John 17: 20-26
One of the most precious parts of our weekly Sunday worship service is the time when we lift up our celebrations and our concerns after the senior choir anthem. Some weeks we have a few requests; however there are some weeks where many are shared. Although it sometimes takes a goodly amount of time for us to share all of our celebrations and concerns, the time that we do take is important to our community because it is during the time of celebrations and concerns that we give our testimonies of faith. Celebrations such as, “I am grateful for being able to help my parents move from one state to another safely.” testifies to the feeling of God’s power throughout the daily activities of life. Concerns such as, “I want to lift up in prayer the birth of my friend’s pre-mature twins.” testifies to the helplessness that we feel and faith in a power that is greater than oneself that can make a way out of no way.
Then for a few moments we bow our heads and begin to pray for the people who were just named from within our community of faith. Sure I speak the words aloud but the prayers that are lifted up to God comes from all our hearts. However, how does it feel when you are the one that is being prayed for? How does it feel when you hear someone praying out loud for you? Some of you might say you feel comforted, vulnerable, grateful, honored, humbled, maybe awkward yet grateful that a group of people care for you. When we are being prayed for, “we are not in control as we listen to people prayer for us. They, not we, are the ones doing the asking, and God not we, is the one answering the prayer.” (1)
In this morning’s gospel reading we hear Jesus praying out loud for his disciples in front of them. This scripture comes from the farewell speech that Jesus gave to his disciples just after the last supper and before he is about to be arrested and killed by those who feared him. Imagine if you will how the disciples were feeling at that moment. Maybe they were feeling awkward, vulnerable, even grateful yet frightened. After all, the leader whom they had given up their lives to has just told them that he will be leaving them. Yes Jesus did promise them that the Holy Spirit would come after he has left, yet the disciples had no idea what this would look like. Instead I imagine, they stare at Jesus with wet eyes wondering what Jesus wants them to do.
However Jesus is done giving them instructions. He’s already given them their “to-do” list. Instead he prays to God on their behalf and really on our behalf too. He wants all of us to experience God just as he does. Jesus had a close and abiding relationship with God. God was not a distant other presence up in the sky someplace, but someone whom Jesus held close to his heart, so close that he called God abba (daddy). Jesus prayed that the disciples and by extension us, that we could have that same close relationship with God. But the prayer isn’t just about our relationship with God, it is also our relationship with each other as believers in Jesus.
Listen again to the words of Jesus’ prayer:
"I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.” (John 17: 20-21)
That they may all be one. In order for us to understand the poignancy of these words, we have to understand the audience to whom this text is directed. As I stated earlier in this sermon, this morning’s text is the beginning of Jesus’ farewell speech to his disciples after the last supper and before he is about to be killed by those who feared him. So why is this Good Friday text being read after Easter? So that we can hear this text in the same way that the original audience of this gospel story heard it. The early Christians whom the evangelist John writes to were part of the Jewish community but in conflict with them because of their belief that Jesus was the messiah sent by God to be the embodiment of God’s grace and love. They were expelled from their church home, the synagogue and so they had to carve a new church home for themselves. They already knew that this farewell speech comes before the drama of the betrayal, trial and crucifixion of Jesus however they hear it knowing the victory of Jesus’ resurrection over the power of death. For this community who are trying to make a new way, the words “that they all may be one” are of great comfort to them and when they hear, “As you Father are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us so that they may believe that you have sent me.” they are hearing Jesus’ great desire for all to be one in him and in God.
