Amen to Life

Amen to Life

A sermon delivered by Rev. Peter T. Atkinson

April 17, 2016

at Gordonsville Presbyterian Church, Gordonsville, Virginia

Revelation 7: 9-17

Ezekiel 37: 1-14

Let us pray,

Help us to see despite our eyes

Help us to think outside of our minds

Help us to be more than our lives

For your eyes show the way

Your mind knows the truth

Your being is the life.

Amen.

9After this I looked, and there was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, robed in white, with palm branches in their hands. 10They cried out in a loud voice, saying, “Salvation belongs to our God who is seated on the throne, and to the Lamb!” 11And all the angels stood around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, 12singing, “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen.”

13Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, “Who are these, robed in white, and where have they come from?” 14I said to him, “Sir, you are the one that knows.” Then he said to me, “These are they who have come out of the great ordeal; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. 15For this reason they are before the throne of God, and worship him day and night within his temple, and the one who is seated on the throne will shelter them. 16They will hunger no more, and thirst no more; the sun will not strike them, nor any scorching heat;17for the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of the water of life, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”

We’ve been trying to have this day for many weeks now. We first started thinking about having it right after Christmas for Janet’s birthday, then in February, then during Lent, then the Sunday before Palm Sunday, then the Sunday after Easter. We’ve changed the date again again. We’ve tried to make it right and make it perfect because we want to remember and honor a woman who touched our hearts. She touched our hearts with her music, with her kindness, with her example, with her caring, with her wit, with her knowledge, with her. . . self. .  there just isn’t any way to put it other than that without leaving anything out. It was Janet that touched our hearts, all of her, every piece, every element, everything.  As I started to try to think of adjectives, they just kept coming, and with each one a memory of moments and stories, examples of how Janet gave of herself to this church and this greater community. So we’ve wanted to make a moment to stop, to pause, to commemorate a life, and the love that formed and surrounded her life, because since she moved away we weren’t able to  So we landed on today, where we could get a choir together and be prepared to sing some, and in singing and listening dedicate Janet’s legacy of love symbolized by music here. With every song we remember, and hereby dedicate this music stand to memorialize her. Every time it is used going forward, the music it supports and gives direction to will stem from Janet’s love and memory.

I’m excited for where the lectionary leads today, and believe that it is providentially appropriate for a memorial or dedication to a life like Janet’s. It is a great testament to the resurrection, and witness thereof, a great heavenly scene of a representative metaphorical vision of redemption. Much like last week we see a vision of the heavenly throne room, but last week you had unearthly details. . . like beasts with multiple wings, horns, and eyes, and mysterious elders surrounding the throne, and then what was strangest of all is that it is a lamb, the lamb who is shown as worthy, worthy to open scrolls that previously could not be opened. Here  you have a similar theme, but now it isn’t just the 24 elders and the 4 beasts, but instead a multitude, a multitude of people, so many that no one could count them, and they are each adorned in a white robe, and they are each waving palm branches, all to the lamb. It echoes the Palm Sunday celebration, doesn’t it. . .and they are singing, (apparently that is what heaven is about, Janet should fit right in, singers always need a piano player right?). But they are singing words that echo Palm Sunday too, and though there is a multitude assembled, more than anyone could count, the pronoun they describes them, plural, but when it talks about their singing voice, there is only one, so this multitude is singing together in one voice, my what a choir, and they sing “Salvation (Hosanna) belongs to the God seated on the throne and to the lamb.” And there with the heavenly host of 24 angels and the 4 beasts, they all fall to their faces, in seeming humble supplication, but they do not ask for anything new, instead, they sing out Amen! “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen.”  What a powerful image. . . what a powerful statement that Amen is.

