With God, Anything Can Happen

Based on Luke 1:39-45

Edited version of a sermon first delivered Dec. 23, 2012

Rev. Dr. Kevin Orr

            This is a hard time of year for preachers. It’s Christmas. And the story of Christmas has been told so many times, in so many ways, that it is extremely difficult to say anything really new about it. What new twist can be found? What new kernel of wisdom or insight? The scripture passages we hear today and will hear tomorrow are some of the most over-interpreted scriptures in the Bible. So what can anyone say about the story that is original? You all have already heard it. It seems all we are left with is the story itself and maybe that’s enough. Maybe we just need to rehearse this amazing story once again, of how God came to the world as one of us, taking on human flesh from within the womb, and simply marvel about it.

            Consider how marvelous this story is. Some may even say it is absurd. Mary has just had a conversation with the archangel Gabriel, telling her that she would get pregnant by the Holy Spirit, and will have a boy who is the Son of God. That is some big news for a teenage girl who, according to an old tradition, had spent all her life within the Temple in Jerusalem. Of course, when you get news like this, that you are expecting a baby, you don’t just sit on that news. You have to get up and tell somebody. And the first person you tell is likely the most important person in your life. Notice that it wasn’t Joseph. Maybe that was for obvious reasons. She would have some ‘splainin to do! But no, she gets up and hurries to a small village in the hill country of Judea, to a relative who must be the most important person in her life, Elizabeth. Elizabeth may have been Mary’s aunt, which would make John and Jesus cousins. This is what has been traditionally understood. At any rate, Elizabeth was clearly someone who was dear to Mary, who she was comfortable sharing such amazing news. Can you see this girl, sneaking out of the Temple, out of the watchful eyes of the priests, and running with excitement to tell the news to Elizabeth? These days she probably would have just given Elizabeth a call. Doubt if she would have posted it on Facebook though. “I’m pregnant and God is the Father.” Would you click “like”, “love” or the “ha ha” emogji? Would you respond with “congrats”? That would be pretty weird.

            No, with a story like this, one only tells the closest people that they can trust; someone who would believe them and not think they are crazy. Elizabeth was one of those people for Mary. I suspect Mary could trust Elizabeth with this news because Elizabeth had some news of her own. The word was out all around about how Zechariah had seen an angel that told him his wife Elizabeth, well past child-bearing years, would give birth to a son who is to be named John. Surely Mary thought that if Elizabeth had her own miraculous pregnancy that she would understand what Mary is going through. In fact, there was no one else in the world who would understand what Mary was experiencing than Elizabeth. So Mary had to go to Elizabeth to share her news.

            But what happens next is even more amazing. As Mary approaches Elizabeth, John kicks her. Now there is nothing amazing about a baby kicking their mother’s uterus. What is amazing is what Elizabeth says. She doesn’t say, “Oohh, I felt that one.” Instead, she said, “The child inside me leaped for joy as soon as I heard you say hello!” And, the scriptures say, the Holy Spirit fell on Elizabeth. Now this is something impressive. In those days the Holy Spirit rarely fell on anyone. Only prophets received the Spirit for the purpose of speaking God’s message…Thus sayeth the Lord. And 99% of those prophets were men: Moses, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Micah, etc. But here is old Elizabeth, the priest’s wife, who has been granted the blessing of carrying a special child who will prepare the way for Jesus, little baby John who starts the preparation now by leaping in the womb. Not only does Elizabeth have within her the greatest prophet of all time, she becomes a prophet herself.

            Elizabeth is a prophet because as soon as she saw Mary and felt John leap in her womb she knew that Mary was pregnant. Mary had not yet told anyone she was pregnant. She just found out herself! Elizabeth already knows. Right away she is singing a song of blessing over Mary and the baby in her womb. The little prophet John is oozing the spirit of prophecy I guess! And there you have it, two women carrying two miracle babies. Here, in an unnamed village in the hill country of Judea, you have an old woman and a young woman embracing each other with joy. One has inside her womb the greatest of all prophets. In the other womb is the Son of God, our Lord and Savior. Amazing.

            So, why did it happen this way? This is why some think this whole story is so absurd. Here is the account of how the greatest prophet of all time and the savior of the world came into being. It isn’t among the powerful. It isn’t in Jerusalem, Athens, Alexandria or Rome. It isn’t among the elites. And men are only ambiguously involved. Zechariah is only involved by divine intervention and Joseph had nothing to do with it at all! No, this amazing event, an event that turns the tide, that ushers in the salvation of the whole world, is first experienced and shared by an old woman and a young girl in a small village in the hills of Judea. This is how God decided to break into our world. And we are left to puzzle why, of all the ways God could have come into our world, that God chose this particular time, in this particular place, with these particular women.

            As hard as you may try, the question of why this way and not another can’t be answered except to conclude that this is how God does things. God tends to act in ways that we don’t always expect or notice. God’s thoughts are not our thoughts. God’s ways are not our ways. God has a bigger view of things than we will ever perceive. We are left to marvel at how it happened, that two women on the margins of society are the first to realize how it is that God will come to save the world. It’s just amazing. I don’t know what else to say about it.

            If there is one message we can take from this, it is that God can work through anyone who has a heart open to God. It’s not just the wise people, or the people of great talents, notoriety and wealth. It is anyone who is open to the possibility that God could use them for ministry. And it’s not the size of ministry that counts. It is true that large ministries can have large impact. People who have successfully grown ministries from just a few people to the participation of thousands can be inspiring and may have some things to teach us about God and about the practicalities of growing a ministry. Leaders of these large ministries have people coming up to them all the time asking for guidance or encouragement, they have tons of Facebook friends and thousands of Twitter followers. They command a lot of influence for good. God definitely uses people like that and the large ministries they shepherd. But if the Bible shows us anything, it is that God tends to work through people no one really knew before. Elizabeth and Mary were ordinary people, at least on the outside. But on the inside they were open to the possibility of being used by God to accomplish amazing things. What is possible for us is obviously not the same as what was for them. But we can follow their lead and allow ourselves to be open to what God may want to accomplish through us. Whether God’s intention is for you or me to one day birth a massive ministry that reaches thousands or even millions or it is to bless just one person today, that’s up to God. Who God is looking for is people who are open to God’s leading, who are willing to say “yes” to God, and then see what happens. And those people are often people like you and me, just ordinary folks.

            Elizabeth carried a prophet in her womb. Maybe you have a prophetic word inside of you that needs to be expressed. Mary carried in her womb our Savior Jesus. We believe that by accepting Jesus Christ as our Savior that he dwells in our hearts. We carry Jesus with us wherever we go. Every day we have an opportunity to share Jesus with others, by what we say but mostly by what we do. We can announce the good news that no matter what, God is with us. So perhaps this is something we can take with us as we rush toward Christmas: that when it comes to being available to be used by God, used by God to express God’s holiness and God’s love, that all of us are included. When God is looking for faithful servants, God is looking at you and me. Just like Elizabeth and Mary, you and I can be in on what God is up to, something that most people miss entirely because we aren’t famous and don’t have huge platforms. Being famous isn’t required to be selected by God to do something that can change the world, at least the world of one person.

Share the Joy

Based on Zephaniah 3:14-20 and Luke 3:7-18

First delivered Dec. 16, 2018

Rev. Dr. Kevin Orr

            As you can see, purple is the liturgical color of the season of Advent. The other season that has purple as its color is Lent. Both of these seasons are understood to be a time of reflection and preparation for celebrating markers in the ministry of Jesus, his birth and his resurrection. Lent, of course, has a heavy emphasis on repentance, giving something up for Lent, committing to a more robust spiritual practice, giving to those in need. Many people incorporate fasting into their Lenten practice.

