[Sermon] One Great People of God

Pastor Hector Garfias-Toledo + May 11, 2025

Fourth Sunday of Easter

In a world fractured by fear, propaganda, and division, Revelation reminds us of God's dream already unfolding: a multitude from every nation, gathered in joy, praising the Lamb who was slain. Pastor Hector invites us to hear the voice of the Shepherd amidst the noise of empire—a voice not only of comfort, but of command and calling. Jesus liberates us from despair and leads us into a new order of life marked by inclusivity, healing, and witness. As sheep who know the Shepherd’s voice, and as shepherds to one another, we embody the unity and freedom of God's reign. This is not a distant vision—it is our reality now. Let’s rejoice and make it visible.

Sermon Transcript

From YouTube's automatically generated captions, lightly edited by AI for readability.

Grace to you, and peace from Abba God—Father, Mother, Creator—and the Lord Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord, who some people say is still around: appearing to people, being with people, and being with us. And we said—what do we say? Amen.

[Sung] Now the feast and celebration! All of creation sings for joy to the God of life and love and freedom. Praise and glory forevermore! Oh, now is the feast of the Lamb once slain, whose blood has freed and united us to be one good people of God. Now the feast and celebration! All of creation sings for joy to the God of life and love and freedom. Praise and glory forevermore. [End of singing]

Praise and glory forevermore! Freed and united to be one great people of God.

I invite you to keep these words in your heart as we reflect in the readings of this morning, because I think that these words summarize why you and I are here today, and what you and I are called to be as we walk together in this journey that we call life on Earth.

Now, great people of God, I am going to do a secret vote—survey. I told you earlier this is how we are going to do a secret vote: you are going to raise your hand.

Things are different in heaven. Okay, here we go.

Raise your hand if you agree with this: services—worship services—of more than 60 minutes are just too long.

Come on, don't be ashamed.

Raise your hand if you are doing everything that you can to go to heaven.

This is a secret vote, remember—secret vote. Nobody's seeing what you are doing, okay? Or saying.

Last question: are you sure that you're going to get into heaven?

Well, my great people of God, the result is that if you are going to heaven, and you are sure that you are going to heaven, you need to re-evaluate your eagerness to go to worship for more than 60 minutes.

I'm not saying this—it's in the Scripture. Are we ready?

Today the saints that were gathered in heaven were praising and praising. How long?

Every day, all day long, and forever.

So 70 minutes—75 minutes—is nothing.

Complaints department is outside, and you re-evaluate whether you go to heaven or not.

For the past few months—and the past few weeks—we have been studying the book of Revelation.

A few months ago, we had a whole series on Wednesday evenings, where we were going through the book of Revelation in response to some of the statements and some of the energy created at the beginning of the year with the elections, etc., to be reminded that the book of Revelation is not what many people make of the book of Revelation.

For the past few weeks, David has been leading this Bible study at the end of the worship services.

By the way, there is one after today's service.

Uh—thank you and you're welcome for the commercial here.

So, we are leading this worship service because we are taking a different position, or looking at the book from a different stand, and to see how this book of Revelation speaks to us in our daily life.

As I said, as we—the great people of God—continue to walk this journey that we call life.

And through these studies, we have been talking about the literary style of this book, the purpose of this book, and we have been talking about the context in which this book was written:

A context in which the early Christian church was experiencing persecution, divisions, fear.

There was—I invite you to think about what it meant to be a Christian living under the occupation, the domination, and the oppression of the Roman Empire that was trying to crack down any attempt of unity among this movement called "church."

What did the empire have to do, and what resources did the empire use, to crack down this movement called church?

A time when many Christians were weakened by what they were facing.

Many Christians left the faith because the empire was bringing Pax Romana, which was: "We have peace, because if you don't believe in me and you don't follow me—we kill you. And then we have peace."

That was Pax Romana.

The empire used propaganda.

Imagine the type of propaganda that the empire was using to crack down the unity that the Christian church was bringing to the world.

And as I think about what the Christians were facing—and we think, "Well, that was the Romans, and that was for the Christians of the first century"—I invite you to think about today.

And how the media and the powerful in the world are propagandizing us to a level that we, if we are honest with ourselves, cannot imagine.

Propaganda continues to be used—bringing ideologies that infuse fear, division, and discord among people.

Because the best way to dominate people is divide and conquer.

And bringing back the idea that the only way to have peace is by crushing anyone that opposes the way that I believe, or debate the way that I think.

In my attempt to listen to both sides of the spectrum—the ideological, political, economical, religious spectrum—I listen to people from different backgrounds.

And I listened—and I was listening—to a comedian that I don't agree with. Sometimes he says some things that are interesting.

And the other day, he said something that, to some degree, I agreed with.

This comedian says—and they were talking about the propaganda and the control that the powerful exercise on the regular or ordinary people—and he said something like this:

He said, "What is more powerful than money is hate."

There is something that is more powerful than money, that we know divides people and leads people in ways that are cruel.

But hate—it’s a power that we cannot imagine, how it can destroy societies.

