April 25, 2010

Blood Stains

Psalm 100: 1-5 and Revelation 7:9-17

Preached by Linda Jo Peters ~ April 25, 2010

Baptism of Faith Ellison and

Dedication of the Food Pantry addition

Open house and potluck dinner after worship

INTRODUCTION TO SCRIPTURE


Psalm 100 (read responsively)
The psalms were written over many centuries, stretching from the days of Solomon's temple (about 950 BC) to after the Exile (about 350 BC.) There are five types psalms but sometimes they are a blending of hymns of praise, laments, thanksgiving, royal hymns, and wisdom. This particular psalm may have been used for the Festival of Booth at the time of harvest so a song of Thanksgiving is most appropriate on the day we give thanks and dedicate our Food Pantry.

1 Make a joyful noise to the LORD, all the earth.
2 Worship the LORD with gladness; come into his presence with singing.
3 Know that the LORD is God. It is he that made us, and we are his; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.
4 Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise. Give thanks to him, bless his name.
5 For the LORD is good; his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations.

Revelation 7:9-17
Theologically, the book of Revelation addresses human suffering in the world, the mystery of divine providence, judgment of evil, and victory. In other words, this apocalyptic text speaks a word about tribulation (trouble) in the world, but in John’s vision a great multitude to numerous to count stands before the throne as a witness that trouble does not always last. Trouble does not have the last word!


9After 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. 10They cried out in a loud voice, saying, “Salvation belongs to our God who is seated on the throne, and to the Lamb!” 11And 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, 12singing, “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen.”


13Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, “Who are these, robed in white, and where have they come from?” 14I 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. 15For 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. 16They will hunger no more, and thirst no more; the sun will not strike them, nor any scorching heat; 17for 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.”


SERMON
Have you ever tried to get dried blood out of your clothes? It is one of the toughest stains to remove. The graphic artist, Paul Lee created a design which is a Tide box with the words "Blood of the Lamb" on the front.  To me it speaks to the mind bending idea that clothes rolled in blood would come out white as snow. John’s revelations have an obsessive fix on blood and how it represents not only death but life as well. Of course, the blood he is talking about is the blood of Christ.

Presbyterians have a Book of Order and a Book of Confessions. In the Confessions there is an ancient catechism of the Reformed Faith. The Heildelberg Catechism was written 1592. It has some simple questions about baptism in which Christ’s blood figures predominately.

Of Holy Baptism

Question 69. How art thou admonished and assured by holy baptism, that the one sacrifice of Christ upon the cross is of real advantage to thee?
Answer: Thus: That Christ appointed this external washing with water, adding thereto this promise, that I am as certainly washed by his blood and Spirit from all the pollution of my soul, that is, from all my sins, as I am washed externally with water, by which the filthiness of the body is commonly washed away.


Question 70. What is it to be washed with the blood and Spirit of Christ?

Answer: It is to receive of God the remission of sins, freely, for the sake of Christ's blood, which he shed for us by his sacrifice upon the cross; (a) and also to be renewed by the Holy Ghost, and sanctified to be members of Christ, that so we may more and more die unto sin, and lead holy and unblamable lives.


Question 71. Where has Christ promised us, that he will as certainly wash us by his blood and Spirit, as we are washed with the water of baptism?
Answer: In the institution of baptism, which is thus expressed: "Go ye, therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost", Matt.28:19. And "he that believeth, and is baptized, shall be saved; but he that believeth not, shall be damned.", Mark 16:16. This promise is also repeated, where the scripture calls baptism "the washing of regenerations" and the washing away of sins.


Question 72. Is then the external baptism with water the washing away of sin itself?
Answer: Not at all: for the blood of Jesus Christ only, and the Holy Ghost cleanse us from all sin.


Question 73. Why then does the Holy Ghost call baptism "the washing of regeneration," and "the washing away of sins"?
Answer: God speaks thus not without great cause, to-wit, not only thereby to teach us, that as the filth of the body is purged away by water, so our sins are removed by the blood and Spirit of Jesus Christ; but especially that by this divine pledge and sign he may assure us, that we are spiritually cleansed from our sins as really, as we are externally washed with water.


Question 74. Are infants also to be baptized?
Answer: Yes: for since they, as well as the adult, are included in the covenant and church of God; and since redemption from sin by the blood of Christ, and the Holy Ghost, the author of faith, is promised to them no less than to the adult; they must therefore by baptism, as a sign of the covenant, be also admitted into the Christian church; and be distinguished from the children of unbelievers as was done in the old covenant or testament by circumcision, instead of which baptism is instituted in the new covenant.


You can see the powerful connections the church has affirmed between the blood of Christ and baptism. Faith today was washed in the blood of Christ. Not because there was blood in the font, but because of the intention of her parents and the church is that she be part of the family of God. The blood stain that comes with baptism is not red but white. Because of her baptism, Faith will have access to Christ’s redeeming action in his death and resurrection for all of her life and into eternal life, where God will wipe away every tear from her eyes. Amen.

See: Lewis Brogdon, Jr., Guest Lectionary Commentator, Ph.D. Student in Renewal Studies at Regent University, Virginia Beach, VA Sunday, November 1, 2009
See: The Book of Confessions, published by the Presbyterian Church (USA) or see: http://www.reformed.org/documents/heidelberg.html which shows all the Scripture references for each answer.