You Are Included. So Am I.

Sermon for North Hill Adventist Fellowship

Sabbath, September 1, 2012

There is a cat at our house that was not invited. For weeks after she first arrived, I would look at her and say: "Don't get too comfortable. This is not your house. You are merely a visitor.”

My wife would wash clothes. Sometimes when clothes came out of the dryer and were piled on top the dryer waiting to be folded and put away, Karin would come in to find Mama Cat sprawled out on top the clean clothes, her hairs visibly decorating all the dark colored items. Sometimes dirty paw prints decorating the light stuff. When this happened even my wife, the original animal lover, would make noises about getting rid of this cat.

Then Mama Cat peed on the tile by the back door. And on the carpet in Bonnie's room. And on Bonnie's clothes. (Bonnie is our daughter who caught zoophilia virus from her mother.)

I thought, surely now, this cat is finished. This is absolute proof our house is not her house. If it were her house, she would not pee in it.

It is now a year after her arrival. When you come to our house, you'll have to step over Mama Cat who is usually sprawled out on the door mat at the back door. She might open one eye as you step over her, but she won't move. She won't shy. She owns the back porch. And the back yard. And, the whole place.

She managed to ignore all my stern words about her not belonging. She apparently paid no attention to Karin's words of dismay about finding her on top the clean clothes. She made herself at home.

Sometimes, if we are going to find our proper place in the Kingdom of God, we have to be like Mama Cat. We have to reject a lot of what people say. We may even have to ignore some of our own history. Sometimes we even have to ignore verses in the Bible so we can fully hear the welcome God has for us.

Let's look at a famous Adventist passage in the Bible:

I watched as the Lamb broke the sixth seal, and there was a great earthquake. The sun became as dark as black cloth, and the moon became as red as blood. Then the stars of the sky fell to the earth like green figs falling from a tree shaken by a strong wind. The sky was rolled up like a scroll, and all of the mountains and islands were moved from their places.

Then everyone—the kings of the earth, the rulers, the generals, the wealthy, the powerful, and every slave and free person—all hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains. And they cried to the mountains and the rocks, "Fall on us and hide us from the face of the one who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb. For the great day of their wrath has come, and who is able to survive?"

Revelation 6:12-17

If you have gone to evangelistic meetings, you have heard this passage. Usually the preacher presents this passage as a warning: Get right with God now so you won't be one of those people hiding from Jesus. Of course, the evangelist goes on the make it clear that getting right with God means agreeing with him on just how to think and live the Christian life.

The division of the world into two groups: the good people who agree with us, and the bad people—the people who disagree with us—does not stay in the evangelist meetings. It creeps into the rest of our lives. Sometimes it poisons our relationships at church. Sometimes it poisons even our relationships at home. We imagine there is only one right way to live—our way. Or, unlike Mama Cat, who completely ignored every mean thing I ever said to her, we hear what other people say and we imagine that we are the unwelcome ones. We are the people on the outside. We are the people who are going to be hiding from Jesus because we feel like we have to hide the “real me” from all the good people at church.

Let's take another look at this passage in Revelation.

Notice that if we take this passage at face value, it offers no escape. It mentions no exceptions.

When the great cataclysm occurs, everyone hides. The kings, the rulers, the generals, the wealthy, the powerful, and every slave and free person. Everyone. The text offers no hope. It's DOOM. Everyone hides because the great day of God's wrath has come, and who will be able to survive? The answer is obvious: No one.

Now, notice what comes next. John writes,

Then I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding back the four winds so they did not blow on the earth or the sea, or even on any tree. And I saw another angel coming up from the east, carrying the seal of the living God. And he shouted to those four angels, who had been given power to harm land and sea, "Wait! Don't harm the land or the sea or the trees until we have placed the seal of God on the foreheads of his servants."

And I heard how many were marked with the seal of God—144,000 were sealed from all the tribes of Israel:

from Judah 12,000

from Reuben 12,000

from Gad 12,000

from Asher 12,000

from Naphtali 12,000

from Manasseh 12,000

from Simeon 12,000

from Levi 12,000

from Issachar 12,000

from Zebulun 12,000

from Joseph 12,000

from Benjamin 12,000

Revelation 7

So first John writes about terrifying destruction. Everyone is going to be hiding. It's doom and gloom and catastrophe and calamity, terror and horror. Then John gives us a completely, totally different picture. He talks about angels. What are they doing? Holding back destruction. They are protecting—not just God's people, but the entire world. Why are they protecting the entire world? To make sure none of God's people get blasted. According to John they will keep on doing their job of protecting until all of God's people are sealed. Then John describes the angels' work of sealing God's people—certifying them. Marking them. Securing them so they won't be harmed in the cataclysm. John reports that a 144,000 people are sealed in this process.

