Sermon: Wittenberg Academy – Dec 17 (Daniel the Prophet and the Three Young Men)

17 December 2019

Text: Rev 5:1-14

In the name of + Jesus.  Amen.

This part of John’s revelation of Jesus keeps repeating the word “worthy.”  There is a scroll to be opened, that is, there are prophecies to be fulfilled.  But history is at an impasse because there is no-one worthy to “open the scroll and break its seals.”  For four hundred years after the last prophets of the Old Testament, there was this sense of being stuck in history, waiting for the Messiah, the worthy One, to come and bring history to its fulfillment.

And even today, we have been in a kind of long advent for nearly two millennia expectantly waiting for the worthy One to return, to crack open the last book of history, and bring us to eternity. 

For we know that we are unworthy.  Even the greatest of all human beings, those who have achieved greatness in the realms of ideas and technology, or even great saints of the church whose faith was steadfast even unto death – all of humanity is unworthy, and cannot bring us to eternity.  All but One, that is.

“Weep no more,” says one of the elders in John’s vision, “behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered, so that He can open the scroll and its seven seals.”

Jesus has conquered.  He has vanquished sin, death, and the devil.  He has destroyed the power of the grave and brought the Gospel to bear on the unforgiving and unmerciful Law.  This is His work on the cross.  And so we gather around the reading of the Scroll, with music and songs of praise, with incense and prayers, singing “worthy is the Lamb,” and participating in His blood by which we are ransomed.  And this is the Church gathered in the Divine Service, those unworthy ones made worthy “from every tribe and language and people and nation.”  We join with angels and archangels and the whole company of heaven – including the “four living creatures” who say “Amen” as they “fell down and worshiped.” 

Worthy is the Lamb, now and even unto eternity!  Amen!

In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.