Easter 2: Unity and Facing Into Doubts

Psalm 133:1-3  A Song of Ascents

How very good and pleasant it is when kindred live together in unity!  ² It is like the precious oil on the head, running down upon the beard, on the beard of Aaron, running down over the collar of his robes.  ³ It is like the dew of Hermon, which falls on the mountains of Zion. For there the LORD ordained his blessing, life forevermore.

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Acts 4:32-35 – Now the whole group of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one claimed private ownership of any possessions, but everything they owned was held in common.  ³³ With great power the apostles gave their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all.  ³⁴ There was not a needy person among them, for as many as owned lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold.  ³⁵ They laid it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need.

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John 20:19-31 – When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.”  ²⁰ After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord.  ²¹ Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.”  ²² When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.  ²³ If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”

²⁴ But Thomas (who was called the Twin), one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came.  ²⁵ So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe.”

²⁶ A week later his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were shut, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.”  ²⁷ Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe.”  ²⁸ Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!”  ²⁹ Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.”

³⁰ Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book.  ³¹ But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.

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Happy Easter!! I didn’t get to say that to you last week. Easter continues until Pentecost, so the celebrations continue! I’ve always thought it was cool that the season of Easter is longer than the season of Lent: because in the end, the good news lasts longer than the bad news. Thanks be to God!

Over the next few weeks of this Easter season, our scripture readings will focus on the disciples’ various experiences of Jesus’ resurrection: who saw it, what was said, what it means to us. Our readings for this week have two points of focus: (1) the unity of believers and (2) facing into doubts. These two things may seem unrelated, but they’re not – as the scriptures will show us.

I’d like to start today with Psalm 133 we read a few moments ago. On the surface, it looks like this psalm has absolutely nothing to do with Easter: it was written long before Jesus was born, and it has no prophecy in it that mentions the Messiah; but the theme is Joy – pure, unadulterated, joy that comes from enjoying God’s presence.

Psalm 133 is one of the Psalms of Ascents – that is, one of the psalms that was set to music and was sung while the people of Israel were walking up the hill to Jerusalem to worship in the temple. You may have heard me say this before, but the Temple Mount is very high – over 2400 feet high. Today, driving from the valley to the top of the mountain takes about a half-hour driving at 60-70 mph on a series of switchbacks – because there’s no way that human or machine could go straight up the mountain. Back in Jesus’ day, it would have taken at least a day to walk to the top, and people would sing to keep their spirits up as they were traveling. These songs were called songs of ascents – songs to climb by, you might say.

Songs of ascents were songs of joy because they called to mind what it was like to be close to God, to stand in God’s presence, to lose oneself in the glory and majesty of God. It’s not an experience people had often – not back then, and not today either. But think of the stories that came out of Asbury recently, where people got caught up in God’s presence and didn’t want to leave, and they kept on worshipping for days. That’s the kind of thing these songs brought to mind. I wish we had more experiences like that – in or out of church! – because experiences like this strengthen the soul, and renew the spirit; they’re like a cup of cold water on a hot summer day.

So this psalm is one of the songs of ascents. But this one’s a little bit mysterious. It focuses attention on two things: (1) oil on the beard of Aaron, and (2) dew on the mountain of Hermon – two things that are completely outside of our experience. But they do have a meaning, so hang in there with me.

The psalm starts out:

“How very good and pleasant it is when kindred live together in unity! It is like the precious oil on the head, running down upon the beard, on the beard of Aaron, running down over the collar of his robes.”

We know from the Old Testament that Aaron was Moses’ nephew and he was the very first High Priest in Israel. When Aaron was anointed to do his job as high priest, there was a very specific recipe for the scented oil that was used to anoint him. (The recipe can be found in the Old Testament.) This recipe was considered holy, and the smell of it was wonderful.

This oil would be poured all over Aaron – his head, his beard, his robes – and the breastplate of his robe included twelve gemstones representing the twelve tribes of Israel, so the oil would get on those too – and all the way down to the hem of his robe. From that time forward, whenever Aaron put on his priestly robes, the smell would remind people of God.

