A Great Multitude
Rev. Mark Schaefer
Kay Spiritual Life Center
May 2, 2004
Acts 9:36-43; Revelation 7:9-17
Acts 9:36-43 ¶ Now in Joppa there was a disciple whose name was Tabitha, which in Greek is Dorcas. She was devoted to good works and acts of charity. At that time she became ill and died. When they had washed her, they laid her in a room upstairs. Since Lydda was near Joppa, the disciples, who heard that Peter was there, sent two men to him with the request, “Please come to us without delay.” So Peter got up and went with them; and when he arrived, they took him to the room upstairs. All the widows stood beside him, weeping and showing tunics and other clothing that Dorcas had made while she was with them. Peter put all of them outside, and then he knelt down and prayed. He turned to the body and said, “Tabitha, get up.” Then she opened her eyes, and seeing Peter, she sat up. He gave her his hand and helped her up. Then calling the saints and widows, he showed her to be alive. This became known throughout Joppa, and many believed in the Lord. Meanwhile he stayed in Joppa for some time with a certain Simon, a tanner.
Rev. 7:9 ¶ After this I looked, and there was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, robed in white, with palm branches in their hands. They cried out in a loud voice, saying, “Salvation belongs to our God who is seated on the throne, and to the Lamb!” And all the angels stood around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, singing, “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen.”
¶ Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, “Who are these, robed in white, and where have they come from?” I said to him, “Sir, you are the one that knows.” Then he said to me, “These are they who have come out of the great ordeal; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. For this reason they are before the throne of God, and worship him day and night within his temple, and the one who is seated on the throne will shelter them. They will hunger no more, and thirst no more; the sun will not strike them, nor any scorching heat; 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, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”
I. INTRODUCTION
So, I got a call from the Pope the other day. Apparently Christianity is looking for a new slogan and they were calling around to various people looking for ideas. The committee that they had set up to come up with the slogans had not been doing very well. The best that they had come up with was “Hey, we might be right.” They didn’t think this would impress a lot of people so they were calling around to different people.
The Pope said that he’d called a lot of people before he got to me so he wasn’t expecting a lot. Apparently, the best slogan he’d heard all day was “Christianity: The Other White Meat”—but he didn’t even understand what that was supposed to mean. So I told him I’d think about it. Try to come up with some ideas. So far I’ve come up with the following:
Christianity: It’s Apostle-tastic!
We’re not another –ism: we’re an -ity
I’m not really pleased with those. They don’t seem much better than Hey, we might be right. So, I’m not sure that they’ll go for them. But I do have one slogan that I came up with that I kind of like: Christianity: It’s not about you.
I actually really like that one. I don’t know if they’ll accept it, but I think it’s one of those messages that ought to get out more. There are an awful lot of Christians out there who seem to think that Christianity is an individual enterprise. Maybe It’s not about you would be a good message to hear.
II. TEXT
As surprising as it is to discover, the Bible doesn’t really talk a lot about faith as an individual enterprise. To be sure, there are individual relationships with God, individual conversations, individual callings, but there isn’t really a lot of talk of individual salvation. That’s an idea that owes itself more to American Protestantism than to Jesus or the Jewish theology out of which Christianity came.
The reading we read earlier from the book of Revelation shows us this. Revelation is—to most people’s surprise—a very Jewish book in its theology of salvation. The author, known to us only as John of Patmos, is a Christian, but clearly a Jewish Christian in his understanding of many things, particularly his understanding of salvation. Listen again to how he describes the vision he is given of the end:
After this I looked, and there was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, robed in white, with palm branches in their hands. They cried out in a loud voice, saying, “Salvation belongs to our God who is seated on the throne, and to the Lamb!” And all the angels stood around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, singing, “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen.”
III. A GREAT MULTITUDE
“There was a great multitude that no one could count…” St. John the Divine describes for us a vision of collective salvation. Where we are all saved together, as a people—clothed in white the color of victory. A great multitude.
For some reason it’s hard for us to remember that. We can become fixated on the idea that salvation is individual and be content to say “I’ve got mine”. What scripture so often tells us is that we sink or swim together. Being saved is something we do together—not apart from one another. It’s not a race or a competition—there is no shortage of grace. There is an abundance of grace and God wills to save us as a people. As the multitude cry in the vision of St. John “salvation belongs to our God… and to the Lamb!” It doesn’t belong to us, it is given to us through grace.
