Westwood Presbyterian Church

August 30th, 2009

197 Browning  Boulevard, Winnipeg, Manitoba  R3K 0L1

REV. PETER BUSH's SERMONS

Revelation 19 to 22  - "Famous Last Words"

    

Ever been in the situation where you had seen something absolutely amazing and then were trying to describe that amazing thing to someone else? Words fail us - they are too limited - the language is too small- there are not words to describe what we saw, experienced, felt. That is exactly John's situation here at the end of the boom of Revelation. Words fail, he tries, but the language is not big enough - and all we are left with is snapshots - bits - glorious, wonderful bits - but just bits - and even the bits we have are so far outside our normal experience we can't even begin to figure out what they mean. So we know what the words are saying - but we can't picture what they are describing. That is because the scenes are too wonderful - too beautiful - -they are beyond words - but that is all we have is words.

As we come to the end of the book of Revelation - given all the destruction there has been, given all the horror that has been described - we are hoping against hope for some kind of healing, some kind of redemption, for some kind of salvation. And that is exactly what we get. Salvation - big salvation - gigantic, mind-blowing, huge salvation. This is no rinky-dink, half baked salvation - this is no tiny pin-prick of light in the midst of darkness, no the salvation that is coming is going to blow away the destruction, the evil, the dragon, the beast and their buddies.

Here then comes the first thing that speaks to our lives today. Christians can tell the truth about the way things really are right now because we know there is a plan of salvation, God has a plan for dealing with the worst that this world has. Christians can look into the heart of darkness, Christians can be on the front lines of the most desperate situations and still function without collapsing into despair - because we know that the salvation that is coming when Jesus Christ returns is big, stronger, more wonderful, brings transformation - hear the language collapsing - than the worst of this world.

About five years ago, Brian Stewart, the veteran CBC reporter, gave the graduation address at Knox College in Toronto. Stewart is a Presbyterian. Stewart told this story: he and his cameraman had been to all kinds of desperate situations - Ethiopia, Kurdish refugee camps after the first Iraq War, and so on. They were flying into Goma, Uganda to tell the story of the 100,000s of refugees who were fleeing Rwanda during the genocide. It was breaking news, they were going to be the first news crew in the world to tell the story. Their helicopter landed on the edge of one of the make-shift refugee camps, and as soon as they get out of the chopper - they were met by someone working for the Christian Reformed Church Relief and Development Agency who invites them to have tea with him so that he can tell them about what is happening. As they are loading their gear into the jeep the Christian aid worker has brought - Stewart's cameraman whispers to Brain Stewart - "Just once, it would be nice to get to one of these situations before the church does."

Because we know that the worst this world can do - the worst this world has to offer ­the worst that humans can do to each other - is not able to swamp what God's salvation will do - the church, Christians, can walk into the midst of the fire lines, into the midst of the worst and know that God will bring salvation, will bring redemption, will bring renewal. These Christians know that they may not live on this earth to see that redemption, to see that salvation - but that does not matter - for they know that someday redemption will come. Someday God's salvation will wipe away ever tear from every eye, someday war and greed-caused famine and oppression will be no more, someday the King of kings and Lord of lords will ride in on a white horse and victory will be his. And at this point we need trumpets blasting and banners waving - for the King is coming someday.

And without really knowing it we have stepped into another hornets' nest of controversy. In chapter 20, John writes that the devil is tied up for 1,000 years before the final judgment of the earth and the people of the earth - before time ends. And the people who try to turn the book of Revelation into a map-able time line have spent much effort arguing when the 1,000 - the millennium - is in relationship to the return of Christ. Does Jesus come back before the millennium - this view is called pre-millennialism? Does he come back after - this view is called post-millennialism? Or is the millennium a metaphor for something else - this view is called a-millennialism?

What frustrates me about the millennialism debate is that we lose sight of the important thing - Jesus Christ is coming back to bring salvation, redemption - to the world. To us right now, living our lives, the order in which things will happen is largely unimportant - the important thing for our lives is that Jesus Christ is coming back and will redeem the world. And so I tend to side with the tongue-in-cheek approach that holds a pan-millennialism view - "It will all pan out in the end." In other words, it will all work out in the end and it lies in God's hands to worry about the exact timing.

