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You may be seated. This is one of the great weeks of the church year. We

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started out with Reformation Day and now we end it with all Saints. We sang the

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Lutheran National Anthem on Sunday and today we sing the lovely hymn, Oh How

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Blessed Are They. A hymn about our brothers and sisters in the faith who

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have been set free from all their weeping. So does it get any better than

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this? Well calls and internships, marvelous to celebrate. A week like this

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brings our work as seminaries and of course I include Concordia Seminary St.

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Louis and Concordia Theological Seminary in Fort Wayne in that statement. It just

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doesn't get any better. Or does it? Well it does. Today we look forward to that

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day when in the immediate presence of Christ we will experience no cross or

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sadness that can hinder untroubled gladness. Again from the hymn. Could you

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use a little untroubled gladness? Probably at this point in the semester,

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yes. Our experience is one in which all sorts of cares keep us still in

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prison as we'll shortly sing. We are still in a dungeon living. I don't think

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that means the seminary. Maybe it does. A dungeon of our own making, others making,

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professors making, but truly mostly our own. Where we are still oppressed with

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sorrow and misgiving. Our undertakings are but toils and trouble and

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heartbreaking. What a pointed summary of human life. It is so very very true and

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that's the tension in which we live as the people of God. Rejoicing in

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Reformation, All Saints, and living in the midst of the dungeons we create for

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ourselves. Before coming to Fort Wayne as a professor in 1996 I served as pastor

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of Ascension Lutheran Church in Madison Tennessee north side of Nashville. As a

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new pastor one of the things I had to decide was what will I teach in Bible

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class and I thought well I'll explain the liturgy or maybe we'll do a study of

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the Augsburg Confession but the lay people of my church being far wiser than

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their new pastor said why don't we study a book of the Bible. Now of course

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Nashville being one of the buckles on the Bible Belt, the lovely people of

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Ascension Lutheran Church wanted to study the book of Revelation. They were

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deeply deeply interested in the topic and when we scheduled it they showed up

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in mass wanting to know about the end of the world, the return of Christ, the

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rapture, the millennial kingdom, the Battle of Armageddon, and of course the

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Antichrist. Who is it pastor? All the electrifying interesting stuff of the

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book of Revelation. Well newly graduated pastor Rast, wet behind the ears, as green

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as they come, pretty much managed to disappoint every single person who

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showed up, at least initially. But as we wove our way through the book and we did

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it quickly, we didn't take six years on one chapter or that kind of thing, so we

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made our way quickly through the Revelation to St. John. A picture of the

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church and its life in Christ emerged and the people began to see themselves

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at every point in the narrative. This was a story about them and their life as the

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church. Indeed the letters to the seven churches they said every one of them is

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us, except the faithful one. Good, bad, being spewed out of the mouth, that was

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them. And they saw the cost of being a follower of Jesus in the midst of a

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world that was at best indifferent and at worst antagonistic. They saw

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themselves, but they also saw something far more important, more transformative,

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more dare I say it, electrifying even than a mysterious Antichrist or a secret

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rapture. They saw Jesus, they saw Christ caring for his church, they saw Christ

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defending his church, they saw Christ loving his church, and that transformed

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their reading of that challenging text. Many Christians are perplexed and some

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even fear the book of Revelation, they find its imagery confusing, even

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troubling, but it is one of the great books of comfort for we Christians as we

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struggle through a distressing life in the midst of the church militant. Yes the

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message can be direct and discomforting. The picture of the church under duress

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is not a pretty one and at times it is the weakness of the church's members

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itself that leads to harsh assessments that are applicable as well to us. To the

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church at Ephesus we hear, I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my

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name's sake and you have not grown weary but I have this against you that you

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have abandoned the love that you had at first. Remember therefore from where you

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have fallen repent and do the works you did at first if not I will come to you

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and remove your lampstand from its place unless you repent. And then there are the

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external threats the devil and the world. We hear of the woman and the dragon of

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Satan thrown down to earth indeed when the beast from the sea and the beast

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from the earth make their appearance it seems certain that the church will be

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overcome. This calls for wisdom writes John let the one who has an understanding

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calculate the number of the beast for it is the number of a man and his number is

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666. All hope lost unless you continue to read. It is at that point in the book of

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Revelation that the break occurs. The transforming reality imposes itself upon

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us and we catch a glimpse of the eternal realities that are already ours in

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Christ. Then I looked and behold on Mount Zion stood the Lamb and with him 144,000

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who had his name and their father's name written on their foreheads and I heard a

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voice from heaven like the roar of many waters and like the sound of loud thunder

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the voice I heard was like the sound of harpists playing on their harps and they

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were singing a new song before the throne and before the four living

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creatures and before the elders. Do you see it? This is your reality this is our

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reality in Christ because it is Christ here now among us even in our humble

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circumstances. The conquering Lamb who paid sin's price by giving his life on

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the tree of the cross stands victorious on Mount Zion. All things are under his

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feet and in repentance confession and rejoicing we marvel at the way he

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continues to achieve his purposes for we are those who follow the Lamb wherever

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he goes even as his cruciform life transforms ours. For we are those who

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have been redeemed from mankind as first fruits for God and the Lamb and in their

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mouth no lie was found for they are blameless blameless not in ourselves but

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in Christ the sinless Lamb of God. This is reality transposed over a broken

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world we see today one thing only Jesus the Lamb of God this is the reality we

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sing joyfully and confidently come Oh Christ and loose the chains that bind us

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lead us forth and cast this world behind us with you the anointed finds the soul

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its joy and rest appointed. Oh how blessed are they indeed oh how blessed

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are we. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit amen.