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Clothes Make the Man (sic) |
Revelation 7: 9-17
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© John Ewing Roberts |
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INTRODUCTION We read responsively Psalm 23, "the Lord is my shepherd," because this Sunday in the church year, the 4th Sunday of Easter, is often called "Good Shepherd Sunday." Our Revelation text makes a nice connection with Psalm 23 at two points. First, there is the obvious link in Revelation 5: 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... Second, there is the implicit bond between the way a good shepherd provides for his sheep and the way our needs are met in heaven where one day we will hunger no more, neither thirst any more, and neither sun nor scorching heat will smite us. And in the loveliest of all images, "God will wipe away every tear from their (our) eyes." (Rev. 7: 16, 17) CLOTHES AND RITES OF PASSAGE So many rich (and sometimes confusing) images in Revelation pour out, one on top of another. I cannot begin to sort them all out today, but I can zero in on one of them, one of the good provisions by the Lamb who is also the Shepherd: those wonderful robes made white in the blood of the Lamb. (Rev. 7: 9. 14) "All God's chil'ens got robes!" Let's start with clothing and rites of passage in our lives. Think back over your life or that of those you love, and you will discover how we mark these times by memories of what we wore. - can you see the baby's first real shoes? - fast forward to her first ballet slippers or his first shoes with cleats; - remember that first time you put on a Little League uniform; - were you wearing a white robe when you were baptized? - recall the prom dress or the first tux; - can you still see how you (she) looked in the bridal gown? - did you wonder on which side the tassel belonged on your cap when you wore the academic gown for graduation? - every doctor remembers donning for the first time his or her white coat; - ministers and judges recollect their initial "robing up;" - My mother used to call me aside on every visit back home to say, "Now, son, I don't mean to be morbid, but when I die, this is what I want to be buried in...." (I have not yet begun to have such conversations with Chris and Hannah; and no, I don't want to be buried in a dress!) All these garments anticipate the ultimate clothing for the final rite, the white robe of Rev. 7. GLAD RAGS - HERE AND NOW Clothes are not only part of rites of passage; they are significant features in our self-identity. I love a true story (and do not apologize for retelling such a wonderful tale) about a Baptist church in Roanoke, Virginia, which had been helping a needy family. Since Easter was coming, the church bought the mother and dad and all three children brand new outfits. Easter Sunday came and went, and the family did not show up at church. On Monday morning the pastor knocked on their door and tactfully asked, "Is everyone all right? We missed you yesterday." "Oh, we're all fine, pastor," the mother answered. "We got dressed up in those new clothes you got and thought we looked so good that we'd just go to the Episcopal church instead." This tale came to mind when a member of the church recently gave me an article about dressing for Easter from the Wall Street Journal (April 7, 1998). Under the headline "An Easter Bonnet With Frills Upon It Is Decidedly Old Hat" (by Angelo B. Henderson and Robert Mc Gough) comes the report that at St. Stephen Baptist Church in Louisville, Kentucky, Easter Sunday was dress-down day. The attire was t-shirts, jeans, jogging suits, gym shoes and anything casual. "People can truly come as they are," said one member. "That way, people who are less fortunate don't feel left out or stressed out...you can't tell the CEO from the person who doesn't have a job." The pastor preaches in shorts and a tee shirt...maybe he's got the body for it....don't worry! Dress-down days in the work place on Fridays have led synagogues and churches on Saturdays and Sundays to follow suit (sorry 'bout the pun!). My grandmother, also of Louisville, Kentucky, was of another persuasion. She did not see Sunday as a competitive fashion show and did not believe there was any religious merit in dressing uncomfortably. But she thought we should "give of our best to the Master," and that an appointment with God was even more important than dressing well for a job interview. I remember her saying something like "Worship the Lord in holy array." It sounded like a Bible verse, especially the way she said it. For her it meant a hat and gloves among other items of wearing apparel. For me it meant that going to church was really special; it meant a suit, freshly polished shoes, a tie, and a white shirt (we were not so liberal as to wear a colored shirt on the Lord's