All Things New

A Sermon Inspired by Revelation 21:1-6a

Original Sermon Video Available Here

Part 5 of #DaysofHope Sermon Series 

(a worship series adapted with permission from 
HOPE: Living with Confident Expectation Creative Brief 

by The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection)

Over the past two months, I’ve had more than one conversation with church members or members of our community who have asked me, “Do you think we are in the end times?” I suppose these friends ask me because they think I must have some special insight as a pastor. So, today is a great time to remind you…I have no access to special knowledge that you do not also have. 

One of my good friends Krysta who is a pastor in West Virginia also received this question numerous times, and I think her answer best sums up my own thoughts and feelings and what Christians are being called to in this season. Krysta said, “We are in a time of prayer. We are in a time of adjustment. We are in a time of grief. We are in a time of watching and waiting. We are in a time of rediscovering our priorities. We are in a time of unrest. We are also in a time of hope, in a time of trusting God to do something wonderful and surprising and healing. These are peculiar times, but I don’t believe they are the end times. Instead,” Krysta says, “I believe this is a season, and what is hard about it will come to an end.”

I think part of why Krysta, myself, and other pastors have been asked this question about the end times so often is that as Christians in this particular time and place, the 20^th and 21^st century United States of America, we have been taught largely to view the book of Revelation as something to be afraid of, as a book of warning about what terrible things lie in store for all the people who don’t believe in Jesus. Some well-meaning preachers have used the confusing words and frightening images found in Revelation to scare people into accepting Jesus so they can get their faith and fire insurance, their “Get out of Hell free” card, their admission ticket to heaven.

Yet, the book of Revelation wasn’t taught in this way, as a beginner’s guide to surviving “the end times” until the last 200 years or so. While I don’t want to take a lot of time today to get into the specifics of different ways faithful Christians read this enigmatic section of Scripture, what I do want us to wonder is this: What if the Book of Revelation is something different, something more than a book of fire and fear?

To understand the book of Revelation more deeply, as with all other Scripture, it’s helpful to understand something of the historical context in which it was written. According to Revelation itself, it is the recording of a vision given to John of Patmos by Jesus to share with seven churches in Asia Minor. What we think is that this letter to these seven churches was written sometime between 69 and 96 BC. Christians were living under severe persecution during these years at the hands of the Roman Emperors Nero and then Domitian because they refused to worship and offer sacrifices to these Roman Emperors who claimed to be like Gods. 

Christians in this era pledged ultimate allegiance to Christ, not to the government or any politician, and for this they were executed. The Apostle Peter, who Jesus said was the rock upon which he would build the church, was crucified on an upside down cross. The Apostle Paul, whose evangelistic mission helped spread Christianity across the world, was executed by beheading. Other Christians, thousands whose names we will never know, were thrown into gladiator arenas or burned to death. Listen to how the Roman historian Tacitus described the persecution Christians were facing, “In their very deaths, they were made the subject of sport: for they were covered with the hides of wild beasts, and worried to death by dogs, or nailed to crosses, or set fire to, and when the day waned, burned to serve for the evening lights.”

So, first, Revelation was written to Christians suffering extreme persecution to encourage them that time was coming when the violence and danger would end and God would make all things rights. There is always hope, Revelation teaches, so hold on, have endurance, hold fast, and trust in the Lord. But, Revelation was also a way of reminding Christians then and Christians now of where we are going, what our final destiny is. More than a sequence of future events, Revelation teaches us that the direction of our lives is pointed towards God and God’s kingdom. If Genesis teaches us that our lives come from God, then Revelations teaches that, ultimately, we are headed back to God.

And if Revelation is about where we are going, then, you and I, we are on a journey together, with Christians throughout history, a journey of faith. One thing I’ve learned about journeys, especially the faith kind, they are journeys of transformation. Something in us is changing. Indeed, Jesus preached to people in the Gospels all the time that he came to help them change their hearts and lives.

When I’m trying to understand the change God is working in me, I find open-ended questions for reflection are some of the most helpful tools for discovering what God is up to. There are three questions I rely upon. They may seem simple, but they lead to some of my deepest thoughts and connections with God’s Spirit at work in me. These are the questions I ask myself regularly along my faith journey:

1.     What am I learning about myself and the world around me?

2.     What am I learning about God and faith?

3.     Now, what am I going to do with what am I learning? Or in other words—what difference will it make in my life?

These have been especially helpful for reflection in this season of coronavirus. One of ways I’m learning about myself and the world around me is by reflecting, remembering, honoring, and mourning the things we have lost. Now, let’s be clear…our losses and sorrows pale in comparison to the persecution and loss the first century Christians suffered under the Roman Empire. They risked it all for the sake of Jesus, not so they could boast that they were the best kind of Christian who would face danger in the name of Jesus, but for the sake of the witness of the gospel to others that faith in Jesus changed your life so fundamentally that you were willing to make sacrifices.