I want to get back to that in a second, but before I do let’s look at the second paragraph, because the second paragraph brings it all full circle, and connects the Old and New Testament readings for today. I must be a real glutton for punishment, because the lectionary doesn’t give an Old Testament passage for these weeks of Easter for some reason, so I had to supply it. And just as symbolic and intimidating as Revelation is for the New Testament, Ezekiel is the Revelation of the Old Testament. It is a strange book, and wild book, and a symbolic book. And the words that Erick read this morning is by far the most famous of the Ezekielian images. . . Ezekiel and those dry bones. O hear the word of the Lord. . .them bones, them bones,them dry bones, them bones them bones, them dry bones, them bones them bones, them dry bones, all hear the word of the lord, o the foot bone’s connected to the shin bone, the shin bone’s connected to the knee bone. . . and it goes on and on, but if you read it, these dry bones, that represent all the people of Jerusalem, all the faithful followers of God, who have passed away, it is these bones, that are going to have life breathed into them. . . and them bones them bones, gonna walk around. . . Life, new life, resurrection, redemption. . . Amen! How are they connected? Allusions are my favorite literary devices, because if you know the texts you can see the relationship, if you know the reference the meaning just expands. Look at the wording of both of these passages, if you can remember what Erick read.

The hand of the Lord came upon me, and he brought me out by the spirit of the Lord and set me down in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. 2 He led me all around them; there were very many lying in the valley, and they were very dry. 3 He said to me, “Mortal, can these bones live?” I answered, “O Lord God, you know.”

O Lord God, you know. . . is that anything like this:

13Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, “Who are these, robed in white, and where have they come from?” 14I said to him, “Sir, you are the one that knows.”

In both the knowing asks the visitor, and in both the visitor, says, you know you tell me. It is absolutely the same, and purposefully so. . . but why, why would John allude to Ezekiel, why would it be the same, except to say that these bones walking around, are the people set free by and through the blood of the lamb. It is a fulfillment of the prophesy. Now why is it so important for John to allude to Jesus fulfilling the prophecy of Ezekiel. The gospel writers and Paul are usually much more caught up in Isaiah, and or even the new covenant of Jeremiah, but here we have Ezekiel, strange, visionary Ezekiel. I loved the times in seminary when we got to connect the old and new testaments, because we were rarely pushed to do so. It seemed that so many people were always trying to connect so many different things. . . and such connections were often too easy, and like the boy that cries wolf, when you see connections in everything, it cheapens the weight of the real ones, and this I believe is a real one. So why Ezekiel? One of things that is really interesting about the Prophets of the Old Testament, is studying them, and thinking about them in their unique historical context because they are reacting and lending their prophetic voices to real time historical events. Isaiah covers alot of time, and it is believed by some scholars that there is actually more than one Isaiah, more than one voice, but Jeremiah and Ezekiel, fulfill different historical roles. The main event in the Biblical story after David and Solomon’s reign is the exile. The kingdom of Solomon gets split into two, Israel to the North and Judah to the South. Both kingdoms are threatened on all sides by much larger and more powerful Earthly Empires: you’ve got Egypt to the southwest, Assyria North and west, and the Babylonians from the East, and there sets this divided kingdom. Jeremiah is the prophet right before the fall of Judah. Israel has long fallen to the Assyrians, but Jeremiah is telling people, pleading the people of Judah to change their ways, to return to God, to remember the covenant, to remember who they are, to think about what God has done, and meant in their lives, to turn back, before all is lost, but then all is lost. . . and this same Jeremiah writes the book of Lamentations. . .

How lonely sits the city

   that once was full of people!

How like a widow she has become,

   she that was great among the nations!

She that was a princess among the provinces

   has become a vassal.

2 She weeps bitterly in the night,

   with tears on her cheeks;

among all her lovers

   she has no one to comfort her;

all her friends have dealt treacherously with her,

   they have become her enemies.

3 Judah has gone into exile with suffering

   and hard servitude;

she lives now among the nations,

   and finds no resting place;

her pursuers have all overtaken her

   in the midst of her distress.

That is Jeremiah, and that is his message, and his promise is that though the Lord will make them pay for their transgressions, he will not turn his head forever, and that a new covenant will be established, this time written on hearts.. . . but yes that is Jeremiah.

