Being Yeast

My congregation was delighted to congratulate three graduates this past Sunday -- one high school graduate and two college graduates! This sermon is directed to them, of course, but also to everyone else who reads it. Scoot, you people! Go be yeast!

“So, what do you want to be when you grow up?” Graduates, did you ever hear that question when you were children? What did you answer? Did you always know that you wanted to be a nurse or a mechanical engineer? Maybe you were more like me. I didn’t end up doing at all what I wanted to do at first.

When I was a kid, all the way back in elementary school, I wanted to be a paleontologist – a scientist that digs up dinosaur bones! I don’t even remember why I wanted to do that, except that dinosaurs have always fascinated me (which, by the way, they still do). But when I got to high school, I decided that I would rather be a research biologist. And that’s what I did end up doing for quite a few years. I went to college and got a degree in biology; and then I went to graduate school and pursued cell biology; and I ended up running a rather large cancer research lab in Philadelphia. But, of course, I’m not doing that now. My life changed, as it may for you, as well. After marriage and a family, I finally discerned a call to ministry, and… well, here I am.

So the answer to the question, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” may not be as straightforward as it appears to be at first glance. Your life has changed already from the time when you were a little tyke; and it will continue to change as you grow older and gain more experiences. But you already know that. And you already know that what you are pursuing as a career right now might well change during your life – not once, but maybe even several times. Careers aren’t as stable as they once were; and you can look forward to a longer life span than ever before. But whatever career you decide to pursue throughout your life, and no matter how long you live, I hope that there is one constant whatever you do and wherever you go. I hope that you continue to be yeast your whole life long!

“Yeast? What is that woman talking about?” you’re probably thinking right now. “Why in the world would I want to be yeast?” Let me introduce you to yeast. Maybe that will give you a clue. Yeast is actually a single-celled microorganism. In other words, it’s a little bitty cell that you can’t see without a microscope. But, oh, my, we can certainly see what it does! If you want to have beer – or a risen loaf of bread – you have to have yeast. When yeast is added to certain food mixtures – specifically, mixtures that contain specific kinds of sugars – all the little yeast cells start to nibble on that sugar, and they eventually turn it into carbon dioxide and ethanol. The ethanol is the alcohol in your beer; and the carbon dioxide is what makes the bread rise. All the little holes in the middle of your bread are there because of the action of yeast. Without yeast, both your beer and your bread will be flat. If you want a little action in your cooking, you need to add some yeast. And you don’t need much of it! Just a tiny bit of yeast affects the whole batch.

Some Bible texts compare yeast to pretty nasty stuff. In both Matthew and Luke, Jesus warns his disciples to beware of the “yeast of the Pharisees.” Just like a little bit of yeast can cause the entire loaf of bread to rise, just a little bit of their teaching can spoil your faith – at least, according to Jesus. And Paul compares inappropriate behavior to yeast. In I Corinthians, for example, he warns that the immoral behavior of just one person can infect the whole Christian congregation! Better to throw out those immoral people, he advises, than to spoil the entire community!

Well, if yeast is such bad stuff, why in the world am I encouraging you to behave like it? It’s because, even though Jesus compared yeast to the teaching of the Pharisees that can spoil faith, he said that the Kingdom of God works the very same way. “What is the Kingdom of God like?” Jesus asked his disciples. Then he answered his own question. “The Kingdom of God is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into a large amount of flour until it worked all through the dough.” The New Testament Greek actually says that the woman “hid” that yeast in “three measures” of flour. That amount of flour is a huge amount of flour – almost half a bushel. And that tiny little bit of yeast got completely mixed up in all that flour. And once the yeast is in the flour, you can’t very well get it back out, can you? That’s the way the Kingdom of God works, Jesus says. It gets all mixed in with other things until you don’t even notice it any more. But don’t worry! You don’t need very much of it to change things, just like the bread rises with just a little bit of yeast.

Are you beginning to see why I hope you behave like yeast? You are a part of the Kingdom of God – in fact, everybody in this congregation is a part of the Kingdom of God. The Kingdom is in us, working to transform us into the image of Jesus Christ, just like yeast works in bread flour. And if you’re a part of the Kingdom of God, then wherever you go, you have the chance to start to change the world into the kind of place that God wants it to be! Just like a little bit of yeast leavens the whole batch, one person working on behalf of Jesus Christ can change everything around them! Oh, it doesn’t happen right away. It takes bread quite a while to rise, after all. And the results aren’t always very dramatic. But a little bit of yeast in the middle of the flour always changes the bread that comes out in the end.

Let me give you an example. When Denise graduated from college, she was hired by a large corporation. She worked in her own little cubicle doing… whatever it was that she did. The atmosphere in her office wasn’t terribly inviting. People didn’t socialize very much. They kept to themselves, and only interacted at the weekly progress meetings of their group. After a few weeks, Denise felt that she didn’t really know any of them, even though she knew their names and worked shoulder to shoulder – or cubicle to cubicle – with them. One morning Denise marched in with a big box of fresh doughnuts from her local Tim Horton’s coffee shop. (Denise had good taste in coffee!) She sent out an email to all the folks in nearby cubicles. “Are you hungry? Come on down to Denise’s cubicle for breakfast. It’s on me!” Curious heads began to peer in. “You brought doughnuts? Really? Did you bring chocolate ones? Can I have one?” No one had ever done that before. Of course, none of them lingered too long – they were in the middle of their morning’s work, after all. But Denise found out that Florence was worrying about a sick child at home; and that Mark loved fishing; and that Kathy was going through a very messy divorce. Things began to mysteriously appear in those cubicles – a frozen casserole for Florence, a small bouquet of flowers for Kathy, and a card with a rainbow trout on its cover that wished Mark a great vacation. Slowly the atmosphere in that office began to change. People got to know one another. People started caring about one another. People started helping one another. “The Kingdom of God is like yeast that a woman hid in three measures of flour until it worked all through the dough.”

