All Peoples and Languages--May 12, 2025

All Peoples and Languages--May 12, 2025

"After 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. They cried out in a loud voice, saying,

 'Salvation belongs to our God who is seated on the throne, and to the Lamb!'” (Revelation 7:9-10)

A mentor of mine from decades ago used to insist that his congregation periodically learn hymns and sing songs in other languages written by saints in other countries and from other cultures, because "We'll all have to learn the words one day in glory."  Even now, decades later, that advice has stayed with me and still makes me smile at the thought.

Of course, he knew he was saying it with his tongue a little bit in his cheek. He wasn't worried that there would be some kind of divine punishment for not knowing the Swahili lyrics to "We are Marching in the Light of God" (Siyahamba), and he didn't mean to make anybody afraid and starting out in heaven with demerits for not having taken enough language classes in school. But there is something necessary and vitally true about remembering that the people who gather in the presence of God come from "every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages," and that they will not all speak English.  It is worth that God is not just interested in saving "Me and My Group First." And it is important--if also humbling--to realize that people who look, speak, and think like me may well be just a small minority of the "great multitude that no one could count" who are centered on Christ the Lamb in glory.

That realization is probably both comforting and provocative at the same time.  These words come from the book of Revelation, which many of us heard in worship this past Sunday. And I'll admit that when I hear them, I feel both embraced and disarmed simultaneously.  It is a deep word of hope to hear the assurance that the assembly of God's people in glory will be so numerous that no one could ever count them all.  But it is also a humbling thing to be reminded--by someone who has glimpsed the heavenly throne room first-hand in the Scriptures, no less--that the guest list won't just be limited to people I approve of, people I agree with, people who speak my language, or people from my culture.  It is a much-needed corrective for many of us, to hear that heaven isn't simply defined as "whatever things I liked most about earth," but rather, "the gathering of all peoples, all languages, and all cultures" before the God who has redeemed us all.

I say that because I don't know how many times I have heard people describe heaven as their own personal reward that must be filled with their favorite things, as though the point of heaven were merely individual wish-fulfillment.  "It won't be heaven for me unless there's good fishing!" I've heard.  Or, "I picture heaven as a long walk in the woods by myself, because that's when I feel most at peace in life now."  Or even, "I can't stand the idea of heaven being one unending church service where we sing forever beside other people--if it's like that, I'm not sure I want to go."  Sometimes I've even heard people confess which particular other people they don't want to see in heaven, and how they don't want to go if it would mean having to live beside or potentially cross paths with "that person" or "those people."  And of course, that whole way of thinking is glaringly self-centered, as though I am the center of what heaven is about, rather than the God revealed in Jesus.

This passage from Revelation reminds us that I am ultimately not the center of the picture... and neither are you... and neither, it turns out, is our particular group, whether we label ourselves "Americans" or "Lutherans" or "Protestants" or "Catholics" or "folks with my values" or "members of my political party" or "conservative" or "progressive." And as John the narrator of Revelation makes it abundantly clear, it is the living God, made known in Jesus the Lamb, who is both the center of all things and the One in charge of the guest list.  The moment we think that God only cares about the interests of the United States, or English-speakers, or people who look like me, is the moment it is clear we have missed the point and lost the plot of the whole story of the Bible.

In fact, this scene from Revelation 7 isn't really saying anything different from the visions of prophets like Isaiah, who wrote more than five hundred years before even Jesus' ministry.  Isaiah is constantly giving us pictures of "all nations" being drawn to worship God and learn God's covenant ways of justice and mercy (see Isaiah 2).  He talks about God throwing a party for "all peoples" at which faces from every land and people will be invited to a feast and will have their tears wiped away by the hand of the living God (see Isaiah 25).  He talks about old enemies being reconciled so that they can be gathered into one, and even of a whole new heaven and earth being created, where all can live in peace in the presence of God.  In other words, John's vision in Revelation isn't a one-off or a strange exception; John shows us that God is doubling down on the already-announced diverse and inclusive vision of all nations and languages being gathered together in glory.  

Now, once we have heard John (or Isaiah, or the other such visionaries of the Scriptures) tell us that God is drawing an innumerably large gathering from every language and nation, we can't just push that notion off into the future as a dream for a distant future. It becomes our way of life now.  When John first wrote down the visions (and musical numbers) that we now call the Book of Revelation, the early church was still figuring out for itself who and what it really was.  The very first disciples of Jesus were all ethnically Jewish and all basically came from places within a fifty mile radius; but soon enough, people from distant nations, diverse languages, and strikingly different cultures began to follow Jesus and join the community of the church.  And that was not always easy--in fact, it was often a real challenge to make sure that nobody got pushed to the margins as unimportant or "not really our kind of people." Go ahead and read Paul's letters to see just how often the tensions between Judean and Gentile groups flared up enough that he had to remind his readers that they were all brought into the humanity God was making in Christ, and that the old "dividing wall" had been pulled down.  So even while John writes Revelation, closer to the end of the first century, there were the growing pains of a community that had moved beyond the single site of Jerusalem to a sprawling web of fledging congregations across the eastern Mediterranean.  There was the question of whether they really could all belong to the people of God, even if people in, say, Corinth, never got the chance to meet the members in Laodicea or Capernaum.  And John here insists, yes, they all belonged, because in fact, they were all part of an even larger collection of people from even further away and even more distinct cultures, tribes, and tongues.  To hear Revelation tell it, there was--and is--no room for racism, ethnic prejudice, or language requirements among the people of God.  God has not made a mistake in gathering people from every tribe and tongue; it is deliberately God's choice to do so.  From God's vantage point, you belong not because of where you were born or where you came from, but because Christ the Lamb has claimed you.

And apparently, God is not worried at all about being overrun by too many different groups to care for, overwhelmed by too many needs, or overtaken by too many people.  The scene here in Revelation is not one of chaos, where God scrambles to find room for all the nations gathering, or where God has to round people up and remove them from the throne room because they don't know the language for the words of the heavenly praise songs.  Rather, God is glorified by the presence of all these peoples, nations, and groups.  Their diversity by itself exalts God as the Lord of all peoples and all creation, rather than being just a tribal deity or local god.  If we take that seriously, it will change our priorities, too.  And it will change the way we treat other people, especially those who come from different backgrounds, ethnicities, home countries, or cultures.  God isn't interested in a homogenous group of cookie-cutter people, but in assembling all peoples and all nations... even if that means we all have to learn each other's languages to sing their songs.

Lord Jesus, enable us to see our place among the vast multitude of your beloved from every people, time, and place.