“That they all may be one” is the motto of the United Church of Christ. In 1957 leaders from the Congregational Christian denomination gathered with leaders from the Evangelical and Reformed denomination to form a new denomination, the United Church of Christ. They sought to heal the divisions of the church by being a “united and uniting church seeking renewal through the vision of Christ’s prayer ‘that they may all be one that the world might believe’” (2)
Ever since the founding of the United Church of Christ, we have sometimes struggled to articulate our identity. Some have perceived us as not having a strong theological stance because the United Church of Christ believes in testimonies of faith rather than tests of faith such as doctrines or creeds. Others feel that we are too loose on our interpretation of scripture because we recognize the Bible as written in a specific historical time and place yet it speaks to us in our present condition however the interpretation of scripture is not limited by past interpretations. As one of our forebears states, “There is more truth and light to break forth from God’s holy word.” Some wonder at how we can remain one denomination when “each congregation or local church is free to act in accordance with the collective decision of its members, guided by the working of the Holy Spirit in the light of scriptures.” (3) We are a denomination that believes people of faith can be able to live together with their differences and yet find unity in the Christian message which comes down to the greatest commandment, the love of God and the love of neighbor. Unity does not demand conformity rather it demands love.
In the cottage meetings we participated in two weeks ago, many have shared that what makes us strong as a faith community is that we have a diversity of theological views within our community. We range in views from liberal to conservative and everything in between. All the while this church has not tried be all things to all people. There are some that we have made that have been uncomfortable for some; yet in spite of our difference, we continue to be united because we are a church that seeks to live into the building of the kingdom of God here on earth, where all may know the grace and mercy of God through the life and ministry of Jesus Christ and the victory of God through Jesus’ resurrection and the promise of new life that it brings.
May it be so. Amen.
1. Mary Hinkle Shore, “John 17: 20-26: Commentary on the Gospel.” http://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?tab=4
2. John Thomas, “Our Core Identity – Third Sunday after Pentecost June 2004” http://www.ucc.org/about-us/our-core-identity.html
3. http://i.ucc.org/StretchYourMind/UCC101/BriefHistoryoftheUCC/tabid/93/Default.aspx
Saturday, May 15, 2010
Saturday, May 8, 2010
Entertaining Angels
Hebrews 13:1-8, 15-16
John 14: 23-29
On May 2, the United Church of Christ lost a beloved member of our community. Lynn Redgrave well known actress of movies and the stage died of breast cancer at the age of 67. I had the privilege of hearing her speak at General Synod in 2007. In a crowd of 10,000 people, she shared with us the intimate details of her faith story and how through her community of faith at First Congregational Church in Kent she was able to find transformation when she was first diagnosed with breast cancer in 2003.
Lynn began her testimony with the following story. One morning she woke up early one morning and turned over in bed and thought to herself, “This mattress, I have to do something about it, it is so lumpy.” But then she discovered the lump was her. She handled the situation as best as she could, at first denying the worst case scenarios that were running through her head. However, when she saw her doctor she received the diagnosis of breast cancer. Thus began as she puts it, her journey into “cancer land.” She began this walk absolutely terrified. A month after her diagnosis she had a mastectomy and a month after that she began chemotherapy and radiation. She remembered going to her first chemotherapy treatment “feeling so tired, feeling so scared, feeling so frightened.” She turned to her journal for emotional support, in it she wrote, “Concert at Carnegie Hall, falling asleep in the second act. Mind racing, heart sad, lonely, nervous, a bit afraid.”
In the midst such fear and loneliness she needed a source of comfort and assurance. She wanted to find a way to connect with a power that was greater than herself. It was then that she made the “wonderful discovery of First Congregational Church of Kent” in Connecticut in the city where she had recently moved to. She had heard through a friend of her son’s that there was a lovely UCC church with a female pastor. She didn’t know anything about this church or even the UCC but she knew in her vulnerable state that she needed to be in a church with a female minister. She had never been a church go-er. Sure she had been baptized and confirmed, however her family only attended church on Christmas and Easter. When she realized how afraid she was and how lonely she was, the Holy Spirit led her to this lovely church in her country town in Connecticut.
She remembered the first moment she walked into First Congregational of Kent, she felt so lonely, so sad, she felt like she was just a visitor. Immediately she was moved by the service, from the moment the pastor began the service with the words, “This is the day that the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it.” She was moved by the music and most of all she was moved by the people. What especially touched her was the way they cared for and prayed for each other. In this UCC church this worldly actress had found community. She found “the beloved body of Christ who smiled at her in the midst of her brokenness.”
