And the Kings of the World will enter the City

I imagine a great parade, a procession full of color, music, pageantry, and the greatest of human glory.  Picture the “parade of nations” at the opening of the summer Olympics.  Now envision it on scale 100 times larger.

            “And I saw the holy city, the New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven like a bride beautifully dressed for her husband.  … And the kings of the world will enter the city in all their glory.  And all the nations will bring their glory and honor into the city” (Revelation 21:2, 24b, 26).

            When reading a passages like this one, does it make you pause?  Similar ideas are found in the Psalms and Isaiah.  The great potentates of the world, the emperors and czars and presidents, will come as those paying tribute to one much greater than themselves: God.  Do you ever stop and try to picture it? 

            What is the expression on the face of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as he leads his retinue right alongside Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and his entourage? 

Where in this procession of the “kings of the world” is the “king” of the United States?  How close in the line is he to the “king” of North Korea?  Each in their own way has had demigod status attributed to him.  What is the level of confidence and bluster as they walk into the presence of the actual God?

Recently the United State President Donald Trump met with President Paul Kagame of Rwanda.  In their public dialogue, both expressed appreciation for the other.  President Kagame said ”It’s always a great honor to meet the President of the United States, President Donald Trump. And we had good discussions of those two levels –the bilateral relations between Rwanda and the United States. Rwanda has benefitted tremendously from the support of the United State. In many areas where there is (inaudible) support operations we have carried out in different parts of the world, we had the United States, on our side, supporting us.” 

Just a week prior to this meeting, in a session with members of congress, President Trump expressed frustration at the number of immigrants coming to America from poor, Southern hemisphere countries.  Some in the meeting report that he is used an expletive to categorize these nations, mostly populated by dark-skinned people as he juxtaposed them to the more fair-skinned Norwegians as he pined for more of the Norsemen to come to America. 

The whole exchange was fraught with racial overtones and elitism and was one more opportunity for the president’s political rivals to pounce. 

What if we held in our minds these presidents (N. Korea, Iran & Israel, Rwanda & the United States,   pick your country  ) as we read Revelation 21?  What if we held Revelation 21:24 and the procession of kings in mind as we read news stories?  Does the word of God help us remember that presidents and kings and dictators are mere men and women, flawed human beings? In the light of the Kingdom of God, standing beneath the glow of the New Jerusalem, the United States is an impoverished, backward, place. 

However one may feel about our president, followers of Jesus are to pray for him and extend him grace.  This was true from 2000-2008, from 2008-2016, and it is true now. It always has been.  We who are in Christ don’t need to overreact every time the president say something stupid.  We see the glow of the city on the hill.  We’re walking toward it.  

A Gen Xer at Half Time

This just in from the Pew Research Center – Generation X is America’s neglected middle child: http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2014/06/05/generation-x-americas-neglected-middle-child/.  The commentary accompanying the research is very interesting, especially to me, a card-carrying member of the generation of people born between 1967 and 1984.  We are the slackers.  Our generation underachieves and does not care.  There are less of us.  The article even points out that our generation is based on a smaller time frame (16 years) than the Boomers before us and Millennials after us (20 years each). 

My response?  I don’t care.  I don’t care if I am part of a peer group that collectively is not the shining star of history.  That does not dictate my own levels of success or failure in life.  I do.  What I become is up to me. 

Of course along the way, I have a lot of significant help.  I was raised by parents who love each other and their kids.  My mom had high expectations for me.  She would not accept slacking and she taught me to aim high.  My dad is a tough guy (army airborne, Vietnam vet, infantry and armor divisions).  Their parenting and role modeling created an image for me to live up to. 

In my work (pastoral ministry), I have been blessed to lead churches filled with loving people who forgave my mistakes and encouraged my growth as a disciple and church leader.

I married a woman who loves me in all my ugliness and who is strong in areas where I am weak. 

In all these ways, I have had significant advantages and I don’t want to undersell that.  When I say what I become in life is really up to me, I am not neglecting the help I’ve received.  I simply mean that America is a competitive environment and in a competitive environment others are trying to grab what I am trying to grab.  Any disadvantage I might have will be used by my competitors to defeat me.  I can’t complain that this problem or that disadvantage has set me back.  I cannot.  It doesn’t help. 

One sentence in the analysis of the Pew Research data on Gen X fits me perfectly.  It says Gen Xers (in other words ME) are “smack in the middle innings of life, which tend to be short on drama and scant of theme.”  I read that and cringed a little because lately, I have been beset by an unsettling ennui.  I feel like my life is short on drama and scant of theme.  I am bored and the boredom is boarding on malaise.

