Thomas J Parlette
“The Gathering of the Redeemed”
Rev. 7: 9-17
11/01/25, All Saints
Perhaps you’ve seen the television show “Shark Tank.” It’s a show that let’s inventors come face to face with potential investors, billed as “sharks.”
The investors make their pitch for whatever product or idea they want the sharks to invest in, and the sharks decide whether they want invest and become a silent partner. Sometimes the inventions and products are pretty lame – but not always. Sometimes, some pretty good ideas get funded.
For instance, Bombas socks got started on Shark Tank. It has gone on to make over 2.5 billion dollars and they have given many as many free socks as they have sold.
Scrub Daddy was another success. This smiley-faced synthetic sponge generated 175 million dollars – we have one sitting by our sink right now.
Cousins Maine Lobster got their start on Shark Tank as well. This lobster roll and food truck franchise was limited to the Northeast, but after getting a silent partner on the show, they now have over 585 million in sales across the country.
Not everything is a success though. The biggest flop to date is something called the Breathometer – a portable, smart-phone linked breathalyzer that would in theory allow you to test your blood alcohol level before getting behind the wheel of a car. Good idea – but it suffered from manufacturing issues and was never able to provide accurate blood alcohol readings. (1)
The need for inventors to find silent partners has been around for a long time. Some of our most important inventions needed a silent partner to come through and foot the bill. Take for instance, Samuel Morse, the inventor of the telegraph. He was a teacher when he came up with his invention – he didn’t have the resources to fund his work. But fortunately, one of his student’s had a wealthy father who owned an iron works factory. He agreed to bankroll Morse’s electronic research. Later after developing a working prototype, Morse got substantial grants from the US government and the British government to install the first transatlantic telegraph cable.
Then there’s Alexander Graham Bell, also a teacher. Like Morse, Bell had some students whose father’s were well-off – one a lawyer and one a leather merchant. They were happy to fund Bell’s idea for a new and improved telegraph. But that wasn’t Bell’s real passion – he quietly diverted some of the telegraph research funds into a far more speculative project that became the telephone.
And we’re all familiar with Wilbur and Orville Wright. They funded their early work on a flying machine using profits from their Dayton, Ohio bicycle shop. It took them a long time to develop the first airplane, partly because they had to keep traveling back and forth to Dayton to run the business. Once they had an airplane successfully fly at Kitty Hawk, the Army stepped in and bought a Wright Brothers airplane for $30,000. After some more trial and error, the Wrights perfected their design and used that money to start their own air-plane manufacturing company. (2)
Silent partners are those forward-looking investors who take on a substantial risk because they believe in the inventors vision, industriousness and personal integrity. They don’t have the skill to pull the project off on their own, but they do have the resources necessary to bring the project to the finish line. And of course, they are cheering from the sidelines all along the way.
Today, we take up the Book of Revelation and read about some of our silent partners when it comes to our journey of faith.
It’s always an adventure when we visit Revelation – or The Revelation to John, as it is officially titled. We often approach Revelation as a sort of handbook for the end of the world. It’s often misinterpreted as a collection of predictions or warnings meant to scare us into obedience to God.
The Book of the Revelation to John opens with the Greek word “apokalypsis,” meaning apocalypse or revelation. In our time, that word apocalypse has come to mean some cataclysmic disaster, but it actually refers to lifting a veil or making something visible (3) Some another possible title for John’s vision might be The Revealing of Jesus Christ.
The Book of Revelation is a peek behind the curtain to see what lies in store for us. You could say, I suppose, that it is about how the world ends – but Revelation is really concerned with how things will be after Jesus’ return, when Christ is revealed. The vision of John is meant to bring comfort to those who live the day to day struggle of life as a disciple of Christ and a lover of God. Revelation is not about threats, and catastrophes, and God’s vengeance. No, it’s about hope.
In today’s scene, we are transported to the great throne room of God. We have been there for quite some time, as the Lamb has opened 6 of 7 scrolls, by breaking their seals. With one scroll left to be opened, John looks and sees a great multitude, so large that no one could count them. They are from every nation, all tribes and peoples and languages – they are all there at the throne of God. They cry out in a loud voice – “Salvation belongs to God, who is seated on the throne and to the Lamb!”
Then all the angels present fall down and start to sing:
“Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God, forever and ever. Amen!”
Then one of the elders gathered there asks John, sounding a bit like a country-club member spotting someone at the party who clearly is not a member – “Who are these people, where have they come from.”
“You know who they are,” says John.
Then it dawns on the elder – “Ahhh, these are the ones who have come out of the great ordeal.”
The great ordeal referred to here is not some bloody battle of Armageddon. No – the word literally refers to the “great persecution.” Revelation was written to Christians who were facing persecution and sometimes death for their beliefs. This vision of a great homecoming in the throne room of God is meant to be comforting, it is meant to be inspiring. It was meant to say – “These days of persecution will not go on forever. There will be a reward coming.”
That’s what we hear about next:
“They will hunger no more, they will thirst no more,
The sun will not strike them, nor any scorching heat,
The Lamb will guide them to the water of life,
And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”
There is the promised word of hope. For all those who have come through the great ordeal of life as faithful disciple and lover of God, there will be rejoicing and God will wipe away all the tears from our eyes. This is the great gathering of the redeemed, the ones who have persevered and finished the race and now stand before the throne of God. As has been said, “Perseverance is not one long race, but many short races run back to back.” The gathering of the redeemed includes all those people who have run each race as it has presented itself – until they reach the finish line.
Today, we honor those people we know who stand in God’s throne room today. You can see their faces – the wrinkles are gone, their eyes are clear, their voices are strong. They stand at the Table in God’s heavenly home and cheer us on from the sidelines. Let us remember them now…
(Go to Liturgy)
1. Google search, October 27, 2026.
2. Homileticsonline, retrieved October 26th, 2026.
3. The Westminster Study Bible, Westminster John Knox Press, 2024, p 2114.
