Chaos Killer

Lord, as we watch this service of worship, we have our cares and concerns, our joys and our sorrows. Touch our hearts and heal us, Lord. Make us ready to become your faithful disciples. AMEN.

HYMN: #701 When We All Get To heaven

PROCLAMATION AND PRAISE

PASTORAL PRAYER Liturgist

Remind everyone that they can put their concerns in the comments box

Lord, we talk so easily about being a friendly church. We like to think of ourselves as a physical and digital place where everyone is welcomed. But our welcome should not stay confined to these walls of worship or our homes. We are called to adopt attitudes of hospitality to others who may not return the favor. We are called to be willing to take the risk of hospitality in our workplace, our homes, our community, everywhere we go. You reached out to people in all kinds of conditions. Many of those people had been rejected by their society, their families. They were in need of compassionate greeting and friendship. Lord Jesus, as you have welcomed us regardless of our faults and failings, let us also be a welcoming presence to all in your name. AMEN.

Scripture

Revelation 21:1–7 NRSV

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. And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “See, the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them as their God; they will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them; 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.” 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.” Then he said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give water as a gift from the spring of the water of life. Those who conquer will inherit these things, and I will be their God and they will be my children.

HYMN: I Will Rise

PRAYER OF ILLUMINATION Rob

Introduction

Last week we talked about the understanding of the resurrection: God taking what already was in death, defeating decay by raising the dead in a new glorified body. Today we see the same thing for all creation. God takes what was and recreates it in a new heaven and a new earth, that is at the end of history the promised Kingdom of God where God is all in all.

In defeating decay and death in this new creation, evil is also defeated. It is not just defeated it is eliminated from the creation. All suffering and death is gone!

This is a great message of hope!

Let’s take a closer look and then discover what it means for us today in 2020.

Exegesis

John sees the recreated heaven and earth. The sea is no more. This is probably literal but it is also symbolic as the ancients, especially the Jewish poeple, understood the sea as the seat of chaos and disorder. God if you will has killed the chaos, the disorder and the evil of the previous broken creation. God has recovered the goodness of creation by redemption rather than elimination.

You may remember in the song Woodstock composed by Joni Mitchell and made famous by Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young this lyric: “We are stardust We are golden And we've got to get ourselves Back to the garden” this new creation is in fact better than the garden! We do not go back to the garden, although there are elements of the garden there as we shall see, God’s new creation takes what was and makes it even better!

You see, this new creation is not a garden at all, but a new city, the New Jerusalem, that John describes as a 1500 mile perfect cube. It is huge! Over 2 million sq miles. John sees it coming down from heaven. This is a city not built by human hands but by the hands of God! This is the ultimate symbol that human kind was created to live in community. Community with God and with each other. A city is the realization of human community. God is in community, the Holy Trinity, and we are created to be in community with each other and God.

Until now God’s presence has been hidden beyond the veil in heaven, but now God lives with his bride, those that dwell in the New Jerusalem. God’s throne is in the midst of the city and the creation’s light emits from his presence.

What a beautiful picture of comfort and hope that God will be our God and we will be God’s people and there will be no more death, crying or pain. The very hand of God wipes away our tears. All of the centuries of humankind’s dreams to live in community have now been realized.

NT Wright in Surprised by Hope writes:

“What I am proposing is that the New Testament image of the future hope of the whole cosmos, grounded in the resurrection of Jesus, gives as coherent a picture as we need or could have of the future that is promised to the whole world, a future in which, under the sovereign and wise rule of the creator God, decay and death will be done away, and a new creation born to which the present one will stand as mother to child.”

Or the New Jerusalem as bride to groom or wife to husband

1 The New Revised Standard Version The New Heaven and the New Earth

And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

God then in verse 5 says I am making all things new, not all new things. There is that resurrection foundation once again.

The “It is done” he is the beginning and the end. The redemption is complete and God once again dwells with human kind in community.

God says those who conquer will inherit these things. That is, those of us who cling to the faith, run the race, will inherit these things.

Beautiful picture isn’t it? All that weird stuff in Revelation serves to get us to this point.

Application

John’s audience, undergoing severe persecution would have rejoiced at this point. Because what comes before it is John expressing the inexpressible victory of God over the forces of chaos and evil.

I thought it interesting this week that on social media I read a number of believers who actually think this is the end of the world and the rapture is near. Not to mention those that believe wearing a face covering and social distancing is preparing us for the antichrist. You can see how a poor interpretation of this book can actually do harm. I saw where one person I know was quoting the Left Behind books like they were scripture. You know what? We are in the end times. We have been in the end times since Jesus ascended. However, these times lead to God’s victory not our destruction.

I cannot believe someone would actually quote a book of fiction like it was the gospel.

I do not think the end of the world is imminent. Most people fall into two camps: the first is that the world is getting better on its on or two the world is evil and just get’s worse and worse till God has to destroy it. Neither of these views are in line with what the scripture teaches us. The first Christians rightly believed that what God did for Jesus, God would do for the entire creation. Not destroy it, but recreate it.

If the pandemic is God’s judgement on this so called wicked planet, why are innocent people dying? What would that say about a wrathful God who indiscriminately kills the good and bad to make a point? This is not theology, but superstition. I mean if the pandemic is God’s judgement and will, would not those that believe in his Son be kept from being infected and dying from it? (Like Noah and his family being protected from the flood?) Wouldn't we believers all be protected from it? Wouldn’t it be the sheep who are well and the goats who get sick?

