Sermon Tone Analysis

Opening Greeting

“Grace and peace to you from God who is, and who was, and who is to come, and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the first-born from the dead” (Revelation 1:4, 5 ESV).

Amen.

Narrative Introduction

Seraiah, Jeremiah, Ezra, Amariah, Malluk, Hattush, Shekaniah, Rehum, Meremoth, Iddo, Ginnethon, Abijah (Nehemiah 12:1b-4).

The book of Nehemiah is filled with lists like this one.

Lists of names that we often ignore, and at least more often than not, we ask ourselves, “Why did this get included?

Why in the world is this important?

Is there really something that God is supposed to be speaking through this?

Mijamin, Moadiah, Bilgah, Shemaiah, Joiarib, Jedaiah, Sallu, Amok, Hilkiah and Jedaiah (Nehemiah 12:5-6a).

In fact, if you paid attention to your bulletin, you’ve noticed that even the lectionary skips over most of the lists.

Jeshua was the father of Joiakim, Joiakim the father of Eliashib, Eliashib the father of Joiada, Joiada the father of Jonathan, and Jonathan the father of Jaddua (Nehemiah 12:10-11).

Name after name after name…

This past week we celebrated All Saints’.

I went back to my home church in Columbus, OH, and during the Eucharist one of our pastors read off the names of those of our congregation who had departed over the last year.

Name after name after name.

I couldn’t help but cry as I remembered them.

Sometimes tears of joy that someone had passed from a long bout with cancer.

Sometimes tears of grief for someone who had died in a traumatic car accident.

But as the list continued, every person had one thing in common.

They were faithful.

Ancient Context of Nehemiah

Nearly 500 years before Jesus’ birth, the Jews are in exile in Babylon, and Nehemiah—cup-bearer to Persian King Artaxerxes himself—learns that the remnant of Jews in Judah were in distress and that the walls of Jerusalem were broken down.

So, he asks the king for permission to return and rebuild the city of David.

Artaxerxes agrees and sends him to Judah as governor of the province with a mission to rebuild, letters explaining the royal support, and even provision for timber from the king's forest.

Once there, Nehemiah defied the opposition of Judah's enemies on all sides—Samaritans, Ammonites, Arabs and Philistines—God delivered them from their enemies and Nehemiah rebuilt the walls within 52 days.

And as important as this mission of rebuilding is, the book of Nehemiah doesn’t simply give us the events themselves, but actually details lists of names, people who came with Nehemiah and rebuilt the city.

These lists are important because they are the saints.

Saints whom we need to remember.

Saints who were faithful.

And their faithfulness allowed for the fulfillment of the coming of the Messiah.

And at the dedication of the Jerusalem walls, the faithful people of God offered great sacrifices that day and rejoiced, for God had made them rejoice with great joy; the women and children also rejoiced.

And the joy of Jerusalem was heard far away (Nehemiah 12:43 ESV).

Our Calling From Revelation

We, too, are called to faithfulness.

You may have noticed that in our Revelation passage today, there’s also a lot happening: there’s angels with sickles, there’s reaping, there’s fire, there’s plagues and blood.

But there’s also a harvest.

And this harvest is of the faithful.

The saints.

An angel came out of the temple, calling with a loud voice to him who sat on the cloud, “Put in your sickle, and reap, for the hour to reap has come, for the harvest of the earth is fully ripe.”

So he who sat on the cloud swung his sickle across the earth, and the earth was reaped (Revelation 14:15-16 ESV).

Notice that it is the son of man who sits on a cloud who does the reaping.

All the saints of the earth will be collected by our savior Jesus.

What Does This Mean For Us?

So what does this faithfulness look like for us?

Well, it’s impossible to give the specifics as it will look differently for each of us, but the bottom line is that it’s answering Christ’s call and being obedient to him—allowing God to work in and through us.

For some of us, that will mean going home and ministering in the communities we came from.

For others our faithfulness will be tested fully—even unto death.

Following Christ’s reaping of the harvest, two more angels come from heaven—one of them with another sharp sickle.

And the second one says to the first:

“Put in your sickle and gather the clusters from the vine of the earth, for its grapes are ripe.”

So the angel swung his sickle across the earth and gathered the grape harvest of the earth and threw it into the great winepress of the wrath of God.

And the winepress was trodden outside the city, and blood flowed from the winepress, as high as a horse’s bridle, for 1,600 stadia (Rev.

14:18-20 ESV).

This harvest of judgment will come to a symbolic Babylon—the world which has kept God’s people in exile.

And the blood which flows is the blood of the saints—the martyrs, the innocent, Christ himself.

The faithful who understood their earthly exile and followed Christ to the end of their own lives.

Why are they thrown into the great winepress of the wrath of God (Rev.

14:19 ESV)?

Because their blood turns into God’s wrath poured out on their killers.

The martyrs didn’t die because of God’s wrath.

Rather, their blood (the wine) becomes the very wrath Babylon will drink.

The faithful saints become almost a sacrament of damnation with their very lives.

But it doesn’t end there!

An amazing thing happens.

Like in Nehemiah, after God’s wrath is given to their enemies, the saints sing praises to the Lord.

Great and amazing are your deeds, O Lord God the Almighty!

Just and true are your ways, O King of the nations!

Who will not fear, O Lord, and glorify your name?

For you alone are holy.

All nations will come and worship you, for your righteous acts have been revealed (Rev.

15:3-4 ESV).

Remembering the Saints

So, why lists?

Why remember the saints who have come before?

Perhaps the author of Hebrews gives us the best reason why when he says this:

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.

For by it the people of old received their commendation.

By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible.

By faith Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain, through which he was commended as righteous, God commending him by accepting his gifts.

And through his faith, though he died, he still speaks.

By faith Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death, and he was not found, because God had taken him.

By faith Noah, being warned by God concerning events as yet unseen, in reverent fear constructed an ark for the saving of his household.

By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance.

By faith Sarah herself received power to conceive, even when she was past the age, since she considered him faithful who had promised.

By faith Isaac invoked future blessings on Jacob and Esau.

By faith Jacob, when dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph, bowing in worship over the head of his staff.

By faith Joseph, at the end of his life, made mention of the exodus of the Israelites and gave directions concerning his bones.

By faith Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin.

By faith the people crossed the Red Sea as on dry land.

By faith the walls of Jericho fell down after they had been encircled for seven days.

By faith Rahab the prostitute did not perish with those who were disobedient, because she had given a friendly welcome to the spies.

And what more shall I say?

For time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets—who through faith conquered kingdoms, enforced justice, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, were made strong out of weakness, became mighty in war, and put foreign armies to flight.

And all these died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth.

And God provided something better for us.

(Hebrews 11 Paraphrased ESV)

The Gospel for Us

You see, we too are called to faithfulness.

Like the patriarchs and the judges, the prophets and the kings, and like Nehemiah, our faithfulness is in the hopes of the fulfilment of the coming (back) of our Messiah.