Sermon Response to Scripture proclaimed for Year C, Easter 3: Revelation 5:11 At Zion Episcopal Church By The Reverend Sarah E. Saxe on April 10, 2016 The voice of many angels and living creatures and elders numbered myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands. Auntie had a name but I didn t know what it was until I was older. When I was a child, she was just Auntie. And she had been Auntie to my mother when she was a child. According to my mother, due to the medical needs of my two older sisters and the recent death of my grandfather, she felt a bit overwhelmed when I came along. And Auntie, who had never married and lived next door with my grandmother, took me in as her charge. Auntie died when I was 11. I thought my world had come to an end. Recognizing my deep grief, my mother consoled me by saying that even though Auntie had died here on earth, she was alive in Heaven. She was with Jesus and she was happy and whole again. I believed my mother and took great comfort in the fact that I would someday be reunited with Auntie. Then I started imagining what it would be like when I got to Heaven. There would be thousands of thousands of people there, let alone dogs and cats and so on. Thousands of thousands and myriads of myriads too many to count. Would I find her in the crowd? Could Heaven become overpopulated? Would there be room for me by the time I died? My mother had said Auntie would be whole again, so would I recognize her? Would she be young or still 88 years old?
When my brother died 10 years later, I comforted my mother with her own words but as I did, I again wondered, how will I find him in the crowd? How would he be whole again yet still blackened by the fire that killed him? So would I recognize him? Would he recognize me? Over the years, each time a loved one died, I would remember my mother s words (even when she herself died) and each time I would struggle with that fear of not being able to find them or recognize them or they me. A number of you have suffered the death of a close family member this past year. Another number of you have suffered such a death in recent years. In fact, is there anyone here who has not endured the loss of a loved one whether human or not, at some point in your lifetime? So when I meditated on today s reading from the Book of Revelation, I wondered whether you think about Heaven too? Whether you have questions and fears about it too? Now granted, the Book of Revelation describes what it will be like when Jesus comes again. Even if we are still living, we will actually see the multitudes that we may have imagined. We will all be together in a new Creation. But that still didn t answer my question about how we will be reunited. So my point about Revelation is this: the writer is trying to describe a vision. That vision was so clear that he couldn t shake it he couldn t forget it. That vision so strengthened his faith that he never doubted again.
The apostle John has traditionally been credited with recording this book but almost all scholars now agree that it could not have been John but rather one of John s followers someone within John s community who wrote it. But John could very well have been the one to experience the vision and pass it on to his followers, so that it was as clear and true for them as it had been for him; and I think the hope is that it would be just as clear and true for us today. And considering that John was the only apostle with no record of his death; and that he passed on his teachings to the early church fathers for whom we do have a record like Irenaeus and Bishop Polycarp, the vision in the Book of Revelation carries great weight and is accepted by the Church as truth. Therefore I accepted it as truth even though all my questions aren t answered in it and doubt would occasionally creep in. God gave John a great gift of an apocalyptic vision, similar to the gift that God gave to the prophet Daniel which John frequently quotes. And I believe with all my heart, and all my soul and all my strength that God continues to give such gifts of dreams and visions today. And how can I believe that now? Because of a personal experience I had. My sister Jayne committed suicide 4 years ago, by placing a gun in her mouth and pulling the trigger. In the midst of my grief, I again took comfort from my mother s words, yet again I experienced the same old fear of not being able to find Jayne in the crowd and not being able to recognize her. But about a week after Jayne s death, I had a dream, and in that dream Jayne was running in a sun-soaked meadow and frolicking with my dead dog Fluffy. She was laughing and playing and twirling! Now in her living days, Jayne had cerebral palsy and couldn t run or twirl. She had an autoimmune deficiency and couldn t be outside without protective clothing and filtered oxygen. She suffered from depression and obsessive compulsive
disorder so she rarely smiled, let alone laughed. And here she was in a field running and laughing and playing. I could easily go on for 20 chapters in trying to describe that dream to you, just as John did in trying to describe his vision that is recorded in Revelation. I chose to share my dream/my vision with you today because of how it affected my faith. After all those years after over 40 years of wondering and worrying God gave me a gift. That vision was so clear - is still so clear in my head - that I can t shake it I can t forget it. That vision so strengthened my faith that I will never doubt again. That vision is where I turn when I am suffering. I don t know when I ll be reunited with Auntie and Rodney; Jayne and Fluffy; and all my loved ones whether it will happen immediately after I die or whether I will sleep with them until Jesus comes again and makes a new Creation. What I do know is that we all will be made whole again in some mysterious way. What I do know is that there is lots of room in Heaven. That it is a sunny, glorious place with space to run and freedom to laugh. What I do know is that, even in the multitude we will find each other and recognize each other as if it is not a multitude at all. I know because God told me. I know - we know because the Bible tells us. We will all be there in the multitude, singing To the one seated on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever! Every tear will be wiped away and death will be no more. Have you ever had such a dream? Don t discount it if you have. It is a gift from God. A gift that you may want to share with others as well.
And if you haven t had such an experience, hold on to the dreams and visions of John and Daniel and others like me, who share their dreams, while you expectantly wait for your own even if it takes over 40 years even if it takes a lifetime. Hold on to the vision of Revelation because it was and is and is to come! AMEN (Since the delivery of this Sermon, 4 parishioners confided in my about dreams they had. I have encouraged them to share their story with the congregation.)