Day). Later when I looked for the verse in the Bible, I discovered that it was nowhere to be found. Did my sainted grandmother make up "Worship the Lord in holy array" just to get me to put on that neck tie?! I suspect she would declare that she was paraphrasing a general biblical concept. This comparison between Baptist worship in Louisville as reported in the Wall Street Journal and worship in my grandmother's fashion, this contrast between casual Sunday and holy array speaks to God's provision of whatever clothing we need for worship. I delight in the fact that you come to this church dressed in all sorts of clothing appropriate for you. Don't change! From my perspective every one in this room is worshipping the Lord in holy array. CLOTHING IN THE BIBLE It's fun as well as instructive to review some stories about clothing in the Bible. 1. Adam and Eve The first people in the Bible to make and wear clothes were, of course, Adam and Eve. "Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves aprons." (Gen. 3: 7) The fig leaves must not have held up very well, because we later read, "And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins, and clothed them." (Genesis 3: 21) The Lord (the Good Shepherd) provides. God clothes them. "To be clothed is to be given life." (Walter Bruggemann, Genesis [Atlanta: John Knox Press] 1982, p. 50) 2. Joseph Joseph comes to mind for his coat of many colors (Genesis 37: 3, KJV). Here we enter a difficult area. I must tell you - and I know this will be new and disturbing information - that we know now that the best texts do not say anything at all about a coat of many colors. Leave if you want to. If you are hearing this fact for the first time, you probably feel as shaken as traditional Roman Catholics did when the Church dropped the Latin mass. If you are a real Baptist who really wants to know what the Bible really says and not settle for a traditional but inaccurate reading of the inspired text, then you will be interested to know that in a clear and pure reading of Genesis, Joseph's coat turns out really to have been a cost "with long sleeves." (I know what some of you are thinking - "Couldn't it have been a coat of many colors which had long sleeves?" O.K.! Dodged another bullet!) It gets more complicated and more disturbing. The take I had on the text was this: a supervisor's coat was a coat with long sleeves. When a person really gets to work, he or she rolls up the sleeves. Long sleeves, I thought, meant that Jacob had made his favorite son Joseph a supervisor whose long sleeves were a signal to his brothers that he was not to do manual labor. In an interfaith Bible study I mentioned this interpretation of the long sleeves, but a very senior Jewish scholar said, "No, no, no, no!" He pointed out that in fact, the word used for Joseph's coat with long sleeves is a word which appears only one other time in the Hebrew Bible, II Samuel 13: 18, when one of David's daughters, Tamar, is violated by her half-brother, Ammon. The word is used for her garment, a woman's coat with long sleeves. The coat Joseph wore was a woman's coat. Apparently Jacob so mourned his beloved wife, Rachel, that he dressed their son Joseph in her coat because he must have looked enough like his mother to comfort his father strangely and inappropriately. This factual and accurate reading of the text is terribly disturbing and light years away from Sunday School children grabbing as many different crayons as possible to try and do justice to Joseph's coat of many colors. But this understanding makes sense of why Joseph's half-brothers despised him! "Here he comes! Dressed like his mother! Why does he do it? It's our father's fault!" We have what nowadays is called a dysfunctional family - attempted murder and a series of lies will follow. Joseph, to his great credit and thanks to the providential grace of God in his life, overcame all of this. A sign of favor got him into such trouble, but he came through all of the bad stuff in his family. His father gave him a coat; his brothers took it and dipped it in goat's blood to trick their father into believing he was dead (Gen. 37: 31); but in the providence of God, Pharaoh would array Joseph in garments of fine linen and put his own signet ring on his hand. (Gen. 41: 42) He reached a position where he was able to save Egypt and other peoples from famine, to carry on the patriarchal tradition, and to be a blessing to many peoples. Clothes make the man! Clothes makes the woman! They can make enemies or friends; they can be a sign of blessing and giftedness, or of curse and enmity. In Joseph's case clothing represents how God can take what is twisted and turn it into a blessing. If you want to call Joseph's garment "an amazing technicolor dream coat," be my guest, but remember what the Bible says, and more importantly, remember the power of God in the life of Joseph. 