The Book of Revelations is a book of comfort and hope for Christians in a difficult time. Towards the end of the first century of what we now call the Christian Era, followers of Christ found themselves increasingly at odds with society around them, and with many of the directions and policies of the government in Rome. As a result, many suffered persecution, some were killed, and a number of the leaders were sentenced by the Empire to exile on the island of Patmos.
John the
Seer is one of those leaders, and on Patmos he was given an intense vision
about God and the good news of Christ persisting, and God’s kingdom coming on
Earth. In one part of the vision he sees
144,000 of the people of Israel – 12,000 of each tribe, gathered in praise
around God’s throne. In other words, he
is assured that the people of God – the covenant community, will be complete,
no matter what. And then there is
something more – something even greater, beyond that.
Oh when the saints
go marching in
When the saints go
marching in
O Lord, I want to be
in that number
When the saints go
marching in
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.”
John the Seer, one of
the early church leaders, and the whole of the Christian community around him
in their little corner of the Roman Empire, were concerned. With what they
believed, who they followed as Lord, and what they lived for, they didn’t fit easily
with society around them. They were
often at odds with the culture of their time, and sometimes openly opposed the
official policy and direction of the government in Rome.
So the government didn’t always support them in
what they did or said. Nor defend their
right to be doing it. Sometimes even tried
to suppress their mission and message.
Ordinary Christians suffered, some were killed, a number of leaders were
sentenced to exile on the island of Patmos – where John received a grand, intense
vision about the mission persisting and enduring, the powers of evil failing and
falling, and God’s kingdom coming on Earth.
He saw 144,000 of the people of Israel – 12,000 of each tribe, gathered
in praise around God’s throne – a symbolic sign that the known people of God –
the covenant community, would be complete and would not be undone no matter
what may come against them.
And then something more:
a great multitude that no one
could count,
from every nation, from all
tribes and peoples and languages,
[also] standing before the throne
and before the Lamb,
robed in white, with palm
branches in their hands,
[joining the heavenly chorus of
angels and of all Earth praising God].
He is asked by one of the elders standing
nearby, “Who are these, robed in white, and where have they come from; who are
all these other people gathered around the throne of God, celebrating God’s
kingdom come?” And John says, “I don’t know.
I’ve no idea who they are, where they have come from, or how they have
got here. You’ll need to tell me.”
Sometimes we have no idea just
how many saints there are, and or even who they are all around us.
Back in early May of this year I
read a headline in The Hamilton Spec:
“Mobster Angelo Musitano shot dead in Waterdown driveway.”
“A fatal
gangland-style hit targeting notorious mobster Angelo Musitano may be the start
of a new crime war in Hamilton,” the story began. “The Spectator has confirmed Musitano, whose
40th birthday would have been on Sunday, was gunned down in the driveway of his
Waterdown home Tuesday at about 4 p.m. Neighbours
say they heard multiple shots fired.”
It’s the kind of story you can’t help
but read. And have quick instinctive
reactions to. I felt a voyeuristic,
titillating interest the moment I saw the headline. As I read about his murder, I my head held a
moralistic, self-satisfying conclusion like “crime never pays.” As I read on about his life and death, my
heart shed a half-sympathetic tear for “what a wasted life.”
But still he was completely other and
distant from me. He was a Hamilton boy
and Waterdown neighbor; we lived in the same city but in different worlds. We had nothing in common, and I felt no real,
personal interest in him.
And then, in the second half of the
story, I read:
"Mike King, who says he has been a good friend of Ang's since meeting him at a Christian men's group several years ago, was shattered by the news… “Ang had left his past behind him,” King said emotionally. “Ang would stand up for what's right for everyone. He was a devoted father and was devoted in his faith. He was a good person.” King said Ang loved his wife dearly and was living a clean life, running a legitimate business. “He loved the Lord. He changed his life for the Lord.” Ang recently wrote a book about his life, said King, telling the story of overcoming his criminal past."
I wondered about that. Wondered how true it was.
Then almost six months later, a week
or so ago I was given a little book by John VanDuzer, titled “Are You Looking
for the Truth: I Found Him.” In it are
printed the stories of a dozen or so people – ordinary people of Hamilton,
Niagara and this part of southern Ontario who have been transformed by
encounter with God and with Jesus. They
are people who have come through addictions and heart-breaking life-journeys,
who have struggled with cancer and trauma and death, who have met God and
Christ in a hospital room, in prison, in Haiti and in the depths of despair, and
who beyond the emptiness and addictiveness of their 21st-century
life – whatever their life-ordeal was, have been changed for good and forever by
the encounter.
And Angelo Musitano’s is one of the
stories – of how in his 30’s after a life of crime, murder, imprisonment and
unhappiness he happened across a friend’s Bible, read in it about “living to
please the Lord,” (that’s the one phrase that caught him), bought a Bible for
himself, learned to pray and know himself loved by God just as he was, made
amends to God and to others, and gave his life to helping others find God and
the key to a new life as he had.
Oh when the saints
go marching in…
the parade will most
likely be bigger,
and most probably
include a lot of people we might never imagine.
Sometimes, like the followers of
Christ in the time of John and the Book of the Revelations, we fear for the
future – for our own future, anyway. When
we look around us -- at the numbers on Sunday, at the aging (and amalgamating
and closing) of churches around us, at the problems being faced by the United
Church, at the marginalization of the church and of Christianity in Canadian
society -- do we fear sometimes we may be a dying breed?
The reality is, though, there are more
than we know. An innumerable multitude
of people of all tongues and traditions and trappings, both inside and outside
the church, mostly living under the radar of news and announcements, not
blowing their horn but living their faith, transformed and changed day by day by
God and by Jesus and by their holy books.
People like Angelo Musitano.
And the question is not, how did he
become one of us? Nor is it, how do we
get to be like him? The question is, how
do any of us day by day get to be in that number – get to be part of that
multitude gathered around the throne of God, living together towards the coming
of God’s kingdom on Earth?
O Lord, I want to be
in that number
When the saints go marching in
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