Where Do YOU Stand?

The following is a continuation of our Revelation preaching series at First Lutheran. This sermon was preached by Pastor Meg Sander. 

Scripture: Revelation 6:1-8, 15-17; Revelation 5:1-8

There are many phrases we use that contain the word stand. STAND tall. Take a STAND, make a STAND! STAND by me. STAND by your man or woman. STAND up for yourself! STAND on your own two feet. STAND up and be counted. STANDing in the need of prayer. STAND up for your rights! If you don’t STAND for something, you’ll fall for anything! And at the end of our Bible reading for today…"Who is able to stand?” No one is able to stand when we look at what the text says.

There was a white horse…representing CONQUEST.  And another horse, bright red; representing VIOLENCE. Then there was a black horse, representing ECONOMIC HARDSHIP! And a pale  green horse representing DEATH!  And then later in the chapter we read that there came a great earthquake; the sun became black as sackcloth, the full moon became like blood, and the stars of the sky fell to the earth… Then the kings of the earth…the generals and the rich and the powerful, and everyone, slave and free, hid…for the great day of their wrath has come, and who is able to stand?’

Whoa! Hold your horses! In all that gloom and doom, you ask who is able to stand. Of course nobody is able to stand when they face all kind of destruction and despair. Are you kidding?  When left to our own defenses, we are unable to stand against the perils of this world.


We get so caught up in what’s happening around us and trying to fix it and control it, that we forget, God is in control! We can’t make sense out of it, so how can God be in control when all of this is going on?   Who is able to stand? You can’t stop at the end of chapter 6; you need to continue reading through Revelation. Who is able to stand? Keep reading - chapter 7 will show you who is able to stand.

Who is able to stand? You know the end of the story. You know God’s love! You know God’s promise! You know the lamb gave himself for us. Who is able to stand?  We all are, because we put our trust and security in God.  Is that so hard to do? Well, yes it is, because we want control of our lives and of every situation! We want the powerful Lion to come and save us!  Then everything will be fine and we will be able to stand on our own two feet!

But let’s go back to the beginning… "Then I saw the Lamb open one of the seven seals…" well, there’s your problem, everyone was expecting a lion to devour the wicked, the evil and the bad, to save us from our pain and sorrows. The poor wanted the lion to conquer the rich and the rich wanted the lion to get rid of the poor.  The outcasts wanted to oust the powerful, and the powerful wanted to defeat the downtrodden. The popular wanted the lion to lift them to the top and the losers and loners just wanted the Lion to help them get out from under their feet!

Who is able to stand? Nobody is able to stand when they rely on themselves place their trust and security in false gods. In things, rather than Christ! When I told my friend that I wish I had the faith of many Tanzanians, who place their whole lives in God’s hands not even knowing where their next meal is coming from, he said to me,

“Of course they have great faith, because they have nothing.”  So I said, “Do you want great faith, or a lot of things?” He smiled at me and blurted out, “We’re not talking about the same thing. They don’t even know what they’re missing. We need things to survive.”

Nobody is able to stand apart from the Lamb who was slain, whose blood set us free to be people of God.  The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! On the Lamb, on Christ the solid rock we stand, because all other ground is sinking sand!

We are in the same boat as our brothers and sisters in John’s time…yet we know the ending!  We know that Christ was and is and is to come!  Whether it’s a tornado, a hurricane, a flood, an earthquake, a volcano, war, or a plunging stock market… we live in a precarious world where the security of our national borders, neighborhoods, financial status, and even our very lives – are always at risk of being taken away.
Many people try and point to the “four horsemen of the apocalypse” as some future event, but it’s more helpful to realize that what the four horsemen represent – threats to national borders, neighborhoods, economic security, and health; are all threats that exist just as much today as they did in John’s day.
The text is not to point to the future, but to try to help make sense of the present.  Any attempts to predict the coming of the end times on the basis of John’s visions will always fail, because the danger they depict can’t be confined to any one period. They have all occurred repeatedly throughout human history – and death eventually comes for all of us.

So if we ask the looming question again, “Who is able to stand?” The answer depends on where you are standing.  Are you standing on your own two feet, trusting in worldly security? Or are you standing on Christ the solid rock, trusting in God? There will always be threats to our well-being.  It’s an illusion to think we can find true security anywhere other than with God.

Who is able to stand?  We - the faithful - are able to stand because God will not allow the chaos and injustice created by the four horsemen, or by us, to endure forever. Yet we find that God’s promises are reassuring to the victims, but disturbing to the ones who are causing the injustice.

I love Martin Luther King’s quote, “Injustice anywhere, is a threat to justice everywhere!”  If we are not standing together for the good of all, then we are part of the downfall of others. The passages from Revelation help us to see that no place on earth and no position of power or wealth will protect people from the judgment of God and the Lamb.

So, “Who is able to stand when faced with the threats in Revelation 6?  It’s the faithful who are able to stand, because those threats are designed to take away our confidence in the security provided by nation, community, economic prosperity and health. The positions of wealth and influence, the positions of selfish and self serving power are unable to protect us from the wrath of God.

But, Hang on! The rest of Revelation is coming! Christ is coming! There’s a whole lot to be done as we love and serve and share and act like children of God every day, as we live in times of trial and pain…knowing that God’s promises are true for you and for me!

The seals were broken and there is trouble on the earth – but now those who have been sealed by the Holy Spirit and marked with the cross of Christ forever (see Revelation 7), those who are called, Child of God, are able to stand in the face of God's judgment.

That doesn’t mean everything will be rosy or a cake walk. What it means is those who continue in faith through the hardships and pain, standing alongside their brothers and sisters, sharing the gifts they have been given, will stand at the time of judgment in celebration of God’s victory.

Where do you stand? Are you standing hip high in flood waters or at the bed of a friend in pain? Are you standing on Wall Street or In the park? Are you standing at the Veterans memorial or at ground zero? Are you standing in Joplin, or Oklahoma or in the center of Beaver field in Happy Valley with your head bowed in prayer, or are you standing at the grave site of a loved one?

All that’s going on around us may cause us to cover our face and sink to our knees, losing hope, but then, we can be grateful we are alive, because we know where we stand! On Christ the solid rock we stand, all other ground is sinking sand!

We know our life, our strength, our hope is in the Lord, so yes, on Christ the solid rock we stand, all other ground is sinking sand.

And to that Good News we can all say, AMEN!