Date : Third Sunday of Easter, April 18, 2010

Text : Revelation 5:8-14

Title : Worthy!

"Worthy are you . . . for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God." Christ is risen! . . . Alleluia! . . .

For a guy who is as goofy as I am, I seem to have become quite the curmudgeon about certain things. As we sat at the bedside of my dad, there was on-going talk about how, when he got to heaven, how my brothers father-in-law would already be dancing with my mom, how Dad and his buddies would be going hunting, and all the things that folks like to talk about all of the things that we loved doing on earth and, perhaps this is where it really comes from all of the things that we can talk about to make ourselves feel better as we watch our loved one dying.

I just sat there, wondering how souls can do all this stuff, when their bodies are in the ground. The curmudgeon part comes when there's no talk of Jesus Christ.

For Dads sake, it was wonderful that the Lord had blessed him to be a Christian, and it gives a family even more confidence when they have seen their father practice the Christian faith. That said, what's the foundation of the Christian faith? The foundation is Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Its the song that the saints in heaven were singing, when God gave the revelation to John: "Worthy are you . . . for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God."

In this vision, why did God show John that everyone who was surrounding the throne was singing praises to Jesus? Its because Jesus and Jesus, alone is the reason anyone is blessed with the joy of heaven.

Only Jesus is worthy. But, here's a thing for us to learn about worthiness, and why a person would want to praise another person: there is the person and his worthiness, and then there is you knowing and believing that the person is worthy.

For the human element of this, which I will connect to our understanding of Jesus Christ, I proudly return to my father. In many ways, Dad was a typical, sinful human being. Even I am aware of some of his shortcomings. However, I am filled with pride and joy that Dads character and accomplishments are a tall oak tree which shades those few weeds.

When Dad was clearly in his last couple of hours, and I was all alone with him in the early dawn of Wednesday morning, I sang him some hymns, prayed, recited the twenty-third Psalm, blessed him with the benediction, and encouraged him to go home to the Lord Jesus. I had already told him of the many things that he had done for me, all my life, but now I repeated a few of them. To put a big bow on the gift which was his life, I told him that he showed me how to live the Golden Rule.

Dad wouldn't give you the shirt off his back; he would drench it with sweat for you. For both my brother, Tom, and me, Dad found condemned houses, which didn't cost us any more than the land on which they sat, then helped us tear them down to the studs and put them back together. I say "helped us." I know that, on my house, he worked nine hours for every ten that I worked, six days a week, for five months.

As I look back, when I think of how much time Dad sacrificed for me, and how much he taught me how to build a house, I am dumbfounded. Of course, a father might be so generous with his son, but how many will be so generous to strangers?

When I was in grade school, Dad got an inheritance. It was enough for the folks to pay off the mortgage and buy their first brand new car. What a hoot it was when Dad brought the money home and gave it to mom to hold and look at.

What I didn't know about the inheritance was the details. The man was not Dads relative. He was an old man and Dad for whom Dad did chores and odd jobs, stuff that no one else would bother with for some old duffer who meant nothing to them.

When Dads hip broke, he was doing his usual two-day-a-week volunteering at the local food bank, a food bank run by a church that's not even his own church denomination. He worked there all of the eighteen years of his retirement.

I could spend the morning talking about my dad. I have made my point. Dad lived a life which is worthy of praise. Even more, Dads family, and all of the Montague area, know about it so that they can praise him.

What we need to learn is that we represent the Lord, with how we live our lives. How easy it is for me to love God the Father, when I had an earthly father who showed me what a father is supposed to be. And, what a simple step it is for me to grasp the sacrifice that Jesus made for me, when my dad was a model of sacrifice.

When we Christians live praiseworthy lives, we help people see that Jesus Christ is, indeed, worthy of praise.

Worthy of praise. It doesn't just happen. You have to earn it. Well, that's what being a Christian is all about; its about knowing what Jesus Christ did to be worthy of praise, and then its about believing it so that you do, indeed, give Him your praise.

This hour of worship is a foretaste of the worship of all the souls of the faithful departed, that is going on in heaven, right now. Your whole life, dear ones who belong to Jesus Christ, are to be an example of this worship.

Its a song of praise to the Lamb of God, as the saints and angels are singing in heaven: "Worthy are you . . . for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God."

Your song of praise began when Jesus delivered His gifts through the proclamation of His Gospel, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. If you were baptized as an infant, as my parents had me baptized when I was nineteen days old, then it was their faith in the worthiness of Jesus Christ that led them to have you washed in the rebirth and renewal by which God gave you Jesus eternal life.

Now, a living saint, your praise of Christ's worthiness draws you to the earthly altar, which is a humble likeness of the heavenly throne from which the Lamb of God reigns over His Church. Approaching Christ's altar, just as they are doing at Christ's throne, you sing His praises: "O Christ, Thou Lamb of God, that takest away the sin of the world, have mercy upon us . . . grant us Thy peace."

You sing because Christ is worthy. Your knowledge of His saving acts, His perfect life of love, His wearing your sins in His crucifixion, and His opening up Paradise by His victorious resurrection from the dead, connects with the faith which God gave you. The knowledge and faith, from the brain and the heart, find their way to your mouth, which simply cannot help but sing the praises of Jesus Christ.

This is what you anticipate when you die, the continuation of your worship of Jesus Christ. Now, this picture of heaven only lasts until Christ returns and resurrects your bodies from the grave and recreates the earth so that heaven will reside right here, and it will be Paradise.

Then, we will have bodies so that we can dance! Then, every moment will be filled with all of the good things that we enjoy with our loved ones. And, best of all, all of us who are the children of God, will be together, never again a single goodbye forming upon our lips, and its all because of the Easter good news: Christ is risen! . . . Alleluia! . . . Amen.