directions. Such is the human heart. In the end we wind up with the piece of work we take to all eternity, shaped by the turnings of life.
Frank Outlaw says it this way: "Watch your thoughts, they become words; watch your words, they become actions; watch your actions, they become habits; watch your habits, they become character; watch your character, for it becomes your destiny."
Our idea of the afterlife or heaven or hell will shape the way we shape ourselves for it. You may not be too thrilled with the picture John presents: just praise God in Christ for all eternity. But that's what he says. Could it be a picture that makes sense? It does if your life in this world tries to make every minute a practice for it: looking to Christ as central to life and his praise as its most important activity.
John is saying that in heaven the worship of Christ is central, comes from every living creature, and is sevenfold praise.
Look at the reading from Revelation in your bulletin. Find the praise given to the Lamb in verse 12, and count the praises he is given: "all power and wealth, wisdom and might, honor and glory and blessing!" Seven praises. Revelation uses the number 7 carefully and advisedly. It stands for completeness, wholeness. The Lamb was the animal given in sacrifice for sin, and John is here demonstrating that the sacrifice of Jesus was the whole and complete sacrifice. In him we have salvation. Nothing we do can add to that. It's whole and complete.
But what we can do to complete the sacrifice of Jesus is shape ourselves for a life of praise of God, here in this life and in the life to come. Today, and everyday, do seven things that praise God in Christ. Make your praise complete. That is shaping a life here that will be lived in heaven.
When what we do praises God, we don't have to worry about riding a dead horse. For we have the living Lamb who was slain, but now lives. If we are truly living creatures, we live to praise God in Christ, and will do so to all eternity. Praise God.
Lord, let us always give you all power and wealth, wisdom and might, honor and glory and blessing, saying no to everything that makes it more difficult to say yes to you.
But in Texas we have other strategies for dead horses, including:
*Buying a stronger whip.
*Changing riders.
*Saying things like "This is the way we always have ridden this horse."
*
Appointing a committee to study the horse.
*
Arranging to visit other sites to see how they ride dead horses.
*
Increasing the standards to ride dead horses.
*
Appointing a tiger team to revive the dead horse.
*
Creating a training session to increase our riding ability.
*
Comparing the state of dead horses in today's environment.
*
Enacting a policy declaring that "This horse is not dead."
*
Blaming the horse's parents.
*
Harnessing several dead horses together for increased speed.
*
Declaring that "No horse is too dead to beat."
*
Providing additional funding to increase the horse's performance.
*
Do a study to see if contractors can ride it cheaper.
*
Procure a COTS (Commercial Off The Shelf) dead horse.
*
Declare the horse is "better, faster, and cheaper" dead.
*
Form a quality circle to find uses for dead horses.
*
Revisit the performance requirements for horses.
*
Say "This horse was procured with cost as an independent variable."
*
Close the horse farm where it was born.
*
Promote the dead horse to a supervisory position.
*
Commission a study to identify ways to improve the product through incremental enhancements, such as adding wheels.
I'm not talking about an old horse, which can still be useful, or deserves its rest. Part of the problem is that the dead horse did have a useful life, which we should give thanks for and rejoice over. But when its useful life is over, let it go. It is no longer a living creature, with the opportunity to learn and grow and the capacity to exult in its life and enjoy its work.
John the elder, in Revelation, pictures "four living creatures" before the throne. They puzzled me. John calls them, not just creatures, but living creatures, and then mentions created things, to contrast the things in creation that are living and the things that are inanimate objects.
Living creatures. The world is full of living creatures. The circle of life. Animals are one kind of living creatures. Human beings are another kind. What John is saying in his vision from Patmos is that every part of creation, living or not, praises God in heaven, or it isn't in heaven. And that's 24 hours a day.
John is saying that in heaven the worship of Christ is central, comes from every living creature, and is sevenfold praise.
The Romans have put John on their prison island, Patmos. The Spirit calls John to write to the seven churches in Asia Minor which lie on a circular road, like the round trip an evangelist or missionary would make to end up near his home. He couches his message in symbolic language, cradled in his vision of the risen Lord who transcends anything in human experience.
The main point of his letter is in the three titles for Jesus he gives in verse 5 of chapter 1: The vision of Patmos is of Jesus the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of rulers on the earth.
