First posted, 31 October, 2004, for the Feast of All Saints
As most or all of you know, the feast of All Saints is a Christian adaption of the Celtic new year. As Anglicans, we like Celtic stuff! Before the Reformation, it was commonly considered a time for the worship of particular saints, but as Protestants we celebrate it as a time to remember a particular aspect of our Christian identity. Believers are all saints and we are part of the body of the saints of all time. This is the rationale for the Book of Common Prayer setting before us on this day Chapter 7 of Revelation. In this chapter, we have a description of the saints in heaven.
People often struggle with what is sometimes termed their place in the world. They ask questions about who they are, what they are about and why they are here. The Christian is given wonderful answers to these questions. The Christian is a saint and his place in the world is before the throne of God. Even in this life, we live before the throne of God. In the the twelfth chapter of Hebrews, verses 22-24, we are told
Now my proposition before us tonight is that our worship is to be informed by this identity and priviledge. The Bible tells us something of what life before the throne is like and it is meant to not only give us hope but to instruct us in our identity and worship. In this particular place in the Bible, Rev. 7, what do we learn concerning our life before the throne?
Before getting into this, however, let me comment on the vision of the 144,000. We read of the servants of God being sealed by the Angel from the east. The saints are the servants of God - what else could they be; they are described as such throughout the Bible. The fact that here we find the saints numbered as 144,000 from the tribes of Israel is symbolic of the completeness of their number and, as Paul teaches us in Romans, they all are from the same root: the faith of Abraham. Thus, the innumerable multitude seen in verse 9 is the same group of people who were sealed in verses 1-8, only now, instead of being represented in a symbolic fashion, they are seen as they actually appear.
Notice the symbolism that always accompanies these visions of the saints in heaven. They are clothed in white robes and have palms in their hands. We know the symbolism in the book of Revelation is necessary because of the limitations of our earthly perspectives. The symbols teach us about things in the unseen realm which we cannot fully comprehend until we get there. This is why the church has always used symbols in her worship on earth. Our worship is before an unseen throne, with an unseen company, and before an unseen Trinity. The symbolism of our rituals, the symbols in our architecture and art work, these are all used for the same reasons the symbols appear in the Bible: they represent truth about the true God and His work on our behalf. The iconoclastic zeal for the removal of symbolism from our worship on earth is contrary to the fact of symbolism in the Bible. The Scriptures use symbolism in communicating to us divine truth and it is only fitting that we should follow this example and use it as well in worship.
But let us continue. We find in verse 10 that the worship of the saints, that is our worship, is of a corporately participative nature. All the saints join in with their voices ascribing glory to God. There is nothing here of one-man-shows or groups on stage before an audience. There is also symbolic order. The saints have their part, the angels theirs, the four beasts a part and so on. Now, if this is what worship before the throne looks like, then our worship before the throne, while we are still here on earth, should look like this as well. Throughout the centuries, much of the worship of the Church has done so. The traditional liturgy of the Church is a participation in the worship before the throne informed by Scriptural truth. Form and order matter before the throne in heaven.
Verse 14 is very instructive:
But what I want to focus on is their activity before the throne. What do they do there? They serve him day and night. The word is latreuousin, based on the word commonly used throughout the New Testament for worship. The use of this word is the reason why we in English speak of a “worship service“. The very thing the saints in heaven are about is the very thing our worship on earth is to be about. It is a service to God. It is a work we do out of our allegiance and overwhelming appreciation and love for Him. It is the appropriate response of redeemed creatures to the Redeeming Creator. The worship service of the church is not to be an evangelistic endeavour. It is service before the throne. It is for this reason that the traditional worship of the church, preserved for us Anglicans in the Prayer Book, has had the shape it has had. It is also the reason why modern innovations in worship are wrong and ultimately unfulfilling, I might add. They are out of step with what we really are as the saints of God and what our place really is in this world.