However, what is to be done about it?

I have shared my discontent with a few people (and now with my blog, I share it with the world).  When I talk about it I always quickly add that I love my wife, my kids, and my job.  I have no interest in red sports cars.  Really, since most of the teams I despise wear red, I don’t like that color very much, but I digress.  I was struck by the comment about “middle innings of life” because I have been feeling it so profoundly lately.  It is like, what is the most inglorious position in baseball?  To be a middle reliever. 

In an ideal game, middle relievers are not used.  The team’s starting pitcher goes 7 strong innings giving up two runs or less.  Then the set-up man gets the team through the 8^th and the closer finishes up the 9^th.  The only time a middle reliever comes in is if the game has gone horribly wrong with the starter getting shelled for a bunch of runs early.  Middle relievers are paid the least because the really good pitchers want to be starters or closers.

So, the Pew Research Center says the older half of my generation, those aged 30-47, is in the middle innings of life.  Boring.  Drama-free.  We realize our grandest ambitions have come up short.  Our wildest dreams won’t come true.  Maybe tamer dreams will, but that is all we have left: tame dreams.  We’ve stopped setting our sites on Everest; we happy to climb hills.  Leave the mountains for the 20-year-olds.  Even our representative in the political sphere to ascend to the greatest height (V.P. nominee Paul Ryan) ended up losing.  We are second place, never the champs.  What does it mean?

Not a thing!  (Typical Gen X answer.)

If I want to crawl out of my yawning midlife stupor, I need to do so myself, and I need to do so in a meaningful way.  That means no ridiculous purchases, no life-killing affairs, and no, no, no whining about it.  I must prayerfully, diligently re-connect to what makes life so awesome.

For me, the bottom line is not Gen X anyway.  Yeah, right now, I am a 44-year-old with pretty bad knees.  But bad knees, a receding hairline, and (the appearance of) reaching a plateau will not define me.  Neither will the generation defined by my birthday.  You see, I have a new name.  I don’t even know what it is (see Rev. 2:17).  But I know the one who gives it.  I know Jesus; not as well as I someday will, but I know Him.  That makes all the difference.

My perspective is not one of a person who will die in the next 40 or so years.  This heart may stop beating and this body may go to the ground or to the cremation furnace or to the medical school teaching lab; but, eventually, this body, like that Jesus’, will rise.  Resurrection is my future and life is my eternity; life in this body, albeit this body transformed. 

After the resurrection, I’ll be incorruptible.  My body and my spirit will be complete and eternal.  I will have fellowship with God and with all who are in Christ.  So sure, I may be in a patch of sleepiness.  Some call it a midlife crisis.  Pew Research Center says it is a typical malaise for Gen Xers like me.  But this is temporary.  The Spirit of the living God inhabiting my heart and guiding my steps is real, is present, and is eternal.  I have purpose and I have power.  Maybe the death of some of my dreams needed to happen.  Maybe the death of those dreams (pastoring a Megachurch, playing wide receiver for the Detroit Lions), is the birth of me discovering Jesus’ dreams for me in this life.  Take a deep a breath!  That is real and is something to live for.  

Heaven or Hell - A Crucial Question

Heaven or Hell – A Crucial Question (Revelation 21:3-4)

          Author Rebecca Price Janney begins her book about the way Americans think about the afterlife by looking at Mother Teresa and Princess Diana who died around the same time.  At the British embassy in Washington DC, someone set up a large placard that read, “The angels rejoice for heaven welcomes Princess Diana and Mother Teresa.”  A decade later at a concert in Princess Diana’s honor, the performer proclaimed she was “up there” listening.[i]

          How does he know Heaven is “up there?”  How does he know Princess Diana is in Heaven?  How does he know she is spending her there listening to his concert?  How does he know Princess Diana is in Heaven at all?  Or Mother Teresa for that matter. 

How dare you question her credentials!  Look at all the good she did, all the people helped.  But wait!  Don’t we say salvation by grace?  We receive it.  We don’t earn it.  How could Mother Teresa earn something that can’t be earned?  If anyone deserves Heaven, she does.  Oh?  Doesn’t it say in Romans, all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God (3:23)? 

Why would the person who made the placard put Princess Diana in the same category as Mother Teresa?