Now, you can’t always see change that quickly. Sometimes, in fact, you can’t see any change at all, even though you are acting like yeast with all your might. You might even get kind of discouraged after a while. But don’t worry. The yeast of the Kingdom of God is working even if we can’t see it doing its thing. The littlest things send up little bubbles of the Kingdom. If you are honest in the midst of a culture that’s fixated on lies… look, there goes a bubble up from your yeast. When you behave unselfishly when everyone else is looking out for himself… oops, there goes another bubble of the Kingdom! And when you send up a quick, silent prayer for help on behalf of someone who needs it… why, it’s more action from your Kingdom yeast! All of these things sends a little bubble of God’s Kingdom out into the world. And with enough little bubbles… why, pretty soon, people start to notice that something is different. They may not know what it is… but we do. It’s God’s Kingdom breaking through into the world, bit by bit. It’s all because of those little bits of yeast, all quietly doing their thing in the big flour barrel of the world.

So, brand new graduates of the class of 2013 – accept our congratulations on your accomplishment! Look forward to the new challenges that you will face, and the new obstacles that you will overcome! And then, go out there and be yeast for the Kingdom of God. Believe me, it will be the most important work that you will ever do!

With Us in Battle

This sermon is dedicated to the men and women who serve our country, especially those who have died in the line of duty. I am convinced that God doesn't take a side in our political squabbles, but that God DOES stay at the right hand of every soldier, sailor, or pilot who is ready to die for the greater good. Let us never forget them.

 “Where is God in the midst of war?” That is a real issue for every soldier, sailor, or pilot who professes to being a Christian. Enlisted men and women who wrestle with that question keep military chaplains very busy, indeed. For some Christians, that answer is easy. Jesus taught us to love our enemies, to pray for those who persecute us, and to turn the other cheek. So, some folks conclude that God wants nothing to do with war. These people are pacifists, and they refuse to fight under any circumstances.

But two facts argue against this conclusion. The first is that our world isn’t what it is supposed to be. While God wants only peace and wholeness for all people, there is always somebody who wants to take away what we have for their own benefit. Sometimes that means that we have to take up arms against them. Imagine what our world would be like now if we had allowed Hitler to continue with his ambitions!

And the second fact is that God has always been connected with war in one way or another. The Old Testament is full of stories about God fighting on behalf of God’s people. These stories are rooted in the ancient belief that every tribe had its own god; and that one of the jobs of that god was to go to battle on behalf of the people who worshipped him. Victory in battle proved that you worshipped the biggest, baddest god on the block. Israel was no different. They relied on Yahweh to lead them into war and to fight for them, as this morning’s reading makes clear (Deuteronomy 20:1-4). That belief was a part of their faith until the Babylonian Exile forced them to reexamine it. (But that’s a topic for another sermon…)

Lots of people still believe this way. The news these days is full of reports about radical Muslims praying to Allah as they kill those who don’t believe exactly as they do. The terrorists who destroyed the World Trade Center on 9/11 did just that. But some Christians buy into this kind of thinking, too. Because we believe that God loves us (which God does) and because we see ourselves as faithful Christians (which, in most cases, we are), we fall into the trap of believing that God takes our side in armed conflicts. And that I’m not so sure about.

Even the portions of the Old Testament that are convinced that God goes to war for us have some stories tucked in out-of-the-way corners that cause us to think again. The book of Joshua, for example, contains a little story about an angel who meets Joshua on the evening of a crucial battle. Now, if anyone had the right to expect God to fight for him, it was Joshua! He had been commissioned by Moses himself to take command of the Israelites after Moses’ death. Under Joshua’s leadership, God’s people crossed the Jordan River; and Joshua led them in battle against the Canaanites in order to have a safe home in the Promised Land. On the eve of the battle of Jericho – a battle that, by the way, he was fighting on God’s orders – Joshua had a very puzzling encounter. This is how the book of Joshua tells it: “Now when Joshua was near Jericho, he looked up and saw a man standing in front of him with a drawn sword in his hand. Joshua went up to him and asked, ‘Are you for us or for our enemies?’ ‘Neither,’ he replied, ‘but as commander of the army of the Lord I have come.’” (Joshua 5:13-14)  Neither for them nor against them? Why, then, is that angel there at all? Maybe it was to remind Joshua that God is far above our political concerns. God is above “taking sides.” Taking sides is for fifth-graders on the playground who are caught up in the middle of petty squabbles. We expect fifth-graders to choose up sides, and to side with their friends. But God? God doesn’t take sides. On the contrary, we are the ones who are called by God to take a side! In the battles that we fight, are we for God… or are we against God?

A story is told about President Abraham Lincoln as he struggled with difficult decisions in the midst of the Civil War. He had invited a group of leaders to the White House to help him in making some of those decisions; and at the end of the meeting one of those leaders asked, “Mr. President, can we pray that God stays on our side?” Lincoln’s wise response was, “Sir, my concern is not whether God is on our side. My greatest concern is whether we are on God's side.” No, God doesn’t take sides. After all, both North and South were convinced that God was on their side! On the contrary, we are the ones who are called to take sides; and we are called to be on God’s side.

Are we on God’s side? In particular, are we on God’s side when we must go to war? Surely every soldier is on God’s side when he or she is willing to lay down his life for the good of her country! In the Gospel of John Jesus says, “Greater love has no one than this, that they are willing to lay down their life for their friends.” Sacrifice for a greater good is surely taking the side of a God who has sacrificed himself for our welfare!

And that brings us back to our original question, “Where is God in the midst of war?” If we can’t say that God is on our side politically when we go to war; then where is God, anyway? The story of Joshua meeting the angel might give us a clue to the answer. Although God may not be leading us in battle, fighting for us or against us, God presence will surely be at the side of every single soldier. God certainly is on our side when we are ready to sacrifice ourselves for a greater good. Wherever our soldiers are called to fight; whatever they are called to do in battle; and whether they live or die, God has promised to be at their side.

God has been at the side of our soldiers down throughout our history.