            Advent can be like Lent for us, just not as severe. First of all, how can anyone really practice fasting right now with all the holiday parties? And let’s face it; there is something about colder weather that prompts our bodies to fill up on those comfort foods to pad us up so we can get through winter. How’s that for a rationalization for overindulgence? Advent doesn’t have the same intensity as Lent, but it is a time of preparation. We are reminded that even as we prepare to celebrate the birth of Jesus, we also anticipate his second coming. Are we ready for the Lord’s return? That’s one of the lingering questions through Advent. This is a season, which falls at the end of the year, when we are invited to take stock, reflect on where we are in our life, what we need to let go of and take on in our discipleship. Advent can have a Lenten feel. Thus the color purple.

            But today we see that the candle in the Advent wreath which was lit is not purple. It’s pink. That’s because this candle symbolizes joy. And why not? The bright and colorful lights and decorations, the Christmas carols, the parties and get-togethers, this is a time, even though the days are shorter and the nights are longer, to lift up our spirits and en-joy the holiday season. Yes, this time of year can be hard. Some of us grieve loved ones who won’t be celebrating Christmas with us this year. But why linger in the gloom? All around us are invitations to give in to the magic of the season, to fill our hearts with joy. So we acknowledge the joy of this time of year on this Sunday.

            The passage from the prophet Zephaniah definitely has the theme of joy. “Sing aloud, O daughter Zion; shout, O Israel! Rejoice and exult with all your heart, O daughter Jerusalem!” Why? Because “the Lord has taken away the judgments against you, he has turned away your enemies.” Further on, the prophet declares, “the Lord…will rejoice over you with gladness, he will renew you in his love; he will exult over you with loud singing as on a day of festival.” The prophet says, “the Lord will save the lame, gather the outcast, change their shame into praise.” Singing, rejoicing, praise. This is the ninth oracle in the book of Zephaniah. The first eight are full of gloom and doom. But in the end, at the ninth, an ode to joy erupts and the oppressed and beaten down people are given reason to hope for a glorious future when God will set things right. The Lord will come. Their salvation is drawing near.

            So let’s see where joy shows up in John’s preaching as Luke has recorded it. John begins his sermon by shouting to the crowd, “You brood of vipers!” Well that’s a fine way to start a message, by calling everyone in front of you children of snakes. He then asks in what seems to be an accusatory manner, “who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?” It’s almost as if John wished that they didn’t know what was going to happen so that when the Lord came they would be all wiped out for their sinfulness. Isn’t the joy in John’s message palpable? What is amazing is that the crowd didn’t just get up and leave. In fact, they engage John by asking what they need to do so that they don’t get wiped out by the coming judgment. John then gives them specific instructions on what they need to do. And when the people began to wonder if John was the messiah, he sets them straight. He tells them that the messiah is coming, and he is bringing a winnowing fork and fire, to gather all the good people in his granary and cast the bad people into unquenchable fire. A joyful message? Well, that would be hard to affirm.

            Yet, at the end of today’s passage, in vs. 18, Luke writes, “So, with many other exhortations, he proclaimed the good news to the people.” What good news? I don’t know about you but when I have gotten good news it usually begins with “congratulations” or “we are pleased to inform you.” I have never gotten good news that began by calling me a son of a snake. Have you? Where exactly is the good news in John’s sermon? Can joy be found in this message? I am going to try to convince you that when Luke called John’s sermon good news that he didn’t say that tongue in cheek but actually meant it.

            Have you ever worked at a place where the supervisor or an accrediting agency shows up unannounced to do an inspection? If so, you may have noticed your heart rate speed up a little bit. Your brain kicks in as you wonder, “Uh oh, is everything in order? We weren’t prepared for this!” You all may remember about a month back our district superintendent showed up with her husband for worship. It was great to have her with us. And I had no idea she was coming. Now I know she wasn’t here to do a formal inspection. We have a good, professional relationship. But my heart still skipped a beat. Surprise inspections do generate some stress. We would like to have some advance warning.

            The good news in John’s sermon is that he is letting the people know that the inspector is on their way. And it’s going to be a formal inspection with profound consequences. So before the inspector arrives with his winnowing fork, his axe and unquenchable fire, you all better look at yourselves and get yourselves together. You better repent and show fruits of repentance before he gets here. The good news here is that there is time to get ready. They, we, have been warned. We have time to prepare for the coming of the Lord. We have time to straighten ourselves out. So that’s good news.

            Would it be fair for you to be held accountable for your actions without it being made clear to what you are being held to account? You go in for your annual performance review. Sitting across from you is your boss with a scowl on their face. Looking at you they say, “Joe, you need to do a better job. If you don’t improve in the next three months, we will have to let you go.” The natural question to ask would be, “Sir, what specifically do I need to focus on?” The boss says to you, “I’ll know it when I see it. You just need to focus. Do your job. Get to work.” Could have been more specific.

            The good news with John is that when asked the question, “What should we do?” he gives specific answers. “Whoever has two coats must share with anyone who has none; and whoever has food must do likewise.” OK, we can work with that. We can share. A tax collector asks what he needs to do. John tells him to only collect what is due. The soldier asks what he is supposed to do. John tells him not to extort and be satisfied with his wages.

            Now let’s look at this for a second. First off, it is interesting that the two specific occupations addressed are tax collectors and soldiers, two occupations that represent the oppression of the empire on the people. Tax collectors and soldiers, who are likely local mercenaries, are betraying their people by facilitating oppression. You would think that when they ask John what they should do, that John would tell them to quit their jobs and stop facilitating oppression. But he doesn’t do that. Instead, he basically tells both of them to stop exploiting people for personal gain.

            Here’s the other thing. In my studies, I learned that in those days, tax collectors had to pay the state for the privilege of collecting taxes. In order to cover the expense, they would add a surcharge to the taxes they collected. And they were free to make that surcharge whatever they wanted. The system was designed to add economic suffering on to the people. And, of course, it also made tax collectors especially despised because everyone knew that the tax collectors were taking advantage of them. So John tells the tax collector to only collect what is owed. But how are they supposed to then make a living? To answer that question, refer to the first answer John gave. If someone has two coats, they must share with those who have none. If the tax collector, doing the right thing, lacks a coat or food, they must depend on the generosity of the people whom they are taxing. That’s some radical interdependence, isn’t it?

            What about the soldier? He has to be satisfied with the meagre pay he gets as a mercenary. So how is the solder supposed to make ends meet if his salary isn’t enough? He has to depend on the generosity of the people he is maintaining control over. I wonder, how might that impact how he does his job? I can imagine that if I as a soldier had to depend on others to provide my family food if I wasn’t getting paid enough by the empire that I would probably not be a mean soldier but cut the people some slack, ease their burden, try not to be oppressive to their movements and daily living. I would want the people to be happy to have me around instead of seeing me as the arm of the state with a boot on their necks. As it turns out, a sharing economy actually undermines the oppressive nature of the system which the empire designed. If these agents of the state only do what is required and rely on the people for their daily sustenance, then they would naturally maintain a soft approach and ease the burdens on the people as much as possible. And that is good news indeed.