What is so sad is that the traditional liturgy of the church is a potentially tremendously effective instrument of evangelism in the world, yet people are tossing it away so they can gather crowds. What are we saying with our rituals and symbols in the traditional liturgy? We are showing the world around us the presence of the unseen. We are pointing to the Lamb of God on the throne and inviting them to bow their knees to Him along with us. The current discussion of how to adapt the church and its worship to meet the needs of the post-modern world is, in one sense, unnecessary. Does not Scripture tell us that there is nothing new under the sun? The essential nature of the human condition does not change from generation to generation. Neither does the essential nature of Christianity change. The church has faced times like these before - and how has she worshipped? She has already hammered out a biblical worship through many tumultuous eras. Why should we change? Nothing else has really changed. A zeal for constant adaptation because of current cultural changes is a failure to recognise the biblical theology of worship, of the nature of man and the church, and is simply chronological snobbery.
Consider this issue from the doctrine of the Scripture itself. What is the nature of the inspired canon? It is trans-generational; the Scripture is for the whole church in every age. Therefore, the images of the worship of the saints in Scripture are for every generation. So it is that our worship is always relevant if it follows this pattern. If we do change anything, it should be because of a biblically informed response to God’s work in Christ from our own hearts with reference to the church as a whole. We should not change because of changes in the world around us. The world is not our reference point. Our reference point is the throne of God as revealed in Scripture. We are to be instructing the world around us about what cannot be seen; for we are the only ones that can see it, by the eyes of faith from a heart washed by the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit.
Let me here add that, at the same time, we must seek to understand our times and to adapt our evangelistic efforts to the culture we are trying to reach while still operating within the sphere of Scriptural revelation. What I am objecting to is utilitarian or sentimental redefining of the worship of the church.
May I end with the wonderful closing words of the passage before us:
+++
As most or all of you know, the feast of All Saints is a Christian adaption of the Celtic new year. As Anglicans, we like Celtic stuff! Before the Reformation, it was commonly considered a time for the worship of particular saints, but as Protestants we celebrate it as a time to remember a particular aspect of our Christian identity. Believers are all saints and we are part of the body of the saints of all time. This is the rationale for the Book of Common Prayer setting before us on this day Chapter 7 of Revelation. In this chapter, we have a description of the saints in heaven.
People often struggle with what is sometimes termed their place in the world. They ask questions about who they are, what they are about and why they are here. The Christian is given wonderful answers to these questions. The Christian is a saint and his place in the world is before the throne of God. Even in this life, we live before the throne of God. In the the twelfth chapter of Hebrews, verses 22-24, we are told
But ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, To the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, And to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling….The only difference between we who are saints in this life and those who have departed this life is that the departed have the priviledge of living before the throne in a much fuller manner.
Now my proposition before us tonight is that our worship is to be informed by this identity and priviledge. The Bible tells us something of what life before the throne is like and it is meant to not only give us hope but to instruct us in our identity and worship. In this particular place in the Bible, Rev. 7, what do we learn concerning our life before the throne?
Before getting into this, however, let me comment on the vision of the 144,000. We read of the servants of God being sealed by the Angel from the east. The saints are the servants of God - what else could they be; they are described as such throughout the Bible. The fact that here we find the saints numbered as 144,000 from the tribes of Israel is symbolic of the completeness of their number and, as Paul teaches us in Romans, they all are from the same root: the faith of Abraham. Thus, the innumerable multitude seen in verse 9 is the same group of people who were sealed in verses 1-8, only now, instead of being represented in a symbolic fashion, they are seen as they actually appear.
Notice the symbolism that always accompanies these visions of the saints in heaven. They are clothed in white robes and have palms in their hands. We know the symbolism in the book of Revelation is necessary because of the limitations of our earthly perspectives. The symbols teach us about things in the unseen realm which we cannot fully comprehend until we get there. This is why the church has always used symbols in her worship on earth. Our worship is before an unseen throne, with an unseen company, and before an unseen Trinity. The symbolism of our rituals, the symbols in our architecture and art work, these are all used for the same reasons the symbols appear in the Bible: they represent truth about the true God and His work on our behalf. The iconoclastic zeal for the removal of symbolism from our worship on earth is contrary to the fact of symbolism in the Bible. The Scriptures use symbolism in communicating to us divine truth and it is only fitting that we should follow this example and use it as well in worship.
