St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church
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Hard Texts: Are We Ready? Revelation 21:1-22 October 29, 2006 (Click the date to see the bulletin)
1. One of the most difficult things about the Book of the Revelation is that people want to think of it as a calendar, a schedule of upcoming events. A calendar much like this one – where today is October 29, which means we only have two days to buy candy for trick-or-treaters on Halloween. And two weeks after that I leave for North Carolina, which means I have to get packed, making sure I take only those clothes I’m willing to lose (because I’ve heard the airlines are losing record numbers of bags now), and I’ll have to transfer my shampoo and hair spray and lotions to a zip-lock bag, and put that bag into the big bag I check, because these new regulations won’t let me carry them on board as I’ve done for years and years! And the day after I return is Thanksgiving, which means I’ll have to buy everything we need for dinner before I leave for North Carolina. And a month after that is Christmas, and I don’t have all of my gifts bought. My goodness! Just thinking about everything that’s getting ready to happen gets me all in a tizzy! 2. And that’s the kind of tizzy people get into when they read The Revelation as a calendar, thinking they’re counting down the days until THE END. The possibilities have fascinated people for centuries. Sir Isaac Newton was one. He lived almost 400 years ago, and spent the last 55 years of his life working to "break the code" of the Revelation, mathematically. Just before he died he figured it out -- 2060 is the year of Christ’s return. Every other prediction has turned out to be wrong, so we’ll just have to wait. Even more challenging than predicting the dates has been drawing the images. Artists luxuriate in recreating the frightening pictures John paints with his words. And finally there’s the last picture of every creature gathered together around God, singing "Alleluia" over and over. 3. It’s quite a picture, isn’t it? All creatures, gathered together for one purpose. All creatures. And what is their purpose? To pay attention to God. But what do they see? Amazingly, John does not see an old man with long white hair and flowing beard. Even in this book of vivid imagery, there is no image of God, which is consistent throughout the Bible. John recognizes Jesus, but what he calls "the throne" is only light, inexpressible, irresistible light – the light that is the light of life. Only that which builds up life remains; everything which kills life will go away to that place where there is no life – the realm of the dead. And John hears the promise: "Never again will there be mourning and crying and pain." John had read that promise over and over in the Book of the Prophet Isaiah – but this time, he heard it straight from God! 4. Are we ready for it? Are we ready for this vision to be made real in our lives? Are we ready to live? Becky sent me a story about a man who decided he was going to live until he died. This man loved Saturday mornings; especially he loved to putter around in his shop, where he had a short-wave radio. He loved to listen to the chatter of other ham radio operators. One particular Saturday morning he turned on his radio, and overheard a conversation between a man who was obviously older and another man who was obviously younger. He couldn’t tell their ages exactly, but the voices had that "older" and "younger" sound to them. The older voice said, "It sounds like you’re busy with your job. I’m sure it pays well, but it’s a shame you have to be away from home and miss so many of your children’s activities. I have a theory I want to tell you about – it’s my "thousand marble" theory, and works like this. Statisticians tell us that the average life span is about 75 for men – some live longer, some don’t live quite so long. So I multiplied 75 years times 52 Saturdays in a year, and came up with 3,900 Saturdays. By the time I figured this out, I was 55 and had lived through over 2,800 Saturdays. I got to thinking that if I lived to be 75, then I only had about a thousand Saturdays left to enjoy. So I set out in search of 1,000 marbles. I ended up having to empty three toy stores of their marbles, but I finally found enough. I took them home and put them inside a large, clear plastic jar in my radio shack. Every Saturday morning since then, I have taken one marble out and given it away. As I "lost my marbles," I found that I focused more on the really important things in life. There’s nothing like watching your time run out to help you get your priorities straight. Well, that’s my "marble" theory. Now, let me tell you one more thing before I sign off and take my beautiful wife out for breakfast. This morning, I took the very last marble out of the container. I figure that if I make it until next Saturday, then I have been given extra time, and we all can use a little extra time. Well, it was nice to talk with you, young man. Maybe we’ll talk again. I do hope you spend more time with your family." The air waves went silent – the younger man was speechless. Then he got moving! He went upstairs, kissed his wife and said, "Get ready, Honey. I’m taking you and the kids out for breakfast. And then we’ll swing by the toy store – I’ve got to buy some marbles." 5. How many "marbles" do you think we have left, you and I? How many Saturdays? There is absolutely no way of knowing. We certainly don’t know from the Book of the Revelation! All we know is that we are still alive, and the world is still spinning around. Our most important question is not "How long will we live?" It is "How are we going to use the rest of our days? When we have "lost all our marbles," when our calendar has run out, will there be more God in this world, more Life because we were here? I don’t know. That’s up to each of us to respond to this vision Jesus gave John. 6. But John’s vision is more than a personal image – it is a vision for the church. So we can ask "How is the church going to bring more God into the world, more life in our time and place?" And we can apply this question for the whole church to our own congregation: "How is this congregation going to make life better for the people who come in contact with us?" John’s vision compels us to consider that question. What is the vision of the Church in Revelation? It is not a lot of fancy buildings, which is what the Church has decided it has to have – splendid cathedrals. But John says he saw no temple in the city, no "cathedral," for its temple IS the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb." True worship of God does not take place in a building; true worship happens when we live as Christ lived. 7. We may have to consider "true worship" sooner than we thought. Do you remember the question we were asked last June, the question from The Little Light House? In case you don’t remember, or maybe you weren’t here to hear it, the question was "Might you be willing to sell us your property? We need to expand our ministry." That seemingly simple question set off a lot of conversation! So all during July we pondered their question with our own questions. "What are the greatest possibilities?" "What are the serious concerns?" "Where is God in all of this? – Where is the LIFE?" Then, in early August, they said, "Well, we don’t know what we need, so we’re going to think about it for a while." So they thought, and they thought, and they thought some more. I had decided they had decided to forget the whole thing. But what I thought they were thinking was not what they were thinking – they were thinking "Yeah, let’s talk to them again. Let’s tell them our plans and listen to their plans." They called again the other day, and said "Can some of you come talk with some of us on November 7"" By my calendar here, that’s a week from Tuesday. So five of us are going – two from the Focus Team, two from the Session, and me. I don’t know any more than that right now, but we’ll let you know. The Shield goes out the next day, and we’ll post something there. In the meantime, we have to wait. 8. In the meantime, while we’re waiting, we have a lot of living to do! It’s hard living "in the meantime," isn’t it? It’s not easy wondering what will happen next. But to help us, we have calendars, and we have Saturday marbles, and we have the Book of the Revelation that promise us that God will prevail – as long as we do what needs to be done to make it work. What do we do while we wait? We live! And we help everyone else live, too! Are you ready? I am! |
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