From Every Tribe and Language

“From Every Tribe and Language” – Acts 9:36-43; Psalm 23; Revelation 7:9-17; John 10:22-30

I looked, says John the Revelator, and I saw standing before the throne of God and the Lamb a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, robed and with palm branches in their hands. They cried out in a loud voice, ‘Salvation belongs to our God who is seated on the throne, and to the Lamb!”

In his vision, John the Revelator sees the throne of God and the Lamb in heaven, and before the throne is a great multitude that cannot be counted, coming from every nation, all tribes, all peoples, and all languages. That, John says, is what he has been shown that heaven will be like. A countless multitude from every nation, all tribes, all peoples, and all languages.

When you hear this vision, this promise of where the universe is going, this glimpse into the good future that God has in store for all of creation, what is your reaction? How does it sit with you, to hear what John the Revelator, at least, believes to be in the process of coming to pass? How do you react when you hear this word?

Personally, I have two different reactions to this promise. One or the other of them comes to mind, depending on what kind of day I’m having. One of the reactions that I have to this passage is relief, because if all tribes and all peoples and all languages will be present in the Kingdom, that means my people are going to be there. My tribe, the people who speak my language, the people I understand and who understand me, we are going to be there. Which means I don’t have to become somebody else – I don’t have to join another tribe or learn somebody else’s language or become somebody different in order to belong before the throne of God.

And if you have ever felt like you don’t belong, this is good news for you. If you’ve ever felt that people like you are not welcome among God’s people, John’s vision says you don’t have to worry – that people like you are going to be there. Your tribe, your people, the people who speak your language, are fully part of God’s vision for resurrection and life, and so you can be confident that your whole self, your identity, your way of seeing the world, the people you feel at home with, you are welcome, you are included, you are part of God’s redeemed humanity exactly as you are.

Maybe you’ve never worried about this – but I have, and I know a lot of people do. A lot of us have been taught that there are parts of us that are unacceptable and that we need to hide or move beyond in order to be accepted. We come from the wrong background, we come from the wrong family, or the families that we have or want to have are wrong. When we say how we perceive the world, how we see things, what our experiences have led us to believe, people look at us like we’re speaking a foreign language, so we learn to police our expressions and opinions in order to fit in, to be respectable.

This happens a lot in society, at work or at school, and especially in the church. Even today, when I meet church people, I still find myself holding back – how much of my story is going to be accepted here, how much of my beliefs are going to be welcome here, how much of me really belongs here? I know I tend to hold back, to try to get the lay of the land before I risk actually being myself, because my default assumption is that people like me probably aren’t welcome here. And I can see that a lot of people who visit a new congregation have the same hesitancy, the same wariness – because they are afraid, often for good reason, that they might not be welcome as the people they actually are.

And so the good news of the book of Revelation is that – no matter who you are, no matter what your tribe or language, no matter what experiences have shaped you, no matter what in the Christian tradition appeals to you or puts you off, no matter how you identify or who you love, you are welcome at the throne of God and your people are going to be there. And here at Epiphany we try, as best we know how, to reflect that welcome in our community too. And there are days when, even as a pastor, I need to be reassured of this promise. I need to hear the good news that I and my tribe belong here.

But on other days, there’s another aspect of this passage that I need to hear even more. Because if all tribes and nations and languages will be present at the throne of God and the Lamb, not only will my tribe and people and language be represented, but so will everybody else’s. Including the peoples who feel very alien to me, the people I just don’t understand – even if they’re speaking English, their background and life experiences are so different from mine we just talk past one another – they are just as much part of the countless throng before the throne as me and my people are.

We are different and we speak different languages and yet we are both just as welcome, just as included – I don’t have to learn their ways or speak their language or forget my experience or abandon my perspective. But they don’t have to learn my ways, or speak my language, or forget their experiences or abandon their perspectives to be included either. So the thing that I do need to do is to learn to live together with them – to stand with them before the throne of God, each one of us praising God in our own language and yet doing so with one voice. And that’s not easy to do.

Even something as simple as Mother’s Day gets really complicated when you stop and think about all of the different ways people experience a day like this. For some families it’s a day of joy and celebration, and for families being together and showing Mom how much she’s loved and cared for. For other families, where mother and child have been separated by death or distance, this can be a difficult day when the pain of absence is felt especially powerfully. For people who would like to be mothers but for whatever reason haven’t been able to, it can be a day of grief. For people whose families have been broken in some way, Mother’s Day can be a confusing time of mixed emotions.

I always find days like Mother’s Day to be somewhat complicated as a pastor, because I recognize that there are people here today in all of these groups, some more than one. I hope that those who are happy on Mother’s Day have a happy and joy-filled celebration today, while acknowledging and giving space to those whose feelings today are different. And I hope that people for whom today is difficult aren’t pushed into themselves by all the celebration going on around them, but that their feelings and experiences are honored and respected, that they can appreciate the joy that others feel today and rejoice with them without denying the other emotions this day brings them. It is not easy to bridge the gap between peoples of different experiences, even on something as relatively simple as Mother’s Day – many of the other ways people are divided are far more complicated and far more conflicted. Yet this is what it means to be a redeemed people – for there to be room for everyone no matter what tribe or people or language they come from, whether we can understand them or not.

This was brought home to me this week in a reflection by the theologian Chris Green on today’s psalm, Psalm 23. He was speaking about a verse in the psalm that has always confused me, “You prepare a table for me in the presence of my enemies.” I’ve never understood that – God prepares a table for me, invites me to share in a feast, in the presence of my enemies. What am I supposed to do with these enemies who are watching me as I sit down to the table that God has prepared for me. Am I supposed to ignore them? Should I look at them and say, “Na-na-na-na, I got the table, you have to watch, ptttthh!” That doesn’t seem right.

Chris Green suggests that it’s because God hopes that we will find ourselves able to make room at the table for our enemies – just as God has made room at the table for us, while we were still God’s enemies. If our place at the table is solely the gift of a gracious and merciful God, then we can be gracious and merciful and make room for others too, even our enemies. And if that’s too difficult, we can start with those who are merely different.

For everyone who has come to know and love God has heard the voice of Jesus the Good Shepherd, calling to them in a way that they can recognize, in their own language, in their own context, fully respecting their experience and unique personhood, just as we have heard the voice of the Shepherd calling to us.