“The Reign of the Lamb” Vance L. Toivonen
READING Revelation 5:11-14
Then I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels surrounding the throne and the living creatures and the elders; they numbered myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands, singing with full voice, "Worthy is the Lamb that was slaughtered to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!" Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them, singing, "To the one seated on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!" And the four living creatures said, "Amen!" And the elders fell down and worshiped.
READING 2 Corinthians 12:7b-10
Therefore, to keep me from being too elated, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me, to keep me from being too elated. Three times I appealed to the Lord about this, that it would leave me, but he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness." So, I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Therefore I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities for the sake of Christ; for whenever I am weak, then I am strong.
SERMON
Much of the news this past week revolved around the shootings in Blacksburg, West Virginia. But violence, and the use of weaponry is in the news every day. Between the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the many forms of gun violence on U.S. soil, not a day goes by that we are not reminded of the power of the pull of a trigger, or the push of a button. The world, it seems, is dominated by lions. We try not to be afraid, but our hearts do beat a little more quickly when we hear that a municipality about the size of Green Bay can become a national news story in an instant because one young man with a gun goes on a rampage.
One of the students interviewed suggested that the gun laws are too strict in Virginia, and that he would like to have been carrying a concealed weapon that day, as if that somehow would have solved the problem, or prevented the tragedy from escalating as far as it did. That we still find ourselves in a world where weaponry is a means of keeping the so-called peace suggests that we tend to orient ourselves more toward the lion-led model of kingdom and empire. Fear and power and dominance are the tools of such social orders, and in this regard nothing is new. It is as it has always been. Except for the technological changes, the world that Jesus entered was in the same way ruled by fear and power and domination. Into this world stepped an alleged king whose image was not that of a lion, but rather of a lamb. The post-Easter reign of Jesus is the reign of the lamb, and his kingdom is the polar opposite of the kingdoms of the world we live in.
The metaphor of the lamb grows out of the ritual sacrifice of ancient Hebrew Temple worship. Lambs were symbols of innocence and purity, I suppose because they were to sheep what children are to human adults. The earliest biblical example of this is the Passover story in Exodus. I read from Exodus, chapter 12, verses 1-11:
The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt: This month shall mark for you the beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year for you. Tell the whole congregation of Israel that on the tenth of this month they are to take a lamb for each family, a lamb for each household. If a household is too small for a whole lamb, it shall join its closest neighbor in obtaining one; the lamb shall be divided in proportion to the number of people who eat of it. Your lamb shall be without blemish, a year-old male; you may take it from the sheep or from the goats. You shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this month; then the whole assembled congregation of Israel shall slaughter it at twilight. They shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which they eat it. They shall eat the lamb that same night; they shall eat it roasted over the fire with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. Do not eat any of it raw or boiled in water, but roasted over the fire, with its head, legs, and inner organs. You shall let none of it remain until the morning; anything that remains until the morning you shall burn. This is how you shall eat it: your loins girded, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and you shall eat it hurriedly. It is the Passover of the Lord.
It is no coincidence that the Easter cycle, the death and resurrection of Jesus, the Lamb of God, occurs around that same time as Passover every year. But this is about far more than Jesus being simply a sacrificial lamb. The vision in Revelation places the Lamb on the throne. The Lamb of God is the ruler in this post-Easter vision. It is not a lion on the throne, with weaponry in its hands, or thunderbolts, or any other objects we might associate with power and fear. The lamb rules with open hands, still showing marks from the nails, still reminding us that we are ruled by the crucified and risen one who confronted the powers and domination systems of his day, seemingly lost the battle, and then was risen by God and placed on the throne anyway, a throne unlike any throne on this planet. From this throne flow the waters of justice and peace, equity and hope, compassion and unconditional love. These are the hallmarks of the reign of the Lamb of God.
This is why Paul can say to the church at Corinth, “I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Therefore I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities for the sake of Christ; for whenever I am weak, then I am strong.” Jesus is the model for this complete reversal of leadership in the world. We hunger for strength and domination in our leaders. We want to be guaranteed security within our borders. We want leaders who seem to be in charge, who get the job done, and who take action when action is needed. Jesus and Paul are offering a different model of leadership altogether, envisioning a world where justice and equity are the norm, and where there is then no need for domination gaming and the reversals of fortune that so often lead us to war and conflict.
Letting the geek in me show for just a moment, let me recall with you a scene from the very first Star Wars film to show on theater screens, before all the sequels carried on the saga. It is a kind of Gunfight at the OK Corral toward the end of the film where Obi Wan Kenobi, the old and wise Jedi Master faces the Dark Lord Darth Vader in a sword fight. The light sabers clash and crackle as they maneuver through the hallways of the Death Star until Obi Wan suddenly stops, withdraws his light saber, closes his eyes, centers his hands on his chest and awaits the killing blow of Vader, who swipes Obi Wan in half. The PG, mid seventies film showed no blood or gore at this point, but rather the simple brown frock of Obi Wan falling to the floor. Obi Wan was gone…or was he?
This scene was not about the violence. In fact, I believe it was precisely about Paul’s reference, that there is indeed strength in seeming weakness. For there is no stronger act that Obi Wan could have engineered that day. In the subsequent sequels Obi Wan is a guiding force, a continued presence and a source of strength for Luke Skywalker and his compatriots. Obi Wan lives! The relinquishment and the letting go result in something more profound and potent than any show of force.
We are a post-Easter people. We are called to follow the living and risen Christ, the Lamb of God who does not so much take away the sins of the world as he shows the world how to go and sin no more. We are invited to live under his reign, under his leadership, even as that leadership comes into conflict with the power and domination systems of this planet, including the power and domination systems within our own borders. The reign of the Lamb is a radical departure from the norm, but it is likely the only real path to hope and peace. May God grant us the grace and the courage to walk that path together.