God stood at Lexington when the Minutemen took their first shots at the British, and God shivered with Washington’s troops in the bitter cold of Valley Forge.
God was with our troops at Fort McHenry as the British rained bombs on it; and God stood next to Francis Scott Key on a ship in the harbor as he wrote “The Star Spangled Banner.”
God took cover with the Yanks in the Bloody Lane at Antietam, and charged bravely forward with the Rebels under General Pickett at Gettysburg.
God endured the mud of the trenches during World War I, and walked among the poppies in Flanders Fields where our dead are buried.
God flew with the pilots of the Royal Air Force during the Battle of Britain, and waded ashore with our GIs into the hell that was Omaha Beach.
God sweltered in the steaming jungle rivers of Vietnam, and endured captivity with our prisoners of war in the Hanoi Hilton.
And even today, God stands guard duty in the burning heat of the deserts of Afghanistan.

Wherever there are soldiers, sailors, or pilots who are willing to lay down their lives for those of us at home, God is there, too – with them in battle, in life and in death.

Thanks be to God for his presence with them.
And thanks to them for their courage and their commitment. We will never forget.

Together at Last

What can I say about Pentecost that has not already been said? Probably not very much... but most folks have not noticed the connection between Babel and Pentecost.This sermon presents Pentecost as a step towards reversing the curse of Babel. I hope it rings true for you!

Once upon a time in a faraway country, there lived a people whose lives were filled with joy. There was a good reason for that. While most people argue at least some of the time, these people never argued! They listened to one another. They were considerate of one another. They helped one another. And their city was beautiful. It was landscaped with flowers that bloomed in every season – snowdrops in the winter, tulips and daffodils in the spring, daylilies and zinnias and marigolds in the summer, and mums in the fall. All the businesses were well maintained; and all the homes were inviting. Better still, everyone was welcome there! It was a place that you entered as a visitor, but left as a friend.

But one day, the people of that city decided that something was missing. They decided that the folks in a neighboring city had a nicer church than they did. Specifically, the church in the next city had a higher steeple than theirs. Now, to be sure, their church was beautiful. It had stained glass windows that celebrated their heritage, a large kitchen where delicious meals could be prepared, and a brand new playground for any child who wanted to use it. But… that steeple was so puny! Something had to be done. And so, they started to build a new steeple. With every day of work, they looked forward to the day when their steeple would be higher than the steeple over there. As the steeple rose higher, so did the noses of the people who were building it. They started to compare themselves with the folks over in that city; and, of course, that other city always came out second best. The people over there weren’t as friendly as they were. The people over there weren’t as clean as they were. The people over there… well, they just weren’t as good. One thing led to another, and pretty soon the religion of the people over there didn’t seem to be very good, either. Folks started to say that when their steeple was finished, it would rise all the way to heaven itself. They would have a direct line to God, because they deserved it.

One day, when the steeple was rising into the sky at a pretty good clip, God looked down into that beautiful city; and God didn’t like what he saw. Where friendship and hospitality and help had once flourished, now there was only pride and competition and suspicion. God was not at all pleased. God decided that this had to stop. And so, the next morning when the workers came to work on the steeple, a remarkable thing had happened. Overnight, their ability to understand each other had disappeared. “Boker tov,” said Moishe to Andre; and Andre wondered why Moishe hadn’t said, “Good morning,” like he did every other day. “Bonjour,” replied Andre; and Moishe wondered the very same thing. When Hans gave Sergei a hammer and Sergei replied, “Spasibo,” Hans was insulted. He had no idea that Sergei had just said “Thank you.” When Hans asked, “Was ist das?” Sergei was insulted, too. A frosty silence settled over the worksite as the men glared suspiciously at one another. And things really blew apart when Luca tried to encourage everyone to get going by saying happily, “Andiamo! Andiamo!” Tempers flared, insults were thrown back and forth – and so were a few monkey wrenches. Because nobody could understand anybody else, everyone thought that they were the butt of a joke that everybody else was in on.

That steeple never did get finished. And it didn’t take very long for the city to fall apart, as well. Andre and his family moved over here, Sergei and his family moved over there, and Luca’s family moved completely out of the area. That beautiful, welcoming city was left in ruins with the steeple only half built. By the way, the name of that city was “Babel,” and the book of Genesis calls that steeple a “tower.” Now, I doubt if things happened in Babel quite the way that I’ve told the story this morning; but one thing about the story is the same. Ever since the time of Babel, we humans have misunderstood each other. And because we misunderstand one another, we are suspicious of each other, we exclude one another, and we keep pretty much to ourselves. After all, that guy over there might have an ulterior motive. There’s no sense in helping him! The legacy of the tower persists to this day.

But Pentecost started to change all that. We didn’t read the Pentecost story out of the book of Acts today; but I’ll bet that you know it anyway. On Pentecost, the Spirit of God moved through the group of Jesus’ disciples like a mighty wind, and the fire of the Spirit gave them the ability to communicate with folks who didn’t speak their language! On Pentecost, Moishe could suddenly understand Andre again; and Sergei could understand Hans; and when Luca shouted, “Andiamo,” everybody understood that he was saying, “Come on, guys! It’s time to get a move on!” On the day of Pentecost, the Spirit of God began to reverse the tragedy of Babel. The message of God’s love in Jesus Christ was no longer confined to a few men and women in a back-water area of Galilee in the tiny country of Israel. No, beginning with Pentecost, folks from all around the world understood what Jesus’ disciples were saying. The gospel message spread like ripples in a pond, and expanded outward until it reached every corner of the world.

That story isn’t over yet. We still aren’t one family, the way that God intends it to be. We still don’t communicate with one another very well, even with cell phones and the internet and the ability to see each other on Skype from anywhere in the world. We still don’t understand one another. We’re still suspicious of one another, we still exclude one another, and we still keep pretty much to ourselves. But all that is going to change one day!