          Janney in her book also quotes a New York City firefighter.  Many of his buddies died on September 11, 2001.  He said, “Heaven has some fire department now.”  Not a one of us would begrudge his feelings.  We say such things when someone we admire or love dies. 

But stepping back from it, we have to ask, did he do any kind of assessment of the spiritual condition of his friends in the fire department?  Or do we just say they deserve Heaven because they sacrificed themselves?   

          I have been at funerals where the deceased was someone who did not participate in church and had not for decades.  The deceased cursed and drank, was crabby and mean, and showed no reverence for God.  At the coffin, one of his old friends standing by wipes his eyes and says, “Well, at least he’s in a better place.”  What is the basis for saying that?

          Janney writes, “Contemporary Americans tend to believe that all people go to Heaven and view the idea of Hell as repugnant.  There is a general assumption that unless someone was a child pornographer, racist, drug lord, or terrorist he or she will go to Heaven.”  Then Janney writes in parentheses, “Of course child pornographers, racists, drug lords, and terrorists also believe they are going to Heaven.”[ii]   Is there more to go on than what we feel and what hope? 

          Some in the church see it in black and white.  A friend of mine told of a funeral where he was one of the pall-bearers.  As they others carried the casket toward the burial site, the officiating pastor said, “He is in Hell.  He did not believe in Jesus and now he is in Hell.”[iii]

          In critical debates among theologians the most commonly held view of Hell going back to the earliest times of Christianity is summarized as eternal conscious torment inflicted and maintained by God.  That serves as a default position, but it is not the only view.

Pastor and author Rob Bell has an issue with this notion of Hell.  On the book jacket of his 2011 book Love Wins is the following quote.  “God love us.  God offers us everlasting life by grace, freely, through no merit on our part … unless you do not respond the right way.  Then God will torture you forever in Hell.”  Huh?

          Bell’s phrase ‘respond the right way’ means offering some form of confession that we are sinners, Jesus died for us, and we receive the forgiveness and salvation from him, because of his death on the cross. Failure to make a Christian confession lands one in Hell, eternally tortured by God.  Bell finds this unacceptable.  How can the God of love sentence nonbelievers to eternal misery in Hell?  Bell does not believe God does things that way.

          And yet, eternal, conscious torment is the traditional Christian perspective.  It is either Heaven or Hell.  They are places.  To go Heaven and avoid Hell, we need to confess our faith in Jesus.  If we don’t, then when we die, a pastor lacking sensitivity may stand at the head of our casket, point, and say, “He’s in Hell.  She’s in Hell.”  If the traditional doctrine of Hell is correct, then this pastor is speaking the truth.  But, even if the traditional doctrine is not right, one thing is certain.  All of us die.  Every single one of us dies.

          What happens then?  Would you like to have legitimate hope that you exist beyond death and your existence beyond death is positive?  And what about friends, people we love who are not in Church, who are not Christians?  They die too. What happens to those not following Jesus? 

          We need help in this conversation.  List to Revelation 20:12-15.

          Revelation, 20:11-15.

¹² And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Also another book was opened, the book of life. And the dead were judged according to their works, as recorded in the books. ¹³ And the sea gave up the dead that were in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and all were judged according to what they had done. ¹⁴ Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire; ¹⁵ and anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire.

            The Bible says something happens; we are judged according to our works. All people are sinners and God absolutely hates sin.  In the book of Genesis, God rains fire from heaven and consumes two immoral cities – Sodom and Gomorrah.  That’s how God feels about sin.  God is depicted as a God of love in the Bible, but God is also a God of wrath.   That is unmistakable. 

          However, all who are in Christ are declared righteous.  Our sins are forgiven and no longer count against us.  So when Revelation says the dead will be judged according to their works, we keep in mind that Jesus’ followers are judged according to Jesus’ works. 

          All the dead of human history– billions of people - are gathered.  The book of life is opened, the names are read.  Death and Hades are thrown into a lake of fire.  These conditions will no longer exist. In the eternal Kingdom of God’s death will be a meaningless word because the concept will have been consumed in the lake of fire.  But not only death.  Verse 15:  “Anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life is thrown into the lake of fire.” 

What is it like in that lake of fire?  Some theologians insist it means you’re consumed forever, annihilated.  That’s what fire does.  Others insist that the fire is metaphor and you’ll be awake for eternity suffering as badly as if you constantly felt the burn of flames on your flesh.  A third position is that that the fire purifies.  All the corruption is burned off, one comes out clean, and then finds his name in the book of life. 