            It would be depressing and demoralizing to hold the belief that in the end it doesn’t matter how you live. Life is just one thing after another and then you die. Lights out. As Kansas puts it, “All we are is dust in the wind.” As the preacher in Ecclesiastes put it, “Vanity, vanity, all is vanity.” It is depressing to think that your life will make no lasting impact. You won’t be remembered. Most of us don’t know the names of our great-great grandparents. Why would you or I be different? More than likely all of us gathered here will one day be forgotten. It will be as if we never existed. Ugh.

            But that’s not what John believes. The prophet casts for us a vision. It is a vision of the messiah with a winnowing fork in his hand. All the grain has been harvested. And the messiah is throwing the grain up into the air with his winnowing fork so that the lighter chaff will drift away in the breeze. Then all the chaff-free wheat will be gathered up and stored in his granary. All the chaff left behind will be swept up and thrown into the fire. What does this mean? Maybe it is a vision of the last judgment. Those who have repented and bore the fruits of repentance are the grain that will be gathered together. But those who have not repented will be thrown into the fire to burn forever. Or maybe it is a vision of sifting, and all that is not who we truly are will drift away as chaff so that, having been purified, we will be gathered into the Lord’s granary. Maybe it means something else. But the important point here is that for John how we live now does matter. It certainly matters to God. We will not be forgotten. Certainly not by God. We will for eternity be in God’s memory. That alone is a comfort. This vision that John offers up is a vision of hope. It is a vision that says to us that how we live now has everlasting consequences. It matters not if our names are inscribed in the annals of history or that people thousands of years from now will be speaking our names. When the Lord comes, we will be gathered in, having borne the fruit of repentance. And that will be a day of rejoicing. John’s vision of future judgment is good news.

            But it’s more than just what happens to you after you die. How we live now really does make a difference, for good or ill. To live our daily lives as John directs, by being satisfied with what you have and sharing with those who lack, this is a fruitful way of life. It is a life that is infused with joy and gratitude.

            Maybe you have heard of this wealthy business man who goes by the pseudonym “Secret Santa.” Right around this time of year he comes up with ways to secretly distribute thousands of dollars. This year, he recruited a black, middle aged, homeless man to be the one to distribute $100 bills. The man stood on the street with his sign and his cup asking for donations. And as is typical for those who beg on the streets, most people walked right on by without even noticing him. But sometimes people would drop some money in his cup. And when they did, he would say to that person, “Hey, hold on a minute. I have something for you.” And he would hand that person a $100 bill and express appreciation for their generosity and invoke God’s blessing on them. This exchange usually ended with a hug, and even a few shedding of tears.

            One man dropped some coins in the homeless man’s cup and then received his $100. He is a father of seven. And he was financially burdened himself, worrying about how to provide presents for all his children. That $100 made a big difference. The homeless man gave 5 $100 bills to a homeless mother of three and told her how much he honored her dedication to her kids, to do everything she knew to do to care for them during this difficult time in her life. The secret Santa, of course, paid the homeless man $500 for helping him share his wealth. He claimed that money as an opportunity to start fresh. In those moments of sharing, strangers were gathered into an embrace, and anxiety and burdens, like chaff, drifted away. Tears of joy flowed. This homeless man, and the secret Santa who made it possible, will not be forgotten any time soon by those who were touched, whose lives were impacted for good.

            As we move closer to Christmas, as 2018 nears its end and we turn the page into 2019, now is a good time to reflect on how we are living our lives. What fruit are we bearing? Now is a good time to listen to John’s call to repent where needed, to bear fruit of repentance, and to be assured that when the Lord returns you will be gathered in with all who have lived a good life. In these darkening days, what can you and I do to sing and rejoice with all our hearts? How can we spread joy to others? Now is our time to share some good news.

We Have Time

Based on Malachi 3:1-4 and Luke 3:1-6

First delivered Dec. 9, 2018

Rev. Dr. Kevin Orr

            Whatever you thought of his presidency or his policies, and they are definitely a mixed bag, the multi-day celebration of the life of George H. W. Bush was a spectacle. The state funeral at the national cathedral, with all the military honors and the 21 gun salute; the second funeral at Houston with 1,000 guests; the funeral train that slowly made its way from Houston to College Station so that regular folks could line up along the tracks to pay their respects; the 21 plane missing man formation flyover provided by the navy pilots in their fighter jets; it was quite a send-off for this man.

            Consider the meticulous planning and preparations that had to happen to pull all this off in what seemed to us who were watching, to go without a hitch. There was the logistics of getting the Bush family and their entourage from Houston, to Washington, back to Houston and then to College Station. The church choirs and the military choirs had to rehearse the music so they would be ready to sing when the time came. The soaring and moving eulogies to be offered by those whom George Bush wanted to speak at his funerals had to be crafted and honed. All the movements had to be choreographed to the tiniest detail: where people would sit, where they would stand, how they would move from one place to another. The cars, the plane, the train, had to be all polished and sparkling. I have never seen a train so clean in my life. All those programs had to be printed. It goes on and on. Without a doubt, what we saw was the fruits of years of planning and preparation.

            Of course, they had time to prepare. George Bush had not been the best of health for a number of years and was blessed to live to the age of 94. Everyone knew this time would come so there was an opportunity to meticulously plan everything to the slightest detail. Everything had to be ready so that when the time came, no one knew when that would be, then everyone would be ready, everything would be prepared. It was pointed out that the Oak Ridge Boys, who sang at the funeral in Houston, are touring right now. So the members of the group were travelling with their funeral clothes just in case they would be called at the last minute to make their way to Houston. The church must have had the bulletins with the order of worship all ready to go and ready for printing. They just needed to add the date and time of the service. The day before George Bush’s body took the train ride to College Station, Union Pacific installed the Plexiglas windows in the retrofitted baggage car so that folks could see the coffin as the train moved through their little town. Everything was ready. All the obstacles had been removed, everything was straightened out, so that the people of this nation could have the opportunity to get close to the president and pay their final respects. But not only that, the obstacles were removed so that the Bush family could tell a story about George H. W. Bush, a president and a patriot, not a perfect man, but a gentle man, a public servant, humble, dutiful, loyal, and loving. All that planning made it possible for their story to be told as they wanted it, to shape how they wanted George Bush to be remembered.

             I couldn’t stop thinking about these past few days while reflecting on the scriptures we have before us this morning, texts that focus on the necessity of preparation. In both texts, there is expressed an expectation of the coming of the Lord, the day of salvation. Now is the time to prepare for that arrival. This is not just any VIP. This is the Lord, almighty God. It is unquestioned that before the Lord arrives preparations have to be made. Don’t know when the Lord will come. But the Lord is coming. So we have to get ready.

            Both of these texts talk about sending in the advance team of one. For Malachi it is an unnamed messenger and for Luke it is John the Baptist. For Malachi, when this messenger comes, he is bringing fire and fullers’ soap, which is a strong, lye based soap that makes linen exceptionally clean. This messenger is coming to take the priests of Levi and put them through the refiners fire and wash them clean with the fullers’ soap of purification so that these priests will no longer be crooked but get straight so that they can offer right sacrifices again, as in days of old, as in former years. Then, once the priesthood has their act together, and everything is made right, everything in the Temple is prepared, then the Lord will appear suddenly for judgment. Look what we find in Malachi 3:5; “Then I will draw near to you for judgment; I will be swift to bear witness against the sorcerers, against the adulterers, against those who swear falsely, against those who oppress the hired workers in their wages, the widow and the orphan, against those who thrust aside the alien (do you hear this?), and do not fear me, says the Lord of hosts.” For the oppressed workers, widows, orphans, and immigrants of the day this is good news, the hopeful expectation that once the priests get it together, finish their preparations, and offer right sacrifices, that the Lord will come back and deliver justice.