And we know what a powerful thing the sense of smell is! We might walk into a bakery, for example, and smell cookies from a recipe that our mothers used to make, and it will immediately transport us back to the kitchen of the house that we grew up in! Same idea here. One whiff of that oil and it would bring back all the times the people of God spent time in God’s presence.

What’s more, this oil represents the way the Holy Spirit moves and works. Just like on the first Easter Day, when Jesus found the disciples in the locked room, he poured out the Holy Spirit on them. Oil represents the Holy Spirit – which starts with Jesus, the head of the body so to speak, the head of the church – and then flows down over the whole body of believers, every one of us. Jesus’ death and resurrection made this possible. Without Easter there can be no Pentecost. But with Easter, the prophecy of Psalm 133 comes true.

Then the next verse says “It is like the dew of Hermon, which falls on the mountains of Zion.” Totally different concept now. Let me start by sharing with you a modern invention being used over in Israel.  The Holy Land, especially in the south around Jerusalem, is very hot and very dry – so it’s difficult to grow crops there. Today, one of the new things that’s happening in Israel is the practice of capturing dew, and condensing down it to water plants. Check this out. This photo shows one way dew can be captured to water crops. This is literally “causing the desert to bloom” as the prophet Isaiah said.

Of course back in Bible times these things hadn’t been invented yet. So the people watched for what they called the ‘dew of Hermon’. Hermon was (and is) a very tall mountain – over 9000 feet tall – tall enough to have a permanent ice cap. Whenever fog or dew or any moisture passes over Mount Hermon, it condenses – and create puddles and then streams that run down the mountain and water the land below. The “dew of Hermon” was life-giving good news.

As is the resurrection of our Lord Jesus. This good news is like water in a dry and thirsty world.

Bottom line: if people are to dwell together in God, and in unity with one another, we need the oil of the Holy Spirit; we need the dew of the Holy Spirit, dropping on us, pouring into our lives, making us like Jesus, reflecting God’s image. The promise of God is that one day, in the power of the Holy Spirit, all the separations in the Body of Christ will be mended, and all God’s people will be united once more.

Then as we turn to the book of Acts, this reading continues talking about Christian unity!  Acts tells us that the believers were “of one heart and soul” and that they “held everything in common”.  This kind of unity was a powerful witness, and the Christian church in the early days grew like a weed. Acts also tells us the disciples – both men and women – shared the good news of Jesus’ resurrection with anyone who would listen. Furthermore, they sold their land and held the money in common so that all of Jesus’ people were provided for – no exceptions.

This particular form of Christian unity – this financial sharing – didn’t last long, historically speaking. It certainly is not expected of Christians today. Generosity is expected, but not holding goods in common. Most likely, back then, the disciples were expecting Jesus to return fairly soon – and when that didn’t happen, private ownership became the norm again.

Standard Monastery Layout

But I should add that, down through history, there have been communities of believers who do share everything in common. That practice never died out completely: monasteries, extended families, faith communities of various kinds. A lifestyle like this is not for everyone; and not everyone is called to it; but communities like this still are a powerful witness to what the Spirit of God can do. In our time, think of Mother Teresa: she was a member of an order called Missionaries of Charity, whose calling was to minister to the poor.  There’s another group I mentioned a few months ago, called the Iona Community in Scotland, which is an interdenominational ministry focused on worship. There’s another community nearby in Aliquippa called the Community for Celebration which focuses on worship and on justice in the workplace. Actually there are a number of religious orders here in Pittsburgh, from different denominations or from no denomination – including the one right across the street from Spencer UMC! All of these communities bear witness to unity in the Holy Spirit, in a very unique and powerful way.

So when the disciples in the book of Acts started sharing all that they had, that was a powerful witness, and still is today.

