It may be that as I write this a roar is going up at Oakmont
Country Club, which is a little over thirty miles from where I write, as
the final putt rolls into the cup at the U. S. Open Championship of
golf. I really don't even have a guess as to what the greatest roar of
celebration may have been upon a victory in sports. A world soccer
championship win for the home team comes to mind. An NHL Stanley Cup
last second goal or a Super Bowl touchdown as times expires are two
other possibilities. Bill Mazeroski's ninth inning home run in the 1960
World Series...in Pittsburgh...might be up there.
As an anecdote, I was ten years old at the time. My mother and I lived in a basement apartment in Buffalo, New York and were watching the game with a young Yankee fan friend of mine. I was so nervous that I had to walk outside. The next thing I knew my mother was literally throwing my friend out the door in celebration. I missed the Maz home run but saw video clips of that celebration many times.
You get my point I'm sure, but the roar of celebration is not limited to sports. Nominating a candidate for president at the national convention could cause a tumult of celebration. I'm sure that there have been weddings where upon some cultural tradition, a breaking of a glass maybe, that the family and friends let out a roar of exaltation that shook the hall of celebration. There are so many other possibilities that you could come up with, but all of these combined would be but a drop of water in the ocean compared to what the Apostle John describes in the nineteenth chapter of the book of Revelation. Read these words and try to imagine what John saw and what will indeed happen in the future, and in what is probably the not too distant future:
Then I heard what sounded like a great multitude, like the roar of rushing waters and like loud peals of thunder, shouting: "Hallelu-YAH For our Lord God Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory! For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready."
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, this is what we shall be in attendance for! There is nothing that can stop it or even delay it. Should we not, with John's scroll serving as a virtual YouTube, celebrate what is more sure than anything we can even see with our own eyes today? Was not this vision given for that very reason? Rejoice even amidst the chaotic news all around us... for the lion will indeed one day lay down with the lamb....this because the Lamb of God was slain....and the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, hath prevailed to open the book...."
As an anecdote, I was ten years old at the time. My mother and I lived in a basement apartment in Buffalo, New York and were watching the game with a young Yankee fan friend of mine. I was so nervous that I had to walk outside. The next thing I knew my mother was literally throwing my friend out the door in celebration. I missed the Maz home run but saw video clips of that celebration many times.
You get my point I'm sure, but the roar of celebration is not limited to sports. Nominating a candidate for president at the national convention could cause a tumult of celebration. I'm sure that there have been weddings where upon some cultural tradition, a breaking of a glass maybe, that the family and friends let out a roar of exaltation that shook the hall of celebration. There are so many other possibilities that you could come up with, but all of these combined would be but a drop of water in the ocean compared to what the Apostle John describes in the nineteenth chapter of the book of Revelation. Read these words and try to imagine what John saw and what will indeed happen in the future, and in what is probably the not too distant future:
Then I heard what sounded like a great multitude, like the roar of rushing waters and like loud peals of thunder, shouting: "Hallelu-YAH For our Lord God Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory! For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready."
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, this is what we shall be in attendance for! There is nothing that can stop it or even delay it. Should we not, with John's scroll serving as a virtual YouTube, celebrate what is more sure than anything we can even see with our own eyes today? Was not this vision given for that very reason? Rejoice even amidst the chaotic news all around us... for the lion will indeed one day lay down with the lamb....this because the Lamb of God was slain....and the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, hath prevailed to open the book...."