            Then we have John the Baptist, out in the wilderness, receiving a word from the Lord. The word of God doesn’t come to the emperor Tiberius. It doesn’t come to Pontius Pilate the governor, or Herod, or Phillip or Lysanias the civic rulers. The word of God doesn’t come to Annas and Caiaphas the high priests. The word of God does not go to the places of power and influence. No, the word of God comes to John, the son of Zechariah, in the wilderness. His is the voice crying out in the wilderness that now is the time to prepare the way of the Lord, to make the paths straight, to fill up the valleys and lower the mountains and hills, to smooth over the rough places, to remove every barrier and obstacle so that all flesh can see the salvation of God. There is preparation to be made, a baptism of repentance to be received for the forgiveness of sins. Preparations must be made so that all is ready when the Lord returns, the God of our salvation. Next week we are going to get more into the details of what is involved in these preparations. But I will give you a hint. Just as Malachi makes it clear that the priesthood needs to get their act together, so John’s message says to all who hear the sound of his voice to bear fruits worthy of repentance. John doesn’t limit this to the priesthood. He doesn’t just call out the oppressors of his day, those who knowingly or unknowingly inflict injustice on the widow, the orphan, the immigrant and migrant in their midst, but John calls everyone to change their ways, to repent, to receive their forgiveness, and then live right so that when the Lord comes, he will be pleased with what he sees, a people who are prepared to stand in his glorious presence. We have work to do.

            What preparations need to be done before Christmas arrives? My wife is a master at planning and preparation. She started back in October buying presents for the whole family, including our nieces and nephews. I just have to worry about getting stuff for her. I get off easy. We already have our presents wrapped. If you don’t have your Christmas decorations up by now you better get moving. Can’t promise you warm weather any more if you have outdoor decorations to put up yet. Maybe you have already had some holiday parties but have one or two more to get ready for. Those Christmas cards need stuffed in envelopes, stamped and taken to the post office. There are still rehearsals ahead for those of us who will be participating in holiday concerts. Maybe you have to prepare to head out to visit family in the next few weeks. Have you planned your Christmas dinner yet? So much planning and preparation we find ourselves in during this season of Advent, a time of expectant waiting for the coming of our Lord and Savior as an infant lying in a manger.

            But before we can get to sweet baby Jesus we have to go through John the Baptist. His voice still cries out in the wilderness to prepare the way of the Lord so that all flesh can see the salvation of God. What preparations need to be done so that all people can see the salvation of God? The messenger from Malachi says that there needs to be a refinement and purification. John says there needs to be repentance. I wonder what obstacles need to be removed, what crooked roads need straightened, what rough places need smoothed so that people will be able to see the salvation of God. What are we doing or not doing that prevents people from seeing Jesus? Are you and I prepared for the coming of the Lord? I don’t know about you but when I consider my life, I know there is need for refinement and purification. I need some refiners’ fire and some fullers’ soap. There are some things of which I need to repent. I need to recognize the ways in which my lifestyle is carried on the backs of oppressed workers, widows, orphans, and migrants. And I don’t believe I am alone in this. As we prepare for our annual celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ our Savior, let us also hear the voice of John crying out in today’s wilderness to prepare the way of the Lord. Let us hear that cry as a clarion call for action, knowing that now is the time, knowing that we have time, to repent, to change our ways of living, to straighten ourselves out, to smooth our rough edges, to receive forgiveness, and bear the fruits of repentance. We have time. So let’s make the most of it.

Waiting Through the Crisis

Based on Luke 21:25-36

Edited version first delivered Dec. 2, 2012

Rev. Dr. Kevin Orr

            Waiting…that’s what Advent means. We are in a time of waiting. We are, of course, waiting for Christmas to get here. But there are other things we are waiting for. We may be waiting for this year to be over, or waiting for school to be over. Maybe waiting to feel better, or waiting for that check to arrive in the mail. Maybe waiting for an answer, or some sign that will show us what to do next. Maybe waiting for the phone to ring.

            The scripture reading this morning has something to do with waiting; waiting for Jesus to come back. We read of all these terrible signs, chaos and confusion, the heavens being shaken, the nations in an uproar. It’s a description of some global disruption of epic proportions. And Jesus says that when all these things happen, we are to lift up our heads and get excited because that’s the sign that the Son of Man is coming to redeem us. And Jesus says that this generation won’t pass away until all these things take place. That’s where the waiting comes in. Two thousand years have gone by and we are still waiting for all these things to take place. Jesus said, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.” We’re still waiting for the heavens and earth to pass away.

            But let me take it to a more personal level. Maybe what you are seeing are not signs of the world coming to the end, but maybe it is signs of your world coming to an end. You look around you and what you see isn’t pretty. The doctor comes back with the report: you have stage three liver cancer. Grandpa was out early in the morning, driving over to Jolly Roger like he always does for coffee and donuts. Out of nowhere, a speeding car crashes into him and he dies a few hours later at the hospital. You began to have your doubts, but slowly it becomes obvious that your son has become a drug addict. And he has been stealing from you to support his habit. In so many different ways, our worlds can get rocked. Life as it was will no longer continue. It has passed away. What then? What might you be waiting for in times like this?

            One option is dissipation and drunkenness. When the crisis hits and your world has come crashing down all around you, some people choose the option of self-medication. Using whatever drug of choice, the goal is to numb the pain, to experience a feeling of bliss, to push away all the struggles and hurts that life has dealt. There is a logic in choosing this option. Pain is nature’s way of alerting us that something is amiss and needs to be dealt with. Pain is like an alarm. We need to find out what is going on that is setting off the pain alarm. But sometimes, we would rather hit the snooze button. We would rather just turn the pain alarm off instead of deal with whatever set it off. Just don’t want to deal with the pain. People choose to numb the pain. But the source of the pain doesn’t go away. If you hit the snooze button, the alarm will eventually go off again. Will you choose to hit the snooze button again or turn the alarm off by getting to the root issue, in this case, getting out of bed and on with your day? When dealing with the pain alarm, there is the option to hit the snooze button with drugs or alcohol. Or, as Jesus put it in Luke 21:34, “dissipation and drunkenness.”

            Another option is to fret and be anxious about your situation. This is the option of lying awake all night playing through your mind every conceivable negative outcome. You spin out one disaster after another. Say for instance you think your performance review at your job is going to be horrible. As you lie in bed fretting about it, you imagine the boss saying, “I can’t cut it.” Then I’m going to get fired. And I won’t be able to find another job in my field. And I’m too old to go back to school and launch a new career. And no one will want to hire me because I’m overqualified. We’re going to lose the house. My wife will leave me. I’m going to end up living on the streets because my car will be repossessed. My brother and dad will write me off as a failure. My life will end up a total waste. From “my performance review is going to be terrible” to “my life is a total waste.” That’s quite a stretch! But that’s an option when you see signs of your world falling apart. You can fret, stew, talk yourself into paralysis. When a crisis hits and our lives spin out of control, it can be scary. Everything we used to take for granted, where we had a sense of security, can get rattled. And when that happens, fear raises up its ugly head. And fear can easily cause us to stop dead in our tracks. We get confused, unsure, anxious. We don’t know for sure what to do next. And then the simplest of tasks becomes a monumental struggle. We can become trapped in our fantasies of gloom and doom.

