“Remember, Remember”

All Saints Day
Revelation 7:9-17

Remember, remember the fifth of November,
Gunpowder, treason and plot
I see no reason why gunpowder, treason
Should ever be forgot.

This poem, which originated in the 17th century in England, was inspired by the day in which Guido Fawkes was caught guarding explosives in the House of Lords which were intended to be used by Fawkes and his partners in an assassination plot against King James I. The poem was written to remind future generations that treason was not an act that would be praised. However, the reason that Guido Fawkes and his compatriots attempted to assassinate the King was in reaction to the injustice they saw enacted by the crown. All the members of the Gunpowder plot were Catholics living in a country that, under King James, had become intolerant at the least, and at best, dangerous to Catholics. Priests who remained in England and continued to practice their religious tradition did so under threat of torture or death. The men who engineered this plot hoped that it would bring about greater religious tolerance…the plot failed however, and to this day the 5th of November is celebrated in England by fireworks, bonfires and burning effigies of Guido Fawkes, a man reacting to an injustice of his day.

Today, the 6th of November, is also a day of remembrance…but for a different reason. We remember and celebrate all the saints, the saints who are here now, the saints that have gone before us and the saints who are not yet born. And as we do so, another poem rings in our ears. “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen.”
In our reading from Revelation, John of Patmos shares with us a vision of what is to come in the end. It is a vision of people from every tribe and language and nation gathered together at the throne of God worshiping God and the lamb. A multitude dressed in white and palm branches in their hands indicating the victory of their King. A song arises from this gathering telling of the salvation that belongs to their God and to the lamb. It is a beautiful scene, one that serves as an interlude between the judgment and destruction that come in John’s vision in chapters 6 and 8. In chapter 6, we hear about the opening of the first six seals that secured the scroll of Revelation and the judgments that they release…the four horsemen of the apocalypse, the cries of the martyrs, a devastating earthquake that turned the sun black, the moon the color of blood and caused the stars to fall from heaven to earth. (Anyone who says the bible is boring has not read the book of Revelation)
But before the seventh and final seal is opened, unleashing more judgment and wrath, John sees a vision of the angels of the four winds holding those winds back from destroying the earth…and of an angel ascending with the rising sun with the seal of God ordering the angels of the four winds to hold the winds back until the servants of the Lord have been sealed. John reports of hearing that there were 144,000 sealed…12,000 from each of the tribes of the 12 sons of Israel.
And then his vision turns to that which we heard this morning, a vision of a multitude so big that no one could count of all tribes, all nations…a vision of martyrs who had come out of the great ordeal and had washed their robes white in the blood of the lamb…a vision of adoration of God and the lamb that speaks to the salvation that belongs to God. A vision of a conversation that reveals what salvation looks like in the eyes of God.

Most frequently, we hear John’s description of the multitudes robed in white when we gather together to celebrate the life of someone who has left this life for life eternal. There are words of comfort in this passage that can help us as we mourn a loss of a loved one, words about an end to tears and about streams of the waters of life, all wonderful images to conjure when tears seem endless and waters of life seem far away.
And it seems that words of comfort are what John intended it when he wrote of these visions to the people of the seven churches in Asia. At the time that John was writing, the people were literally going through a great ordeal. They were being persecuted and killed by Rome because they were followers of the lamb. Their robes were soaked red in their own blood and it is quite possible that to these people it seemed as if the sun had turned black and the moon the color of blood. And yet, the members of the seven churches that John was writing to did not cease their worship of God…even if that worship was a little lukewarm at times.
The vision that John shared with them and that he shares with us is one that is totally countercultural to how the world was seen, both then and now. It speaks of Salvation that belongs to God and to God alone and what that salvation looks like.
In its original form, salvation is a word that is not limited to just the spiritual realm, but instead it refers to total wellbeing and wholeness. For the people living in the grasp of the Roman Empire, the “official” source of salvation, of wellbeing, was Rome...but that was not the experience of John’s audience who routinely were the victims of injustice. There is no wholeness and wellbeing when you are being persecuted and slaughtered. So John shows them a vision of God’s empire, where salvation comes from God and God alone.
In God’s empire, there is no room for the injustices and persecutions that the Roman Empire used to dehumanize the early Christians. In God’s empire, salvation means the end of injustice and the restoration of every aspect of human wellbeing for people of all nations and tribes and tongues. In God’s empire, there is no more hunger or thirst…there is no more threat of scorching heat, a wonderful promise for desert dwellers…and God will wipe away every tear, tears of anger, of distress, of sorrow, of bitterness and anguish. Every tear will be wiped away by God himself.
As people who live in the midst of very visible, worldwide, outcries against the injustices of our day and our own great ordeal, we do well to remember, remember the vision of John of a day when there will no longer be room for the things that divide us. Of a day when racism, sexism, ageism and all the other –isms that bring about injustice will no longer have a place where they can thrive and cause people to be seen as less than human in any way, shape, or form. It will be a day in which people of all tribes and nations and peoples and tongues will all come together around throne of God and sing of the salvation that comes from God and God alone and of the victory that has been won for us by the lamb in whose blood we have been washed. And as we remember the saints that have gone before us, the saints with us now, and the saints yet to be born, we remember the song that binds us all - “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen.”