Sermons

May 6 2007

Rev. Scott Swanson

Easter 5 - Rev 21:1-6; John 13:31-35

Revelation: the book of the Bible studiously avoided by some Christians ever since it made the final cut and got in to the Bible in the 3rd century. Revelation: the book of the Bible most present day mainline Christians in Canada and the US avoid at all costs, filled as it is with bizarre language and imagery, and coopted as it has become since the late 19th century by a particular conservative interpretation - where everyone who doesn't think like "us" ends up burning in a lake of fire - that leaves a bad taste in the mouths of many. Using the metaphor of a family, the book of Revelation is for some of us the equivalent that embarrasing cousin that no one talks about, and for others someone we have a heard a few rumours about and who we don't care to know because of what we've heard.

It's too bad because I think Revelation (read differently than the current dominant reading) is a book for our time - but that's another sermon, or series of them. There are a couple of exceptions to the church's ambivalence with Revelation; these opening verses of chapter 21 are one of those exceptions. "Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth..."

Have you noticed how the issue of the environment has become an increaingly dominant subject in the last six months? It has been more and more important in the public consciousness over the last few years, but it seems that since last summer the issue is becoming more acute for many. I was struck at the retreat last weekend by how the issue of the environment was raised by a number of people in relation to Christian practice and the mission of the church. John didn't have this is mind when he wrote the text, but how will we read the vision of "a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away" in a world where we are increasingly aware of how our behaviour is rendering the earth a dangerous, uninhabitable place?

This vision is given to people in difficult times. The communities to which John wrote may have been suffering quite a bit at the hands of the Roman authorities. At this vision's centre is the claim that God will come and be with the people. It seems to me that people are more likely to find such a vision captivating to the extent that they feel abandonded by God in the present: God may not be here now, but, oh, when God finally comes...

Jesus speaks in both the texts before us today. In the gospel text he gives us a "new" commandment: "love one another as I have loved you." Be prepared to make sacrifices for each other, just as I have made sacrifices for you. In the Revelation to John, Jesus, now seated on the throne, says, "See, I am making all things new. ... I am the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give water as a gift from the spring of the water of life."

At this table, Jesus offers us everything we need. This table foreshadows the table of the reign of God, where everyone will have enough, where true fullness of life will mean that some people and the planet will not suffer so that others can have more than they need.

Jesus' commandment to his followers to love each other as he has loved them is still very much a work in progress. And John's vision of a new world is still a vision ... it has not yet fully come to pass. And yet, we have seen the signs. Signs of hope. Signs of promise. We are called as Christians to be people of hope. And hope is not the same as optimism. We are called to live in hope of a new day, a new world. And in the meantime to do whatever we can - by loving not only other Christians, but the rest of the world too, with the kind of sacrificing love that Jesus had for his friends - to work as partners with God to bring about that new day, that new world, where no one will thirst, and where there will be life enough for all God's beloved creation.

For more information or to comment on this sermon, please email Rev. Scott Swanson.