“Let mutual love continue. Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it.” (Hebrews 13: 2)
Indeed in the last years of her life Lynn Redgrave had been an angel for First Congregational of Kent UCC and for the United Church of Christ. Because this church welcomed her into their community she was able to learn how to live and how to have faith that indeed she was in great hands. In her testimony she stated, “It is not how long I live but how I live each moment and how I reach out to others.” (1)
This morning’s epistle, the writer exhorts the members of the early Christian church to continue in mutual love for each other. Some note that “at times, it was advice that was especially needed, for Christian communities sometimes found themselves threatened by internal strife ranging from minor disputes to more searing dissension.” (2) This mutual love was also to be extended as hospitality to the strangers in their midst.
In order to understand the power of this request of hospitality we have to look at the context of what travel was like in the time that this epistle was written. To travel away from one’s home and one’s clan was precarious to say the least. The people that lived during the time of the writing of this epistle depended on their families and clans in order to get their basic needs met such as food, protection, housing etc. Biblical scholars note that “It is natural to think of a host, especially in ancient times, when life was especially inhospitable and terrain difficult to cross, as holding an advantage over his guests. No matter how welcome a guest is, the person with the shelter and food has something the other one needs.” (3) This epistle is not just asking the audience to provide for the basic needs of the stranger but to love the stranger. In his commentary on this epistle Lewis R. Donelson states, “To love may be many things, but it always includes making oneself vulnerable…To love is to let another person, an unreliable other person, inside your safe walls…This openness to another necessitates a willingness to share more than food or shelter, a willingness to share one’s own self. Instead of a wary guardedness, we Christians are called to open our hearts simply and humbly, and trust God about what happens next.” (4)
The gospel that we read this morning takes place after the last supper, before Jesus’ betrayal and arrest. Jesus had just washed the feet of the apostles, humbling himself to show them what is required of them to be disciples of God. We remember that over and over again Jesus took the social conventions of his day and turned them upside down to illustrate what the Kingdom of God will look like when God reigns. By washing the feet of the disciples Jesus showed them that whoever wants to lead must be a servant to everyone else. That power in God’s kingdom is not determined by who has the most status or physical strength, the power of God’s kingdom is found in love.
Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. (John 14: 23)
In these past two weeks I have had the honor and pleasure of facilitating three cottage meetings in which you all shared with me and each other how the faith community of Smalltown UCC has transformed you lives, especially during times of distress. You are a church community that cares deeply for each other being willing at times to put the care of your people before other things when the moment calls for it. You are a church that cares deeply the children in our midst with a strong desire for them to grow up trusting in God’s promise of peace and love. You are a church that treasures its music program, feeling the presence of God especially through the ministry of our choir, its directors and our organist. You are a community seeking to live into God’s kingdom through your three commitments to being an green church, a peace and social justice church and an open and affirming church.
I’ve also heard stories of your concerns, how this church is struggling with many of the things that many mainline churches are struggling with in America. You are not alone in experiencing declining membership, diminishing financial resources and lack of leadership. In the last twenty five years our culture has experienced deep changes and the churches have been the most affected. Where at one time people were expected to join and attend a church regularly, now we live in a culture that could care less where anyone spends their Sunday mornings. Where at one time a people joined churches based on denominational loyalty and family ties, now people decide to join churches only after a long process of deliberation and soul-searching (and church shopping!)
As challenging as these times are for churches there are opportunities abound for us as a church to transform lives The challenges facing all churches today are not something that happened by action and neglect, they are just the way it is. But the good news is this, the purpose of the church is the same today as it was at the time of Jesus, and that purpose is human transformation, the changing of lives through knowing the good news of God’s love as revealed to us through the life and ministry of his son Jesus Christ.