All of these things – everything we’ve talked about so far today – were made possible by the events that took place in the upper room as described in the gospel of John. John tells us it was the night of the first Easter day. And the disciples were gathered in the upper room, afraid, with the door locked so nobody could get in. Earlier that day, they had heard Mary say that Jesus was alive, but they hadn’t seen Jesus themselves yet; and they weren’t so sure that what Mary said wasn’t just wishful thinking. Besides, they were still scared the Romans might be looking for yet more victims for their crosses, so they hid.

In this kind of fear and tension, unity would not have lasted long. But it didn’t have to – because Jesus came, and removed all doubts. Jesus walked into the locked room – how, we don’t know, but it gives us a thrilling look at what resurrected life might be like.

This much, though, is sure: Jesus was not a ‘spirit’ or a ghost. He had a real body. The scars from his torture and death were still on it. This must have been very hard for the disciples to see, because so many of them had run away that night, afraid, and they never saw all that happened to the Lord they loved.

But now they see it, and they are shocked and full of sorrow. But Jesus speaks peace. He tells them they are forgiven, and all doubts set aside, and Jesus shares with the disciples the Holy Spirit – like that holy oil running down Aaron’s beard. And Jesus says, “as the Father sent me, now I am sending you.”

I think all of us may feel like Thomas sometimes: the guy who wasn’t there when the big thing happened; the one who didn’t see with his own eyes. We really can’t blame Thomas for wanting to see what the others saw; and in fact he finally did get to see, and to touch, and to know. Jesus doesn’t fault Thomas for wanting to see – in fact Jesus welcomes it. But Jesus also says, “Blessed are those [like you and me] who haven’t seen and still believe.”

By the power of the Holy Spirit, by the power of that oil running down the beard of Aaron, each one of us is called, to be together, to work together, in the power of Jesus’ resurrection – which makes forgiveness possible, and also makes it possible for us to do the work that God has called us to do in this world.

Each one of us has a story – the same way that Thomas had a story – about how God has reached out to us; how Jesus has touched our lives, how we have entered into forever-life with God. Easter is where our story begins. The resurrection of Jesus – and the unity of the believers around us – makes possible the witness we bring to the world. AMEN.

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Seeds in the Sand

The days are surely coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah.  ³² It will not be like the covenant that I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt– a covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, says the LORD.  ³³ But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.  ³⁴ No longer shall they teach one another, or say to each other, “Know the LORD,” for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the LORD; for I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more. – Jeremiah 31:31-34   

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Now among those who went up to worship at the festival were some Greeks.  ²¹ They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and said to him, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.”  ²² Philip went and told Andrew; then Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus.  ²³ Jesus answered them, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.  ²⁴ Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.  ²⁵ Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life.  ²⁶ Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there will my servant be also. Whoever serves me, the Father will honor.

²⁷ “Now my soul is troubled. And what should I say– ‘Father, save me from this hour’? No, it is for this reason that I have come to this hour.  ²⁸ Father, glorify your name.” Then a voice came from heaven, “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.”  ²⁹ The crowd standing there heard it and said that it was thunder. Others said, “An angel has spoken to him.”  ³⁰ Jesus answered, “This voice has come for your sake, not for mine.  ³¹ Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be driven out.  ³² And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.”  ³³ He said this to indicate the kind of death he was to die. – John 12:20-33

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Welcome to Lent, Week 5. Before I head into the sermon, I wanted to mention a few other things happening this week. Today, of course, is St. Patrick’s Day – so happy St. Patrick’s Day! And then Tuesday is the first day of Spring… and Wednesday we remember the birthday of Mr. Rogers; and Thursday we remember the birthday of JS Bach, and Saturday is the beginning of the Jewish holiday of Purim – so if you have Jewish friends, wish them a Happy Purim!

Today is also the last of the ‘regular’ Sundays in Lent. Next week is Palm Sunday, which begins Holy Week – and as we move forward, drawing closer to the Cross, the darkness and the heaviness of Jesus’ last days begins to gather around us.

