Worshipping with the Saints
Text: Revelation 7:9-17
There is a question that I have recently started asking people in congregation over the past few months. It has mostly been in informal one-on-one settings, but it is, I think, a critically important one as we seek to improve the health of our congregation.
When it comes to worship, what we do here on Sunday mornings, who is the audience?
Think about this… when it comes to worship, who is the audience?
Chances are most of you answered, “we are… the congregation is the audience.” What kind of stupid question is that? Of course, it would seem logical. After all, this space is set up in the same sort of format as we might expect a performance hall or a theatre, with a stage, a podium from which someone is to speak so that we can listen, a place for the choir to perform from, along with the attendant musical instruments. This tends to look like a concert hall with a few church-y additions to it.
But even so, when it comes to worship, who is the audience? I want you to think about it… because I’m going to come back to that question a bit later.
Today we celebrate All Saints Day. It falls on a Sunday where it remains apart from our important marking of Remembrance Day. Often seen as a day to honour those who have died in the faith, “All Saints” is much more than that… and with it, there are some very powerful readings including one from the seldom-read and often-misunderstood Book of Revelation. You know the one, that strange work in the back of the Bible which fire-and-brimstone preachers often monopolize, generating much more heat than light. Yet Revelation’s reminds us that the “Saints” are the faithful of every time, place and generation, living or dead… and we encounter them today in Revelation, gathered for worship.
As much as we tend to ignore it in mainline churches, more than 20% of the hymns in our own Book of Praise draw inspiration from the images from Revelation, rivalling all four Gospels and the Psalms in terms of its influence. Perhaps one of the most famous pieces of all time, Handel’s Hallelujah Chorus is based directly on the worship passages from the Book of Revelation.
Despite its images, the Book of Revelation teaches us something very powerful about worship. It provides this powerful scene of a great multitude in Worship… the saints, the faithful of every time and place:
This morning’s reading:
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. 10They cried out in a loud voice, saying, ‘Salvation belongs to our God who is seated on the throne, and to the Lamb!’
11And 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 worshipped God, 12singing,‘Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honour and power and might be to our God for ever and ever! Amen.’
This is one small part of a larger scene of worship that is a recurring theme that underpins the whole book. It starts in Chapters 4 and 5, picks up again with what we read in Chapter 7, and again in Chapters 19, 21 and 22. Notice what is happening here in this scene. It’s common to all This isn’t God standing in a pulpit teaching the multitude from a pulpit. There isn’t a choir at the middle, singing out to the people gathered, providing them with uplifting heavenly entertainment.
Nope… The gathered uncountable multitude of saints from all generations and cultures are gathered around the throne, offering their worship, their thanks, and their gratitude to God… symbolized by the throne… and the Lamb –Jesus Christ.
So in that scene of heavenly worship… who is the audience? Is it the gathered multitude? No… because this is an act of worship. The recipient of that worship is God. The audience in this heavenly worship is God.
So here, in this place, on Sunday mornings… in Worship… who is the audience?
God is. I’d imagine that some of you might have guessed that. Others are probably ready to argue tooth and nail that it is indeed the congregation. But think about this: what is it that we come here to do? Worship God. God is the subject and the destination of our worship. For those of you who are of "sufficient vintage" might remember the Shorter Catechism from your childhood:
Question #1: “What is the chief and of Man”
Answer: “The chief end of Man is to glorify God and enjoy him forever.”
Our chief purpose is to glorify God and enjoy all that God has to offer. Our worship in this community is exactly that. It’s an opportunity to worship with the multitude of saints in bringing praise and glory to God… and through that deepen our relationship with God.
Otherwise, if we take ourselves, the congregation as the audience, then we have become consumers of religion. What can I get out of this? What’s in it for me?
Even my speaking to you as a part of this sermon is still supposed to be to help us deepen our relationship with God, so that we can more instinctively and intuitively be a participant in worship. My task and the choir’s task is not to entertain you. Our task is to inspire you so that we can all worship God together. In the same way that Roger’s task is to direct the choir, my task us to direct you, the congregation in the worship of God. If I have not done such a good job of that in the past, I apologize.
We are here to worship God together. We are all members of the heavenly choir, lifting our hearts, our prayers, our entire being to God.
As some of you may or may not know, music is very much a part of my own life. My first year of university was spent in the music department at the University of Calgary. I still bring out my trumpet every once in a while, although these days God is my only audience when I do. I continue now to sing with the choir, of course…
But the one thing that I learned is that the greatest sense of achievement was not the applause of the audiences I played for. The greatest satisfaction, the most uplifting part of music performance was that split second moment after the final note that I had nailed it, if I was playing a solo, or that we had nailed it as a band. No amount of applause came close. In giving it all I had, in knowing I did the best that I could, and that by grace I even did better than I expected, that was what really mattered. What I personally got out of such experiences, was directly tied to my direct participation in the performance… not the applause and adulation.
