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Easter 3 - April 25, 2004

Revelation 5:11-14

Acts 9:1-6

While the Lectionary suggests Romans chapter 5, verses 11-14 the whole chapter needs to be studied.

We’re a very literate people. We consider everyone ought to be able to read.

We also a very literal people. If something is written we take it for truth. If something is reported in the newspaper it must be true. Yet almost every day there is some correction made of a mistake that was made in reporting. We read novels and know the story didn’t actually happen but it is regarded as a good novel if it is true to life. Some of course are make-believe and we know it. Science fiction, "The Lord of the Rings" and so on. And when we read poetry we don’t expect it to be true, in the sense that it is really like that. Take love songs, "My love is like a red, red rose" and so on. We know it’s trying to describe something that can’t really be put into words. There are some things we can’t in any full sense express in words.

One book we find very difficult to read and almost treat it as though it is not in the Bible is the Book of Revelation. It’s so full of imagery it’s very hard to grasp what it is trying to say.

In this chapter we have symbols of the lion, the lamb and the scroll.

In Christian imagery the lion can convey a whole range of meanings, from fierce evil forces to the highest royal majesty and power. When the lion is linked with the person of Jesus Christ the lion points to the power of the resurrection.

There was an early Christian collection of bits and pieces of information and legends about animals, plants and stones. It had a great influence on mediaeval art e.g. "If a lioness gives birth to her offspring and it is born dead she watches over it for three days until the lion comes on the third day. He breathes life into the lifeless cub and restores life to it." So the Book of Revelation says that’s like what happened to Jesus on the third day – brought to life from the tomb – symbolised by the lion.

What about the image of the lamb? It comes from three First Testament references: We know about (1) the Passover lamb, killed before the Hebrew slaves were released from Egypt in the Exodus. The blood of the sacrificed lamb was smeared on the doors to protect that family from the destruction that came to Egyptian families as the first born sons were killed. The Book of Revelation is like the story of a cosmic Exodus. And (2) later there is the reference to the Suffering Servant of God who was led to slaughter, and (3) finally the Messiah, the Promised One of God, is described as the servant shepherd.

So the first part of John’s vision is of the lion of Judah giving life on the third day but then the image changes to a lamb standing upright that seemed to have been sacrificed, giving its life-blood seen flowing into a communion cup. A 12th century engraving on a cross shows Christ, the lamb, because he was ready to give his life blood, is worthy to receive and open the scroll. ( See the illustrations from Hans Rudi-Weber’s book "The Way of the Lamb" details in Easter 2 notes).

Very seldom are Christ the lion and Christ the lamb shown together in Christian art. There is a rare example in an illustration in a Middle Ages Bible. But in the story in the Book of Revelation the lion becomes the lamb. That’s the whole story of Easter but in reverse. The lion of Judah won the victory as the slaughtered lamb. See the changeover. But Resurrection, the lion, precedes the Crucifixion, the sacrificed lamb. Why? I don’t know. But the message hangs together. The Cross has meaning only in the new life that follows. New life in Christ only has meaning after the sacrifice on the Cross for us and our salvation.

Why bother with what is difficult to understand? Because to look at the imagery, the art, in the Book of Revelation opens up our understanding of other parts of the Bible we read more often and we learn to look behind the words and find the deeper meaning, in parables and other stories, for example. It helps us very literal people understand more deeply behind the words. (However, there are other images and symbols which we do not yet understand or cannot unravel. Never mind.)

The whole of chapter 5 is set in heaven in the context of worship.

But there is yet more imagery. There are four living creatures. These originally symbolised the whole of God’s creation. Later they represented the four Gospels.

The song of worship to God and to the slaughtered lamb could now be read – verses 11-14.

Playing "Worthy is the Lamb" from Handel’s ‘Messiah. would be a fitting way to end this meditation.

Consideration of this picture of worship makes us think about worship in this country, at this time. Joy Cowley in "Psalms Down Under" has one entitled "Worship".

It begins:

We step out of our every day selves
and into this cathedral
of sky and earth and sea
where all the parables of life This may inspire you to carry on the images in relation to the scenes round where you are placed and share them with your congregation. Consider what rouses a sense of wonder or stops us in our tracks.

Let your thoughts roam into other scenes of life or art or architecture or music or ???

which inspire this sense of worship, not in heaven, not necessarily in a church building.

If you choose not to preach from Revelation, Acts 9: 1-6 or 1-20 is the conversion of Saul (Paul). In other accounts of this experience given by Paul himself, he regards his experience as a Resurrection appearance and thus he is qualified to be regarded as an apostle. The rest of the book of Acts demonstrates how he took up his commission and was heavily involved in the mission of the Gospel going west through the Roman Empire in time crossing into Europe. All this story is written down and has been available to us through the Bible.

But there is another story of the Gospel going east, through traders and soldiers and other travellers. This story is not in our Bibles and so is much less well known. The evidence comes through archaeological finds and in ancient libraries. It has been researched for us by a NZ Presbyterian minister, Dr John England, and published in
"The Hidden History of Christianity in Asia" – the Churches of the East before 1500.
( ISPCK, Delhi & CCA, Hong Kong 1996)

PRAYER

Forgive us, O God, that we neglect other ways of learning what is true or that we despise truth coming to us through art or images of speech or poetry. Forgive us that we think the whole story comes through what is in the Bible and neglect the stories of faithful witnesses in other parts of the world, different cultures or different expressions of their understanding of the Christian story or different ways of worship.

Open our eyes more widely. Make us less judgmental of what is different from our former understanding or our limited experience.