            There is a third option, the one that Jesus suggests when the world, or our world, starts to fall apart. We can stay alert and pray. We can pay attention to what is happening and look for those who can help us. We can look for signs that God is still with us, even as we wait expectantly for God to see us through the time of crisis. We can simply ask ourselves, “What do I need to do right now? What is the next faithful step I can take?” A counselor reminded me once that when you get your car stuck in the mud, you can either go backward or forward but to get unstuck you have to keep moving. When you find yourself stuck in a crisis, keep moving. Stay engaged with life. You may be surprised what you discover when you pay attention to life in times of crisis. Someone who was experiencing a deep crisis discovered that he had a lot of friends who were there for him, to help him take care of his life when he didn’t have the strength or desire to take care of himself. He used to think, “Life is great, it’s people that annoy me.” Now it’s reversed. For him, people are great, it’s life that’s annoying sometimes. That’s the benefit of staying alert and engaged with life during times of upheaval, instead of numbing your senses with drugs or freezing yourself in fear of what might happen. God not only gets us through the crisis but also gives us wisdom.

            When we see signs of our world falling apart, Jesus calls us to pray. Whether those prayers are written in a prayer book, or your own conversation with God, or sighs and groans, just keep praying through those world-shattering times. I have found that in times where life was chaotic and topsy-turvy, that I could find a measure of order and stability by sticking to a set time of prayer. Whatever time of the day you choose, pick a time, and go to a specific spot in your house. Maybe you have a chair in the corner of the family room, or maybe it’s looking out the kitchen window. Have a book of prayers in hand, or read some scripture, or simply sit still and share your thoughts with God. Be still and know God’s presence. Feel the tension of the chaos, experience all your feelings, in those moments of prayer with God. Sticking to daily prayer can do wonders in creating moments of calm during times of chaos and confusion.

            Our tradition teaches us that one day the heavens and the earth will pass away. We also know that one day every one of us in this space will pass away. And as long as we are alive on this earth, we will face struggles and our share of catastrophe, when it seems our whole world is coming to an end. When these times come, Jesus would tell us to lift up our heads and be assured that the Lord is coming to redeem, to save, to carry us through the chaos and set us down in a better place. That is our hope, our expectant hope, as we wait for our salvation. When it seems the world is coming to an end, don’t get drunk, don’t be overcome with worry and anxiety. Instead, stay alert, pray, look for signs of God, pay attention to what life is trying to teach you, and keep moving. For God is with us, even as we wait for the second coming of Christ. And in God, whether we live or die, our life in God will never end.

Aligning Allegiances

Based on Revelation 1:4b-8

First delivered Nov. 25, 2018

Rev. Dr. Kevin Orr

            Imagine living in a society where we are targeted for elimination. The phrase, “If you see something, say something” is targeted at you and me. If our neighbors, employers, people on the street, see us representing the Christian faith in any way, they are to report us to the nearest law enforcement. The FBI is investigating our leaders and trying to infiltrate our churches. Fellow Christians are being rounded up in night time raids and held for questioning, kept in confinement, thrown into prison. Militia groups and other vigilantes take matters into their own hands: setting fire to our churches, vandalizing our places of business, shooting us dead on the streets. Protests all across the country and people on cable news railing about how Christians are destroying the nation, undermining the rule of law, threatening to bring down civilization itself. Some even suggest that it would be good for the whole if all the Christians were simply wiped out.

            Where would you find hope in a situation like this? It must be such a strong temptation to publically reject Christ, to prove that you aren’t one of them. It must be so frightening. And so frustrating. We are a peace loving people. We follow the way of love. Society is better because we are here, because of our lived out faith. Why are we hated and despised so much? It’s so unfair. Is it all worth it? Is this society even worthy of us? I wonder where hope can be found in such a time of massive persecution.

            Writing to a church that was living through this level of persecution, John begins his revelation with the basis for hope. He begins by making it clear who is really in charge. The government, led by the tyrant Roman emperor Nero, who fancied himself to be the son of a god, imposed his will on his subjected peoples. But there is one whose authority is greater than the feared emperor. John begins by naming who God is, the one who is, who was and who is to come. Emperors come and go. Empires rise and fall. God alone endures. And one day God will come to us. When it comes to authority, no one compares with God, not even an emperor. God says, “I am the Alpha and the Omega, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.” No one has greater might than God. Where is hope found in times of great persecution? Hope is found by placing faith in God, who is everlasting and almighty, who one day will come to us. That’s what John declares. God is the one who is really in charge.

            John goes on to give three titles to Jesus Christ. He is the faithful martyr, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. Hope infuses these titles. Think of all your friends and family who have been killed because of their beliefs and remember that Jesus was also killed because of his beliefs. Just as they were killed by state power, so was Jesus. We grieve our loved ones who have been martyred but hope remains because Jesus rose from the dead. He conquered death and the grave. He is the firstborn of the dead, meaning that others will follow, including our loved ones who have been martyred. So there is hope for them and for us. And finally Jesus is the ruler of the kings, the king of kings and lord of lords. Who else ought we to put our hope in than Jesus who rules over all?

            John doesn’t just declare Jesus as king of kings. He also makes the case for how this is true. Jesus is the king of kings because he loves us. A king is one who loves his people. Does Nero the emperor? No. Jesus liberated us, not from human enemies but from sin, the enemy of our souls. And he did this, not by sending an army to fight and die but by offering himself, shedding his own blood and not the blood of others. A king sacrifices all for the liberation of his people. Does Nero the emperor? No. Jesus has made us to be a kingdom of priests who serve God, giving us all dignity, status and purpose. Jesus has shared his authority with us so that we all, together with Jesus, can serve and give honor to his Father, who is the everlasting and almighty God. Has Nero the emperor done anything like that for us? No. What exactly has Nero the emperor done for us? Better, what has he done to us?

            One of the points I see John making in the beginning of his revelation is that the empire does not deserve our allegiance. The empire constrains and oppresses. The empire seeks to destroy us. The empire is only temporary in the grand sweep of time. Sure, it exercises power and demands loyalty. But it is nothing in comparison to the authority and power of God, the very source of life itself.

            Instead, our allegiance rightly belongs to God, the everlasting, the almighty; and to Jesus Christ, who has made us into a kingdom of priests to serve with him to the glory and dominion of God forever and ever. We have no need to bear allegiance to the empire. Our allegiance is with God. The empire can try to wipe us out of existence. But it is a fool’s errand because our kingdom is established by God and Jesus Christ. We will not be erased. For us, as Christians, loyal to God and Jesus, there is always hope. One day God will come and make things right. The empire will fall.

            Now obviously, we don’t live in a society dedicated to our elimination. I invited us to imagine ourselves in the shoes of our ancient ancestors in the faith, to imagine the horrific situation they were in and the need for hope to endure what truly is unimaginable suffering. We can try to put ourselves there but can’t really imagine what it must have been like. Two thousand years later the Roman empire has fallen. There is no longer a Caesar. Other empires have risen and fallen. The British empire has risen and fallen. The American empire has risen and one day our empire will fall. They always do. But right now, in regards to our Christian faith, we don’t live in a society in which our government has a policy to wipe us out. Many would claim that the United States is a Christian nation. We are protected by the Constitution to practice our faith. This is not the case for many of our brothers and sisters in other parts of the world, where being a Christian very well may put your life at risk. In this land we are not afraid to live out our Christian faith.

