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.