mavrokefalooAfter this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. And they cried out in a loud voice: “Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.”
(Revelation 7:9-10, NIV)
Every nation, tribe, people and language
And they cried out
They cried out
This passage from Revelation has been on my mind and heart. As I read the news and ponder what is happening with the protests and with the pandemic, I keep hearing these lines – Every nation, tribe, people and language – And they cried out – They cried out –
What will it look like? What will it look like for every nation, tribe, people and language to gather before the throne of our God? What will it sound like for us to cry out? And why does it matter for us to have a vision of this?
I have this memory of being a young girl and I was helping my mother at the Greek Orthodox Church where I had grown up. We were doing something in the sanctuary to help out with an Ethiopian Orthodox wedding that was taking place. I remember that when the two were united at the altar, there was a loud sound of praise that erupted from the crowd – but it was unlike anything I had ever heard. The sound of their praise, the cries of rejoicing and praising God and rejoicing over the union, sounded so different from anything I had heard before that I was startled and off-set by the cultural difference in the sound.
So, imagine every nation, tribe, and people – what will it sound like? What will it sound like when we all come together and cry out with the praise for our God? What will unity sound like? I think it will sound loud and varied and, to those that like choral synchrony, grating to our preconceived notions of praising God “with one voice and one mind” (Romans 15:6).
When I think of unity, I normally think uniformed. But, I would like to challenge that thinking. I would like to propose that the Church unified is going to look diverse and is going to sound diverse and that with any single part of that diversity missing – we are not complete. Without every sound, we are crippled, or blind, or deaf – Our body is missing essential parts. How do we get to a place where when we imagine everyone crying out with different sounds, looking differently and acting differently, that image does not grate us as dissonance but is realized as unity?
And why does this matter? Why do we need a vision of this?
Because when we don’t have the proper vision of unity – when unity looks like everyone looking and sounding the same – we’ve missed it. And, when we miss it, our broken vision of unity contributes to the brokenness and inequity in the world.
We need a vision of this because Jesus cares about unity in His Church and in the world, and He is coming back for a united Bride!! (Ephesians 1:10) And He is coming back soon! (Revelation 22:20).
I don’t know about you, but I haven’t lived as though Jesus is coming back soon. I have lived my life expecting that when I am old and have lived a full life, I will go home to be with the Lord, and at that time I will see Heaven and meet Jesus face to face. But, what if, just what if, we choose to live our life with more open hands? What if we allow ourselves to live believing that He is coming soon, and that “soon” could be before you finish reading this blog, or it could be in 200 years? What if we live every day expecting that the pain and brokenness we see in the world truly are birth pains leading up to His return? (Matthew 24:6-8).
If we live every day this way, then some fundamental things will change in our walk with Him: we will desire people to know the Truth of the Gospel unlike ever before, our intimacy with the Lord will increase as we expect our marriage union with the Bridegroom in Heaven (Revelation 19:6-9), and we will have this unshakable vision of the united Church that Jesus is coming back for. If we live every day this way then we will allow ourselves to grow uncomfortable with sameness and thirst for the missing pieces of diversity.
He is coming back – for US!
So, as a virus sweeps through the world, killer hornets show up in the States, and protests sweep the globe over racial injustice – what is our place? What is the praying Church’s place? What is the place of the Church that is believing for His return for a united Bride?