Our readings for today focus on the last few weeks of Jesus’ life, and on how the events of those weeks tie in with God’s plan to save the human race from sin and self-destruction, through the Messiah.

Today’s theme – “Seeds in the Sand” – is taken from Jesus’ words in John 12:24-25. In these verses, Jesus is explaining to the disciples that he’s about to die; and while Jesus doesn’t mention the word resurrection directly in this verse, he hints at it by saying that a seed that lands in the soil will bear fruit.

But Jesus is just one seed – so where do the other seeds come from? Well… all of us at some point will be a ‘seed in the sand’; and by the power of God and the power Jesus’ resurrection, we also will bear fruit.

That’s the ‘big picture’ message for today.

Digging into the details, I’d like to start with our reading from Jeremiah. Since about the beginning of this year I’ve been finding myself drawn to the Book of Jeremiah – I’ve been reading it a lot lately! It might have something to do with the fact that worshiping idols was a huge problem in Jeremiah’s time – and worshiping idols, in a slightly different way, is a huge problem in our society as well. So I’ve been reading to see how Jeremiah dealt with it.

Jeremiah was the last prophet in Jerusalem before the city fell to the Babylonians. Jeremiah, sharing God’s word, predicted and then witnessed the fall of Jerusalem.

In Jeremiah’s lifetime, God kept reaching out and reaching out and reaching out to the people of Israel: calling them away from false gods, calling them away from sacrificing their children and their futures to idols, calling them back to the one true and living God. Some who loved God paid attention to Jeremiah’s message – in Jerusalem, people like members of the army, staffers in the palace, everyday people. But the king and the people in power and the religious leaders did not listen. In fact they ridiculed Jeremiah and threatened his life. God gave Jeremiah the job of saying to the king and to those in power, “this is your last chance – the Babylonians are coming! If you value your lives, surrender to the Babylonians. They will take you to Babylon, but at least you’ll be alive!” That was God’s message through Jeremiah.

And they wouldn’t listen.

The short passage we read in Jeremiah (above) sounds like good news. God is saying through Jeremiah:

“The days are coming… when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah… I will put my law within them, and write it on their hearts. No longer shall they teach one another, ‘Know the Lord’, for they shall all know me.”

This sounds like good news – but the thing is, things didn’t change. The people didn’t listen. These promises of God would be fulfilled at a later time.

Also, these four verses – as encouraging as they sound – are found in between two very dark passages. In the passage before it, God is still asking the people to return to God, and the people are refusing, and we hear Jeremiah speak a word that is usually connected with the birth of the Messiah. Jeremiah says:

“A voice is heard in Ramah, lamentation and bitter weeping. Rachel is weeping for her children, and refuses to be comforted, for they are no more.”

 We recognize this verse from the Christmas story.  Jesus was born “King of the Jews”; and King Herod – being afraid for his throne – ordered all the male babies two years old or under to be killed.

Jeremiah’s words are indeed looking forward to those ‘days that are coming’ – but they also applied to Jerusalem back then.

Then following our passage, God tells Jeremiah: when the siege of Jerusalem comes, go and buy a field. Again the reason is that better days will come – but not right away. In the immediate future, the Babylonians are coming, and God’s word through Jeremiah is: “those who give themselves up to the Babylonians will live.” In other words, surrender.

These days we don’t fight wars by siege because most cities don’t have walls around them these days. But Jerusalem was a walled city: and attacking a walled city could be extremely costly in terms of casualties. So rather than attack the walls and try to climb over them, an invading army – in this case, from Babylon – would “lay siege” – which was devastatingly brutal. The army would surround the city, and stop any and all traffic coming into or out of the city; and then wait for the people inside the walls to starve to death. When there was no one left alive to fight, the army would simply walk in and take over the city.

You can imagine this meant absolutely no mercy for civilians, for children, or for the elderly. And a siege could take years. The suffering was unspeakable. This particular siege – the siege of Jerusalem – lasted about a year and a half before a handful of people who were still alive finally surrendered. The royal family tried to slip out a side exit, and were captured and killed, except for the king who was blinded and taken to Babylon; and just a few of the poorest people still living were allowed to stay and work the land so it wouldn’t turn into a wasteland. Everyone else still living was deported to Babylon for the next seventy years.