In this series, we will look more at these three doctrines of Hell – Annihilationist, Eternal Torment, and Refining which leads all people to salvation.   For now, we simply acknowledge that all people die.  And all people, per Revelation, go through the judgment.  Death itself ends up in a lake of fire. And those not written in the book of life do too. 

In his letter to the church in Thessalonica, the Apostle Paul addresses the issue of death to those who are followers of Jesus.  The Thessalonians were sure of eternal life with God in Christ.  Notice I am not saying they necessarily thought they’d go to Heaven when they died.  The concept of Heaven many have been taught in Churches is not exactly what the New Testament emphasizes.  In the New Testament we read more about living eternally.  The Thessalonians thought that because Jesus has risen from death they would never die.

What we are actually promised is we will join him in resurrection.  Only dead people are resurrected.  When members started dying, the Thessalonians suffered a devastating crisis of faith.  Some of their brothers died, and Jesus had not come back.  What did it mean?

Paul writes in 1^st Thessalonians 4:13.

¹³ But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters,^[g] about those who have died,^[h] so that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. ¹⁴ For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have died.^[i] 15 For this we declare to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will by no means precede those who have died.^[j] 16 For the Lord himself, with a cry of command, with the archangel’s call and with the sound of God’s trumpet, will descend from heaven, and the dead in Christ will rise first. ¹⁷ Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up in the clouds together with them to meet the Lord in the air; and so we will be with the Lord forever. ¹⁸ Therefore encourage one another with these words.

          Paul lays out the entire plan.  First, when we grieve our beloved after they have died, our grief is soaked in hope.  Jesus, the Resurrected One, will “bring with him those who have died.”  There will be the archangel’s call and the sound of God’s trumpet.  Then, the Lord descends from Heaven.  The dead in Christ rise.  People who died centuries ago are reconstituted in resurrected bodies and rise to Christ.  Can we picture this?  When we get to end of verse 17, Heaven has come to us.  The promise on which we stand is that we are with Jesus forever.

          Why did Paul write this? So the believers who faced death could encourage one another.  He thought the best thing he could tell them, of all the truths he could share, was they would be with Jesus forever. 

          Hell is horrifying.  I feel myself a character in horror movie.  I feel every awful thing in my bones and I cannot get out.  When that foreboding begins to wash over me, I retreat to the Gospel.

          That’s what Paul is telling us to do. Trust in Jesus.  The faith we have in Him assures us we will be with him.  Whatever Heaven is like, however different than we have maybe been taught to believe, the promise is we will be with Jesus.  The only way our discussion of this topic will be spiritually healthy and helpful is if we trust in Him.  We trust Him with our future and our present. 

          Some believers think the threat of Hell is the best way to motivate nonbelievers to consider turning to Jesus, but not me.  For me, the promise of life with Christ is the drive for sharing faith.  That life begins when one turns to Jesus and continues when we die and then enter the resurrection. 

          When we conclude this series on the afterlife, it will be fine with me if you don’t hold all the same theological positions as I do.  Whether you and I agree or disagree on doctrines of Heaven and Hell, I believe your life and mine will be utterly blessed today – not only in a distant afterlife but also today, right now when we learn how to live in complete trust. We trust Jesus with our very lives and in the smallest bits of our lives and in every bit of our lives. 

          In that we begin to understand and live in the world described in Revelation 21.  There, John sees into Heaven. 

           ³ And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying,

“See, the home^[a] of God is among mortals.
He will dwell^[b] with them;
they will be his peoples,^[c]
and God himself will be with them;^[d]
4 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.”

⁵ 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.” ⁶ 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. 

            If we are in Christ, forever begins today.  The more we trust Him, follow and serve Him, and love in His name, the truer our experience of Him with us becomes and the clearer our picture of Heaven is.  It will be familiar even before we get there because we have been walking with Him all along.

AMEN

---

[i] Rebecca Price Janney (2009), Who Goes There: A Cultural History of Heaven and Hell, p.9.

[ii] Ibid, p.10.

[iii] As told to me by Jim Greenlee.

The Joining of Heaven and Earth

The Joining Together of Heaven and Earth (Revelation 21:9-11)

Sunday, May 12, 2013

           

            As I thought about ways for us to hear and understand Revelation 21-22 and to do so in a way that might build us up as we follow Christ and represent him in the world, the idea of reversal stuck out in my mind.  Specifically, I appreciated the way several Bible scholars developed the theme of reversal relating to Genesis 11 and Revelation 21:2, 9-10. 