I told you that story to tell you this one. Ezekiel is the prophet of the exile. . . and think about what he needs to say to the people. What the message would have to be. Because think about what the typical mindset of the people probably would be. . . Where was God when the Babylonians came through. . . are their gods stronger? Are their gods real? Can God, can Yahweh not protect us anymore. . . sure he parted the sea, led us through the desert, delivered from slavery to the promised land, but it appears that his promises are done with? His power is no more, because how could a Good God, a creator God, an All Powerful God, who has chosen us, allow such things to happen. . . the Babylonians say they conquered us because their gods are God. . . are they right? What leg could we possibly have to stand on. . . but Ezekiel has the message that it is all a part of a larger plan, that God is very much in control, that all is not lost, and that God will get his vengeance in the end, those bones will walk around, and the ever present refrain throughout Ezekiel is. . . they will know my name is THE LORD. . . translated they will know my name is Yahweh, they will know my name is Jehoveh, they will know who I am and what my power is, when all of these things come to be. . . and then they will all bow down and be forced to acknowledge, and they will all say Amen.

Sound familiar? Christ crucified, Jerusalem destroyed again, this time by the Romans in response to a Jewish revolt, the newly formed Christian churches persecuted. . . the list goes on and on, but what John wants his readers, the people of the seven churches to know is that Jesus is Lord. . . despite all of this you see, the last word belongs to Christ, to the lamb, and that last word is a resounding Amen. . . glory, and power, and thanksgiving, and honor, forever and ever Amen. . . not the Romans, not the Emperor but the lamb, just like Ezekiel, not the Babylonians, but The Lord. The response of both is to believe, and witness, testify to that truth, so that all will come to know the name of the Lord, and be washed in the blood of the lamb. Do you see the all important connection?

So obviously today we witness to the resurrection, we believe death does not equal the end, but a beginning, and that our dear friend, beloved Janet is among those dressed in white, singing praises and bowing to the floor. We cannot see her, but our faith tells us that what we see all around us is not the last word, but that, that last word belongs to God and the Lamb, and to it we say Amen. I talked last week about Amen, what it means, about assent, about its acknowledging the past, in the present and looking to the future. It is also a powerful capstone. And I have found it so rewarding in my young ministry to speak at funerals, that it is so rewarding, we spend so much time talking about how we fall short, how because we do that we are in constant need of grace, but it throughout it all it is nice to see what grace does, in lives, how love and grace manifest itself in the people we have loved and have lost. To witness to the divine spark that is in people. It has been so great for me to have gotten the chance to witness to the spark in people here, to George Allman, to Joan, to Lydia, and to Virginia, and to Janet. We miss them, but their lives teach us much about life and discipleship. I want to close this morning with the poem that I wrote shortly after Janet passed. I wanted to capture that moment, and witness to the life she lived serving Christ and showing his love to all who knew her.

In Memoriam:  Janet DeRoche

There will always be a special place in my heart,

Where Janet is sitting at the piano, and playing.

She filled so many Sunday mornings with song,

And hearts with joy, simply by sharing her gifts.

Her love of music, her love of song, her endless

Kindness, cared enough to be there, without fail.

There is a real symbiotic relationship between

A pastor and the Music Director, for like other

Collaborations, the sum of the parts working

Together is so much more than one could be

Without the other. There were times where she

Knew what I was thinking before I did, and times

When she made me discover and realize ideas

I never knew I had, and she was never afraid

To tell me what she thought. . . never. . . ever,

Even when I did not want to hear it, but she

Was always kind, and we agreed more often

Than not. She was tough, but how could she

Not be, with a special combination of New Yorker

And Scot. Ever proud of both, history, heritage,

And patriotism flowed from deep within her,

And this above all, possibly even more than

Music, found in us kindred souls. We talked

Politics and poetry and history and showtunes.

There is that music coming in again. It is always

Right there. She touched so many in our little

Church, and in our little town. We will miss her,

But know she is somewhere in heaven, filling

A room with music, and heaven is just a little

Bit brighter, with her there. Thank you ever Janet.

Amen.

Should I Listen?

Should I Listen?

When I shut off all sounds

      And there is nothing

Left to drown

      Out the nothing,

I can hear something.