Why did God allow this to happen? Because the people had been unfaithful: they had turned their back on God and God’s covenant time and time and time again; they worshiped false gods, they had done all kinds of evil, including murder; and the people had refused, over and over, to return to the God who loved them. What we see here is the price of loving and chasing after what is not God and what is not worthy of human worship.

These days people don’t usually worship physical idols, or statues, or golden calves – but we have other kinds of idols. And truth be told, even the ancient people didn’t really worship statues so much as they worshiped what the statues represented: the power to grow, the power to give life, the power to give wealth.

Today, in our culture – I used to know a guy who thought American Idol, the TV show, was an evil thing. Personally I think that one’s the least of our worries, although some people do idolize fame and money. But basically the definition of idolatry is making anything (or anyone) more important than God in our lives.

To give a parallel: think about what it means to have a faithful marriage. When we get married, part of the marriage vow is to be faithful to our spouse. With God, when we become believers, our baptism and/or our confirmation includes similar vows of faithfulness to God – spiritual faithfulness. Our relationship with God is meant to last forever. If there’s anything in our lives that we love more than God, or value more highly than God, that thing is an idol.

So if we have committed our lives to God, what would ever motivate us to do something like bear false witness – that is, lie in court? Or be violent? Or be less than honest in our business dealings? Or withhold friendship from someone who is lonely? Or refuse to give food or clothing to someone in need?

This is why I can barely stand to watch the evening news anymore – because I see our country, and people around the world as well, doing these things over and over: not listening to God, just like the people in Jerusalem wouldn’t listen. I pray God’s guidance and mercy on our world!

At the same time, though – unlike in Jeremiah’s day – we have the advantage of knowing the Messiah. God’s promise to send a Saviour is no longer future tense in our world. Jesus is present tense – always present tense. As we come to the Gospel of John, we see and hear our Saviour Jesus entering into his last days on earth.

Just a few days before, Jesus had raised Lazarus from the dead. As a result, so many people were following Jesus that the authorities in Jerusalem were getting nervous. Among other things, they were afraid the Romans might see the size of this group, think it was a rebellious mob, and react with violence. So the authorities in Jerusalem made plans to kill both Jesus and Lazarus.

At the very same moment, John says, a group of Greeks came asking to see Jesus. This was a sign to Jesus: the time of including the Gentiles had come. Both Jews and Gentiles will be part of Jesus’ kingdom from now on; which also signals to Jesus that his time is short. And Jesus says, “Father, glorify thy name” and God answers, “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.”

Now, with everything complete, and every prophecy fulfilled, Jesus says, “the hour has come.” His soul is troubled – understandably so, looking at the cross. Jesus knows what’s coming, and he is distressed by it. But for John – and for Jesus – the focus is not so much on death as on what Jesus’ death will make possible: resurrection, ascension, forgiveness for God’s people, and the bearing of much fruit.

Jesus’ death and resurrection will bring salvation and a gateway into God’s kingdom for many people and nations. Jesus’ ascension will make it possible for all of God’s people to have the Holy Spirit living in us, writing God’s word and God’s law on our hearts; and making it possible for us to live with God forever. Death becomes merely a doorway into an eternal relationship.

This, by the way, is very different than what the ancient Greeks and Romans believed about heaven and eternity. Back then they believed – as many people do today – that the universe is not personal, and that if we have any relationship to a “next life” it will only be as a “fragment of the cosmos” as they might say. There will be no conscious awareness; there will be no reunion with loved ones. The Greeks believed – as some of today’s fiction writers sometimes put it – that we are all “star stuff”: eternal but having no memory.

Christian teaching is completely different. God tells us that the “word was made flesh and lived among us” – not in an abstract sense but in physical reality.