We are called to extravagantly welcome all who come through our church doors not because it will it will increase our revenues or provide us with more people to do the work of the church but because sharing the good news of God’s love and extravagant welcome is our very mission as a Christian church. In the meantime we can have faith that God will provide us with what we need to do this ministry as long as we are open to the movement of the Holy Spirit in our hearts.
At General Synod Lynn Redgrave spoke of her church’s willingness to take her into their community and give her comfort and faith not only in God but also in herself. Her speech was truly an inspiration to me because it reminded me of why I went into the ministry and why I chose to be ordained in the United Church of Christ. Sisters and brothers in Christ, there are many people both within and outside of these walls who are seeking the assurance of God’s presence in their lives. Let us give them the message that no matter who they are or where they are on life’s journey they are welcome here. Let us say to all who come through our doors, “Come join us, do not let your heart be troubled and do not be afraid or the peace of Christ, the peace that surpasses all understanding can be found here within this community of Smalltown Congregational Church, United Church of Christ..”
May it be so.
Amen.
(1) Lynn Redgrave, speech given at the United Church of Christ 26th General Synod. June 26, 2007.
(2) Fred Craddock et. al. “Proper 17”, Preaching through the Christian Year: C (Harrisburg, Trinity Press: 1994), 391.
(3) http://www.ucc.org/worship/samuel/september-2-2007-l.html
(4) Ibid.
John 14: 23-29
On May 2, the United Church of Christ lost a beloved member of our community. Lynn Redgrave well known actress of movies and the stage died of breast cancer at the age of 67. I had the privilege of hearing her speak at General Synod in 2007. In a crowd of 10,000 people, she shared with us the intimate details of her faith story and how through her community of faith at First Congregational Church in Kent she was able to find transformation when she was first diagnosed with breast cancer in 2003.
Lynn began her testimony with the following story. One morning she woke up early one morning and turned over in bed and thought to herself, “This mattress, I have to do something about it, it is so lumpy.” But then she discovered the lump was her. She handled the situation as best as she could, at first denying the worst case scenarios that were running through her head. However, when she saw her doctor she received the diagnosis of breast cancer. Thus began as she puts it, her journey into “cancer land.” She began this walk absolutely terrified. A month after her diagnosis she had a mastectomy and a month after that she began chemotherapy and radiation. She remembered going to her first chemotherapy treatment “feeling so tired, feeling so scared, feeling so frightened.” She turned to her journal for emotional support, in it she wrote, “Concert at Carnegie Hall, falling asleep in the second act. Mind racing, heart sad, lonely, nervous, a bit afraid.”
In the midst such fear and loneliness she needed a source of comfort and assurance. She wanted to find a way to connect with a power that was greater than herself. It was then that she made the “wonderful discovery of First Congregational Church of Kent” in Connecticut in the city where she had recently moved to. She had heard through a friend of her son’s that there was a lovely UCC church with a female pastor. She didn’t know anything about this church or even the UCC but she knew in her vulnerable state that she needed to be in a church with a female minister. She had never been a church go-er. Sure she had been baptized and confirmed, however her family only attended church on Christmas and Easter. When she realized how afraid she was and how lonely she was, the Holy Spirit led her to this lovely church in her country town in Connecticut.
She remembered the first moment she walked into First Congregational of Kent, she felt so lonely, so sad, she felt like she was just a visitor. Immediately she was moved by the service, from the moment the pastor began the service with the words, “This is the day that the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it.” She was moved by the music and most of all she was moved by the people. What especially touched her was the way they cared for and prayed for each other. In this UCC church this worldly actress had found community. She found “the beloved body of Christ who smiled at her in the midst of her brokenness.”
“Let mutual love continue. Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it.” (Hebrews 13: 2)
Indeed in the last years of her life Lynn Redgrave had been an angel for First Congregational of Kent UCC and for the United Church of Christ. Because this church welcomed her into their community she was able to learn how to live and how to have faith that indeed she was in great hands. In her testimony she stated, “It is not how long I live but how I live each moment and how I reach out to others.” (1)
This morning’s epistle, the writer exhorts the members of the early Christian church to continue in mutual love for each other. Some note that “at times, it was advice that was especially needed, for Christian communities sometimes found themselves threatened by internal strife ranging from minor disputes to more searing dissension.” (2) This mutual love was also to be extended as hospitality to the strangers in their midst.
