“John to the seven churches that are
in Asia: Grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who
is to come, and from the seven spirits who are before his throne, and
from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead,
and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To him who loves us and
freed us from our sins by his blood, and made us to be a kingdom,
priests serving his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion
forever and ever. Amen. Look! He is coming with the clouds; every eye
will see him, even those who pierced him; and on his account all the
tribes of the earth will wail. So it is to be. Amen. “I am the
Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, who is and who was and who
is to come, the Almighty.” Revelation 1:4-8 (NRSV)
Over the past two weeks I have spoken
on the meaning of giving to a better reality. I describe that reality
as the kingdom of heaven or the kingdom of God. Often those words
paint a picture of a far off land in which we, as CS Lewis described,
board a bus and take a trip beyond space and time to a land far far
away; however I believe the kingdom of heaven to be something greater
than a far off land of spirits and heavenly bodies evoked in our
imaginations. I believe the kingdom of heaven is something that is to
come and is indeed coming. I believe the kingdom of heaven to be near
and at hand and I believe it to be a way of life we are each being
invited into being a citizen of this kingdom. I believe we are
catching glimpses of that kingdom and I believe with each new day,
new month, new year, new decade, new century, and new millennium, the
kingdom of heaven comes closer to being our true reality. But it is
not here, yet.
One of the worse feelings I get is when
someone says, “I need to talk with you.” Immediately, my mind
conjures up the worse possible scenario and I start running through
everything I might have possibly said the Sunday before or during the
sermon or at Bible study or during a meeting or on Facebook or
something I tweeted or blogged. I begin to work myself up in a frenzy
especially when I ask, “What would you like to talk about” and
they respond, “Oh, I'll just tell you when we meet.” Not cool,
bro. Not cool. I wonder if the seven churches who received this
letter, and others who would eventually read it, wondered when it
arrived in the mailbox, “Look, a letter! Yay! Oh, wait it's from an
apostle.” I wonder if they worried it would concern the most
horrific news. I wonder if they thought, like I do, they were in
serious trouble; then they read, “Grace to you and peace from him
who is, was, and is to come.”
Grace to you and peace from him who is,
who was, and who is to come. Grace: Unmerited favor. Peace: the
conflict is resolved and wholeness is restored. Impactful to these
churches who were experiencing great persecution at the hands of the
Roman empire for not bowing down and worshiping Caesar. The words let
them that the letter they received is more than a critical letter or
an instructional letter, it carries weight because the grace and
peace do not come just from the author, they come from the One who
is, who was, and who is to come. The words of grace and peace come
from Christ and the news that follows reminds the churches of the One
who has their world in their hands. They are reminded of his promise
to return and that he is the beginning and the end.
The author uses three titles to
describe Jesus: faithful witness, firstborn of the dead, and ruler of
the kings of earth. Jesus is the faithful witness, a beneficiary of a
special revelation from God. He can authentically reveal God's
purpose to the church community; thereby enabling the church to
become a witness in its turn. Jesus described as a witness empowers
the church to act as a similar witness in the world. As the firstborn
of the dead, the author is insisting on the eschatological role of
Jesus, something the gospel and letters attributed to the disciple
John stress as well. The author is telling the church through Jesus
death and resurrection Jesus has begun the new eon.1
Jesus has not just returned to life like the resurrections of the
little girl and Lazarus in the gospels, it is the beginning of
something new. It is the beginning of a new kingdom.
In this new kingdom the author
describes Jesus as ruler of the kings of the earth. The author is
challenging the imperialistic ideology in their current world. He not
only challenges who truly rules the world but also challenges the
church concerning loyalty: to whom should the people of the church
show ultimate faithfulness?2
The Roman empire ideology, through coins, statutes, inscriptions,
buildings, statues, proclaim to the world that Caesar is the ruler of
the kings of the earth. The author replaces the Roman empire with his
own kingdom, the kingdom of heaven. The true ruler, the true king of
the earth, of the universe is Christ and it is to this ruler the
church should show loyalty to, not Caesar.
It is here, we hear the author's words
of grace and peace to you from him who is, who was, and who is to
come. We are reminded once again of the kingdom that is coming. We
are reminded once again who it is the king of all. We hear the words
of grace and peace with a sense of hope, all wrongs are slowly being
righted. The kingdom of heaven is being birthed before our eyes, and
with each glimpse we catch, we become renewed, knowing this new
kingdom will be worth the birth pangs.
I ended last week's sermon saying, “God
is not writing a story about us. It is a story about the world and
that gives us hope and given time, we will come to trust in that
hope.” The peace that the author, that John writes, comes from the
One who is, who was, and who is to come. The peace is not coming from
someone who just is or just was or just is to come. It belongs to the
One who is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. We are
trees in a story about a forest and that forest belongs to God. We
have to learn that not only all gifts come from God, and to endure
the pains of life, but we also must learn to fully place our faith in
the One who is, who was, and who is to come.
Placing our faith in the One, in
Christ, is to trust that this coming kingdom of heaven is a kingdom
that we need. It is to trust that there is a place for all of us in
this kingdom and that we belong in this kingdom. It is to trust that
we are giving our time, our energy, and our money to is worth the
pain and struggle. It is to be able to stand next to one another with
the assurance of who is the One writing this story. Placing our faith
in One who is, was, and is to come, is to not fear for the future.
Instead, such faith only gives hope to the future because Christ is
king.
My favorite Lord of the Rings movie is
the Two Towers. Out of the trilogy, I find that one to be the best
because the conflict is greater than in the Fellowship of the Ring
and The Return of the King. It is the middle of the story and the
heroes are divided into four different groups without any contact
between them. Gandalf has taken off to find help for the army at
Helms Deep and he says, “Look to my coming on the first light of
the fifth day, at dawn look to the east.” He is telling Aragorn,
Gimli, and Legolas that if they can just hold on and fight off the
dark forces of Sauron, he will arrive with help at dawn. The whole
story has a very apocalyptic feel and just when it feels like all
hope is lost the sun rises in the east and hope appears on the
hillside.
As I hear the author's descriptions of
Jesus, I feel like he is telling us to have just a little extra faith. I
feel like with the words of grace and peace, he is giving something
for us to hold on to, something to believe in, something to know that
“It's like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo. The ones that really
mattered. Full of darkness and danger, they were. And sometimes you
didn't want to know the end. Because how could the end be happy? How
could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had
happened? But in the end, it's only a passing thing, this shadow.
Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines
it will shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed
with you. That meant something, even if you were too small to
understand why. But I think, Mr. Frodo, I do understand. I know now.
Folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back, only they
didn't. They kept going. Because they were holding on to something.”
The kingdom of heaven is breaking
through. With it comes birth pangs and struggles but if we persevere
and love the Lord God with all our hearts, souls, and strength, and
our neighbors as ourselves we will slowly see the shadows of the
valley give way to the sun in the east. For me, that's something
worth living for. As Jim Somerville says, “We can remember that
Jesus didn’t have to be elected to his office (thank God). The
world didn’t give him his kingdom and the world can’t take it
away. And, we can joyfully sing, “He shall reign forever and
ever. Hallelujah! Hallelujah!””
1Anderson,
Valerie Nicolet. Revelation 1:4b-8
http://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?lect_date=11/25/2012&tab=3
2Anderson.
http://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?lect_date=11/25/2012&tab=3
No comments:
Post a Comment