            As I reread Revelation these verses, 2 and 9-1o, pay very close to the direction of the movement.  Who is initiating things?  Who is the giver and who is the receiver?

“I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband.

“One of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues came and said to me, ‘Come, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb.’ And he carried me away in the Spirit to a mountain great and high, and showed me the Holy City, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God.”

           

            Hold in your mind these verses.  If you have your Bible, keep Revelation 21 marked. 

            Now, look at Genesis 11:1-9:

            ‘Now the whole world had one language and a common speech. 2 As people moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar and settled there.

3 They said to each other, ‘Come, let’s make bricks and bake them thoroughly.’  They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar. 4 Then they said, ‘Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves; otherwise we will be scattered over the face of the whole earth.’

5 But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower the people were building. 6 The Lord said, ‘If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. 7 Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.’

8 So the Lord scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city. 9 That is why it was called Babel—because there the Lord confused the language of the whole world. From there the Lord scattered them over the face of the whole earth.”

           

            In both the Genesis and Revelation accounts, we’re paying special attention to who initiates the actions.  We’re watching to see the direction and the motivation.

            In Genesis, the people have stopped migrating and settled down in the plains of Shinar where the begin work on a tower that will reach to the Heavens.  They plan to build a city.  “Come, they say, let us build for ourselves a city … so that we may make a name for ourselves” (v.4).

            Building is a good thing.  We were created to be creative.  Made in the image of God, the ultimate creator, we are made to make things.  However, God had a method and the new city the people were growing at Shinar was directly the opposite of God’s instructions.

            Genesis 9, right after the flood, God tells Noah’s family to be fruitful and multiply and increase in number on the earth (v. 1a, 7).  The instructions given immediately after Noah comes out of the ark permanently re-establish humans God’s special creation who may rule over the earth and eat animals for food and exist in a relationship with God.  God sets it up all the while knowing humans will continue to sin (Gen. 8:21).  At the end of the Noah saga, we see that his descendants have indeed “spread out over the earth” (10:32).

            However, the next move, the gathering and building at Shinar, shows a group of people who were in direct opposition to God.  He said, spread out.  They said, let us build ‘otherwise, we will be scattered.’  The direction of the action was upward.  Humanity wanted to become God, or like God, through human achievement.  We think this is all new because we live in the computer age.  Genesis 1-11 is the recounting of stories told orally for centuries before they we written.  This comes from prehistoric times.  Even then, they thought they could achieve the things God wanted to give.  They would blatantly disobey God if need be.  The absolutely would not live in faithful dependence.  Nothing has changed from the very dawn of civilization until now.

            The initiative was on the human side, rejecting the plan of God.  The action was done by humans reaching up when God said the spread out.  The motivation was to be self-sufficient and independent of God instead of living in faith and living in relationship with God. 

            Atheism – the notion that there is no god – is a worldview that permeates every thought in someone’s life.  There is no innocent concluding that God does not exist and thus I will strive to be a good person.  People do that.   I am friends with a lot of people who take this approach in life.  It does not work for two reasons.  One God does exist. 

            There is a lot of evidence, but the best is the resurrection.  Historians who specialize in studies of Israel from 30BC-100AD have to deal with the invention of the church.  Some of these scholars are committed naturalists who have determined that the dead do not rise.  But even those most insistent that Jesus did not rise still, assessing the available data, acknowledge with certainty that the very first Christians believed to the point of death that the resurrection happened.  If they believed this, then why? 

Why believe something that was completely unexpected and completely without precedent?  What could cause so many to give their lives to a movement that was so thoroughly different from their own previous worldview?  Historians have scrambled to explain this phenomenon, often just ignoring Occam’s Razor and taking the most obvious route.  The church was born because the Resurrection of Jesus really did happen.  Any other explanation for the rise of Christianity requires the historian to throw out probability and to make ridiculous statements about mass hallucinations that sustained to the point that people accepted the cross rather than reject Jesus. 

The resurrection happened.  Who but God could do that?  If God then, is real and has called the world to himself through Jesus, his own appearing in human form, then any worldview that denies God is not just opting for indifference.  God is God and thus has claim on us.  To reject that claim is to be in rebellion. 