So, when we are reading the passages today—in the Gospel, or in the book of Revelation—we need to think about how to make sense of these messages that both passages are bringing to us today, considering the current global socioeconomic environment in which we live, and the deep implications that it has in the life of every individual in this society.

Hate creates death and fear.

And death and fear lead us, in some way, to let our lives be led by the fear of death only.

So how to hear today's passage, and how to walk together to heal one another and to heal our community?

We read these passages from a position in our context today—as a nation, as a society.

We look at the book of Revelation, I believe, from two different angles that are real and that are true.

One of them is that we read these passages as part of a country that is an imperial, oppressive power.

I mean, I'm just talking about facts. I'm not making any political statement or anything. I'm just saying our power is great, and we know that as a nation, we have become imperialist and oppressive in many places of the world.

But at the same time, we are reading these passages as a nation that wants to be a benign, positive, life-giving presence in the world. It's true. Both are part of who we are as a country, as a nation.

And I think that because we are in this tension—in being these two things—we read these passages in the book of Revelation in ways that disrupt us.

Because the book of Revelation, I believe, mirrors what we do not want to see about ourselves, and the need that we have—that not only we, but people around the world need—of a powerful Lamb that heals the pain and the suffering of this world.

We have a challenge, because in the book of Revelation, we have this dual image of Jesus: the Lamb and the mighty warrior.

And sometimes we identify with—again, we are disrupted or challenged by—these images.

Because in our self-image, we, as a nation—because of our background, how we became a nation here in this country—is that we believe that we are free, never subdued to any ruler. That's why we came to this place.

And at the same time, that we are shepherds—and we make people follow us, sometimes by force.

The way that we cope with these current realities that are causing distress and despair in life is to remind ourselves that we have a greater God.

These were the words of a sibling who spoke with me the other day—who was explaining to me and sharing with me how difficult it is to live in this tension, in this situation, in this chaos in which we are living right now.

And this sibling of ours told me exactly these words:

"I need to remind myself that, in order for us to cope with the realities that are causing distress and despair in my life, it is to remind myself that we have a greater God.

A greater God—greater than any ruler, greater than any system, and greater than any problem that I want to—that I create, or problem that is surrounding me in my life."

Both passages affirm that Jesus, as I say, is the Savior who secures, unites, and shepherds us.

We, as believers, are to live with confidence in this protection, and to commit to an inclusive community, and to fix our eyes on the hope of the eternal communion that the Lamb offers to us.

This image of Revelation—these powerful words that we heard in this vision of the writer of the book of Revelation—says:

"I saw this multitude—millions of people from everywhere in the world—that were worshiping together, and they were in unity, raising their voices and celebrating what God has already done for the entire creation."

And believe me, these words bring chills to me.

Because this is not only a dream.

This is not only God's dream—but it’s the reality that has already started.

And you and I are already part of it.

And for that, we will be rejoicing: that you and I are part of this reality, this new order of life.

And that you and I are going to use our voices, our bodies, and everything that we have to make this visible for those who may be in the shadows—that we were singing about earlier, and praying earlier today in the service.

Last Saturday, Jesus calls the disciples to follow him to places that they may not want to go.

And today, in the passage, Jesus' followers know his voice.

They hear his voice among the white noise of the propaganda, the fear, the scarcity, and the hate that's infused by the systems around us.

The Shepherd's voice is a voice of comfort.

It's a voice of authority, and a voice of command.

It is not this idyllic voice that only calls your name, my name, and I go just jumping like a little lamb after Jesus, being happy forever and ever.

No—it’s a voice that will take us to places that we don't want to go, with the assurance that Jesus is going to be with us.

To strengthen us.

With the assurance that Jesus is going to give us the peace that we need, and the ability to see in each other the image of the Lamb who was slain, so that you and I can be a great people of God.

The sheep follow him.

The sheep know who and why the Shepherd is their Shepherd.

And you and I are called to be both sheep and shepherds of each other—agents that witness, with a posture of worship, that we are the scattered church that is gathered every Sunday to be reminded that we are part of this new order that God has brought in Jesus.

We worship—75 minutes.

We worship every day, everywhere, all the time—to participate in the unfolding reign of life of God.

We walk with the assurance.

In times of suffering, we are called to embody inclusiveness and unity in this God's new order.

We are not manipulated and believed to be stupid—to believe all the propaganda that wants us to be divided and hating each other.

We cannot participate in this old order that continues to bring death, division, separation.

We can't. Because we have been called to be one great people of God in Jesus.

The good news, my siblings in Christ, is that our daily life is marked by assurance:

In the reconciliation, in the healing, in the salvation, in the inclusivity in this church, and the comfort that we find in suffering when we trust in Jesus' guidance and protection.

Out of division—there is unity.

Out of fear—there is joy.

Out of despair—there is hope.

And out of death—is life.

True life.

We are pulled out of the deep.

Called by name.

Leading us out of the heart of empire—the addiction of violence, the greed, the fear, and the unjust lifestyle that keeps us captive.

To be—as we sang this—to sing this song of liberation.

Liberation from the grip of death.

To be freed.

To be united.

To be one great people of God.

See you in heaven.

And guess what we'll be doing?

Amen.