There is also a caution found a little later on in the book, from Chapter 19 (Verse 10)
Chapter 19:10
Then I fell down at his feet to worship him, but he said to me, “You must not do that! I am a fellow servant with you and your comrades who hold the testimony of Jesus. Worship God! For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.”
In other words… we come worship God… don’t worship the choir… don’t worship the minister. Worship God. That’s what we’re here to do. We come here from all walks of life to seek to deepen our relationship with God. Many of us come very weary, bearing heavy burdens… seeking God’s guidance, and something we can take home with us. Yes, that’s entirely true… but in the act of lifting our hearts to God, no matter what state they might be in, we may well find the answer we seek when we join with the saints in worship. When we gather in this place, it is to bring our praise to God, to deepen our relationship with God by offering our hearts to God…
But for some of us it’s hard to think of it that way. We may be experiencing tough times in our lives, and we come wanting to be nurtured ourselves… to be given something that we can take home with us. Some of us come having lost someone very dear to us, and we miss them terribly. We are looking for comfort in our sorrow, and we don’t really want to raise our voice in worship because we’re just not there. But our worship of God this is not some sort of happy-clappy empty-headed praise that ignores the very real pain and suffering we may experience in life. The worship that we offer is deeply profound, to the one who created us, experienced what it is to be human, AND continues to be with us in our own lives.
When we participate in worship, our role is not a passive receiving of some rules for living or points of sentimentality to make us feel better about ourselves. It’s where we come into the presence of the living God, in the company of the saints around the throne. With God as the audience to our worship, God is there to hear everything that we have to offer, including the burdens, trials, and sorrows that we bear. In some sense, when we raise our voices together in worship, we become part of that celestial gathering of the saints around the throne. In that way, we are also singing alongside those who have died… and the empty pew beside us for a brief moment is no longer empty, for we are joining with them in this act of heavenly worship. The burdens that we carry, become lighter, because we find ourselves sharing that load with others. It is a reminder that in our worship, God is here with us to share in all our joys, in all our sorrow, in all our yesterdays, all our tomorrows… and most of all with us here today in this very moment. “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last.” –It is never more real when we gather in worship with the saints.
So if there’s anything I can offer to you take home with you. It’s “go home and practice.”
Amen.
There is a question that I have recently started asking people in congregation over the past few months. It has mostly been in informal one-on-one settings, but it is, I think, a critically important one as we seek to improve the health of our congregation.
When it comes to worship, what we do here on Sunday mornings, who is the audience?
Think about this… when it comes to worship, who is the audience?
Chances are most of you answered, “we are… the congregation is the audience.” What kind of stupid question is that? Of course, it would seem logical. After all, this space is set up in the same sort of format as we might expect a performance hall or a theatre, with a stage, a podium from which someone is to speak so that we can listen, a place for the choir to perform from, along with the attendant musical instruments. This tends to look like a concert hall with a few church-y additions to it.
But even so, when it comes to worship, who is the audience? I want you to think about it… because I’m going to come back to that question a bit later.
Today we celebrate All Saints Day. It falls on a Sunday where it remains apart from our important marking of Remembrance Day. Often seen as a day to honour those who have died in the faith, “All Saints” is much more than that… and with it, there are some very powerful readings including one from the seldom-read and often-misunderstood Book of Revelation. You know the one, that strange work in the back of the Bible which fire-and-brimstone preachers often monopolize, generating much more heat than light. Yet Revelation’s reminds us that the “Saints” are the faithful of every time, place and generation, living or dead… and we encounter them today in Revelation, gathered for worship.
As much as we tend to ignore it in mainline churches, more than 20% of the hymns in our own Book of Praise draw inspiration from the images from Revelation, rivalling all four Gospels and the Psalms in terms of its influence. Perhaps one of the most famous pieces of all time, Handel’s Hallelujah Chorus is based directly on the worship passages from the Book of Revelation.
Despite its images, the Book of Revelation teaches us something very powerful about worship. It provides this powerful scene of a great multitude in Worship… the saints, the faithful of every time and place:
This morning’s reading:
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. 10They cried out in a loud voice, saying, ‘Salvation belongs to our God who is seated on the throne, and to the Lamb!’
11And 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 worshipped God, 12singing,‘Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honour and power and might be to our God for ever and ever! Amen.’
This is one small part of a larger scene of worship that is a recurring theme that underpins the whole book. It starts in Chapters 4 and 5, picks up again with what we read in Chapter 7, and again in Chapters 19, 21 and 22. Notice what is happening here in this scene. It’s common to all This isn’t God standing in a pulpit teaching the multitude from a pulpit. There isn’t a choir at the middle, singing out to the people gathered, providing them with uplifting heavenly entertainment.
