BROADCASTS.com

And they sang a new song, saying:

\u201cYou are worthy to take the scroll
\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0and to open its seals,
because you were slain,
\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0and with your blood you purchased for God
\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0persons from every tribe and language and people and nation.
You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God,
\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0and they will reign on the earth.\u201d

\xa0

This is the familiar song of the faith: saved and forgiven through the blood of Jesus.\xa0 But perhaps the other pictures of blood in the book of Revelation are less familiar to us, even though they match in lock step the concerns of Deuteronomy we heard about yesterday.

Some of us trip over the fact that Jesus had to die and shed his blood for us to be forgiven and free and for the kingdom of God to come.\xa0 Why this gruesome image and action?\xa0 Perhaps we\u2019ve just lived in the privilege of peace for so long so as to forget the depths of human sin and evil that still plague so much of the world.\xa0

I was reminded in a conversation with a pastor of a non-white congregation once, that for those who have long suffered persecution, racism, and flagrant injustice even into lynchings and death: justice demands something more radical than an apology.\xa0 In places where the church has been persecuted through generations, in places where entire populations have been subjected to dictators and other forms of tyrannical regimes, in places where the death of the innocent is commonplace: in these places, the cry for justice means more than a few cheery words.\xa0

If the Gospel is to truly be good news in the lives of these who have been brutalized, abused, persecuted, and killed: then some harsh and bloody realities of human sin and mortality need facing down.\xa0 It is in this context that the cries of Revelation, Chapter 6 make sense.\xa0 John says:

\u201cI saw under the alter the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God and the testimony they had maintained.\xa0 They called out in a loud voice, \u2018How long, Sovereign Lord, holy and true, until you judge the inhabitants of the earth and avenge our blood?\u2019\u201d\xa0

As noted yesterday: the blood of the innocent still speaks, even when we privileged people seek to avoid hearing it.\xa0 God does hear it though: that\u2019s the comforting word that the book of Revelation still brings to those oppressed today.\xa0

But it\u2019s not the only good word found in Revelation: the Lamb who was slain also speaks.\xa0 The blood of the innocent Christ conquered sin, evil, and death, putting it to death in his death.\xa0 This good word spoken by the blood of Christ finally means justice and freedom for the oppressed.\xa0 But it also means justice and freedom for the oppressors: the kings of the earth are judged and their deeds cut down by the sharp word of Christ\u2014but these same kings come, forgiven, bringing their splendor into the New Jerusalem as an offering to the one who sits on the throne.

The blood of Christ and the Lamb Slain are not pretty pictures, but they are evidence that God has taken the situation of all humanity seriously, and deals with it fully and finally, bringing both justice and peace.\xa0 So the song: \u201cwith your blood you purchased for God persons from every\u2026\u201d station and diversity of humanity.\xa0 Oppressed and oppressors alike.\xa0 Amen.\xa0 Worthy is Christ.\xa0 \xa0\xa0

\xa0