For that reason, a second reason that atheism fails as a worldview is that it is a worldview in direct opposition to God.  The builders of the tower of Babel thought they could achieve the things only God can do.  They failed because God exists and to act as if God does not exist is to be against Him.  There is no sideline in this.  God is real.  God chose to come to the world through Israel and then through Israel God came in person, in Jesus.  Either one is a Christ-follower, or one is alienated from God and destined for frustration.

How does Revelation 21 show God’s undoing of the tower of Babel rebellion.  In Revelation 21, God is the actor.  John is in Heaven because God has summoned him.  John had gone to prison because he had been trying to obey God by spreading the Gospel throughout the Roman Empire.  He try to reach up to Heaven.  He reached out to the world in Jesus’ name.  He only went to Heaven when God initiated that action. 

He’s experiencing things that exceed our sensory abilities.  Words like “up” and “down” may or may not accurately describe the spatial considerations of Heaven and Earth when seen from God’s perspective.  But those are the words John had and his descriptions do help us understand our own standing and what is appropriate and good for humans in relating to God. 

Unlike the humans rejecting God and acting on their own initiative, John and his friends in the early church lived at God’s initiative.  He was in prison and then in a vision he went to Heaven by God’s power.  He does not see humans going “up to Heaven,” as we so often see.  Look again at Revelations 21:2 and 10.  The holy city came down. 

The New Jerusalem was the bride of Christ.  We won’t spend significant time deeply exploring all the imagery John used to depict the holy city in these last two chapters of the Bible.   Worthwhile as that would be, it requires a whole additional talk. 

Know this.  John intends his readers – us – to see our future, our eternity.  We will be together with all who have followed Jesus in a place where there is no grief.  No fear.  No injury.  No death.  The city’s gates are always open.  God is present bodily.  I love my relationship with God the Spirit, but I long for the closeness of the Father and the Son.  And that is what we are promised.  As sure as Jesus rose from the grave and Christianity is the way to God – he did and it is – the promises of Revelation 21-22 will come to fruition.

It is a city and a garden.  It is worship and vocation.  It is joy and it is unending.

Recall that the people who built Babel incited their rebellion against God for two reasons.  They aspired to exalt themselves and they feared isolation.  “Let us build or else we will be scattered.”  Their efforts resulted in them being brought low and forcefully scattered. 

Now Revelation 21:  “I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. 23 The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp. 24 The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their splendor into it. 25 On no day will its gates ever be shut, for there will be no night there. 26 The glory and honor of the nations will be brought into it. 27 Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life.”

All that has been scattered is gathered in Jesus’ city and all people are one people in His name.  The kings of the nations come, forgetting their own glory and giving all glory to the Lord.  And we are there too. 

Until the day comes when we are called there, we live here.  We catch a glimpse of the gathering of that holy city whenever we let God be God.  We let God determine who’s in and who’s out. We do our best to love everyone as much as Jesus loves them.  And we go out in His name.  Spreading out, we see Him over and over in the people we meet in the world.  And we carry the good news of His salvation to those who have not heard.  We’ll be finally gathered when God decides it is time to bring Heaven to Earth. 

            His timing is perfect and our lives are blessed when we do things his way.

AMEN

The Long Goodbye

 

            I recently came across two helpful images for church (in Simply Christian, N.T. Wright).  First, the church is like a river.  Recalls the scene from the last book of the Bible, Revelation, chapter 7.  John sees people from every tribe, language, race, and country coming together in the name of Jesus to worship God.  “Like a river, they all started in different places, but they have now brought their different streams into a single flow” (p.200).

            In our church people come from people from Burlington, Carrboro, Shelby, Durham, Chapel Hill, and a dozen other North Carolina cities.  We are from Michigan, Ohio, Virginia, Washington state, Indiana, Pennsylvania, and Maryland, and other states I have not mentioned.  We come from China, Russia, Sierra Leone, Taiwan, and Korea, South Africa, Australia, and other places.  We here today are joined with those who came in years past and those who will come in the future.  We are so many rivulets, streams, and tributaries, guided by the Holy Spirit in Jesus’ name.  Along with other churches, we flow together and become God’s church.

            A second image just as fitting is the tree.  We flow together and become a worshipping, praying, mission-working people, and together, we are equipped to then, branch out.  One of my favorite sights is the tree in my front yard, when it has about four neighborhood kids and two of my own up in it.  All those kids are in the tree, spread out in the branches which hold strong because they’re connected to the powerful trunk.  In church, staying connected to the trunk, we boldly head out into the world to share the good news of salvation in Jesus Christ.

