“DRESSED FOR HEAVEN”
REVELATION 7:9-17
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.
10 They cried out in a loud voice,
saying, "Salvation belongs to our God who is seated on the throne, and to the Lamb!"
11 And 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 worshiped
God,
12 singing, "Amen! Blessing and glory
and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen."
13 Then one of the elders addressed
me, saying, "Who are these, robed in white, and where have they come from?"
14 I said to him, "Sir, you are the
one that knows." Then he said to me, "These are they who have come out of the great ordeal; they have washed their robes and
made them white in the blood of the Lamb.
15 For this reason they are before
the throne of God, and worship him day and night within his temple, and the one who is seated on the throne will shelter them.
16 They will hunger no more, and thirst
no more; the sun will not strike them, nor any scorching heat;
17 for the Lamb at the center of the
throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of the water of life, and God will wipe away every tear from
their eyes."
Am I
good enough? If you’re like most people, that’s a question that you
deal with from time to time. It’s a question that you deal with at work and at school and at home and in your day to
day life. Am I good enough to get this promotion? Am I good enough to get into
the college I want to go to? Am I good enough to be on the football team? Am I good enough for so and so to go out with me?
Now
some people handle the “Am I good enough?” question without any trouble at all.
They seem to have all the confidence in the world. They’re like
the boy who was practicing his baseball swing in the backyard one day. A neighbor
saw him standing there with the baseball and bat in his hand. “I’m the greatest hitter in the world,” the
boy said. With that he threw the ball up in the air. When he swung though, he missed the ball completely. “Strike
one,” he said. The fact that he missed didn’t stop him though. He threw the ball up in the air again. Once
again he swung and missed. “Strike two,” he said. That didn’t
stop him either. He threw the ball up in the air a third time. Once again he swung and missed. At that point the neighbor
was surprised when the boy threw his arms up in the air and shouted, “Strike three. Hooray for me! I’m the greatest pitcher in the world!”
Some
people have all the confidence in the world. Maybe that’s you. Then again maybe you identify a little more with Charlie Brown. Charlie
Brown, that loveable looser, who always seemed to have a black cloud hovering over his head. One day Lucy asks Charlie Brown
how the birdhouse he’s making is coming along. “Well,” Charlie
Brown replies, “I’m a lousy carpenter. I can’t nail straight. I can’t saw straight and I always split the wood. I lack confidence. I have poor taste and absolutely no sense
of design.” With that Charlie Brown shrugs his shoulders and says, “So,
all things considered, it’s coming along okay.”
Am I
good enough? Everyone wrestles with that question from time to time. That’s
especially true when it comes to the ultimate “Am I good enough?” question.
Am I good enough to get into heaven? What do you think? Are you good enough to get into heaven?
Everyone
wants to go to heaven right? It’s that place of bucolic bliss that John
saw in his vision while he was in prison on the island of Patmos. In his vision John saw a multitude of people in white robes standing joyfully before
God’s heavenly throne. The reason they were so joyful John said is because
they knew that they were in a place where they would hunger no more and thirst no more; a place where the Lamb at the center
of the throne would be their shepherd, and guide them to springs of the water of life, and God would wipe away every tear
from their eyes.
It sounds wonderful, but that question still has to be
answered. Are you good enough to get into heaven? Am I good enough to get into
heaven? That was a question that haunted the Protestant Reformer Martin Luther. He
often wondered if he had done enough to get into heaven. He wondered if he had
done enough good deeds to make God love him. He was driven by the words Jesus
uttered in the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus said, “You therefore must be perfect, even as your heavenly Father is perfect.” (Matthew 5:48) Luther figured that anything
less than perfection wasn’t good enough. So, he helped the poor and did
penance for his sins by sleeping on a cold stone floor in the dead of winter.
Despite
all of that he was still plagued by doubt and despair. Am I good enough? Then one day he had an epiphany. It came
while he was reading the Apostle Paul’s Letter to the Romans. Right there
in the opening words to that letter Paul states unequivocally that “The righteous shall live by faith!” (1:17)
They’re made right with God not through their good deeds but through faith. Suddenly Martin Luther realized it wasn’t
his good deeds that would get him into heaven. It was God’s amazing grace. It was what God had already done through Christ’s sacrifice on the Cross.
That, by the way, is in synch with what John saw in his
vision of heaven. The great multitude in heaven were there not because they were
better than everyone else. They were there John said because they had “washed
their robes in the blood of the lamb.” In other words, they found salvation
not in the sacrifices they made, but in Christ’s sacrifice on the Cross.
Am I
good enough to get into heaven? The answer to that question is no! I’m not good enough and you’re not good enough either. Even a saint like Mother Theresa isn’t
good enough. Over the years Mother Theresa fed thousands of untouchables in India. All the good deeds that she did though weren’t
enough to get her into heaven. This past week Rosa Parks passed away. She will
always be remembered as a courageous woman who said a resounding no to hatred and racism. She did that when she refused to
move to the back of that bus in Montgomery, Alabama. What she did that day though won’t get her into heaven.
That’s
because it isn’t your good deeds that get you into heaven. It’s the
love of the God who in Jesus Christ looked down from the Cross at all of that hatred and fear and greed and selfish pride
and said, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.” In
that moment of sin and shame Jesus says to each of us, “There isn’t anything you can do that will make me stop
loving you. I will always love you even when you turn away from me. I will always
love you even when deny the goodness in yourself. I will always love you even when you can’t even love yourself.”
So you
don’t have to worry about being good enough to get into heaven. That’s
because heaven will come to you when you when you take all of your faults and your flaws and your failures and let yourself
be embraced by the God who so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him shall not
perish but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16)
When
it comes to heaven it’s similar to what happened many years ago in a New York
City courtroom. One night back in 1935 Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia showed up unexpectedly in a courtroom
in a rundown part of the city. Much to the surprise of everyone there he dismissed
the judge and took his place on the bench. A little while later an elderly woman
was brought in for stealing a loaf of bread. After listening to the arresting
officer and the owner of the grocery store, LaGuardia asked the elderly woman why she had stolen the loaf of bread. She replied, “My daughter’s husband has deserted her.
She’s sick, and her children are starving.” Her explanation
brought a sigh from the mayor. “I’ve got to punish you. The law makes no exceptions,” he said. “It’s either ten dollars or ten days in jail.” With that LaGuardia reached into his pocket. He took out a ten dollar bill which
he threw into his hat. “Here’s the ten dollar fine, which I now remit,”
he said, “and furthermore, I’m going to fine everyone in the courtroom fifty cents for living in a city where
a person has to steal bread so that her grandchildren can eat. Mr. Bailiff, collect
the fines and give them to the defendant.” The following day a newspaper
reported: “Forty-seven dollars and fifty cents was turned over to a bewildered old grandmother who had stolen a loaf
of bread to feed her starving grandchildren. Making forced donations were a red-faced
storekeeper, seventy petty criminals, and a few New York
policemen.”
God’s
grace filled love is like that. It’s an unexpected and unmerited blessing that you receive when you stand at the foot
of the Cross and simply let yourself be loved. That’s the key the opens the opens the gates of heaven. It’s the key makes it possible for you and me to join in the chorus of praise that John saw that
multitude singing in heaven. “Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our
God forever and ever! Amen.”
Rev. Dr. Richard A. Hughes
October 30, 2005 –
Reformation Sunday