In order to understand the power of this request of hospitality we have to look at the context of what travel was like in the time that this epistle was written. To travel away from one’s home and one’s clan was precarious to say the least. The people that lived during the time of the writing of this epistle depended on their families and clans in order to get their basic needs met such as food, protection, housing etc. Biblical scholars note that “It is natural to think of a host, especially in ancient times, when life was especially inhospitable and terrain difficult to cross, as holding an advantage over his guests. No matter how welcome a guest is, the person with the shelter and food has something the other one needs.” (3) This epistle is not just asking the audience to provide for the basic needs of the stranger but to love the stranger. In his commentary on this epistle Lewis R. Donelson states, “To love may be many things, but it always includes making oneself vulnerable…To love is to let another person, an unreliable other person, inside your safe walls…This openness to another necessitates a willingness to share more than food or shelter, a willingness to share one’s own self. Instead of a wary guardedness, we Christians are called to open our hearts simply and humbly, and trust God about what happens next.” (4)
The gospel that we read this morning takes place after the last supper, before Jesus’ betrayal and arrest. Jesus had just washed the feet of the apostles, humbling himself to show them what is required of them to be disciples of God. We remember that over and over again Jesus took the social conventions of his day and turned them upside down to illustrate what the Kingdom of God will look like when God reigns. By washing the feet of the disciples Jesus showed them that whoever wants to lead must be a servant to everyone else. That power in God’s kingdom is not determined by who has the most status or physical strength, the power of God’s kingdom is found in love.
Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. (John 14: 23)
In these past two weeks I have had the honor and pleasure of facilitating three cottage meetings in which you all shared with me and each other how the faith community of Smalltown UCC has transformed you lives, especially during times of distress. You are a church community that cares deeply for each other being willing at times to put the care of your people before other things when the moment calls for it. You are a church that cares deeply the children in our midst with a strong desire for them to grow up trusting in God’s promise of peace and love. You are a church that treasures its music program, feeling the presence of God especially through the ministry of our choir, its directors and our organist. You are a community seeking to live into God’s kingdom through your three commitments to being an green church, a peace and social justice church and an open and affirming church.
I’ve also heard stories of your concerns, how this church is struggling with many of the things that many mainline churches are struggling with in America. You are not alone in experiencing declining membership, diminishing financial resources and lack of leadership. In the last twenty five years our culture has experienced deep changes and the churches have been the most affected. Where at one time people were expected to join and attend a church regularly, now we live in a culture that could care less where anyone spends their Sunday mornings. Where at one time a people joined churches based on denominational loyalty and family ties, now people decide to join churches only after a long process of deliberation and soul-searching (and church shopping!)
As challenging as these times are for churches there are opportunities abound for us as a church to transform lives The challenges facing all churches today are not something that happened by action and neglect, they are just the way it is. But the good news is this, the purpose of the church is the same today as it was at the time of Jesus, and that purpose is human transformation, the changing of lives through knowing the good news of God’s love as revealed to us through the life and ministry of his son Jesus Christ.
We are called to extravagantly welcome all who come through our church doors not because it will it will increase our revenues or provide us with more people to do the work of the church but because sharing the good news of God’s love and extravagant welcome is our very mission as a Christian church. In the meantime we can have faith that God will provide us with what we need to do this ministry as long as we are open to the movement of the Holy Spirit in our hearts.