            But a question of allegiance remains. In the days of John, allegiance to the Roman empire was imposed on the conquered peoples, including the Christians who belonged to the seven churches in the land of Asia, known in the present day as Turkey. For our ancestors in the faith, they rejected allegiance to the Roman empire and instead claimed allegiance to another kingdom, a kingdom not of this world yet one day would be established on this earth, when God would come down from heaven and dwell with us, a new heaven and a new earth. For them it was a choice: allegiance to the Roman empire or allegiance to God and Jesus.

            For us, we have multiple allegiances. We pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America. We have allegiance to our family, however we define it: the family we were born in to, married in to, or created on our own to be like a family for us. We have allegiance to the society in which we live grounded in the rule of law, individual liberty, and free enterprise. We have allegiance to the high school we went to or for some of us the universities we graduated from. Some of us have a rabid allegiance to our sports teams. We have allegiance to our church. And we have allegiance to God. We have multiple allegiances that sometimes generate tension. Should we go to church or to the family reunion? Free enterprise makes it possible for me to get what I want at a competitive price but at what cost to the creation God has made me responsible to protect and the exploitation of workers who are God’s beloved children? Our multiple allegiances sometimes put us in difficult situations. They don’t always align.

            I wonder what it would be like if we take all our allegiances: to country, to church, to family and friends, to school, and placed them under our primary allegiance to God and Jesus. How would life be different? If our primary allegiance is to serve God, how would that overriding allegiance affect the decisions we make about other allegiances we have? I am thinking of the time when some opponents of Jesus tried to trap him by asking him whether Jews should pay taxes to Caesar. Jesus asked for someone to show him a coin. He then asked, “Whose head is on this coin?” “It is the head of the Caesar.” “Then give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God.” But wait, doesn’t everything belong to God, the source of all of creation? Yes, it does. So if everything belongs to God anyway and doesn’t belong to us, does it really matter if we pay our taxes? Nothing really belongs to anyone anyway. So, out of allegiance to our nation and to its laws we pay our taxes for the sake of the common good. Everything belongs to God anyway so what sense does it make to hoard what we have for our own private ends?

            I believe that if we make our allegiance to God and Jesus Christ as our primary allegiance, and put all of our other allegiances secondary, that it would impact what we value, and thus how we live. God is the source of all creation. God loves all of creation. So we must value all that God has created. If we value every person God made then we treat each person as valuable to God. If we value the earth that God has created, then we treat the earth as valuable, not for our own use, but with intrinsic value, worthy of our love and care. If we value and love every person God has created, and we love and value the earth that God has created, then we love and value our Creator. To love and value is to be in relationship, with God, with each other, and with the earth.

            Living our lives in which our primary allegiance is to love and value God, each person, and the earth, may or may not make us popular or successful. To love and value people that society often doesn’t love and value may not be the popular thing to do. To associate with the vulnerable and the despised may cause others to look down on you, dissociate from you, keep you from the centers of power and influence. But popularity and success are secondary to being true to the one who created us, the one who loves us, the one who saves us.

            To realign our allegiances and make our allegiance with God primary, the place to begin is with gratitude. Give gratitude to God for the land we live on and the nation we are citizens of. Give gratitude to God for your family and friends, for your school you graduated from. Give gratitude to God for this church you belong to. Give gratitude to God for all that you hold allegiance to. Acknowledge that God is the source of all to which you give your allegiance.

            And then, ask the question to God, “What would you have me do?” Especially when you find yourself having to navigate between competing allegiances, go to God in prayer, ask the question, “What would you have me do?” and then listen for the answer. What does your gut tell you? God speaks to us through our intuition. Trust it. Trust that inner voice. And then go do it. Trust that this voice, the one that comes from God the everlasting and almighty one, and of Jesus Christ, the king of kings, is the voice to heed. Let the one who loves us and saves us be the one who leads us on our life journey.

Healing the Soul of the Nation

Based on Hebrews 9:11-14, 24-28

First delivered Nov. 11, 2018

Rev. Dr. Kevin Orr

            As I reflected on the scripture for this morning, I couldn’t stop thinking about the violence that is sweeping our country. Two Black people killed at a Wal-Mart. Two women killed at a yoga studio. Eleven Jews killed at a synagogue. And then this past Wednesday twelve people killed at a bar. So much violence. So much death. And that’s just the killings that make the national news. People are being shot and killed all the time all across America.

            Someone I know made the observation that all these shootings had nothing to do with blue states or red states. It isn’t about politics. These killings are driven by hate: hatred of black people, hatred of women, hatred of Jews, hatred of people in general. All this violence is fueled by broken people filled with hate. And yet, there is so much arguing over politics. Are we ignoring the fact that there are so many people among us who are disconnected, angry, lost?

            We are confronted with a necessary question: what can we do to change the direction our society is going? I see all this violence and hatred in our society as a sign that there is something wrong with our society. We could push for gun control laws. Maybe you saw a mother who lost her son at the mass shooting at the Borderline Bar this past Wednesday. Her son was at the massacre in Las Vegas last year. He was able to escape that, but not this one. With a fierceness in her eyes, as she stood before the cameras, she cried out that she doesn’t want anyone’s thoughts and she doesn’t want anyone to send her prayers. She wants gun control laws. She finished her statement saying, “No more guns!” So much pain in her voice. Surely something could be done to limit access to weapons.

            But gun control laws are not enough. Our problem of violence and hatred goes much deeper. What I see is a blight on our national soul. Maybe this wouldn’t be the case if these mass shootings rarely happened. But there are so many, and it seems to be increasing. It makes me wonder that what we are dealing with is beyond individual persons who are broken or mentally disturbed. It seems so much greater.

            I have a friend who talks about this by using the image of the fish and the lake. If you walk by a lake and you see a fish lying dead on the shore, then you wonder what might have been wrong with that fish. But if you walk by the lake and see hundreds of fish lying dead on the shore, then you wonder what might be wrong with the lake. I say there is something wrong with the lake we are swimming in. There is something wrong with our national soul.

            So what I am asking us is: what can we do to bring healing to the soul of this nation? What can we do so there is less hate and less violence in our society? I think this passage from Hebrews may point to an answer to this question.

            To understand this passage, you need to know a little about the Jewish festival called the Day of Atonement. On this day, the high priest would go into the holy of holies, the central room of the Temple, carrying with him the blood from an animal sacrifice. In this room, a room the high priest alone can enter, and only on this day, would be an altar upon which sat the ark of the covenant. Above the ark would be two angels facing each other. The high priest would take some of the blood and sprinkle it upon the altar as an act of purification, not only for his own sins, but for the sins of all the people that had been committed over the past year. This ritual act would purify all the people. Their sin would be atoned for. And then, next year, on the Day of Atonement, the process would repeat, year after year.

            The preacher, the one who offered this sermon that we call Hebrews, looks to the high priest on the Day of Atonement as a prototype for Jesus, the one whom he calls the true high priest. Jesus performed the ritual of atonement for all the people. But he didn’t enter the holy of holies. He entered heaven itself. And he did not bring the blood of animals. He shed his own blood. And he doesn’t have to go back into heaven to shed his blood year after year. He only had to do it once for all.

            So the good news is that God, through Jesus, has dealt with the stain of sin once for all. If God is holy, and we are unholy, then God through Christ has made us holy so that there is no obstacle between us and God. As the preacher puts it in vs. 14, God has purified our conscience from dead works to worship the living God. By an act of sheer grace, God has done what is needed so that we can be in God’s presence with no fear.