So great is the number of those saved that it was a number that “no one could count”—a great multitude. There are a lot of multitudes in the Bible–this is the most mutitudinous multitude. And what’s even more interesting is that the multitude is “from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages”—an incredibly diverse multitude. Every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages. Now let me ask you: do you think that all those people look alike? Do you think that they all act alike? That they all have the same opinions on things? That they all voted for the same candidates? Watched the same television shows? Rooted for the same sports team? Formulated their beliefs in exactly the same way?
No, the multitude is made up of people that are just like us: different from one another but united in God. We are the great multitude of believers, united in our diversity because we are united in God. We are invited to be a part of this multitude that no one can count. Such a great number that there is room for us. This will not be something that will happen to us singly—but happens to us together, as a people of God.
IV. GRADUATION
In a way, there is no reason that we should expect it to be otherwise. There are very few things that we do in life alone. Maybe play solitaire. But someone else had to make the cards, so, even that is something that we do with someone else’s help. In fact, most of the time we find that we are part of multitudes. There are other multitudes that we belong to.
Our seniors here today, are finishing up their times in college. This particular class is special to me since we both arrived at AU at the same time. It will be hard for me to imagine this place without them. Joe warned me about that when I first started working here: “The worst part is that they leave.” Yeah.
And those who are leaving have gone through a powerful experience. I won’t pretend that it’s exactly the same as the “great ordeal” that St. John describes. But it’s not nothing. You do a lot of self-searching in college. A lot of figuring out who you are—whether you are in fact the person your parents and teachers always told you you were. Those of you here have done that as part of a community of faith—seeking to have a sense of who you were as individuals connected with the great multitude of Christians who have gone on before.
And now you go out into the world—some on to work, some on to graduate study—joining the great multitude of all those who have gone on before you. All the alumni of this institution, all those who have gone through college themselves. You go on to the next major step in being a young adult and in so doing join the ranks of millions who have gone on before.
You’re going to go out and get your first real apartment—largely free of posters on the wall. You’re going to become overly acquainted with the 40 hour workweek—maybe some of you know about that already—but now you’ll get to know it with only 2 weeks of vacation a year. You’re going to pay taxes—you won’t believe how much you’re going to pay in taxes. You’re going to do a lot of things that are new and exciting. But you won’t be the first. You will be boldly going where many have gone before.
And that should be a comfort for you. To know that this new stage in life does not present impossible expectations. Many others have survived outside of college, and so will you. Many others have graduated without knowing what exactly they will do and done alright, and so will you. Many others have gone on to graduate school and succeeded, and so will you. You will be walking in the paths of so many who have gone before, that the footprints are still visible upon the road.
And as you enter that great multitude, you can remember one thing: you are already members of a great multitude of the people of God. Whatever comes next—and this goes for those who are leaving and for those who remain—we enter into it already part of a people of faith. A great multitude that no one can count, of diverse nationality, ethnicity, language, culture, belief, opinion. Yet bound together by faith in a God and in God’s grace.
A campus ministry really only serves one purpose: to help students to see their lives as part of and in the context of a community of faith. During the years we are in college, this community has tried to be that community. A place where you find your friends, a place where you can channel your activism, a place to help you to see yourself as part of something greater, as part of God’s people—to know that the things you are studying and learning and working toward are part of your Christian identity, not separate from it.
Those of you graduating who aren’t staying here for graduate school or work, will no longer be a regular part of this community. But this community will always be a part of you. And though you may not be participating in this particular community, you are nevertheless part of the community of all the faithful, stretching across the miles and across the ages. Never forget that you are part of that multitude, that you are a child of God and part of God’s family, even as you move from one multitude to another, moving through the various stages of life.
It is a community of love, a community of fellowship, a community called to eat around a common table, to bear each other’s burdens, to share each other’s joys.
V. CONCLUSION
As we look ahead, there are always uncertainties that are part of life. For my part: I don’t know if in the end they’ll take my slogan. I think it’s a pretty good one. But whether they do or not, it’s good for me to remember that it’s not about me. Our salvation is about God. Not my merit or worth. Not my ability. Not my having successfully done anything or thought anything. It’s simply about God’s grace offered to us through his Son Jesus Christ freely. There for the taking. It’s good for me to remember that I am part of that great multitude, of those who have gone on before me and those who will come after me. It gives me a little perspective, and it gives me a lot of hope.
We will belong to a number of different multitudes throughout our lives. But first and foremost, we are part of that great innumerable multitude that God has called us to be a part of. No matter where we are, no matter what stage of life, God invites us, together, to be the people of God.