3. John the Baptist Here is a biblical figure who would understand casual Friday at work and casual Sunday at that church in Louisville. Matthew 3: 4 tells us that he wore clothing of camel's hair and a leather girdle, and ate locusts and wild honey, a truly free spirit. His clothing teaches us lessons about sturdiness, service, survival and self-discipline. Economical, unencumbered, the ability to travel light - all suggested by his remarkable garb. 4. Jesus Of all the biblical garments none is more important than the robe of Jesus. After World War II there was a great surge of enthusiasm for religion in this country. A best selling novel of that period was Lloyd Douglas' The Robe, the story of what happened to the robe of Jesus after the crucifixion. The novel was made into a movie which you can rent at a video store or catch on television, usually around Easter. In this work of pious but rather superstitious fiction all sorts of magical healing powers are attributed to the robe of Jesus. In the Bible Mark 15: 24 tells us that the Roman soldiers who killed Jesus gambled over his robe. John 19: 23 reports that he wore a seamless tunic, well made, not inexpensive, a garment of some value which interestingly enough Jesus did not give away. I am sure he gave away many others and practiced what he preached: "If any one would sue you and take your coat, let him have your cloak as well." (Matthew 5: 40) That he could appreciate next to his skin the pleasing texture of this seamless garment is a fascinating glimpse into the humanity of our Lord. Some people are so troubled by Jesus' possession of this nice robe that they say, "Oh, he never would have bought it; someone must have given it to him." If you feel that way, help yourself! I'm glad he had it; I find it a poignant and sad detail that it was taken from him, and that soldiers gambled for it at the foot of the cross. The seamless robe of Jesus is a symbol of sacrifice, the sacrifice on the cross for us, the sacrifice memorialized for us in the bread and the fruit of the vine on the communion table before us. The sacrifice of Jesus recalled by his robe takes us back to Revelation 7 and those whose robes are made white in the blood of the Lamb. THE BLOOD OF THE LAMB A wonderful Bible scholar helps us understand what the blood of Jesus means. "The blood of the Lamb" is language central to the New Testament which has much to say about the blood of Jesus Christ. The word suggests the death of Jesus, and the blood of Jesus does refer to the death of Jesus. "But it must be remembered that to the Hebrews the blood stood for the life...The blood is the life, and the life belongs to God...When a man is wounded, as the blood ebbs away, so the life ebbs away....when the New Testament speaks about the blood of Jesus, it means not only the death of Christ; it means the life and the death of Jesus Christ; it means everything that Jesus did in His life and in His death. We cannot separate the life and the death of Jesus; they go together; His death would lose its value without the life which went before it. The blood of Jesus stands for all Christ did for us in His life and in His death." (William Barclay, The Revelation of John, Vol. II [Philadelphia: Westminster Press] 1960, p. 37) The blood of Jesus means the life and death and resurrection life of Jesus. The blood of Jesus means the transforming power to change red to white, old to new, death to life, from lost to found. CONCLUSION - PUT IT ON Putting on the white robe is a way of saying, "I am accepting the transforming power of Jesus in my life." Those who have entered the waters of baptism wearing their white robes have signalled that this transforming power has come into their lives. The white robe is a symbol of purity and victory brought by Jesus. The transformation and the victory cannot begin to happen until we decide to accept the One who accomplishes the transformation and who wins the victory. The transformation and the victory cannot begin to happen until we are ready to put on the robe. I speak now of the decision to become a follower of Jesus, to accept the transformation, the victory, the cleansing, the forgiveness, the purity that only Jesus can bring. Our first hymn today, Rejoice, Ye Pure in Heart, should make us feel uncomfortable because God knows (and in our more honest moments) we know that we are anything but pure in heart. The hymn with which we close, O Praise the Gracious Power, is to the same tune as Rejoice, Ye Pure in Heart. It is a hymn of challenge, a challenge to do all sorts of things in our lives and in our world that we can only accomplish if the transforming, cleansing, winning power of God is at work in our lives. [This sermon is for circulation within the Woodbrook congregation and may not be reproduced without permission.] |