At General Synod Lynn Redgrave spoke of her church’s willingness to take her into their community and give her comfort and faith not only in God but also in herself. Her speech was truly an inspiration to me because it reminded me of why I went into the ministry and why I chose to be ordained in the United Church of Christ. Sisters and brothers in Christ, there are many people both within and outside of these walls who are seeking the assurance of God’s presence in their lives. Let us give them the message that no matter who they are or where they are on life’s journey they are welcome here. Let us say to all who come through our doors, “Come join us, do not let your heart be troubled and do not be afraid or the peace of Christ, the peace that surpasses all understanding can be found here within this community of Smalltown Congregational Church, United Church of Christ..”
May it be so.
Amen.
(1) Lynn Redgrave, speech given at the United Church of Christ 26th General Synod. June 26, 2007.
(2) Fred Craddock et. al. “Proper 17”, Preaching through the Christian Year: C (Harrisburg, Trinity Press: 1994), 391.
(3) http://www.ucc.org/worship/samuel/september-2-2007-l.html
(4) Ibid.
Saturday, May 1, 2010
Apocalypse Now - Sermon for Easter 5
Here's my sermon on the book of Revelation, with a huge tip of the hat to Magdelene's Musing for the inspiration and great introduction.
Revelation 21: 1-6
It sometimes seems like the book of Revelation has been “captured” by the end-of-the-world folks, who read John’s vision as part of a biblical blueprint for the final days of life on earth, which are understood to be close at hand. I am asking you however, to let go of everything you have heard about the book of Revelation. Images of Armageddon, the anti-Christ, the four horsemen of the apocalypse, planes falling out of the sky, automobiles being left driverless, all the books with flames and titles such as “Left Behind.” Put all these things away for just a little while and entertain the possibility that the book of Revelation was written for a young Christian Community dealing with struggle and unspeakable loss.(1)
The text of the book of Revelation was a pastoral letter written by a prophet whose name is John (not to be confused with John the author of the gospel) while he was in exile on the island of Patmos. Many believe that the book of Revelation was written in the last days of Emperor Domitian 95 years after Jesus’ life and ministry on earth. That John wrote this text 20 years after the Roman armies destroyed the Temple and the Holy City of Jerusalem, the center of life and worship for the early Christian community. History tells us that the Roman Empire ruled the world through a system of domination and that the homeland of the early Christian community the land of Israel was under the tyranny of Roman imperialism. Scholars note that in the first century under Roman rule, a small elite class controlled all the production of wealth, resources and land. Those who were not of the elite class, which was most of the population of Israel, lived in wretched poverty. The majority of the people living in under the Roman Empire lived in misery, danger, fear and despair. (2) For the oppressed who saw the destruction of all they held dear, John’s message in the book of Revelation was comforting because they could very clearly hear his message of hope throughout the text.
Now taken literally, the book of Revelation is hard for us to understand to us in our modern day setting. We are taken aback by the images of the four white horsemen beasts rising out of the sea juxtaposed with the fall of Babylon. We struggle with the book of Revelation because we are unfamiliar with the entire genre of writing known as apocalyptic. Apocalyptic writing by Jews and Christians in the first century was common, indeed more common than the genre known as the gospel. The writers of apocalyptic literature sought to “lift the veil” to reveal something that is hidden from a majority of humankind. They wanted to reveal the world as God sees it. This form of literature and imagery, so strange to us, was commonplace for the audience who first heard the book of Revelation. It was as familiar to them as the imagery of our political cartoons are to us in which we see our government depicted in images elephants and donkey’s struggle for power.