But let us continue. We find in verse 10 that the worship of the saints, that is our worship, is of a corporately participative nature. All the saints join in with their voices ascribing glory to God. There is nothing here of one-man-shows or groups on stage before an audience. There is also symbolic order. The saints have their part, the angels theirs, the four beasts a part and so on. Now, if this is what worship before the throne looks like, then our worship before the throne, while we are still here on earth, should look like this as well. Throughout the centuries, much of the worship of the Church has done so. The traditional liturgy of the Church is a participation in the worship before the throne informed by Scriptural truth. Form and order matter before the throne in heaven.
Verse 14 is very instructive:
14: … And he said to me, These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. 15: Therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple: and he that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them.Those who want the references in the Bible to the great tribulation to refer to some future earthly event miss the point. The great tribulation is the age of the Church, when the saints go through trial and persecution. If it were not for the words great tribulation, all Christians of whatever eschatological persuasion would recognise themselves as described here: a people washed in the blood of the Lamb. Surely, this innumerable company, so washed, is the Church throughout the ages and not just those saved during a certain 7 year period.
But what I want to focus on is their activity before the throne. What do they do there? They serve him day and night. The word is latreuousin, based on the word commonly used throughout the New Testament for worship. The use of this word is the reason why we in English speak of a “worship service“. The very thing the saints in heaven are about is the very thing our worship on earth is to be about. It is a service to God. It is a work we do out of our allegiance and overwhelming appreciation and love for Him. It is the appropriate response of redeemed creatures to the Redeeming Creator. The worship service of the church is not to be an evangelistic endeavour. It is service before the throne. It is for this reason that the traditional worship of the church, preserved for us Anglicans in the Prayer Book, has had the shape it has had. It is also the reason why modern innovations in worship are wrong and ultimately unfulfilling, I might add. They are out of step with what we really are as the saints of God and what our place really is in this world.
What is so sad is that the traditional liturgy of the church is a potentially tremendously effective instrument of evangelism in the world, yet people are tossing it away so they can gather crowds. What are we saying with our rituals and symbols in the traditional liturgy? We are showing the world around us the presence of the unseen. We are pointing to the Lamb of God on the throne and inviting them to bow their knees to Him along with us. The current discussion of how to adapt the church and its worship to meet the needs of the post-modern world is, in one sense, unnecessary. Does not Scripture tell us that there is nothing new under the sun? The essential nature of the human condition does not change from generation to generation. Neither does the essential nature of Christianity change. The church has faced times like these before - and how has she worshipped? She has already hammered out a biblical worship through many tumultuous eras. Why should we change? Nothing else has really changed. A zeal for constant adaptation because of current cultural changes is a failure to recognise the biblical theology of worship, of the nature of man and the church, and is simply chronological snobbery.
Consider this issue from the doctrine of the Scripture itself. What is the nature of the inspired canon? It is trans-generational; the Scripture is for the whole church in every age. Therefore, the images of the worship of the saints in Scripture are for every generation. So it is that our worship is always relevant if it follows this pattern. If we do change anything, it should be because of a biblically informed response to God’s work in Christ from our own hearts with reference to the church as a whole. We should not change because of changes in the world around us. The world is not our reference point. Our reference point is the throne of God as revealed in Scripture. We are to be instructing the world around us about what cannot be seen; for we are the only ones that can see it, by the eyes of faith from a heart washed by the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit.
Let me here add that, at the same time, we must seek to understand our times and to adapt our evangelistic efforts to the culture we are trying to reach while still operating within the sphere of Scriptural revelation. What I am objecting to is utilitarian or sentimental redefining of the worship of the church.
May I end with the wonderful closing words of the passage before us:
15: … and he that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them. 16: They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat. 17: For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters: and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.
Our worship is also eschatological in nature. He dwells with us now by his Spirit, only to dwell with us more fully later. We taste even now in our worship what we will taste fully in the Redemption. We feed on Him now. We find comfort and refreshment in him now. And we find it all before the throne.
Let us revel in our priviledge and let our comforts speak both a rebuke to the unrepentant world and an invitation to the unbelieving world as we not only represent, as the saints, that which cannot be seen, but taste the joys that come from the unseen world; joys this world cannot give.+++
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