What does this mean?

This number is not arithmetic. It is poetry. It is John's way of saying that all God's people will be sealed—marked for protection. And that most of these people are invisible to ordinary vision.

Ordinary vision sees famous people, powerful people, working people—the ones who actually generate the wealth that wealthy people control. Those are the people in view in Chapter Six.

Chapter Seven uses a different set of glasses and instead of seeing hopeless destruction, the vision in Chapter Seven sees glorious salvation. Who is saved? 144,000. Who are the 144,000? 12,000 from the tribe of Judah. Judah was the tribe of King David. The tribe whose life centered on Jerusalem. They were an important tribe, a famous tribe.

There were 12,000 from the tribe of Levi. They were also famous. They were the priests and other temple workers. In fact, even to be a janitor in the temple you had to come from the tribe of Levi.

There were 12,000 from the tribe of Benjamin. That was the tribe of Israel's first king, Saul. Not as famous of Judah and Levi, but still highly regarded in the history of Israel.

Then there were 12,000 from the tribes of Asher, Gad, Zebulun and Naphthali. The only thing these guys were famous for is not being famous! They were the nobodies. They were the “joneses” and “smiths.”

Note, in this special vision, in this view from heaven, John does not see one or two people from these “loser” tribes. There are as many people from Zebulun as there are from Judah.

In the second half of Chapter Seven, John uses language that is more understandable to us. In the first half of the chapter, John sees the people being protected and marked by the angels and he HEARS the number. The number he hears is 144,000. Then he HEARS that number divided up, 12,000 from each tribe. 12,000 from the famous tribes. 12,000 from the obscure tribes.

Then John takes a closer look. And when he LOOKS what does he SEE? He sees a huge crowd from every language and people group. It is so huge it cannot be counted. The 144,000 and the huge, uncountable crowd are the same people. John uses two different images to help us understand them. Speaking to his Jewish audience, he assures them that all Jews will be included, even those who have disappeared from human view. At the time John wrote most of the tribes he listed had been extinct for hundreds of years. But John says, no, they're not really extinct because in the heart of God they still live. Then John assures his Gentile audience that every nation, every people group, every ethnic group, people from everywhere are included in God's vision of the future. You are included.

Now, let's apply this to our own lives.

This week I listened to three different people describe their sense of being on the outside. They don't belong in church. They wrestle with a strong sense of being outsiders.

These feelings of being on the outside are perfectly understandable but they are a contradiction of the vision of God. When we feel excluded, when we imagine ourselves as the people needing to hide, we are seeing with the vision of Chapter Six. God calls us to the higher vision of Chapter Seven. God calls us to see ourselves and others through his eyes.

God's people are an astonishingly varied people.

Highly educated, highly respected professionals.

Landscape workers without papers.

People with autism.

People who did drugs and lived in a cave before experiencing a dramatic conversion and becoming an evangelist.

People who grew up Adventist, never ate meat, never did drugs and never were aware of a time in their lives when they were not part of God's family.

God's family includes us all.

In the Book of Revelation, when John surveys the earth, when he looks at the world through the eyes of Fox News or the New York Times he sees nothing but wickedness and destruction. When he looks through the eyes of heaven, he sees abundant salvation. He sees hope and cause for singing hallelujah.

I invite you to spend more time contemplating the heavenly vision and less the worldly view.

John mentions the tribes of Zebulun and Naphthali. They are famous for nothing except just this: When Matthew described the mission of Jesus, he wrote, like John using poetry:

"In the land of Zebulun and of Naphtali, beside the sea, beyond the Jordan River, in Galilee where so many Gentiles live, the people who sat in darkness have seen a great light. And for those who lived in the land where death casts its shadow, a light has shined." Matthew 4:15-16.

The mission of Jesus was to include the nobodies, the people who appeared to be extinct, the people who appeared to be beyond hope. Jesus was famous for the light of love and acceptance, not the darkness of condemnation and exclusion. Jesus' mission is our mission.