The book of Revelation addresses the harassment and distress that the early Christian community was dealing with as a marginalized people living counter-culturally in the Roman Empire. John is a part of this community describing himself as “’your brother who shares with you in Jesus the struggle and the kingdom and the faithful resistance…’ He was an ordinary disciple, sharing with his peers the struggle to be faithful amidst the seductions and the threats of the Roman Empire.” (3) Some note that John was not giving his readers a fantasy of the future, rather he was recognizing the struggle of his time and giving us a portrait of life as God intends us to live. “It is a world of great natural abundance, of flowing water and ripe fruit. In other words, it is our precious planet as God created it, apart from human sinfulness that has marred so terribly its divinely made beauty.” (4) In the midst of loss and tears John preaches the promise of a new thing, a new heaven and a new earth, a new Jerusalem. He unveils for all who hear his message “worship God alone and become the people of freedom and joy that God has been calling throughout history.” (5)
The book of Revelation comes alive for me whenever I attend the annual May Day celebration in the south side neighborhood of the city of Minneapolis. Once a year on the first weekend in May, the Heart of the Beast puppet theater along with a variety of peace and social justice groups organize an annual May Day celebration. The day begins with a parade of ten foot high puppets, adult and children dancers, and a live orchestra. The parade is a form of street theater that tells a story visually and musically of the social justice struggles of our day, be it the burdens of poverty, war and isolation. As the parade progresses signs of the work of peace and justice appear and in the end the oppressed are set free and the world is made whole again. The parade ends with a May Day ceremony at the park where it culminates with a Tree of Life Ceremony: “to the steady beating of drums, a resplendent red Sun Flotilla paddles the Sun from across the lake to the shore where the Tree of Life sleeps, waiting to be awakened.” (6)
What is more amazing than the parade and the ceremony is the crowd of 50,000 people that gathers to participate in the festivities. For one afternoon rich and poor, white people and people of color, gang banger and police officer, politician and anarchist, gay and straight, immigrants and American born citizens all share in a springtime celebration in a park located in an economically challenged neighborhood in inner city Minneapolis. I wonder at all the people and realize the veil has been lifted that what I am witnessing is the revelation of the kingdom of God here on earth. In a small park in Minneapolis is born a new Jerusalem and indeed God is dwells there. Through the hope of justice and peacemaking, God has made all things new-the former things are passed away. No longer do our labels divide us because “it is done! [God] is the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. To [we who are] thirsty, God will give water as a gift from the spring of the water of life.”
May it be so.
Amen.
(1) http://magdalenesmusings.blogspot.com/2009/11/do-this-in-remembrance-sermon-on.html
(2) Bridges, Linda McKinnish, "Preaching the Parables in Matthew's Gospel in Ordinary Time: The Extraordinary Tales of God's World," Review & Expositor (2007): 325-362.
(3) Wes Howard-Brook, “Living in New Jerusalem, the Bibles celebratory vision of what the church is to be.” Seasons of the Spirit Congregational Life Lent, Easter RCL Year C (2007), 114.
(4) Ibid., 114.
(5) Ibid., 114.
(6) http://www.hobt.org/mayday/cere/index.html
Revelation 21: 1-6
It sometimes seems like the book of Revelation has been “captured” by the end-of-the-world folks, who read John’s vision as part of a biblical blueprint for the final days of life on earth, which are understood to be close at hand. I am asking you however, to let go of everything you have heard about the book of Revelation. Images of Armageddon, the anti-Christ, the four horsemen of the apocalypse, planes falling out of the sky, automobiles being left driverless, all the books with flames and titles such as “Left Behind.” Put all these things away for just a little while and entertain the possibility that the book of Revelation was written for a young Christian Community dealing with struggle and unspeakable loss.(1)
The text of the book of Revelation was a pastoral letter written by a prophet whose name is John (not to be confused with John the author of the gospel) while he was in exile on the island of Patmos. Many believe that the book of Revelation was written in the last days of Emperor Domitian 95 years after Jesus’ life and ministry on earth. That John wrote this text 20 years after the Roman armies destroyed the Temple and the Holy City of Jerusalem, the center of life and worship for the early Christian community. History tells us that the Roman Empire ruled the world through a system of domination and that the homeland of the early Christian community the land of Israel was under the tyranny of Roman imperialism. Scholars note that in the first century under Roman rule, a small elite class controlled all the production of wealth, resources and land. Those who were not of the elite class, which was most of the population of Israel, lived in wretched poverty. The majority of the people living in under the Roman Empire lived in misery, danger, fear and despair. (2) For the oppressed who saw the destruction of all they held dear, John’s message in the book of Revelation was comforting because they could very clearly hear his message of hope throughout the text.
