(printed on bulletin insert on January 19, 2025)
In December 2020, the members of Mount Olive Evangelical Lutheran Church in Cleveland Heights gathered final possessions and said goodbye to its longtime home on Noble Road before making the move to North Royalton. Among those final possessions taken from the property was a three-piece brass set that adorned the altar for many a decade. The Our Savior voters approved adapting our current altar to fit this brass set and the work was completed this week. Tom Olecki is the kind soul mostly responsible for polishing the brass fixtures and modifying the altar so that they would fit well. We give thanks to God for all of our church members who give their time and talents for such things, even if those contributions do not get written about in the bulletin insert. God be praised for the love that you all have for Him and for His house, our congregation.
To explore the meanings of these brass symbols now so brilliantly adorning our altar, we read in the Revelation to St. John, the first chapter:
John, to the seven churches which are in Asia: Grace to you and peace from Him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven Spirits who are before His throne, and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler over the kings of the earth. To Him who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and has made us kings and priests to His God and Father, to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. Behold, He is coming with clouds, and every eye will see Him, even they who pierced Him. And all the tribes of the earth will mourn because of Him. Even so, Amen. “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End,” says the Lord, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.” (emphasis mine)
Alpha and Omega are the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet, the language in which the New Testament was written. The brass symbol to the left side of the altar is the Greek letter Alpha (resembling our ‘A’ in appearance; its sound is like the a in father). The symbol to the right side of the altar is the Greek letter Omega (resembling our M in appearance, but without the dip in the middle; its sound is like the o in open).
By Jesus, God in human flesh crucified, died, buried, resurrected, and ascended, employing this language describing Himself as The Alpha and The Omega, it’s a wonderful proclamation to His Bride, the Church, that He is the Eternal One. The Beginning is His. The End is His. His are time and eternity. And there is none greater than the One Who stepped down into time and won the salvation of all mankind.
Which brings us to the central brass symbol. In St. John’s vision of the heavenly throne room in Revelation 4-5, the apostle says, “And I looked, and behold, in the midst of the throne…stood a Lamb as though it had been slain…Then I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne, the living creatures, and the elders… saying with a loud voice: “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain To receive power and riches and wisdom, And strength and honor and glory and blessing!” The One worthy to open the seven scrolls, worthy to receive worship and praise from all in heaven and on earth, is the One Who was slain, yet defeated death by His death, that is, Our Lord Jesus Christ. (emphasis mine)
The brass Lamb on our altar is a symbol of our Victor King, the Lamb of God Who takes away the sin of the world via His victorious death and resurrection. Therefore, He carries the banner of victory and stands alive forevermore never to die again.
Even in our small church we are rich in symbolic beauty that confesses our Victorious Lamb at every turn. (Yes, even some of my turns in the chancel are symbolic gestures pointing to the Eternal One Who sends me to you in His stead!) We are blessed to extend that beauty with this new (old) brass altar ornamentation.
If you would like to study more about the sections in Revelation painting the beauty behind our new altar symbols, I encourage you to listen to our Sunday morning Bible Study recordings that covered:
· “The Alpha and the Omega”: Revelation – Part 5 (4/21/24)
· “The Lamb as though it had been slain”: Revelation – Part 18 (8/11/24), Part 19 (8/18/24), and Part 20 (8/25/24)
These recordings may be found on our website, oursaviornorthroyalton.org, under Resources > Bible Study. I also encourage you to join us on Sunday at 9am as we continue to study this very intriguing, and comforting book of The Revelation of Jesus Christ.
— Pastor McCall
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