This morning’s reading from Revelation (21:9-14, 22-27; 22:1-5) describes that day. It shows us the New Jerusalem, the Holy City, coming down from heaven, ready for all the saints to live there in peace and harmony. It’s the most beautiful city that anyone can imagine! The author of Revelation describes it as having walls that look like precious stones, and streets that are paved with gold. A river with the Water of Life is flowing right down Broadway; and the big tree in the town square is the Tree of Life. That tree heals anyone who eats its fruit, and it reconciles all the folks who sit together in its shade. There won’t be any more pain; any more sorrow; or any more suffering In the New Jerusalem. The curse of Babel will be reversed once and for all. Suspicion and misunderstanding and exclusion will be a thing of the past. The blessing of Pentecost will be complete as everyone lives together in harmony. And anybody who wants to live there will be welcome! How will it happen; and when will it happen? I don’t have a clue! But I’m convinced it will happen one day, and that time itself will end in peace and joy. After all, that’s the end of the great vision of Revelation. God’s kingdom will be complete, and God will live right in the middle of his people. We’ll all be together at last – you and me and all those people we have ever loved – together with God.

May that day come soon! Come, Lord Jesus!

Two Women

This sermon considers two images of women in the book of Revelation: the great whore of Babylon and the Bride of Christ. They actually represent communities that are still around today. Which community do you belong to?

From time to time, I hear somebody claim that there aren’t any notable women in the Bible.  Now, I’m not sure what Bible they’re reading; but it sure isn’t the one that I’m reading! The Bible that I read contains more notable women than there are girls at a junior high sock hop! There are all kinds of women in those texts!

The women that we hear the most about are the ones who gave birth to famous children: Isaac’s mother Sarah; Rachel and Leah, the mothers of the 12 Israelite patriarchs; and Jesus’ mother Mary, to name just a few. They’re standing over there in one corner of the sock hop, dressed very modestly; waiting for a nice boy to ask them to dance. No tattoos or spiked hair for this bunch! They’re very traditional, you know.

Over in another corner are some other women; but they aren’t famous for their families. No, indeed. These women are the biblical equivalent of Rosie the Riveter. Deborah is over there, the woman who went to war and whipped a whole enemy army back in the time of the judges. Esther is there, too. She turned the tables on a nogoodnik named Haman who wanted to kill all the Jews. She got Haman killed, instead. And Judith is over there with them. Judith has a book of her own in the apocrypha, the texts that made it into the Roman Catholic Bible, but not the one that we Protestants use. Judith weaseled her way into the tent of an enemy general by… well, promising him “favors.” But then she got him drunk and lopped off his head with his own sword. The boys tend to stay away from the girls in that corner of the sock hop. They’re a little bit afraid of them.

And, of course, there are the girls who are on the sock hop committee itself. They’re running back and forth filling the punch bowl and putting out more potato chips when the dish is empty. You know who they are: women like Lazarus’ sister Martha in the gospels; and Dorcas in the books of Acts. They’re the “doers,” the women who serve others in a more traditional way. No sock hop would be a success without women like them!

But there’s another type of woman in the Bible as well. This woman isn’t a real flesh-and-blood woman; she’s a symbol of a whole community. And of all the women in the Bible, these women may be some of the most important. After all, Sarah and Deborah and Dorcas are historical figures. They’re bound forever in their own time. But the symbolic women are still around even today. Two of the most famous ones are right here in the book of Revelation – the prostitute of Babylon (chapter 17); and the bride of Christ (chapter 21). You can’t find women who are more different than these two. From the way they dress to their priorities to the fellows they run around with, they’re as different as night and day.

The first woman that we meet in this morning’s reading is called “Babylon the Great;” and she is a knockout. She looks like a young Elizabeth Taylor! (For you younger folks who have never seen Elizabeth Taylor, Katherine Zeta-Jones will work just as well.) She’s gotten herself all gussied up for that special someone; but her tastes run more to WalMart than Saks Fifth Avenue.  She is dressed in bright red and purple, as gaudy as any circus clown. She’s all decked out in gold and pearls; but if we take a closer look, we’ll see that it’s just cheap costume jewelry. And to top it off, she’s drunk! She is holding a cup in her hand – the ancient equivalent of a shot glass – and it’s scribbled all over with graffiti that you might see on the wall of an abandoned warehouse. She’s been drinking the contents of that cup; and we’re told that it’s the blood of the saints. This woman may look good, but she’s just trailer park trash. She’s got no taste and no morals. She’s all gussied up for whoever will throw the most cash her way. And she has never bothered to marry anybody; she just runs around with whoever looks the best at the moment!

This woman is a symbol – a symbol of the people who care about the things of this world. The author of Revelation meant for her to symbolize the Roman Empire. There are clues in the text that tell us that. “The woman you saw,” it says, “is the great city that rules over the kings of the earth. The seven heads of the beast on which she sits are the seven hills of the city.” (17:7, 9, 18) That’s Rome's nickname – the city on seven hills. Today, that woman stands for folks who are only interested in money and fame and power. They won't commit to anybody but themselves; and they’ll hang out with anybody who will give them some of the status that they want so badly.

And there’s another woman in this text; and she couldn’t be more different than our painted floozy. This second woman is the bride of Christ, the New Jerusalem, the community of saints. She’s beautiful, too – but not because she wears caked-on layers of rouge and mascara. No, she’s a classic beauty like Grace Kelly and Audrey Hepburn. Her beauty isn’t painted on; it shines through. If we had read just a bit farther, we would have heard a description of that beauty. She is as beautiful as a diamond that sparkles with the light of God. She is adorned with all kinds of precious gems – sapphires, emeralds, onyx, topaz, amethysts, and pearls – and they’re the real thing! She’s has made herself beautiful for her beloved husband, and she’s spared no expense in doing it. Even the beauty of Princess Diana and Duchess Kate pales in comparison with this bride. But then, this bride isn’t just marrying a duke or a prince; this bride is getting ready to marry the King of Kings!

She is a symbol, too – a symbol of God’s people. Revelation compares her to a New Jerusalem, ready to begin married life with the Lamb himself. God’s people have prepared themselves just like a bride prepares herself for her wedding. What a contrast with the prostitute Babylon! While she is all gussied up to see what she can get, this community has made itself as beautiful as possible preparing for its union with God. In Revelation’s day, this bride symbolized the saints of the Church. And that’s what she stands for yet today – the great community of saints on earth and in heaven who hold fast to Jesus Christ.