            Sometimes our going out simply involves being on mission for Jesus right here where we live.  Jesus commissioned his disciples to go to Jerusalem (the city), all Judea and Samaria (the surrounding countries), and to the entire world to tell that forgiveness of sins and eternal life is available for all who put their trust in Him.  Our Jerusalem is Chapel Hill/Durham/Chatham/the Triangle. This is where we work, shop, go to the doctor, go out to eat.  Our kids go to school here.  We live our lives here.  The Holy Spirit calls us to our Jerusalem to be heralds – people who announce that Jesus come, the Kingdom of God is at hand, and all who want to walk with God can because of Jesus. 

We are on mission right here.  Every week, when we leave worship and time together, we receive a blessing, a benediction.  That blessing is also a commissioning.  Go from here filled and empowered so that through your time in the world, you’re ready to share the Gospel. 

            Often the sending extends beyond being the church in the triangle area, beyond our Jerusalem.  Our Judea and Samaria are the rest of North Carolina and the East seaboard.  And from there we go where the Holy Spirit sends.  We could fill a church with people who have moved away.  Some graduate and go on to work in other cities, other states, and even other countries.  Nonstudents, professionals follow opportunities or move to be closer to family. 

Some do not leave the area, but God leads them to other churches.  That doesn’t have to be a bad thing.  God works in people’s lives and at times that means moving.  It doesn’t have to mean that person is angry at HillSong.  Even if they are and do leave, the Christian thing to do is to sit down in love and work through the issues of contention.  Leaving is part of the Christian life.  In Christian community we have to say “Good bye.”

I will quickly add I am not giving a “goodbye sermon” today.  I am not going anywhere, I don’t think.  This message is the final in our six-part series on community.  We belong to one another.  We are a part of one another.  In 1^st Corinthians 12, Paul imagines church as a human body.  One person is the knee cap.  Another the big toe.  And the left eyeball.  In church, when we are in Christ, we are as connected as parts of a body.  For you and me to be separated from each other, should hurt as much as it would hurt to have my knee cap sawed off, my eye gouged out, and my big toe sliced off.  That’s how intensely we are a part of each other, or should be.  That’s how God sees it and the New Testament communicates it.

            Saying goodbye then should not be a severing of community.  It is a part of the journey we take.  Saying goodbye is part of being the people of God.  And with every goodbye, we know that the entire church is gathered back together at the last judgment.  We are re-united at the resurrection when we join Christ in resurrected bodies and Heaven and Earth are eternally, perfectly joined, and we live in the presence of God for eternity. 

            The Ephesians Christians had to say “good bye.”  The city of Ephesus was located in what today is the nation of Turkey.  It is on the coast of the Aegean Sea.  Like the rest of the Mediterranean world at that time, in Ephesus there were local gods and mystery cults, a Jewish presence, and other cultural influence.  They spoke Greek and were under the governance of the Roman Empire.

            Paul arrived in Ephesus and found Jesus-followers already there.  His calling was to begin new churches and preach where the Gospel had not been previously heard.  That did not mean Paul ignored Christian works when he encountered them.  He enthusiastically joined with those early Ephesian disciples, teaching them about the Holy Spirit.  We aren’t completely sure of their beginnings but he expanded their knowledge. 

            With this small group, only about 12 in the church when he came, Paul began attending synagogue in Ephesus.  The synagogue rejected Paul’s teaching about Jesus.  So, he found a man, Tyrannus, who allowed him to use a lecture hall where he taught the gospel of salvation in Jesus Christ.  He would do that for 2 years.  There were questions, debates, arguments.  Pagans came.  Jews came.  Gentiles who had converted to Judaism came. 

            The Holy Spirit’s power flowed through Paul.  He healed diseases. People started bringing their sick to Paul; they would even touch a handkerchief to Paul’s skin and then hold it against the diseased friend, and that friend would be made completely well. 

Along with the physical healing, they learned of forgiveness of sin; they heard about the new life in Christ; they were invited to open their hearts and receive the Holy Spirit.

God is doing similar work among us.  We send sick people to the hospital, but sins are not forgiven at that hospital.  God works the forgiving of sins and the giving of new life in Christ through His churches.  He is doing that here.

Great things done by God bonded together those Christians we meet in Ephesus in Acts 19 & 20.  Great works of God bring us together.