Back to the return of the King - when the king comes back, he will judge the people of the earth. They will be separated between those going to heaven and those going to hell- John is far more interested in describing heaven than he is in describing hell. So how will God determine who is going to heaven and how is not - people whose names are the Lamb's book of life will going to heaven. So that leads to the question - how do people get their names in the Lamb's book of life?

It is not about good works, it is not about being nice people, it is not about doing one good deed a day - no, it is about loyalty. Throughout the book of Revelation that has been the question lurking in the background - who are you loyal to? Who are you going to serve? Are we going to be loyal to the fact that we are dripping wet from the water of baptism - or are we going to let ourselves be drawn into accepting the mark of the beast? To whom are we loyal?

Jesus himself said in Matthew 10, "Whoever publicly acknowledges me I will also acknowledge before my Father in heaven. But whoever publicly disowns me I will disown before my Father in heaven." The question is loyalty -loyalty to the grace and mercy of God. Willingness to serve this great King - the king who is coming. To be clear, this does not mean that if in the past we disowned Jesus, we are doomed. God is a God of grace and love and we are always offered the opportunity to turn again - to start again - to begin anew to be loyal to Jesus Christ. The God who brings salvation, offers us the chance to join his mission in the world - a mission that will bring about the complete transformation of the world.

This salvation is greater than words can express - more wonderful than we can imagine - and we are invited to be there as the world is redeemed. For God knows each of us by name - and in love and grace and care our names have been recorded in the Lamb's book of life.

All who are loyal to the Lamb, all whose names are found in the Lamb's book of life, are part of the church - the bride of Christ. We are the bride of Christ - the church. Jesus, the groom, gave his life for the church, and now the risen Christ is waiting for his wedding day. I invite you if you have the chance to look at the left hand of most nuns ­ and you will see on their third finger a wedding band. A sign of their marriage to Christ ­their commitment - a picture of the church's wedding to the Lamb. And I have notice more recently that some younger Roman Catholic priests are doing the same thing ­wearing wedding bands as signs of the upcoming marriage of Christ and the church.

But we say to ourselves - "What, the church is worthy of being the bride of Christ?

The church with all her troubles and squabbles, and those not so nice people who won't do what I want, that is the bride of Christ?" And the answer is "Yes." That is who the church is, we are the bride of Christ. It changes everything we think about the church being and doing. It is easy to think that what we do here Sunday by Sunday does not matter - well, this is rehearsal for the big day. We are the bride of Christ, our actions and our words take on deep meaning and significance - for they are not mere actions and words; they are the actions and words of the bride of Christ.

This brings us to a second important thing that we can take away with us. And at this point I am probably speaking as much to myself as to anyone else. When we get discouraged by the church - when we look around and say "I wish those people would get it on with being the church ... " or when we look askance at other churches saying "Those people at that church down the road are so weird ... " - we need to remember that all who follow Jesus Christ are part of the church - are with us in the church - and we together are the bride of Christ. When we want to criticize the church - we are in fact criticizing people who are part of the bride of Christ. This should give us pause when we want to let loose about how certain people in the church bother us - or how Christian brothers and sisters irritate us. Together we are the bride of Christ.

And then comes the city of God - this city does not face the struggles of pride and ego - for God is at the center of it - God is the light of the city - God is its source and truth and promise and center. And here the language completely collapses - we get only snapshots - gates made of a single pearl; walls made of gems. But in all the description don't miss that the gates never close - for there is no reason for anyone in this city to ever live in fear. No one ever locks doors in this city - no one lives in fear. Think about that for a moment - all fear is gone. We can not imagine what that would be like. Fear grips us now - but in the city of God there is no fear.

I get asked at times what is heaven like, what will we do there? I can only speculate.

But it appears that there will be buying and selling, trade will take place, people will live normal daily lives - but with no fear, with God as the light that pours into their houses and their lives. The salvation that God is bringing is bigger then we have words and minds for. It is greater than we can ever imagine.

We live in the expectation of this healed, restored, redeemed world - we wait with bated breath for its arrival. And so we join with John and the church through the ages and with the angels in heaven in saying - "Maranatha" - which means "Lord, come quickly." Even so, Lord Jesus, come.