Scholars speculate that today's reading in chapter 5 reflects the liturgy of John's vision of heaven, which in turn influences the worship of the church of John's day. After God the Father appears and is praised, God the Son appears, and this paragraph is the praise he receives.
This story came from England: The Duchess called in one of the household employees. He stood stiffly at attention as she said in a stern voice, "Osborne, how long have you been with us? According to my records, you were employed to look after the dog."
Osborne said, "Yes, madam."
The Duchess went on, "Mrs. Bellamy tells me the dog died 27 years ago."
Osborne said, "Yes, madam. What would you like me to do now?"
Life has some purpose. We need to be asking continually, "What would you like me to do now?" Now what is more important than shaping ourselves for heaven?
There was a milk commercial that showed a guy newly arrived in what appears to be heaven. He has a chocolate chip cookie the size of Cookie Monster's head. He takes a bite, then notices a refrigerator. Hmmm, he says. He opens frig. It is (apparently) full of half-gallon cartons of milk. Yea! Then he opens one -- it is empty. He quickly opens another ... empty again. And another and another and another ... Then he says, "Is this heaven, or is it...?"
We really can't know what either heaven or hell actually is; even the Bible can't tell us because they are vast unknowns. The human mind can't grasp either one. The most we can have is what we have here in Revelation: an approximation in word-pictures that give us some idea of heaven or hell.
And John's vision is that in heaven the worship of Christ is central and comes from every living creature.
Revelation can be broken down into a play with seven acts, each act having seven scenes. Act 1 deals with the church in this world, in John's time. In Act 2 we turn to the church in heaven. And there are some bizarre pictures here, but they are not all of John's making. The four living creatures described earlier in chapter 5 come from a vision of Ezekiel, and they have elements of the vision of angels in Isaiah's vision of the temple in heaven. So John carries us back to the Old Testament for some of his imagery.
What he's really saying is that God is the God of the living, in this world and the next. And what we do here, while living in this world, shapes us for the next.
Maybe the milk commercial can remind us that what we seek here on earth may wind up being an empty carton, if we don't fill our cartons with the nourishing, strengthening, filling praise of the living God.
One senior citizen said to the other, "I'm getting so old that my friends up in heaven must think I didn't make it." Don't think of it that way. Instead, consider it time to be used, to better shape yourself for the life to come, or to help shape this world into a better place to live.
C. S. Lewis, the English writer who devoted his life to Christian writing after converting from atheism, spoke of this in his book, Mere Christianity. He said that as we live and make our decisions we are being turned as a piece of wood is being turned on a lathe. But our turnings are not all one direction. We gather and lose speed. We change directions. Such is the human heart. In the end we wind up with the piece of work we take to all eternity, shaped by the turnings of life.
Frank Outlaw says it this way: "Watch your thoughts, they become words; watch your words, they become actions; watch your actions, they become habits; watch your habits, they become character; watch your character, for it becomes your destiny."
Our idea of the afterlife or heaven or hell will shape the way we shape ourselves for it. You may not be too thrilled with the picture John presents: just praise God in Christ for all eternity. But that's what he says. Could it be a picture that makes sense? It does if your life in this world tries to make every minute a practice for it: looking to Christ as central to life and his praise as its most important activity.
John is saying that in heaven the worship of Christ is central, comes from every living creature, and is sevenfold praise.
Look at the reading from Revelation in your bulletin. Find the praise given to the Lamb in verse 12, and count the praises he is given: "all power and wealth, wisdom and might, honor and glory and blessing!" Seven praises. Revelation uses the number 7 carefully and advisedly. It stands for completeness, wholeness. The Lamb was the animal given in sacrifice for sin, and John is here demonstrating that the sacrifice of Jesus was the whole and complete sacrifice. In him we have salvation. Nothing we do can add to that. It's whole and complete.
But what we can do to complete the sacrifice of Jesus is shape ourselves for a life of praise of God, here in this life and in the life to come. Today, and everyday, do seven things that praise God in Christ. Make your praise complete. That is shaping a life here that will be lived in heaven.
When what we do praises God, we don't have to worry about riding a dead horse. For we have the living Lamb who was slain, but now lives. If we are truly living creatures, we live to praise God in Christ, and will do so to all eternity. Praise God.
Lord, let us always give you all power and wealth, wisdom and might, honor and glory and blessing, saying no to everything that makes it more difficult to say yes to you.