Now, there’s good news in this text. That good news is that God loves his church better than a husband loves his wife. And the even better news is that God doesn’t love us for what we’ve done. God doesn’t love us because we have great kids, or cook the greatest meal in town, or even are on the board of directors of the local bank. God loves us because of who we are – his creations, made in his image, each one with unique gifts and graces. Nobody much loves that other woman. They just take what they can get from her and toss her aside like yesterday’s newspaper. How sad.

But it does beg the question of how can we possibly prepare ourselves for the God who loves us so much. God isn’t interested in money or power. After all, he became poor so that we could become rich, and gave up all the power in the universe to become human right along with us. And our beloved doesn’t care about public opinion. God loves us anyway, no matter how we behave or what poor choices we make! How can we make ourselves beautiful enough for someone like that?  The reality is that no matter how hard we work to make ourselves attractive, we can never be good enough for God!

But remember that God loves us no matter how we look! God loves us regardless of whether we’ve wearing the right dress style or matching jewelry or the right kind of shoes. And when everything is ready and we finally meet the Groom; after we have walked down the aisle and are standing before the Lamb, I know what we will hear. We will hear what every bride wants to hear on her wedding day! On that day, God will gaze into our eyes with infinite love. He will take us by the hand, and lean down so that no one hears him but us. And then, he will whisper gently: “My beloved – I have waited so long for this day. I love you so very much. You are so beautiful.”

Cosmic Reconstruction

The book of Revelation scares the heck out of most people. Part of the reason is that it is filled with descriptions of natural disasters that are supposedly a result of God's wrath. Are they? Is this what the writer of Revelation intended? It seems to me that these disasters are signs of something entirely different -- something that promises good news to all of us! See if you agree with me.

This morning’s text contains one of the most frightening images in all of scripture (Revelation 6:12-17). As the Lamb opens the sixth seal, the earth quakes, the moon turns to blood, the stars fall from their places, the sky rolls up like a scroll, and the mountains fall apart. We see everyone on earth trying to get away from the destruction: kings and slaves, rich and poor, powerful and powerless. But it’s no use. We can hear their cries as creation falls down around them: “Hide us from the face of the One who sits on the throne! Hide us from the wrath of the Lamb!”

As we read it, we can’t help but wonder, “Is this what we have to look forward to? Are we all going to be cornered like rats because we haven’t done exactly what God wants us to do? Are we all going to be squashed like bugs because Jesus has lost patience with us?” That’s certainly what some people think. We hear it all the time from people who claim that they understand this biblical text. Televangelist Pat Robertson is one notable example. Back in 2005, he stated that Hurricane Katrina was a direct result of God’s wrath over our country’s abortion policy; and he claimed several years later that the devastating earthquake in Haiti was divine retribution for their long involvement with voodoo. According to him, God’s wrath is all around us; and we’d better toe the line, or we’ll get some of it ourselves!

Now, no one can argue that the Bible talks about the wrath of God many, many times! But the vast majority of these references are in the Old Testament. How can we understand God’s wrath in light of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ? Well, some people seem to think that Jesus is as much about wrath as he is about love. Just look at the Westboro Baptist Church folks who picket the funerals of soldiers who are killed in the line of duty. They claim that the deaths of our military personnel are a result of Jesus’ anger over homosexuality. The Jesus that they represent is less about grace than he is about punishment. A few years ago, a bumper sticker even appeared that said, “Jesus is coming again… and boy, is he mad!” Is that right? Is Jesus lurking in the bushes, ready to pounce on us in the end? Where is the good news in this text? Is there any good news here at all?

Actually, this text offers us very, very good news – good news about creation, and good news about us. But the good news is disguised in images that are strange to us. Texts like this one need some explanation before we can see the good news that they offer. So before we decide that Jesus is really a wolf in lamb’s clothing, let’s ask some questions about this text. Where else do images like these appear in the Bible? Who makes the claim that this cosmic chaos is the result of God’s wrath? What happens after the disasters are finished? When we have answered these three questions, we may find that this text and others like it offer some very good news, indeed!

So let’s get started. Our first question is, “Where else do images like these appear in the Bible?” The answer is that there are several other readings like this one scattered throughout the Bible. A notable one is in the book of the prophet Joel. “I will show portents in the heavens and on the earth,” says Joel, “blood and fire and columns of smoke. The sun shall be turned to darkness, and the moon to blood, before the great and terrible Day of the Lord arrives.” (Joel 2:30-31) It sounds very much like this text in Revelation, doesn’t it? That’s because this kind of writing was actually very common in the time of Jesus. And the last part of the text is crucial to our understanding it. All these disturbances in creation are only signals of something else – the arrival of the Day of the Lord.

The Day of the Lord is a very old tradition in Judaism. On the Day of the Lord, Jews believed that God would come down to earth from heaven and set everything straight. All wrongs would be set right; all people would be reconciled; and all creation would enjoy peace at last. And we’d know that God was on the way because catastrophes just like these. Jesus himself talks about the Day of the Lord using language like this. These days, though, we don’t call it the Day of the Lord; we call it the Second Coming.

In the gospel of Luke, Jesus says something very similar to this (21:25-28): “There will be signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars, and on the earth distress among nations confused by the roaring of the sea and the waves. People will faint from fear and foreboding of what is coming upon the world, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. Now when these things begin to take place, stand up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.” These cosmic disasters don’t mean that God is destroying creation as punishment for our sins. God created the heavens and the earth and called everything “very good.” On the contrary, this kind of image is a sign that the Day of the Lord is about to take place, that day when everything will finally be set right.

That brings us to our second question. Revelation clearly says – right there in verse 15 of today’s reading – that this chaos is caused by “the wrath of the Lamb.” Doesn’t that mean that Jesus is out to get us? Maybe not. Remember that, even in the Bible, some people are more reliable witnesses than others. Anybody who watches Law and Order knows that. Think back to the days when you were a child, and one of your friends said something that upset you. Maybe you heard that your very favorite teacher was moving away. When you ran to your mother to report the story, the first question that she probably asked was, “Who said?” Did you hear this from a reliable adult; or is this just a product of little Billy’s imagination? Whether or not we believe a story depends a great deal on who tells it.