            What this is getting at is deliverance from the blight of guilt and shame that tears our souls apart. See, in those days, if you had done anything sinful you would offer up an animal sacrifice so that you would become ritually pure again. But on the Day of Atonement, a sacrifice was made on your behalf to cover all your sins that you either didn’t know about or that you never got around to offering a sacrifice for yourself. The purpose of the Day of Atonement was to make sure that you were ritually pure. If you were afraid that you may be guilty of something, or you were weighed down with shame because of what you had done, the intent of the Day of Atonement was to lift that burden off your soul so that you could be free, so that you could worship God and be in relationship with God and each other with a clear conscience. Well, Jesus has offered Himself as a sacrifice on your behalf, and just once, which is good enough to cover all your sins for your whole life. God has acted to deliver you and me from guilt and shame.

            This liberation from the corrosive power of guilt and shame is communicated in Hebrews through the lens that Jews and Jewish Christians would understand, the lens of Jewish ritual. They would have gotten it, connecting the Day of Atonement with what Jesus did in his crucifixion. But we don’t really get the Day of Atonement, or the whole blood sacrifice thing, ritual purity and all of that. We can know about it but it’s not part of who we are. We don’t understand it in a deep way. How can we understand what Jesus has done for us without explaining it through the lens of blood sacrifice and the Day of Atonement? How can we understand it in a way that makes sense to our own lives?

            Maybe it is as simple as claiming with faith this truth: God’s grace is sufficient to cleanse us from our shame and guilt. Of course we feel guilty when we screw up. That’s a necessary feeling so we realize we have caused harm and that we need to take responsibility to make things right the best we can. God’s grace enables us to receive that feeling of guilt as a prompt to make things right and then to release that feeling of guilt rather than allow guilt to fester within us.

            Shame, on the other hand, is much deeper. It is less a feeling than it is a state of being. It is a sense of being less than, damaged goods, unworthy. It is a state that has less to do with things we have done and more to do with how we have been treated by others, particularly those close to us who have said to us that we are not worthy, that we are less than, that we are not good enough, that we are failures. Shame is the result of harm done to us. But even here, God’s grace is sufficient. God has made us worthy, God has redeemed us, reclaimed us, in the process of restoring us. With God we belong, we matter. With God we don’t have to grovel or shrink back in fear. No we can stand in God’s presence and we can worship God in the fullness of who we are. We are precious to God. We are God’s children. That’s what God has made possible through Christ. Shame does not have to weigh us down any more. There is a remedy to the blight of guilt and shame on our souls. There is a balm in Gilead.

            What God has done through Jesus is not just a remedy for guilt and shame, I believe it is also a remedy for violence. I wonder if what drives violence, at its root, is guilt or shame? Maybe not guilt so much, but definitely shame. I wonder if those who have perpetrated these killings we have heard about on the news were burdened with guilt but, more deeply, full of shame. Did our society give them the message that they were damaged goods, failures, screw ups? Did the pain of shame prompt them to lash out at others to release the negative energy of their suffering that they either didn’t know how to deal with or got the message that no one really cares about their suffering? I wonder how many people who live among us, who are weighed down with guilt or shame, who don’t know that they don’t have to carry that guilt and shame any more. And because of the pain of that weight they carry on their souls, they release the pain through violence, either to themselves or by inflicting pain on others.

            This gets to the big question I asked earlier: what can we do to bring healing to the soul of the nation? We can be conduits of God’s grace. We can be quick to forgive, forgive ourselves as well as forgive others, although forgiveness doesn’t excuse us or others from making restitution for the harm that has been done. Forgiveness is not a get out of jail free card. We can forgive and we can also see other people as having inherent worth. We all screw up. Each of us fails. We fall short of expectations we place on ourselves or expectations others place on us. But we are still worthy, we are still precious, we still belong. And it’s that basic approach toward people, that they are worthy, precious, belong, without reservation. This is how we can approach people. People need to know that they matter to somebody. We can be the ones who communicate that, through our words and actions, that every person matters to us. In a small way, such a posture, grounded in what we know about what God has done through Jesus, can let in a glimmer of light in the dark prison of shame that so many people are trapped in. And I believe that anything we do to ease people of their sense of shame about themselves will lessen the possibility of violence.

            This is not the only thing we can do. Forgiving ourselves and others, relating with people in ways that communicate that they are valued and worthy, this won’t fix everything. Peace and harmony won’t break out everywhere. We live in a shaming culture. It is the water in which we swim. We receive messages all day long that we aren’t good enough. But, by forgiving others and ourselves, by treating others with respect and by respecting ourselves, at least we are not furthering harm. We are resisting the “not good enough” message. It is a place to start to heal the soul of our nation, to lower the temperature, to minimize the possibility of the manifestation of violence.

            Claim this good news for yourself, for the guilt and shame you carry. With faith in God’s love for you, let that guilt and shame go. Release yourself from its weight. Know that you are forgiven. Know that you are worthy. Not by anything you have done but by the sheer grace of God. God has declared that you are worthy. Believe it. Live into it. Don’t let anyone convince you otherwise, that you are worthy, you are loved, you matter, you are somebody.

            And then, share this good news with others. Let other people know that they are worthy, that they are loved, that they matter, that they are somebodies. Let them know it by how you treat them. It may or may not make a difference. Shame, in particular, is deeply ingrained in the psyche. It takes time to draw that poison out of us and out of others. And we swim in a lake filled with the toxin of shame. So this isn’t a quick fix. But it is something, to treat others with the dignity that God has established through Jesus. It is at least an attempt to reduce the violence that is running rampant through our land. To treat others with dignity may even save lives. It is worth the effort.

What God Needs are Saints

Based on Rev. 21:1-6

First delivered Nov. 4, 2018

Rev. Dr. Kevin Orr

            I have presided over a lot of funerals in my 24 years of ministry. In probably every one of those funerals we have prayed together Psalm 23. It is a psalm that names the reality of death but also the promise of eternal life. “Yay, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for Thou art with me, Thy rod and Thy staff, they comfort me…Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord, forever.” This psalm gives us a word of comfort, of promise, of hope, that for our dearly departed, the final chapter of their life has not yet been written. They have gone ahead of us, to dwell with God. And one day we will join them on the other side of the veil.

            Another scripture that I have used almost as much is the passage we heard today. It is John’s vision of the New Jerusalem coming down from heaven and resting on the earth, an event that signals how God is making all things new, a new heaven and a new earth, where weeping, sorrow, pain, even death itself, will be vanquished. It is a powerful vision filled with hope and promise for us of our destiny, even the destiny of the whole world. Let’s take some time this morning to look more closely at this vision John received.

            It begins with John saying he saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. By saying he saw a new heaven and a new earth meant that he saw something that was different, something that had not existed before. But it was not completely new. There was continuity with what had been. The first heaven and first earth had passed away, but there still existed a heaven and earth. They were not replaced with something completely new. This is something to keep in mind. In this vision, John is seeing continuity and change. There is still a heaven and earth, but it is different, changed, transformed, new. It is sort of like when a person receives a new name, which marks a transformation in their life. Saul changed his name to Paul. Jesus changed Simon’s name to Peter. In the Orthodox church tradition, at baptism you receive a baptismal name. When people become monks or nuns they receive a new name. When someone is elected pope he selects a new name. Among indigenous peoples, young people will go on a vision quest as a rite of passage, in order to receive a new name. People who transition from one gender to another will take a new name. I took on a new name when I went through college, as I committed my life to being a pastor. My friends started calling me “Kev the Rev.” We get new names as we go through life: Tina Jones becomes Mrs. Tina Jones-Baldwin, then Dr. Tina Jones-Baldwin. Her kids call her “mom.” One day she will be called Grandma, maybe even Great-Grandma. You and I remain human our whole life. But we go through changes. We experience transformations. We are not the same when we are old as we were when we were young. Our names and titles change as we go through these times of transformation. And that’s what John is talking about here. He was allowed to see a transformed heaven and a transformed earth. Still heaven and earth, but different, transformed, new.