Nope… The gathered uncountable multitude of saints from all generations and cultures are gathered around the throne, offering their worship, their thanks, and their gratitude to God… symbolized by the throne… and the Lamb –Jesus Christ.
So in that scene of heavenly worship… who is the audience? Is it the gathered multitude? No… because this is an act of worship. The recipient of that worship is God. The audience in this heavenly worship is God.
So here, in this place, on Sunday mornings… in Worship… who is the audience?
God is. I’d imagine that some of you might have guessed that. Others are probably ready to argue tooth and nail that it is indeed the congregation. But think about this: what is it that we come here to do? Worship God. God is the subject and the destination of our worship. For those of you who are of "sufficient vintage" might remember the Shorter Catechism from your childhood:
Question #1: “What is the chief and of Man”
Answer: “The chief end of Man is to glorify God and enjoy him forever.”
Our chief purpose is to glorify God and enjoy all that God has to offer. Our worship in this community is exactly that. It’s an opportunity to worship with the multitude of saints in bringing praise and glory to God… and through that deepen our relationship with God.
Otherwise, if we take ourselves, the congregation as the audience, then we have become consumers of religion. What can I get out of this? What’s in it for me?
Even my speaking to you as a part of this sermon is still supposed to be to help us deepen our relationship with God, so that we can more instinctively and intuitively be a participant in worship. My task and the choir’s task is not to entertain you. Our task is to inspire you so that we can all worship God together. In the same way that Roger’s task is to direct the choir, my task us to direct you, the congregation in the worship of God. If I have not done such a good job of that in the past, I apologize.
We are here to worship God together. We are all members of the heavenly choir, lifting our hearts, our prayers, our entire being to God.
As some of you may or may not know, music is very much a part of my own life. My first year of university was spent in the music department at the University of Calgary. I still bring out my trumpet every once in a while, although these days God is my only audience when I do. I continue now to sing with the choir, of course…
But the one thing that I learned is that the greatest sense of achievement was not the applause of the audiences I played for. The greatest satisfaction, the most uplifting part of music performance was that split second moment after the final note that I had nailed it, if I was playing a solo, or that we had nailed it as a band. No amount of applause came close. In giving it all I had, in knowing I did the best that I could, and that by grace I even did better than I expected, that was what really mattered. What I personally got out of such experiences, was directly tied to my direct participation in the performance… not the applause and adulation.
There is also a caution found a little later on in the book, from Chapter 19 (Verse 10)
Chapter 19:10
Then I fell down at his feet to worship him, but he said to me, “You must not do that! I am a fellow servant with you and your comrades who hold the testimony of Jesus. Worship God! For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.”
In other words… we come worship God… don’t worship the choir… don’t worship the minister. Worship God. That’s what we’re here to do. We come here from all walks of life to seek to deepen our relationship with God. Many of us come very weary, bearing heavy burdens… seeking God’s guidance, and something we can take home with us. Yes, that’s entirely true… but in the act of lifting our hearts to God, no matter what state they might be in, we may well find the answer we seek when we join with the saints in worship. When we gather in this place, it is to bring our praise to God, to deepen our relationship with God by offering our hearts to God…
But for some of us it’s hard to think of it that way. We may be experiencing tough times in our lives, and we come wanting to be nurtured ourselves… to be given something that we can take home with us. Some of us come having lost someone very dear to us, and we miss them terribly. We are looking for comfort in our sorrow, and we don’t really want to raise our voice in worship because we’re just not there. But our worship of God this is not some sort of happy-clappy empty-headed praise that ignores the very real pain and suffering we may experience in life. The worship that we offer is deeply profound, to the one who created us, experienced what it is to be human, AND continues to be with us in our own lives.
When we participate in worship, our role is not a passive receiving of some rules for living or points of sentimentality to make us feel better about ourselves. It’s where we come into the presence of the living God, in the company of the saints around the throne. With God as the audience to our worship, God is there to hear everything that we have to offer, including the burdens, trials, and sorrows that we bear. In some sense, when we raise our voices together in worship, we become part of that celestial gathering of the saints around the throne. In that way, we are also singing alongside those who have died… and the empty pew beside us for a brief moment is no longer empty, for we are joining with them in this act of heavenly worship. The burdens that we carry, become lighter, because we find ourselves sharing that load with others. It is a reminder that in our worship, God is here with us to share in all our joys, in all our sorrow, in all our yesterdays, all our tomorrows… and most of all with us here today in this very moment. “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last.” –It is never more real when we gather in worship with the saints.
So if there’s anything I can offer to you take home with you. It’s “go home and practice.”
Amen.
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