So, who does tell us that Jesus is out to get us? Is it an apostle, an angel, or maybe even the Lamb himself? No, we hear this report from “the kings of the earth, the princes, the generals, the rich, the mighty, every slave and every free man… ” In other words, these witnesses are all the citizens of the Roman Empire who worship Caesar instead of Jesus. They aren’t Christians – they’re everybody but Christians! They are afraid that Jesus is out to get them because that’s what the emperor would do! Now, if Jesus acted like Caesar – if Jesus used raw power to get what he wanted, punished his enemies, and mowed down anyone who stood in his way – then they would be right. But that’s not who Jesus is. Jesus loves us so much that he died for us! The Jesus who was crucified to save the world doesn’t strike me as someone who is full of wrath. No, the people who claim that the Lamb is out to get us don’t know the Lamb at all.

In fact, the Lamb of God is out to save us, and all of creation with us! That’s where the book of Revelation ultimately ends; and that’s also the answer to our third question: “What happens after all the disasters are finished?” And the One who answers this question is none other than the One who is seated on the heavenly throne – God himself. “I am making everything new” is God’s astonishing claim. “I am making everything new” – you, me, all of us here, everyone in the world, and even all of creation – everything new, the way that it should be. The cosmic disasters that Revelation describes are actually God’s way of rebuilding a world that needs some help!

It might be helpful to think about all the cosmic chaos this way. Imagine that we bought a house. It’s a beautiful house, but it’s not a new house. No, this house was built long ago and has been lived in for quite a few years. The plumbing is leaky; the electrical work is old-style knob and tube; and the peeling paint contains lead. The shingles are falling off the roof; the basement floods; and the blacktop driveway is full of dandelions that have grown up through the cracks. But it’s a good, sturdy house with a great floor plan! We don’t want to tear it down and build a new one. What would we do first with a house like that? Would we splash a coat of paint around the old gas stove in the kitchen and put some wallboard over the leaky ceiling? Of course not! We’d pull down all the old plaster walls, rewire the whole house, put in new plumbing, install a new roof, regrade the yard, and pour a new driveway. Then we’d put up wallboard and do the painting! And that’s exactly what God is doing in these descriptions of cosmic disasters. God isn’t destroying creation – he’s fixing it. The new creation that Revelation describes is like the one we know right now, only it’s better! We don’t understand how God’s going to do that – but heck, we don’t understand the creation that we have now! All that we do know is that God will fix everything in the end so that it’s even more beautiful than before.

And we’ll have a place in it. We’ll relax in the shade of the trees in that new creation. We’ll lie down in its pastures and drink out of its still waters. And we’ll be restored, too – all of us. So maybe this text isn’t so scary, after all. It doesn’t threaten us with punishment from a wrathful Lamb. Instead, it promises us full and peaceful lives in a new creation that only God can provide. When our lives seem to be full of cosmic destruction, we can hang onto God’s promise: “Behold, I am making everything new!” The chaos is just a part of God’s cosmic reconstruction that is going to lead to a better home at the end. And that is very good news, indeed!

Hang In There!

What do we do when we are faced by evil? We see it all the time in the evening news -- terrorist bombings, child abuse, incredible greed. How are we called to respond as Christians? I believe that the book of Revelation gives us an answer, although it is hard to hear amid the complicated structure of the text. I offer my suggestion in this sermon.

You may remember that when I started this series of sermons a couple of weeks ago, I said that I would be preaching only good news until the end of May. I remarked that I was tired of hearing bad news, because this year’s Lenten season seemed to be so very full of bad news. Things haven’t gotten any better, have they? Just when we thought that we might have a break from bad news, two young men bombed the finish line of the Boston Marathon. Those bombs killed three innocent people: 29-year-old Krystle Campbell, the manager of a local restaurant; 23-year-old Lu Lingzi, a 23-year-old student at Boston University; and Martin Richard, who was only 8 years old. Over 170 other adults and children were injured, runners and spectators alike. Some lost limbs, others suffered severe wounds from the shrapnel that was packed inside the bombs, and all of them were deeply troubled by the distress that they witnesses. None of them will ever be the same again.

Now, it’s one thing to lose a loved one to an illness. Although that kind of loss is difficult, we all know that our mortal bodies are going to wear out sooner or later. We can even deal with injuries that are the result of the workings of nature. We may not like it, but the fact is that floods, hurricanes, earthquakes, and tornados are simply hazards of living on this earth. But unnecessary harm caused to innocent people in the middle of a public event – that is, quite simply, the result of evil; and it is impossible for us to accept. The book of Revelation has quite a bit to say about evil. In fact, the book of Revelation faces evil squarely in the face like no other text in the Bible faces it. Revelation recognizes evil for what it is; assures us of its ultimate fate; and gives us instructions on how to behave as Christians while evil is still around. And if the church ever needed to hear that kind of message, we need to hear it now!

Like most of its messages, Revelation shows us the world’s evil in symbolic visions. In particular, we see three creatures that represent the evil that lurks in our world. The first is a dragon, a great red dragon who pursues the Messiah and makes war on all God’s people. The second rises out of the sea, appearing as a combination of a leopard, a bear, and a lion. We’re told that it has authority all over the world. You met the third in this morning’s reading from chapter 13 as it rises out of the earth. It looks like a lamb but it speaks like a dragon. This third beast is a deceiver; and it leads people into paths of destruction. These three beasts represent all the evil in the world of one kind or another. Don’t be misled into thinking that they only refer to one specific kind of evil. In the time that Revelation was written, the beasts probably referred to Rome and its emperor; but they have referred to many kinds of evil down through the ages. 70 years ago, Adolf Hitler and the Third Reich could have been the beasts; while today, they could be the network of global terrorism that threatens our security and our peace of mind. But don’t waste your time trying to decide which particular evil in history the beasts represent. They represent any of them and all of them.