            Then he saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God. In those days, the people believed that the holy city of Jerusalem on earth mirrored the holy city of Jerusalem in heaven. God’s throne was in the heavenly city but God’s footstool was in the holy city on earth, in the Temple, the holy of holies, which was the center of the earth. Remember, in those days, it was believed that the earth was flat. Jerusalem occupied the center of the earth, so the people believed. Of course, the holy city on earth had been destroyed more than once. And, in fact, when John had this vision, the Temple in Jerusalem had not only been destroyed, the city had been renamed, literally wiped off the map. As you can imagine, it was a time of great crisis. How would God restore the holy city? Well, John got his answer. The holy city in heaven would come down to earth. This would be the new Jerusalem. It would not be rebuilt only to be destroyed again. No, the heavenly city itself, where God’s throne was, where God lived, would come down to earth. There would be no replacement Temple because God himself will dwell with them.

            I cannot overstate how awesome this vision is. What John saw was the removal of the veil between heaven and earth. Right now, when we die, we have the hope that we will pass through the veil to the other side, where we will join our loved ones in heaven. Or sometimes we talk about crossing the chilly river Jordan to the other side. There is a barrier between heaven and earth. We look forward to going to heaven but we can’t see heaven. It is hidden from us. Just like we can’t see God. We know God is present but we can’t see God. There is a veil, a barrier, a wall between heaven and earth.

            But John saw that barrier removed. But it wasn’t God bringing earth up to heaven. No, heaven came down to earth. John heard the voice from heaven saying, “See, the home of God is among mortals. God will dwell with them. God will be with them. God will wipe every tear from their eyes.” This is John’s vision. Instead of us going to God when we die, God will remove the wall of division, and come down to us. And that is the essence of what it means to have a new heaven and a new earth. Everything will be new because heaven and earth will become one, with no division, no wall, no barrier. In this vision, earth is not destroyed. It is transformed, it is made holy and pure. It is literally heaven on earth.

            What are the consequences of heaven on earth? “Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more, for the first things have passed away.” That is, the first things of a barrier between heaven and earth. The first things in which for us to get to heaven, we have to die first. If heaven is on earth, there is no need for death. The wall is torn down. The gates are open wide. Death, and the grief that comes with it, is vanquished. Death has no place in heaven. Even more, death, sorrow, suffering, are all temporary states. They are not permanent. The only thing that is permanent, eternal, everlasting, is life. Because God is the source of life and God is everlasting. Death is temporary, life is everlasting. And this truth will be fully manifest one day. That’s the vision that John has received. And for us, it is a vision filled with hope.

            Of course, John’s vision was prefigured in a person. Jesus is the very incarnation of John’s vision. In Jesus, God came down to earth and dwelled with us. Jesus wept, suffered, was full of sorrow, and died. He experienced these things that we must all experience. But then Jesus rose from the dead, defeating the power of death, demonstrating that death is temporary, life is everlasting. But then Jesus had to go back up to heaven. He ascended in a cloud and his disciples could see him no more. The barrier between heaven and earth remained. We know Jesus. We know Jesus lives in our hearts. But we can’t see Jesus face to face. We can’t physically embrace Jesus and look into his eyes. Not yet. One day we will when we pass through the veil. Yet, the day will come, when what was ushered in by Jesus will become fully manifest, when the veil is torn in two, and God comes down to dwell on earth. All things made new.

            This vision that John has received of what will happen in the future is a vision that fills us with wonder. It is a hopeful vision. Rather than the earth being destroyed, this vision promises that the earth will be transformed. The Paradise of Eden will come back. Except it won’t be a garden, it will be a city. It is a vision that insists that death and sorrow and pain are not a permanent reality. The only thing that is permanent is life. This gives us hope. This gives us the strength to push through our times of suffering. As Paul once said, these momentary sufferings are nothing in comparison to knowing Jesus Christ our savior and his resurrection. This is a life-giving vision for us. It provides comfort as we grieve the loss of those we love and as we contemplate our own death.

            But I want to give a warning. There is a temptation, as the old phrase goes, to be so heavenly minded that you are no earthly good. There is a temptation, if we dwell on this vision, to slip into pie-in-the-sky, things will be better by and by thinking. There is a temptation to look on the mess of this world, the brokenness, the violence, the ugliness, the evil run rampant in our world, and to close ourselves in with our vision of God coming down and making everything new. So we need to just do our best, love Jesus, and wait for our turn to experience that camp meeting standard, “Some glad morning when this life is over, I’ll fly away, to that home on God’s celestial shore, I’ll fly away. When I die, hallelujah, by and by, I’ll fly away.” I love that song! It lifts our spirits and helps us cope with the reality of death.

            But what about this world? Are we supposed to just shrug our shoulders when we look at how messed up this world is and say to ourselves, “It’s God’s problem. God’s going to have to fix this mess. I know where I’m going when I die. Good luck for everyone else.” Here’s the problem with pie-in-the-sky thinking. The first commandment God gave us was to be stewards of the earth. But we also know the two greatest commandments, which are to love God and to love our neighbor as our self. And who is our neighbor? Jesus taught us that everyone is our neighbor. Jesus made it personal. He said that when you feed the hungry, clothe the naked, visit those who are sick or in prison, whatever you do for the least of these, the marginalized, the discarded, the overlooked, you are doing it to Jesus. Far from pie-in-the-sky, we’ll get to heaven by and by thinking, we are called to deep compassion and care for this earth and for every creature, human and non-human on it. It is a dereliction of our responsibility to have an “I’ll Fly Away” mindset when we have work to do right now. Paul said that as ambassadors of Jesus we all have received the ministry of reconciliation. In a time when the political divides have not been this stark since the 1960s, our ministry of reconciliation, to bridge differences, to find common ground, to heal the wounds…if we don’t do this work, who will?

            But it’s not just that we have this responsibility. I want to remind you that, although it is possible for God to act unilaterally, the truth is that God gets God’s work done through people. When we do good, it is God working through us. We are the hands and feet of Christ. God is always at work, seeking to bring about healing, good, restoration, renewal, through us. When we fail, and we often do fail, to allow God to work through us, we frustrate God’s work. I say all this to ask a question: is it possible that the vision John received, of God coming down to earth, removing the barrier between heaven and earth, will that vision only become manifest through our co-operation with God? What if God’s plan to make all things new will get worked out through us and those who will come after us?

            I wonder if the destiny of humanity is to be used by God to usher in God’s reign on earth. I wonder if our common task as human beings is to resist the forces of death and destruction and evil and instead to make every effort to foster life, redemption, transformation. Not just our own transformation but the transformation of others, of communities, of our state, our nation, our world. I wonder if God’s desire is to remove all barriers between God and the world, to merge heaven and earth, and all God needs is people who will yield to the Spirit of God and be the instruments by which God yokes heaven and earth together. What God needs are saints. What God needs is for each of us, who have received the Spirit, to be who we are, the saints of God.