August 10, 2008
Rev. Kip Gilts

            Never underestimate the power of music.  It has the ability to lift disheartened spirits, express emotions like no other medium, encourage the anxious, and strengthen the weak.  In fact, this summer we are hearing about songs that have inspired Christians for ages – songs that have encouraged me throughout my life.

Every now and then I sit down with the hymnal and go through page by page developing a list of songs that our church simply has to sing within the next year or two.  Each time I do that, one of the first hymns to go on the list is number 73, “O Worship the King”.  The author of this hymn, Robert Grant, was born in India in 1779.  He was the son of the British director of the East India Trading Company.  Though he split time between England and India, his heart was in his birthplace.  He loved India and was greatly troubled that many Indian nationals were dying for want of proper medical care.  He worked hard to establish a reputable hospital in Bombay.   It was two years after his death that the Grant Medical College was built.  It remains a premier medical facility today.  Robert Grant also encouraged missionaries to India by funding some of their ministry and by writing hymns for them to sing – hymns that tell the wonderful story of a loving creator God who is still in control.  His most famous hymn was written to a tune that he had learned as a child, a tune composed by Johann Michael Haydn, the younger brother of Franz Joseph Haydn, “O worship the King, all glorious above, O gratefully sing God's power and God's love.”

I am sure that I have sung this song over a hundred times, but it was just this week that I really got it.  I want to show you how that happened by giving you a tour of the Bible this morning.  Last month Tammy and I had the chance to tour the Celestial Seasonings Tea Factory in Boulder, Colorado.  If you want to talk about an exciting time, don’t include this in your conversation.  We were there for a week that afternoon.  We were frequently reminded to stay with the group, lest we get lost and locked in the tea factory.  The tour guide was very good, and in spite of her less than captivating topic, I did learn one important thing about giving a tour – keep everyone together.

I want to take you on a tour this morning to a place that not many Christians visit.  It is not that this place is uninspiring, quite the contrary, it is amazing, but incredibly confusing.  So please, make sure you stay with the group as we explore what it means when we sing, “O worship the King, all glorious above, O gratefully sing God's power and God's love.”

We start at the island of Patmos in the Aegean Sea between Greece and Turkey.  It is one of the picturesque Greek Islands – now.  At the time it was more like an Alcatraz, a place for exiled prisoners.  That’s where we find the elder John, who was concerned about the world and the church.  The world seemed so unresponsive to the Christian message.  The church had lost its sense of fervor and faithfulness.  Fear, complacency, and apathy were becoming all too common among Christians.  I am sure that John felt like the Velveteen Rabbit in Margery Williams’ classic tale.  There by the trash heap about to meet his doom, the Velveteen Rabbit asked, “Of what use was it to become real, if it all ended like this?”  It was in the midst of his despair and concerns that John received the Revelation of Jesus Christ.  I can’t read the entire book of Revelation to you today, but I do want you to get a glimpse of that about which we sing.  So let’s take a brief tour of chapters 4 and 5.  Then we will gratefully sing God’s power and God’s love.  Hear now the Word of the Lord: 

¹After this I looked, and there in heaven a door stood open! And the first voice, which I had heard speaking to me like a trumpet, said, “Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this.” ²At once I was in the spirit, and there in heaven stood a throne, with one seated on the throne! ³And the one seated there looks like jasper and carnelian, and around the throne is a rainbow that looks like an emerald. ⁴Around the throne are twenty-four thrones, and seated on the thrones are twenty-four elders, dressed in white robes, with golden crowns on their heads. ⁵Coming from the throne are flashes of lightning, and rumblings and peals of thunder, and in front of the throne burn seven flaming torches, which are the seven spirits of God; ⁶and in front of the throne there is something like a sea of glass, like crystal. Around the throne, and on each side of the throne, are four living creatures, full of eyes in front and behind: ⁷the first living creature like a lion, the second living creature like an ox, the third living creature with a face like a human face, and the fourth living creature like a flying eagle.
 

Let’s stop here for a moment and catch our breath.  It is already getting kind of weird.  Remember this is a vision and John was not a teenager, so when he wrote “it was like” he was not using a popular figure of speech, he was trying to describe the indescribable.  The colors and special effects of sea of glass, flashes of lightning, and loud noises, were all indicators of majestic power.  There in a dark prison he sees the light of heaven assuring him that God is still on the throne and very much in control.  Twenty-four elders are more than likely angelic representatives of the twelve tribes of Israel and the twelve apostles of the church.  The seven spirits of God is the Holy Spirit, who John often refers to in this way.  The four living creatures seem to represent the king of the jungle, the king of domestic creatures, the king of creation, and the king of the air.  All those eyes let us know that they can see everything.  Remember to stay with the group.  Don’t gawk at their looks so much that you miss the songs.