I can’t help but wonder

      If the something

Is just more thunder

      I have to get past

To hear something else. . .

                        Something more?

Did my heart just shake,

      Or was what I felt

Only an earthquake,

      And not silent nor still

Enough to be true?

I breathe, taking it in,

      Letting it out,

We’re suppose to relax

      And let go.

Something says, “Get Up.”

Should I listen

      Or stay here and wait

Until I hear more?

Here's to Life!

Here’s to Life!

For Eileen

She had an insight, a view, few could have: to both

Be patient and nurse at once. We call it empathy:

The embodying of another’s pain, taking it on yourself,

The double experience of life and its pain incarnate,

So they[i] asked to hear what she could teach. Of course,

She told us all, if we could have the ears to listen.[ii]

“What is the difference? What makes you feel better?

I’m free, I’m free! Let’s go to the beach.”[iii] Her words

Resonate in our ears. The questions and the answers:

What is the difference, what is life? Either, both, all:

The pain, the disease, the struggle, and the service

To others’ pain, disease, and struggle, all mixed ever

Inextricably together in the scrapbook of our minds

With the respite of laughter and love spent in harmony

With friends, and family, and true partners in service

Beyond ourselves, lovingly captured in photographs,

Each a testament to what it is that truly matters—life.[iv]

Yes, such is the stuff of life: loss and gain, pleasure

And pain, all combined in images in our brain,

Never meant to die—and yet, if this alone is life,

How can we be free as you say we are to be?

I have to think and wonder, but when I look again,

And listen again, I hear and see beyond her words,

Her comforting smile, an ever strong, and fortified

Lady[v] saying, “Accept whatever life throws your way,

The rain need never dictate your day,

For whether the sun is shining or no,

You have a choice on what it makes so.[vi]

The outlook you have, and what you believe,

Can shape the joy you feel, or the loss you grieve,

For nothing’s ever lost if the story never ends,

Though hearts and bodies break, love always mends.”

So freedom then is found whenever we can love—to rise

Above events to see and act with our hearts, and not our eyes?

On days like this, when your loss we feel, can such things ever be?

Our minds say no, but through faith, let go, and simply wait and see,[vii]

And in the meantime, take our neighbor to the beach. Cheers![viii]

~ Rev. Peter T. Atkinson

---

[i] “They” – specifically the ABC News story (see note 3)

[ii] Allusions to Christ – “Incarnate, embodying another’s pain, ears to hear listen” – I wanted to evoke how her life exemplified carrying the cross of Christ, and so stands as a witness.

[iii] From her video, “A Day in the Life of a Cancer Patient” - http://www.abc2news.com/news/health/gbmc/a-day-in-the-life-of-a-gbmc-cancer-patient . She poses the question about what makes the difference between two different people with the same numbers, the same fluids, why one is “actively dying” and “she is working.” She describes the feeling of being set free, like a kid on the last day of school.

[iv] This long sentence seeks to define life, capturing the pain and joy mixed together, and alluding to what she said filled her life, service, family, friends, all captured through photography and scrapbooking.

[v] In the video we see the woman we knew, strong, beautiful, fully aware, calmly alluding to moments where she wasn’t so strong, revealing how real her strength is, not in the make-up, or the wig, but behind her eyes, inside.

[vi] From Shakespeare’s Hamlet  – “there is nothing either good / or bad but thinking makes it so” (2.2.1350).

[vii] Her teaching symbolically has inspired my own because now my poem perfectly “end-rhymes”, whereas before rhyme was present but without consistent structure.

[viii] In the end, a simple message: “Love thy neighbor” by giving them the experience of joy at the beach, and toast always “to life” come full circle, I say “our” not “your” because her message has now come through me as the poet in my voice instead of hers.

To Be or Not to Be Late to Class

To Be or Not to Be Late to Class

A homily delivered by Rev. Peter T. Atkinson

April 5, 2016

Gibson Memorial Chapel

Blue Ridge School, St. George, Virginia

John 15: 12-17

Let us pray,

Help us to see despite our eyes

Help us to think outside of our minds

Help us to be more than our lives

For your eyes show the way

Your mind knows the truth

Your being is the life.