No this is a virus that randomly infects people. We know from science (which is God’s gift) that we need to wear a face covering and physically distance to protect each other.If we do not do these things we run the likely hood of getting sick or making someone else sick! It is not punishment from God. It is a virus and we have had viruses since day one. This is nothing that God either will or wants, and we know what to do to keep from getting infected. Yet we still have those who want to tempt God by not doing what we know works.

If God is a God of grace and redemption, how can God be self contradictory and be a God of death and destruction? Jesus said a house divided cannot stand. God has to be one or the other or God is a house divided!

Revelation teaches us that God’s perfect dwelling will be with us; we will enjoy the intimacy of the Most Holy Place with him forever. If that is truly the future we yearn for, then we should enjoy the intimacy now available with him in prayer. This is one lesson we learn today. We can have God all in all through prayer.

I like what Admiral Chester Nimitz World War 2 hero said about prayer and it is still relevant today:

‘I asked God for strength that I might achieve. I was made weak that I might learn humbly to obey. I asked for health that I might do greater things. I was given infirmity that I might do better things. I asked for riches that I might be happy. I was given poverty that I might be wise. I asked for power that I might have the praise of men. I was given weakness that I might feel the need of God. I asked for all things that I might enjoy life. I was given life that I might enjoy all things. I got nothing that I asked for, but everything I hoped for. Almost despite myself, my unspoken prayers were answered. I am, among all men, most richly blessed. ‘

We have all prayed for this pandemic to go away. We haven’t gotten what we have asked for, but Revelation teaches us that we will receive everything hoped for.

Second when hardships get too hard to bear, and have we had our fill in 2020, we need to remember that we are John’s audience for Revelation as well. The 7 churches were suffering hard times and we are suffering hard times. Not exactly the same hardships, but hard just the same. Revelation gives us the promise of God’s redeeming love. That what looks like chaos now is actually hope in God’s future. We are a resurrection people we are a people of the future. Even though these current hardships tempt us to doubt God’s present love and future hope, as one scholar says “we only need look back to the cross, where God in the flesh shared our pain with us and in our stead!”

The incarnation of Jesus Christ in the flesh proves God’s love to us, Jesus suffered as we suffer. God does not will us to experience disease, discrimination, poverty, injustice, or racism. It is his will that we partner with him to do away with such things. However, the incarnation proves he willing to go through these things with us till the day that the New Jerusalem comes down from heaven and God eliminates these things.

Finally let’s not forget that the church is the bride in this scripture. John describes the church this way in

Revelation 19:8 NRSV

to her it has been granted to be clothed with fine linen, bright and pure”— for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints.

Her is the church and she is clothed in our righteous acts.

Revelation 21:2 NRSV

And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

We are the bride. And while we are waiting on the New Jerusalem, the New heaven and new earth we are to be the outpost of the New Heaven and New Earth, God’s kingdom until it arrives doing the righteous deeds of the saints.

Here is a story from Bishop Richard Schnase I want us to consider:

When I worked in a clergy-training program at a hospital, I was called to the emergency room to support an older man whose wife had been brought to the hospital by ambulance. They had started their morning with no idea how events would unfold that day. After shopping, they stopped at a restaurant, and while she was eating, she suffered a heart attack and was rushed to the hospital. Shortly after I arrived in the small consultation room with the husband, a doctor approached him to announce that his wife had died. The doctor handed me an envelope that contained her wedding ring, her necklace, and her eyeglasses to give to him. Needless to say, the man was stunned with grief. After a few minutes together, I offered to call his pastor. He did not have a pastor because they attended no church. I asked if 1 could call a family member to come take him home, and he told me his family was scattered across the country, liv- ing many hundreds of miles away. I asked if I could call a co-worker to be with him, and he told me he had retired years before from work in another city. What about a neighbor I could call He told me that he and his wife didn t know the names of the other residents in the apartment since they d only lived there three years. I helped him with the paper work, offered a prayer as I held his hands in mine, handed him the enve- lope that contained the jewelry and glasses, escorted him to the exit, and watched him walk away alone to cope with the shocking news of the day and to grasp its meaning for himself all on his own. life is not meant to be that way. God intends for people to live their lives interlaced by the grace of God with others, to know the gift and task of community from birth to death, to have the interpretive structures of faith to sustain them through times of joy and periods of desperate agony, to have the perspective of eternity, and to take hold of the life that really is life.

Church there are lonely people around you. There are people anxious and scared around you. Can you, will you, be the heaven on earth for them? We are not meant to live in that kind of isolation. We are meant to be dwellers of the New City of Jerusalem. One commentator writes about this: “A city is the realization of human community, the concrete living out of interdependence as the essential nature of human life. In the individualistic ideal, each person is independent, self-reliant, doing everything for himself or herself. In a city the tasks of life are divided up, each one does a part, and the beauty of life is not a solo but a symphony. As community, a city is not streets and buildings but people.”

In this time of discordant and chaotic sounds will you be a symphony?

HYMN: #707 Hymn of Promise

SENDING FORTH

BENEDICTION Liturgist

God of peace and mercy, send us into your world with confident joy. Help us to reach out to others and care for them as you always care for us. AMEN.

Go in in joy to Love Christ Love People and Help People Love Christ

AMEN.

Related Media

Related Sermons