Last week three young people declared their faith and were baptized.  Two others, already Christians but not previously immersed, were baptized as a reaffirmation of their devotion to Jesus and as a declaration of their desire to join with this church as members.  Next month, we will collect Christmas presents for extremely poor children around the world in the Operation Christmas Child program.  Next month one of our HillSong people, John Roberts, will go to Kenya using his skills to represent the Lord and work alongside the Christians there.  God is doing mighty works among us and through those works and through the Spirit we are united. 

After two years in Ephesus, it was time to go.  For many reasons, most importantly the prompting of the Holy Spirit, Paul was headed to Jerusalem.  And he knew he’s be saying goodbye to the Jerusalem brothers and sisters aft his time there.  He said as much.  “After I have gone there, I must see Rome” (Acts 19:21d).  It was in Rome that Paul would explore the calling to take the Gospel to the ends of the earth. 

He left Ephesus, spent time in Macedonia, and then Troas.  The writer of Acts, Luke, who also wrote the Gospel of Luke, was with Paul.  After Troas, there were stops in various cities, still in Turkey, Assos, Mitylene, Samos, and Miletus.  In Miletus, Paul sent for the Ephesian leaders to come and meet him.  They had been through so much together in his two years in Ephesus; he wanted to give final words so that even though they would be parted, his teaching about Jesus would remain, and they stayed connected in heart and in their prayers. 

“Now, I know that none of you will ever see my face again” (20:25).  They wept upon hearing Paul’s words.  But he had more to say.

 “Keep watch over yourselves and over all the flock,” (v.28) that is, the church.  Watch over one another with diligent care. 

“Be alert” (v.31).  Some, even in the church, will entice Jesus-followers with distortions of the truth. 

Keep watch.  Be alert.  Finally, Paul commends extravagant generosity to those in need.  He says in verse 35, “I have given you an example that by such work we must support the weak, remembering the words of Jesus who said, ‘it is more blessed to give than receive.’”  There was weeping, hugging, kissing, and praying.   With that, Paul was gone.  Why the tears and deep emotions?  These were people joined together in Christ. 

That’s the call of God on HillSong Church.  Why did Heather instruct us to spend seven weeks thinking about the church as a community?  Or if you like, a family?  Look in your bulletins on the page that says, “Welcome to HillSong.”  On the left column, in the second paragraph, the title is Our Purpose.

(1)             Our purpose is to be a safe place where all people are welcomed and loved.  Jesus welcomed the diseased, the gentile, the divorced and rejected, ashamed.  He also welcomed the Pharisee and the rich who were humble enough to come.  As the body of Christ, we are called to welcome the tired, the broken, the seeking, and all who God sends to us.  We are called to be a place where they can feel safe seeking God.

(2)            Second, our purpose is to be a place where people are transformed by God.  The diseased came to Jesus and were healed.  The shamed came to Jesus and their sins were forgiven and dignity restored.  The lost came to Jesus and in him they met God and their lives took on meaning.  Come as you are to Him; but if you come to Jesus, do not expect to remain as you are.  How can someone meet God and not be made new? 

(3)            Finally, our purpose is to be a place that sends people into the world on mission.  Once we have come here and been made new in our encounter with the Lord, He’s got a mission for us.  Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria, and all of the world are before us and God is sending us.  This sending will involve good-byes and sometimes, long goodbyes. 

 

Long goodbyes can be hard.  I said that long goodbye to one of my grandmothers in 1994 and to one of my grandfathers in 2006.  We said that goodbye to Bob Thompson this year.  These are still a part of us and we know we will be reunited. 

I remember a long goodbye here, a few years ago.  A Chinese man came and stayed about 5 months.  The first Sunday he was energetic, and I didn’t know what to make of his enthusiasm.  His English was not good.  I could not understand most of what he said, but God has blessed us with some Chinese speakers.  So we learned he just wanted to hear the Gospel.  I don’t know how much of the content of our sermons he understood, but for five months here, he heard the Gospel.  Then we as a church laid hands on him and now he’s China, probably leading a church, maybe risking arrest to do so. 

I think of many of you students who I am coming to know and love.  I always get happy you buy houses locally. But some of you will graduate and leave this area and not come back for a long time.  And you must go because God is calling.  We can be sad and celebrate at the same time.  Farewells bring tears even as we celebrate you answering God’s call in your life.  As a church, we will lay hands you; we will weep, laugh, and pray, knowing you will go out in His name and risk much and through you, God will accomplish much for the Kingdom. 

Parting, we say to one another “Marantha!  Til Jesus comes.”  We know we will be together when he comes.  Until then, we go out in His name, rejoicing.

 

AMEN