After we see the visions of the evil creatures, we hear a puzzling statement: “This calls for patient endurance on the part of the saints.” (Revelation 14:12) “Patient endurance…” The Greek word that is usually translated as “patient endurance” is hypomone (hoo-poe-moe-nay). Sometimes it’s translated as “patience,” or as “endurance,” or even as “perseverance.” Regardless of how we translate it, we’re supposed to be doing it in the presence of evil. We’re supposed to be patiently enduring. But that endurance doesn’t mean just gritting our teeth and hanging on for dear life. On the contrary, hypomone is a positive endurance. It’s doing something while we’re hanging on.

The best example of hypomone is the little Dutch boy who stuck his finger in the hole in the dike. You probably know that story. The area of Europe that we call Holland is actually below sea level. The ocean is kept back by huge earthen dikes that surround the country. If one of those dikes springs a leak, the results can be catastrophic. As the story goes, one day when a little boy was walking along the dike, he saw just such a leak. There was nobody around but him; so he stuck his finger into the hole in the dike. And he kept it there. For hours. His finger got cold. It swelled under the pressure. It hurt terribly! But he kept his finger there until somebody came along who could offer some help! Because of that little boy’s hypomone – his patient endurance – a catastrophic flood was averted.

That’s what we Christians are supposed to do in the face of evil. We can call it “patient endurance” or “non-violent resistance” or just “hanging in there.” It’s all the same thing. Quite simply, it is resisting evil while not resorting to using the methods of evil. Gandhi practiced it to win independence for the nation of India – and to raise the status of members of the lowest caste, the Untouchables. The Danish people practiced it during World War II when Hitler ordered every Jew to wear a yellow star. Every single Danish citizen wore a star so that their Jewish neighbors could not be identified. And Martin Luther King used it to raise our nation’s awareness of civil rights issues. Hypomone isn’t just an obscure Greek word. It’s a living activity, one that all Christians are called to practice!

But I still haven’t answered the question that’s on the table this morning. What does this patient endurance have to do with fighting evil? The surprising answer, according to the book of Revelation, is that it’s not our job to fight evil. Jesus does the fighting for us! Our only job is to hang in there and patiently endure. In last Sunday’s scripture reading (Revelation 5:1-10), Jesus was called the Lion of Judah and the Lamb of God. Jesus appears again in this morning’s text from chapter 19. In today’s text, he’s a warrior on a white horse, and his name is “Faithful and True,” and “the Word of God.” In case you don’t recognize him, the name “King of Kings and Lord of Lords” is written across his robe, just like that big “S” that Superman has written on his chest. Yes, that’s Jesus, all right. And at the end of the day, he is the one who captures the beast and throws him into a lake of fire.

One of the messages of Revelation is that we humans can’t ever clean up cosmic evil. But Jesus can – and God promises that, one day, he will. Jesus will eventually destroy evil once and for all. But that day isn’t here yet. And until it is, we need to let Jesus do his work while we do ours – patiently enduring, holding tightly to our Christian faith, and believing in God’s promise that one day, Jesus will clean things up once and for all.

You might wonder what that kind of patient endurance looks like. I can show you in the person of retired South African Anglican archbishop Desmond Tutu. Archbishop Tutu was ordained back in the days when South African was officially divided by apartheid. He resisted not only this policy that separated black from white; he resisted the violence that was a frequent result. When the all-white South African government banned anti-apartheid demonstrations, Tutu and other members of the clergy intervened in confrontations between demonstrators and the police who were called in against them. He urged that economic pressure be used against the South African government instead of mob violence. When apartheid was finally rejected as a national policy, Archbishop Tutu led the Commission of Truth and Reconciliation that was charged with examining the sins of apartheid and looking for ways to foster reconciliation between black and white citizens.

For this nonviolent resistance against the evil of apartheid, Tutu won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984; and just this year, he was awarded the Templeton Prize. This award honors those who have “made an exceptional contribution to affirming life’s spiritual dimension, whether through insight, discovery, or practical works.” The judges commented that “Tutu’s steadfastness to core Christian principles such as love and forgiveness has broken chains of hurt, pain, and all too common instincts for revenge; and instead, has advanced the spiritual liberation of people around the world.” That sure sounds like patient endurance to me. And what does Archbishop Tutu say? “We inhabit a universe… where kindness matters, compassion matters, caring matters,” he said in his official remarks. “This is a moral universe, and right and wrong matter. And mercifully, gloriously, right will prevail.”

I can only say “amen” to that. Despite all the evil that we see around us; despite the appearance that it is too powerful to defeat; despite its claim that it will have the last word; it doesn’t get the last word. Jesus gets the last word! Jesus is fighting for us; and Jesus will win in the end. So… hang in there!

Lion and Lamb

This sermon is the second in my series on the good news that the book of Revelation offers us. Last week, I preached on the cosmic Christ -- the One who is in all places, at all times, and all things to all people. This morning, I consider what kind of Christ this One is.

Have you ever thought about why some things are funny and others aren’t? Why do some stories make you laugh, while others don’t even put a smile on your face? Many elements go into comedy; but one of those surely is the unexpected. We don’t laugh at what we expect to hear. Here’s an example of that. “Why did the chicken cross the road?” We’ve all heard that joke. The punch line, “To get to the other side” isn’t even much of a punch line any more. It just isn’t funny – except maybe to a first grader. But if I ask, “Why did the chicken cross the road?” you might laugh if I replied, “Because the chicken farmer was running behind it trying to catch it.” You didn’t expect that answer. Humor relies on the unexpected.

And so does its partner “wonder.” We only laugh at the joke that surprises us; and we are the most impressed by something that surprises us, as well. When people catch their first glimpse of the Rocky Mountains, they stand open-mouthed in awe at the mountains’ towering majesty. But the people who live in Colorado don’t think twice about those mountains. They see them every morning, day after day. The Rockies may be a marvel of creation, but even their beauty is old news after a while. They lose their ability to amaze the people who are too familiar with them.

Why am I talking about the way our reactions are influenced by what we expect? What does this have to do with the gospel? Just this – we have lost the “punch” of much of the gospel because we’re too familiar with it. Familiarity may not breed contempt; but it can sure breed yawns of boredom. This morning’s reading includes a great example of that.

