Who Are These Robed In White?
Revelation 7:9-17
by Jim Westmoreland
A young woman had been diagnosed with a terminal illness and had been given three months to live. As she was getting her things" in order," she contacted her pastor and wanted to talk with him about her funeral. She told him which songs she wanted sung at the service, what scriptures she would like read, and what outfit she wanted to be buried in.
As the pastor was preparing to leave, the young woman sud-denly remembered something very important to her. "There's one more thing," she said excitedly. "What's that?" came the pastor's reply. "This is very important," the young woman continued. "I want to be buried with a fork in my right hand."
The pastor was speechless. That surprises you, doesn't it?" the young woman asked. "Well, to be honest, I'm puzzled by the request," said the pastor. She explained, "My grandmother once told me this story: 'In all my years of attending church socials and potluck dinners, I always remember that when the dishes of the main course were being cleared, someone would inevitably lean over and say, 'Keep your fork.' It was my favorite part because I knew that something better was coming, . . . like velvety chocolate cake or deep dish apple pie. Something wonderful . . . and with substance! So, I just want people to see me there in that casket with a fork in my hand and I want them to wonder, 'What's with the fork?' Then I want you to tell them: 'Keep your fork ... the best is yet to come.'"
She knew that something better was coming. At the funeral people walked by the young woman's casket, saw the pretty dress she was wearing and the fork placed in her right hand. Over and over, the pastor heard the question. 'What's with the fork?' And over and over he smiled. During his message, the pastor told the people of the conversation he had with the young woman shortly before she died. He also told them about the fork and about what it symbolized to her. The pastor told the people how he could not stop thinking about the fork, and he told them that they probably would not be able to stop thinking about it either.
Today, we are celebrating All Saints Day, and it is a reminder to us that the best is yet to come. The actual day on which All Saints Day falls in the Christian calendar is the day after Halloween, and it is a day on which Christ's people remember those who have gone before them in the faith and are now with God in heaven.
In today's reading from Revelation John reveals that in heaven there is a multitude that no one can count, a multitude from every nation, tribe, people, and language on earth. This multitude stands before the throne of God and before the lamb, and loudly proclaims God's praise, saying: "Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb."
And, around the throne of God are the elders and the angels and the four creatures of God, and they, like the multitude, praise God saying, "Praise and glory and thanks and honor and power and strength be to our God forever and forever! AMEN, AMEN!"
We also see in this glimpse into heaven that the eternal life that Jesus makes possible is not only a life of praise. In heaven there is no suffering, no death and no grief. People may have suffered rejection by others here on earth. They may have suffered persecution and torture. They may have suffered from disease and pain, from heartache, disappointment, fear and unfulfilled dreams in this life. But, all that has passed away! A new reality has come. A new life has come, and it is a glorious life! It is a life in which there is peace, and joy and praise.
It is a life lived in a setting that is often described as golden, as full of light and beauty, a setting which defies our limited earthly words and imagination. So, heaven is described in terms of wealth and abundance, in terms of jewels and fruit, and greenery, in terms of a great banquet, in terms of all the things that a person here on earth could ever want.
Eternal life with God is for those who have named the name that is above every name, the name of God's only begotten Son, Jesus. It is for those who have taken up their lives to follow Him as His disciples, who have given of themselves in love. How do we demonstrate that we are Jesus' disciples? By the way that we love God and love others as Jesus as loved us.
No one, not even John, can really tell us just how wonderful heaven is. But we are told that the saints are there, the saints we remember this day. They are the ones who are robed in white. I know they are there because, at times, I can feel them around me. They are the great cloud of witnesses that the writer of Hebrews wrote about, telling us to hang in there, telling us to be faithful, telling us that something wonderful has happened to them and that it will happen to us too.
Who are these saints that speak to us, reminding us of what we should do, of what God has planned for us? The saints that I think of are my personal saints. They are people who by their actions and words revealed the love of God to me. They are people like my mother, Mary Magdalene (her friends called her Maggie), my Grandmother and Granddad Davis, Sunday School teachers like Lloyd Means and Mrs. Jay, seminary professors like B. A. Sizemore and mentors in the ministry like James W. Hatley.
These are people who, before they went to heaven, strived in their own special way to be faithful, and, in their faithfulness, they touched my life and gave me a special gift, always a gift of love, often a gift of wisdom.
I have tried to do the impossible today and describe in poor and inadequate words a little bit of what heaven is like, because I want you who are here today to think about heaven and about the saints you have known who helped you to come to know God, the saints who are now at God's side praising him and watching over you.
Who do you remember? Who showed you a bit of what God is like? Who sought to love their neighbors, and to love God? Who loved you?
The list of saints includes all those who love God and who have tried to love their neighbors as themselves. It includes all who have given their lives to Jesus Christ. The biblical images alluded to in this seventh chapter of the Revelation of John are dynamic and vividly portray the dramatic change that comes to one who becomes a disciple of Jesus. We come to Jesus with our garments stained with the darkness of sin. But, as we trust in Jesus, receive His forgiveness and follow Him as our Savior, our dirty robes are washed in His blood and they become as white as snow!
A saint is someone who is different, someone, who, because of how they loved God and led their life, is worth imitating. They are not perfect people. Even the most famous saints, those men and woman the church as a whole points to, were not perfect. Peter was inconsistent, Paul at times seemed a little arrogant, John and James wanted honor and glory, and the list of defects goes on. All the saints, as the expression goes, had feet of clay, but they, for all that, had something worth imitating, something worth remembering.
Saints are people who made a difference to others and people who made a difference to us, because they attempted to love and serve God, and to love and serve God's world. Each of the saints that I remember in some way directed me to God. Their lives revealed that God made a difference to them. And, because of their faith they made a difference to me.
That is what being a saint is all about! It is about making a difference, a positive difference, a loving difference, the kind of difference that influences the hearts and minds of others to come to God and give Him praise and worship.
Each one of us is called to be a saint, and, each one of us, because of the love of Jesus Christ, can be a saint. At times, it can be difficult to live up to this calling. At times, it is hard to love. At times, it is hard to do things that shows God's care. At times, it is hard even to have faith! And that is where the saints in heaven come in.
Our saints, the ones we remember, and the saints of the whole church, are with God and we can still hear their testimony through the ages, and we can honor them, by listening to them and by remembering how they lived and how they believed. We can take strength from the saints who are gathered around God's throne. We can take strength from them by naming and remembering them. We can be inspired to imitate them in our behavior and attitudes because of the things which caused us to name them as special and holy to us and to God.
One day, we will join the saints with God in Heaven. |In the meantime, remember the saints. Take strength from them and honor their memory by being more like them.
Who are these robed in white? They are the saints who have gone on before us to be with the Lord. And from the halls of heaven and from the great banquet that has been prepared for us comes a reminder. Keep your fork, the best is yet to come!(1) Amen.
Century Christian Church, October 30, 2005 - Sermon by Jim Westmoreland
www.centurychristian.org
1. Based on a sermon by Richard J. Fairchild