⁸And the four living creatures, each of them with six wings, are full of eyes all around and inside. Day and night without ceasing they sing, “Holy, holy, holy, the Lord God the Almighty, who was and is and is to come.” ⁹And whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to the one who is seated on the throne, who lives forever and ever, ¹⁰the twenty-four elders fall before the one who is seated on the throne and worship the one who lives forever and ever; they cast their crowns before the throne, singing, ¹¹“You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created.”

Never underestimate the power of music.  It has the power to lift disheartened spirits, express emotions like no other medium, encourage the anxious, and strengthen the weak.  These songs sung by the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders are songs that we know, “Holy, holy, holy” and “Thou art worthy, O Lord.”  They remind us of God’s power.  They assure us that while conflicts continue to rage in Iraq, Afghanistan, and the tiny country of Georgia that God is still in control.  But there is more to this tour, more to this song.  Remember we will wind up where we will gratefully sing God's power and God's love.  The Revelation continues:

¹Then I saw in the right hand of the one seated on the throne a scroll written on the inside and on the back, sealed with seven seals; ²and I saw a mighty angel proclaiming with a loud voice, “Who is worthy to open the scroll and break its seals?” ³And no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll or to look into it. ⁴And I began to weep bitterly because no one was found worthy to open the scroll or to look into it. ⁵Then one of the elders said to me, “Do not weep. See, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered, so that he can open the scroll and its seven seals.”
 

This is the part that always gets me.  John was so close.  In that scroll were our destiny, God’s victory, and the end of grief, anxiety, fear, and pain.  But there was no one capable of opening it – no one worthy.  John must have thought that nothing was ever going to change.  It will always be as it is now.  Then in the midst of despair, hope was reborn.  The Lion of the tribe of Judah was announced.  I am confident that John looked expecting to see C. S. Lewis’ Aslan, the great lion in Narnia, but instead look at what he saw: 

⁶Then I saw between the throne and the four living creatures and among the elders a Lamb standing as if it had been slaughtered, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth. ⁷He went and took the scroll from the right hand of the one who was seated on the throne. ⁸When he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell before the Lamb, each holding a harp and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.  

Please be careful to stay together on this tour.  This is where I have lost people before.  They started staring at the horns, the eyes, and the wound so much that they missed the Messiah.  Remember all hope was lost, John was weeping because of it, but when he turned to see the Lion, he saw the Lamb.  God himself was broken so that we could become whole.  O gratefully sing God’s power and God’s love.  As the lamb takes the scroll the concert moves toward a crescendo:

⁹They sing a new song: “You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slaughtered and by your blood you ransomed for God saints from every tribe and language and people and nation; ¹⁰you have made them to be a kingdom and priests serving our God, and they will reign on earth.” ¹¹Then 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, ¹²singing 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!” ¹³Then 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!” ¹⁴And the four living creatures said, “Amen!” And the elders fell down and worshiped.  

This is the word of God for the people of God.  Thanks be to God. 

           Could you see it? Could you see the ever expanding circle?  Beginning in chapter four the four living creatures sing, “Holy, Holy, Holy”.  Then the twenty –four elders sing, “You are worthy for you created”, then the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders sing to the Lamb, then they are joined by thousands and thousands of angels singing, “Worthy is the Lamb”, then they are joined by every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth who sing to God the Father and the Son.  The four living creatures shout, “Amen!” and the twenty-four elders bow in worship. 

           Never underestimate the power of music.  These two chapters give us a picture of God’s power and God’s love.  They reveal a God who creates and a God who redeems.  They make Robert’s Grant hymn come alive. 

Never underestimate the power of music.  The five songs of Revelation 4-5 remind us that God creates, God redeems, and God is still in control.  The five verses of Robert Grant’s hymn, “O Worship the King” assure us of God’s power and God’s love, that God can and that God cares.  “O worship the King, all glorious above, O gratefully sing God's power and God's love.” Let us sing like the angels in Revelation 5:11-12, with full voice.  Our hymn is number 73, O Worship the King.  Amen.