Even if our losses look different right now, we still have lost things that are important to us. We aren’t able to gather to worship God in our church’s physical building. For a while, we couldn’t go eat out in restaurant or shop in public or do other things that we enjoyed doing. Some of us have lost our sense of normal and safety.

Yet, what God is teaching me is that my loss is different than the losses of many others. Actually, I’m a little ashamed that in the first few weeks of this pandemic, the things I missed the most were eating out in a restaurant and going shopping at my favorites store. Really, when I think about it, that’s such a silly thing when compared to most tragic loss we have experienced—the loss of our brothers and sisters. 

Today, the front page of the New York Times is running an article entitled “US Deaths Near 100,000 – An Incalculable Loss.” The article is comprised not of facts or data but of the names and storied of people who have died in our country as a result of COVID-19. This article reminds us that the people we have lost to this virus were not simply names on a list. They were us.

The book of Revelation invites us to live in solidarity with all of God’s people who have suffered throughout all of time. We suffer with those who have died because they are part of us.

In the United States, being in solidarity with the suffering also demands that we be in solidarity with our brothers and sisters who face racism every single day! At the beginning of this pandemic, there was a surge in harassment of and violence against Asian Americans. Such hatred and bigotry reveals our ignorance to think that because the first place that experienced the ravaging effects of COVID-19 was in a province in China that our fellow citizens of Asian descent have done anything wrong or have anything to be blamed for.

Facebook Photo of Ahmaud Arbery

During quarantine, we learned the names of another black man who was murdered because of racism. That may sound shocking to say, but I do believe it’s the truth that Ahmaud Arbery, who was jogging in a residential neighborhood—a normal every day activity for many of us—didn’t make it home on February 23^rd, primarily because of the color of his skin. 

369th Infantry, known as the "Harlem Hellfighters"
Photo Credit: National Archives

On this Memorial Day weekend when we remember the sacrifice of veterans who died in war, like the black men ofthe 396th Infantry Regiment known as the “Harlem Hellfighters” who served on the front lines of World War I for 191 days, longer than any other American unit, we must fight for freedom and equality for all Americans, lest our military heroes’ deaths be in vain.

These are tragedies and losses we should all share in. When God promises there will be no more mourning, crying, or pain in the new heaven and new earth, God demands that we see the things that cause mourning, crying, and pain in our world right now. Asian Americans are our fellow citizens, not the people to blame for a pandemic. Ahmaud Arbery is our brother, no matter if his skin is a different color than yours or mine. The names of those who have died from this virus are the names of our human family!

The book of Revelation does not need to strike fear into our hearts in this season of life. The promises of Revelation can be hope to us in this time, just as they were promises of hope to the first Christians who read them. Through the vision given to John of Patmos by Jesus Christ, we are promised that God is making all things new. Not just a new earth, but a new heaven, too! And the good news is that GOD WILL DO THIS! GOD HAS PROMISED! And God is faithful to keep God’s promises. God doesn’t need us to make this happen. And still, the grace of the good news that makes it even better, is that God invites you and me to be part of building this new creation.

Yes, a place where death will be no more is God’s promise for the future, but Jesus taught us to pray “Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” And Jesus taught us by example that our prayers should move us into action—action to build the new heaven and the new earth, the kind of community that reflects this end vision of where we are going, the journey God is taking us on.

Right now, in this season, we can build a new earth where we love our neighbors as ourselves by wearing masks in public because we recognize that this small sacrifice protects our fellow human beings.

Right now, we can build a new earth where the tears of any who are suffering are not forgotten or denied but seen and then wiped away by justice and love.

Right now, we can build a new earth, not by going to church, but by BEING THE CHURCH!

Right now, we can build a new earth while we wait for God to make God’s home among the people, to dwell not in sanctuaries but in hearts. And as we wait and as we work, we remember this promise: “[God] will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more.”

Friends, carry this promise in your heart. It’s a promise of the worst thing will never be the last thing. It’s a reminder that the future will be better than the present because God is with us. It is our hope.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.