This text from the book of Revelation (4:1-3; 5:1-10) is part of the first great vision that the author describes to us. As the book opened, he saw a vision of the cosmic Christ – the One who is everything at all times and in all places. (I preached about this text in last Sunday’s sermon.) But who exactly is this Christ? How does he behave as he functions as king, priest, Spirit-bringer, and, in the end, God himself? How will we know him when we search for his presence among us? There are, after all, a lot of descriptions of Jesus Christ in the gospels. Sometimes he is a compassionate healer, blessing the children and healing the sick. Other times, he is a brilliant debater, shredding the teaching of the Pharisees with a mind like a knife. And sometimes he is a wrathful warrior, upending the tables of the money-changers in the Temple. Which Christ will John the Revelator show us as he looks into heaven itself and sees the throne of God? The answer in the vision that he describes to us is meant to set us back on our heels with amazement. It is a breathtaking reversal, an image that shocks us with an unexpected twist, more unexpected than the ending of any O. Henry short story could ever be. And most of us miss the punch line.

It begins with a question: Who is worthy to break the seals of the scroll that God holds in his right hand? Who is worthy to open the scroll that holds God’s intention for all creation? Who is worthy to interpret the scriptures once and for all? The answer, not surprisingly, is no one except God’s Messiah, the Root of David – the Lion of the tribe of Judah. We turn our eyes, expecting to see a fierce beast, a warrior who holds a sword and a shield, perhaps even wielding a bolt of lightning. We expect to see a Christ who will take revenge on all those who have opposed him – the Lone Ranger and Batman and the Terminator all rolled into one. Wow, we think, people are sure going to be sorry now!

But that’s not what we see. We are stunned to see a lamb that has been sacrificed. Its wounds are still visible, and its wool is still matted with its own blood. This is the Lion of Judah? This is the warrior who is worthy to open the scroll and interpret its contents? Yes, indeed – this is the triumphant Messiah. This vision that offers a sacrificed lamb in place of a vengeful warrior is completely unexpected, even shocking.  We’re ready to see a Christ who whacks people upside the head, but we see a Christ who offers to be whacked. We expect a Christ who conquers through force, but God gives us a Christ who triumphs through humility.

We usually miss the impact of the image because we expect it. We know that Jesus is the Lamb of God. We learned it in Sunday school! But let’s imagine, just for a minute, how that image must have impacted the first-century Christians who first heard it. In the time when Revelation was written, the entire known world was under the thumb of the Roman Empire. The Romans weren’t known for their kindness and compassion. No, they prided themselves on keeping the peace by any means necessary. That meant suspicious Roman soldiers stationed anywhere and everywhere. It meant imprisonment on even a suspicion of wrongdoing, with no rights to a trial. It frequently meant row upon grim row of public crucifixions as an example to anyone who might even think about rebelling against the government. No wonder the Jews were awaiting a Messiah who would knock heads in the most effective way! “Just wait, you Romans,” they muttered. “Just wait until the Messiah gets here. He’ll fix your apples right enough!”

But the Lion of Judah turns out to be… a Lamb? Do you mean that the Messiah doesn’t conquer by force? Do you mean that Jesus isn’t going to ride into town with his six-shooters blazing and get rid of all the bad guys? Do you mean that he’s not going to take revenge on everyone who has ever hurt anybody else? Yes… that’s pretty much what John means.

What’s more, John is telling us in his vision that Christ is both Lion and Lamb at the same time. Christ isn’t either Lamb or Lion; he’s both at once! We don’t have to give up the Lion of Judah when we accept that Christ is the Lamb of God. Jesus is victorious over sin, evil, and death! The good news of the gospel wouldn’t be very good if we didn’t believe that, now would it? It’s how Jesus is victorious that is so hard for many people to accept.

I once heard an interview with Dr. John Dominic Crossan regarding this very issue. Dr. Crossan is a respected New Testament scholar who concentrates on the very beginnings of the Christian church. He commented that many people expect Jesus to return at the end of time and – excuse the language; it’s what Dr. Crossan said – to return at the end of time and “kick butt.” The trouble is that Jesus didn’t “kick butt” the first time. If he had, he would have come down from the cross and straightened things out. People who expect him to come back with a sword in his hand are saying, in effect, “Well, he didn’t get it right the first time. Maybe he’ll do better when he comes again.”

I, for one, am very grateful that Jesus didn’t decide to fulfill his role as the Lion of Judah through violence. After all, if he decided to take vengeance on everyone who opposes him, that would include me. It would include you, too. It would include everyone who has ever lived, Christian or not. Let’s face it, not one of us lives the way that God wants us to live. The Israelites didn’t. The disciples didn’t. The early church members didn’t. And we don’t, either. The Lion of Judah is victorious because, through his wisdom and compassion, he understands that we can’t live the way God wants us to live, no matter how hard we try! And so, in his humility, he does it for us. Now, that’s an almost impossible thing to wrap our heads around – almost as impossible as believing that the Lion of Judah and the Lamb of God are one and the same person. Maybe, in the end, it’s just one of those things that we have to believe through faith, because our logic can’t handle it. And when we realize what Christ does for us – when we really realize it – it causes us to stop in wonder and amazement.

A recent hymn describes the Christ in beautiful language that sets the Lion of Judah and the Lamb of God shoulder to shoulder with each other.

            You, Lord, are both Lamb and Shepherd.

            You, Lord, are both prince and slave.
            You, peacemaker and sword-bringer
             of the way you took and gave.
            You, the everlasting instant,
            You, whom we both scorn and crave.
    
            You, who walk each day beside us
            sit in power at God’s side.
            You, who preach a way that’s narrow
            have a love that reaches wide.
            You, the everlasting instant;
            You, who are our pilgrim guide.

            Worthy is our earthly Jesus!

            Worthy is our cosmic Christ!
            Worthy your defeat and victory.
            Worthy still your peace and strife.
            You, the everlasting instant;
            You, who are our death and life.

And may we never forget it. Amen.

The hymn “You, Lord, Are Both Lamb and Shepherd” by Sylvia G. Dunstan is published in the Upper Room Worshipbook (Upper Room Books, 2006), Elise Eslinger, editor.