That Word is Jesus: who we can love, and be loved by, in a personal relationship. In Jesus and through Jesus we live forever, not as ‘star stuff’ but as actual people. We are eternal beings, still human – and we will know our loved ones when we see them again; and we will know Jesus when we see Him.

This is what the church has taught, and what God has taught, from the very beginning of time. This is the new covenant that Jeremiah predicted: “they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest.” This is the fruit that grows from seeds in the sand. AMEN.

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All Saints Day 2021

Psalm 24   Of David. A Psalm.

¹ The earth is the LORD’s and all that is in it, the world, and those who live in it;
² for he has founded it on the seas, and established it on the rivers.
³ Who shall ascend the hill of the LORD? And who shall stand in his holy place?
⁴ Those who have clean hands and pure hearts,
who do not lift up their souls to what is false, and do not swear deceitfully.
⁵ They will receive blessing from the LORD, and vindication from the God of their salvation.
⁶ Such is the company of those who seek him, who seek the face of the God of Jacob.
⁷ Lift up your heads, O gates! and be lifted up, O ancient doors! that the King of glory may come in.
⁸ Who is the King of glory? The LORD, strong and mighty, the LORD, mighty in battle.
⁹ Lift up your heads, O gates! and be lifted up, O ancient doors! that the King of glory may come in.
¹⁰ Who is this King of glory? The LORD of hosts, he is the King of glory.
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“On this mountain the LORD of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wines, of rich food filled with marrow, of well-aged wines strained clear.  7 And he will destroy on this mountain the shroud that is cast over all peoples, the sheet that is spread over all nations;  8 he will swallow up death forever. Then the Lord GOD will wipe away the tears from all faces, and the disgrace of his people he will take away from all the earth, for the LORD has spoken.

9 It will be said on that day, Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, so that he might save us. This is the LORD for whom we have waited; let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.” – Isaiah 25:6-9 

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“Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more.  2 And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.  3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “See, the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them; they will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them;  4 he will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more, for the first things have passed away.”

5 And the one who was seated on the throne said, “See, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this, for these words are trustworthy and true.”  6 Then he said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end.” – Revelation 21:1-6 

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In our readings for today, Psalm 24 talks about God as the King of Glory, and it talks about the people who will ascend with God to the holy place. Isaiah talks about a mountain also, where the Lord of Hosts will make a feast for his people of rich food and well-aged wine, in a place where death is a thing of the past. And the author of Revelation describes a new heaven and a new earth where death and tears and pain are no more.

It is appropriate and fitting for Scriptures like these to be read on All Saints Day, as we remember our loved ones who have passed this past year.

This year has been a very hard year. It’s been hard because we have lost so many, and it’s been hard because many of us haven’t been able to be with our loved ones as much as we would have liked. For those who have lost loved ones, there is nothing that can be said to ease the pain of loss. But it does matter to know that friends are close, standing in sympathy today.

At times of grief we may feel a confusing jumble of emotions, from sorrow to anger to longing to questioning to doubt to hope. And some days we may feel nothing at all, which can be even more upsetting. We may wish we could have just one more conversation with our loved one. We may have questions for God.

And then when the loss is no longer quite so immediate, it’s not unusual to find ourselves asking questions like: Do I really believe in life after death? What will heaven be like? How can I be sure we’ll get there? How can bodies that have died be reassembled? Will we really see our loved ones again? Will we see our pets again? What will it be like to meet God face to face? Will God really be able to forgive everything I’ve ever done wrong?

If Scripture teaches us anything, it’s that in order to live – or die – with confidence, we need to keep our eyes on God. God is the one who knows the way. God is the one with the power over and sin and death. God holds the key and knows the answers. And God loves us.

I don’t want to sugar-coat things. Life is tough. Death is tougher. It is hard to face mortality. It’s hard to keep on keeping on in a world where someone we love is missing and isn’t coming back.