Now taken literally, the book of Revelation is hard for us to understand to us in our modern day setting. We are taken aback by the images of the four white horsemen beasts rising out of the sea juxtaposed with the fall of Babylon. We struggle with the book of Revelation because we are unfamiliar with the entire genre of writing known as apocalyptic. Apocalyptic writing by Jews and Christians in the first century was common, indeed more common than the genre known as the gospel. The writers of apocalyptic literature sought to “lift the veil” to reveal something that is hidden from a majority of humankind. They wanted to reveal the world as God sees it. This form of literature and imagery, so strange to us, was commonplace for the audience who first heard the book of Revelation. It was as familiar to them as the imagery of our political cartoons are to us in which we see our government depicted in images elephants and donkey’s struggle for power.
The book of Revelation addresses the harassment and distress that the early Christian community was dealing with as a marginalized people living counter-culturally in the Roman Empire. John is a part of this community describing himself as “’your brother who shares with you in Jesus the struggle and the kingdom and the faithful resistance…’ He was an ordinary disciple, sharing with his peers the struggle to be faithful amidst the seductions and the threats of the Roman Empire.” (3) Some note that John was not giving his readers a fantasy of the future, rather he was recognizing the struggle of his time and giving us a portrait of life as God intends us to live. “It is a world of great natural abundance, of flowing water and ripe fruit. In other words, it is our precious planet as God created it, apart from human sinfulness that has marred so terribly its divinely made beauty.” (4) In the midst of loss and tears John preaches the promise of a new thing, a new heaven and a new earth, a new Jerusalem. He unveils for all who hear his message “worship God alone and become the people of freedom and joy that God has been calling throughout history.” (5)
The book of Revelation comes alive for me whenever I attend the annual May Day celebration in the south side neighborhood of the city of Minneapolis. Once a year on the first weekend in May, the Heart of the Beast puppet theater along with a variety of peace and social justice groups organize an annual May Day celebration. The day begins with a parade of ten foot high puppets, adult and children dancers, and a live orchestra. The parade is a form of street theater that tells a story visually and musically of the social justice struggles of our day, be it the burdens of poverty, war and isolation. As the parade progresses signs of the work of peace and justice appear and in the end the oppressed are set free and the world is made whole again. The parade ends with a May Day ceremony at the park where it culminates with a Tree of Life Ceremony: “to the steady beating of drums, a resplendent red Sun Flotilla paddles the Sun from across the lake to the shore where the Tree of Life sleeps, waiting to be awakened.” (6)
What is more amazing than the parade and the ceremony is the crowd of 50,000 people that gathers to participate in the festivities. For one afternoon rich and poor, white people and people of color, gang banger and police officer, politician and anarchist, gay and straight, immigrants and American born citizens all share in a springtime celebration in a park located in an economically challenged neighborhood in inner city Minneapolis. I wonder at all the people and realize the veil has been lifted that what I am witnessing is the revelation of the kingdom of God here on earth. In a small park in Minneapolis is born a new Jerusalem and indeed God is dwells there. Through the hope of justice and peacemaking, God has made all things new-the former things are passed away. No longer do our labels divide us because “it is done! [God] is the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. To [we who are] thirsty, God will give water as a gift from the spring of the water of life.”
May it be so.
Amen.
(1) http://magdalenesmusings.blogspot.com/2009/11/do-this-in-remembrance-sermon-on.html
(2) Bridges, Linda McKinnish, "Preaching the Parables in Matthew's Gospel in Ordinary Time: The Extraordinary Tales of God's World," Review & Expositor (2007): 325-362.
(3) Wes Howard-Brook, “Living in New Jerusalem, the Bibles celebratory vision of what the church is to be.” Seasons of the Spirit Congregational Life Lent, Easter RCL Year C (2007), 114.
(4) Ibid., 114.
(5) Ibid., 114.
(6) http://www.hobt.org/mayday/cere/index.html
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