Historic First Lutheran Church of Pasadena

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.

Literally this past week, I discovered the one singular sentence that unlocks all of Scripture. I did not invent this sentence. In fact, it’s probably something we all have truly known our entire lives but never stopped to actually say it. I’d like to share that sentence with you this morning, but, before I do, I want you to poke your neighbor to wake them up and then tell them, “Listen up! Pastor Schaar’s gonna say something he’s never before said in 16½ years.”

Now that we’ve got that out of the way, here’s the one singular sentence that unlocks all of Scripture: “God does not operate in space and time as we understand them.” Now say that along with me: “God does not operate in space and time as we understand them.”

Now let me show you how that sentence works.

Take our First Reading today. It would seem to most of us that St. John asked the Angel of the Apocalypse a really stupid question: “Sir, who are these and where did they come from?” [Revelation 7:13]. John had already been told by the Angel that he was about to see some awesome things. John was no dummy. He knew from Old Testament prophecy who and what would be gathered about the Heavenly Throne of the Lamb of God. So, why the question? I believe it’s because in being shown that Heavenly scene that St. John discovered that “God does not operate in space and time as we understand them.”

Who did John see standing there in white robes? He obviously saw family members who had already died. But he expected to see them there. He probably recognized Moses and Elijah from the time he had earlier seen them on the Mount of Transfiguration [Mark 9]. But he expected to see them there. He also saw his fellow disciples, all of preceded him by suffering painful deaths because of their confession of Jesus Christ. But he expected to see them there.

So, why the question, “Sir, who are these and where did they come from?” What was it about what he saw that left him so dumbfounded? I believe it’s because John discovered that “God does not operate in space and time as we understand them.” There in that white-robe-wearing crowd, St. John not only saw people he expected to see there, but he saw people he didn’t expect to see there. He saw the faces of people he had just left on earth when his Heavenly Apocalypse began, people who had not yet died. They were in that crowd. He saw the faces of people who had not yet even been born, but whom he knew and recognized as descendants of people he knew on earth. They were in that crowd. He probably saw the faces of some 21st Century Americans, maybe even some faces gathered at Historic First Lutheran Church of Pasadena on November 7, 2010. There were in that crowd.

“Sir, who are these and where did they come from?” In asking that question, John discovered that “God does not operate in space and time as we understand them.” In that Heavenly Throne Room scene, John saw Heaven – now get ready for this – as God sees Heaven, not as a slowly growing and evolving community, with new people being added daily, but as a once-and-for-all, already completed community, existing already right at this very moment as it has always existed and as it will always exist. That’s almost too much for us to comprehend, but that concept is summarized in that one singular sentence: “God does not operate in space and time as we understand them.”

That one singular sentence explains the eternal question of how God could create this entire world in seven days [Genesis 1-2]. “God does not operate in space and time as we understand them.”

That one singular sentence explains how God could lead an estimated 2 million of His people from Egypt to the Promised Land, a journey that honestly is not that far but which took them 40 years without them ever cris-crossing the tail end of their giant group [Exodus]. “God does not operate in space and time as we understand them.”

That one singular sentence explains how God could stand to listen to King David beg and plead for undeserved forgiveness [Psalm 51] after the disgustingly despicable way he murdered a close friend because he had impregnated his wife while the friend was away [2 Samuel 11]. “God does not operate in space and time as we understand them.”

That one singular sentence explains how those three men in the fiery furnace not only survived but were told that there was a fourth man alongside them in that furnace [Daniel 3]. “God does not operate in space and time as we understand them.”

That one singular sentence explains how God could choose a young maiden – 12, 13, 14 years old – a newly engaged virgin to somehow bear the Divine in a strange mixture of 100% human and 100% Divine while at the very same time choosing an old, barren couple to bear His cousin, His forerunner exactly six months older [Luke 1:26-80]. “God does not operate in space and time as we understand them.”

That one singular sentence explains how can be called “Blessed” while they’re poor in spirit, while they’re hungering and thirsting for righteousness, while they mourn, while they are insulted and persecuted because of Jesus and their belief in Him [Matthew 5]. “God does not operate in space and time as we understand them.”

That one singular sentence explains how that God-Man Jesus Christ, while still hanging and suffering on Calvary’s Cross, could say with all certainty to the convicted criminal being crucified next to Him, “Today! You will be with me in Paradise” [Luke 23:26-43]. And, while we’re at it, that one singular sentence is also how we explain all those great Old Testament saints like Adam and Eve and Abraham and Solomon and Ruth – those who lived and died before Jesus suffered and died – being in Heaven. “God does not operate in space and time as we understand them.”

That one singular sentence provides explanation when there simply isn’t any – when planes fly into heavily populated office buildings, when children die of cancer and AIDS, when one set of miners is rescued in an unbelievably complicated process while another set of miners, seemingly easier to extricate, dies, when some people much earlier chronologically than we think is proper or deserved, when jobs are lost and life savings lost and homes lost and lives disrupted because of greed, because of corruption. “God does not operate in space and time as we understand them.”

I told you – that one singular sentence unlocks all of Scripture. That one singular sentence unlocks all the questions and problems we encounter on a daily basis.

That one singular sentence explains why a puzzled and confused St. John saw your face and my face in that white-robe-wearing crowd, years before any of us were born, years before any of us were brought into the family of God through the waters of Holy Baptism, years before any of us publicly confessed our faith in Jesus as Lord and Savior, years before any of us heard Jesus’ Words, “Take! Eat! Take! Drink! This is My Body and Blood given and shed for you for the forgiveness of every sin, years before any of us would be at that final moment of life, when we will feel the Hand of Jesus in our hand, and hear Him say, “Well done, good and faithful servant. Enter now the eternal rest prepared for you before the creation of the world” [Matthew 25:23; 25:34]. Only then will we see Heaven as John saw it. Only then will we see Heaven as God sees it. Only then will we understand the things that make no sense to our human eyes.

“Sir, who are these and where did they come from?”

Thank God that He does not operate in space and time as we understand them.

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.

Pastor Christopher Schaar
Historic First Lutheran Church of Pasadena