For those of us who love Jesus, we believe that death is like a doorway: a portal we pass through. Or we may think of death as people did long ago, like a river that needs to be crossed – a river that’s so wide and so cold that we need help to get across it. We may remember the words of the old song:

Swing low, sweet chariot,
Comin’ for to carry me home…

 I look over Jordan and what do I see? …
A band of angels comin’ after me…
Comin’ for to carry me home,
Swing low, sweet chariot…

Or maybe this song:

Michael, row the boat ashore…
River Jordan is deep and wide – alleluia
Milk and honey on the other side – alleluia
River Jordan is chilly and cold – alleluia
Chills the body but not the soul – alleluia
Michael, row the boat ashore – alleluia!

I like the analogy of the river. It’s like a river of time that sweeps everything away. Cold waters indeed. We don’t dare try to swim them because we don’t have the strength. We need a vessel, or an angel, or something, to guide us.

For those of us who love Jesus, we have promises from God that this life is not all there is. That we have a forever home and a future.

Our psalm today says: “The earth is the LORD’s and all that is in it, the world, and those who live in it…” (Psalm 24:1) And the psalmist goes on to say:

³ Who shall ascend the hill of the LORD? And who shall stand in his holy place?  ⁴ Those who have clean hands and pure hearts, who do not lift up their souls to what is false, and do not swear deceitfully.

What God requires is easy to understand but very difficult to do. How do we know if we’ve done enough? If we’ve been holy enough? Or if we have missed a few marks, how do we know if we’ve confessed enough?

This was the dilemma Martin Luther got himself caught on when he was a monk back in the 1600s. He was trying to say enough prayers and do enough penance to satisfy a perfect God – and he realized what he was trying to do was impossible. No level of perfection, no amount of indulgences, no amount of praying, would be able to assure him of a place in God’s heaven. And then he tripped over Romans 1:17 that speaks of “… a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.”” Salvation by faith alone – God accepting us if we will only trust – believing in a God who can and does forgive – this became the foundational teaching of all the Protestant churches.

So it’s not about what we do or how much we do. Anything we do that is good, we do out of love and thanksgiving to God. What saves us is that Jesus has already done all that is necessary.

The reading in Isaiah echoes and confirms this thought: “It will be said on that day, Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, so that he might save us. This is the LORD for whom we have waited; let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.” (ital. mine) (Isaiah 25:9)

The salvation God provides is the foundation for our hope.

And with that foundation in place, we turn to our reading from Revelation. Revelation is a book that is rarely preached and often misinterpreted. Revelation is not a game plan or a strategy or a playbook for the end times. I know people who have spent hours trying to figure out which nations and which world leaders are being hinted at in Revelation. I’ve known people who have spent hours looking at Revelation as if it’s a timeline: “1000 years till this happens, and 500 years till that happens…”

“Misunderstood Revelation is really a story of hope.” — the Catholic Register

Revelation isn’t meant to be read this way. Revelation was written for the believers in the early church as an encouragement. The early church, after the initial explosion of people coming to faith by the thousands, went through some very difficult times. In the year 70AD the political leaders of Jerusalem rebelled against Rome and Jerusalem was crushed – burned to the ground. So the center of the Christian faith – the believers in and around Jerusalem – were scattered throughout the Roman empire: Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. As they were scattered, they started to face persecution – partly because they were foreigners and refugees, and partly because they preached a religion that did not acknowledge the deity of Caesar. Caesar thought he was a god. Caesar thought he was the ‘king of kings’ – but Christians knew better. And they were persecuted for saying so.

So Revelation was written to comfort and encourage people who were suffering great losses. Which makes it appropriate for us, especially on All Saints Sunday, and especially during this time of social and economic and political upheaval. These words are for us.

God tells us in Revelation there will be a new heaven and a new earth, that the old heaven and the old earth will pass away. Does this mean that all of our efforts at conservation and mitigating climate change are in vain? NO. This creation, this earth we live in, was given to human beings by God, and we were commanded to take care of it – and that is still our job.

