Homily, Christ the Matted Lamb
All Saints’ Sunday, 2023
Good Shepherd Episcopal Church
Tequesta, FL
The Rev. Derek M Larson, TSSF
Today’s Lectionary Readings:
In the name of God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.
Have you ever felt the texture of a sheep’s fleece? Maybe on a farm or a petting zoo? Can you remember what that feels like on your fingers?
Whenever I touch a sheep I’m always a little surprised at how it feels. As someone raised in the suburbs away from farms and pastures, sheep, in my mind’s imagination, have always carried this romanticized idea that is fitting to children’s nursery rhymes and songs. I think of pleasant rolling, green pastures and bright white sheep. I think of places disconnected from the worries and pains of life—a simpler place, where you can relax and allow the shepherd to take care of you.
And so whenever I have the opportunity to touch a sheep, I’m always surprised at how coarse its wool is. The hair is thick and curly. It accumulates dirt and dust. It’s dry. It often gets tangled and matted. It’s nothing like the softness of the fluffy cotton balls I glued to my drawings of sheep in Kindergarten Sunday School class.
When I touch a sheep, I’m always a little surprised and I am reminded that even sheep live in the grime of the real world.
In the Book of Revelation Christ is portrayed as a lamb. And not just any lamb, but according to chapter 5, a slaughtered lamb. And as I read about it, I can’t help but think of the times I’ve touched the coarse and matted wool of a sheep and recognized that we share the same messy world. You’d think Christ would be portrayed as a pristine king in armor or a soaring, elegant eagle. Or perhaps a regal lion standing above its prey. If Christ is God he should be untouched by the violence of this world, right?. But there is he. A humble, vulnerable, bloody and matted lamb.
In that sense, he’s not so much different than us is he? We too have been touched by suffering and the weariness of this world, and have the marks to show it. And I think that’s the point.
The Christ of Revelation is someone who has been there with us. Someone who knows what it is to suffer in this world. A lamb who is not unacquainted with the blood and sweat, the dirt and grime of existence. Christ the lamb knows what we are going through.
And since Christ knows what we are going through, and has come alongside of us in our suffering, he brings us with him into his glory, he brings us with him into victory.
In our passage from Revelation, the multitude that have gathered around the lamb and the throne of God to sing songs of salvation and victory are those that have suffered. Are those that have gone through, what it calls, “the great ordeal.” Historically, these are those members of the early church who experienced persecution at the hands of the Roman Empire, but they stand in for all those who experience the pain of injustice. They stand in for those in Gaza whose homes have been destroyed, and those from Israel captured as hostages. They stand in for those whose lives were taken in Maine, and for those whose loved ones have died too soon. The great multitude singing the heavenly chorus stand in for all of us who have experienced the pain of suffering and offer to us hope for a future beside springs of living water.
Christ the lamb stands in solidarity with us in their suffering, so that we can stand at the throne with him in his victory. “Who are these, robed in white?” the elder asks, “These are those who have suffered, and found Christ the lamb beside them in their suffering and leading them to new life.”
Today is All Saints Sunday. The day we remember all those in Christ who have gone on before us. We remember their lives and all they went through. We remember the things they faced. The challenges that lied before them. And we remember that through it all Christ walked alongside of them, so that today they rest from their labors.
May we, too, following in their footsteps, know that Christ walks alongside of us, no matter what we’re going through, and may we know that Christ will lead us to that heavenly place where we, too, shall join the great song around the throne and around the matted lamb.
“O blest communion, fellowship divine!
We feebly struggle, they in glory shine;
Yet all are one in thee, for all are thine.
Alleluia, alleluia!” Amen.
Thoughts on Faith 