But Revelation is talking about something different. The writer says in verse one “and the sea was no more”. In Bible times the Sea was a metaphor for whatever brings evil into the world. The sea is where storms come from, and there were mysterious creatures in the deep, and it was a place where ships sank and people died… it was a dangerous place to be. It was a metaphor for tragedy. So Revelation is saying that the powers of evil and all of the hardships in this world will be done away with. The earth will be remade in such a way that the effects of sin and death will be gone.

And then we see the New Jerusalem, the holy city, coming out of heaven ‘prepared as a bride’. This echoes back to Psalm 45 which we read earlier this year, which was written for the wedding of Solomon but also foretells the wedding of the Messiah – the heavenly wedding we now see in Revelation.

And the groom, God, loves us. In verse three, where it talks about God ‘dwelling’ with us, the Greek actually says he ‘pitches his tent with us’ (and as I read this, I’m imagining the kind of tents they had in the Harry Potter movies, the ones that grow to fit all the people, and have all the modern conveniences). God will be with us, living with us. God will wipe away every tear from every eye. God will make us whole. God will make us holy – because God is able to do so. And death will be a thing of the past. Pain and grief will never come again, because “the first things have passed away”.

This world we live in now belongs to the ‘first things’. The life we know, the grief we experience, the fears we know, the insecurities we know – these all belong to the ‘first things’. And the first things are passing away. In this life we still deal with all these things. But Revelation means suffering is a temporary thing, so we don’t have to compromise with the wrongs of this world just to try to make life a little easier.

A new world is coming. God says, “I am making all things new.”

And then he says “It is done!”

At the crucifixion, we heard Jesus say “it is finished” but this is not the same thing. The Cross was about salvation. The word Jesus cried out then – tetelstai – basically means ‘paid in full’.

Here in Revelation the Greek word translates into ‘it is created’ or ‘it is made’. The creation is complete. Something totally new is here: “the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end.”

When the new things come, what was in the past will pass away. It’s difficult for us to try to imagine something we’ve never seen before, because this life is all we know.  But maybe this will help make some sense: I think it might be similar to being born. When our mothers were pregnant with us, if we had been able to verbalize our experience in the womb, we might have said: “this is a nice place. It’s always warm, and I feel safe, and I have as much to eat as I want, and I can hear pleasant sounds around me. I think I’ll stay.”

But at the end of nine months, ‘staying’ is no longer an option. We are born into a world we had no idea existed – something we could never have imagined – and yet it’s the same world we were always in. We just didn’t know it. We couldn’t perceive it from inside the womb. When we passed through the portal, all of a sudden we could see what we couldn’t see before, and the womb became a thing of the past, at least as far as we were concerned. We all know where we came from, but in terms of everyday life our prior existence in the womb is gone and forgotten.

I think entering God’s kingdom will be something like that. It’s not that we’re going to leave earth and go somewhere else. Scripture says “in Him (in God) we live and move and have our being.” So God’s world is with us already – surrounding us, nurturing us, womb-like. But we can’t fully perceive it yet. There are realities – spiritual realities, physical realities, God-realities – all around us that we can’t see just yet. When we pass through death’s portal we will be able to see and know God’s world, where death and sorrow and tears don’t happen any more. The reality we knew – what we know now – will be completely a thing of the past, like a womb that we no longer live in.

And somehow we will know – or God will point out to us – our loved ones: our ancestors, our ‘tribe’, who have been waiting for us.  We will be home in every sense of the word.

It really is beyond our imagining. But God promises it will be good, and safe, and free of danger, and free of sin, and free of tears. We will enjoy God. And God will enjoy our enjoyment and be pleased with our pleasure.

So we call to mind all these promises of God as we remember our loved ones today. And let us also share these promises and this hope with others as God gives us opportunity.

May God bless to us and to others a deep and lasting knowledge of God’s word and God’s promises. AMEN.

Preached at Fairhaven United Methodist Church and Spencer United Methodist Church, November 7, 2021

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