Amen.

Hamlet is my favorite thing to teach, and since we’ve been back from Spring break, my juniors have been awash in that masterpiece’s magic, the poetry, the plot, the characters, the countless themes and interpretations. Just yesterday we were studying what is without a doubt the most famous speech in all of Shakespeare, and maybe in as much in all of literature: Hamlet’s “To be or not to be” where he ponders suicide, ponders the cost of action, the cost of actually making the decision to act, he ponders how every decision we make as human beings creates a new world, and one that causes the old world to fall away. It falls away because we can never go back. He says, To be or not to be, and many people have sought to figure out what he means by that, to make sense of it, to paraphrase that so simple and yet so multilayered sentiment. I’ve come to think, after years of studying the play myself, and teaching the play with my students that the phrase “To be or not to be, that is the question,” can best be paraphrased to. . . Who am I, and what am I supposed to do. . . that is Hamlet’s question. Do I take control or do I let it all unfold naturally? Is the world created FOR me or do I create the world I live in? These questions truly make up the sense of my class from beginning to end, from The Iliad to Hamlet. . . because I believe it is the root of what we each as human beings must do in life. . . we must discern who we are and what we are called to do and be, and then we must resolve to do and be that, and since I am a believer in Christ, and the love he represents and teaches, in the command to love he makes in what was read this morning from the Gospel of John, I believe we need to figure out who we are so that we can then give of ourselves fully to others. To me that is the substance of love.

I speak this morning because it is part of my very being to teach, and to make young people begin to ask these questions, and to see the world they live in, and begin to discern how they, you, each fit. I want to share with you a poem that I wrote just 4 days shy of two weeks ago, on April 9th 2014, on a morning very similar to this. I was walking back from chapel next to Miss Benshoff and we had remarked about how just how peaceful and beautiful it was. I went right away and wrote this poem, which I entitled, “To Bottle the Breeze.” It is there printed in your bulletin. I want to read it through and then work to explain some of the images afterward.

The cool lingers longer in the mountain breeze

Like an embrace when loved ones have to leave,

Holding to the peace of last night, an extra moment

Stolen. The Sun’s sleepy rise brings light later here,

And the slow morning wakes gently. Shadows loom,

But in the gathering light, the night bugs sing

In harmony with the bird’s of morning, and I,

Likewise, feel composed in heavy-eyed  industry.

As the morning air fills my lungs, restoring,

Giving life, just like the first breath breathed,

I am, at once, awash in more than self, and see

The world around me with greater perspective,

From this height we can just see more of it,

Though some would say we see less, but if

I could somehow, someway, bottle this air,

Capture this moment, package this feeling,

And give it to the world, much would be healed.

Is it the slowness, or merely the cool comfort

That fills the soul, or is there something more,

A closeness to heaven, in the natural rhythms

Of sunrise and set, unfettered by ticking time?

Ahh, but there is the bell, it calls us to task,

Its toll for me, and I go with others to start

My day, thankful for the prelude, an antecedent

Reminder of myself, as I am, before I must do.

I try to build in this poem, tension, the juxtaposition of two different ideas that seem to be battling against each other, and how this conflict permeates and comes to a head with the tolling of the bell. Look at some of those images of tension: the cool is lingering, because it is morning, but the day will be much warmer, so hot versus cold. . . in that struggle is day versus night. . . the morning is the transition, but the night is not quite ready to let go. . . and I use the simile of parents, loved ones not being quite ready to let go and leave. . . here at boarding school we all know that so well, as your parents drop you off, or your friends visit comes to an end, or that girlfriend departs and you know you won’t see her for some time, you just don’t want to let go. . . you want to steal one extra moment. . . . because since it is going away, you treasure the moment just a little more. .  . Next is the Sun. . .  even it is sleepy as it slowly rises over the mountains, but the light of the sun is late here because of the mountains and the shadows that slowly disappear, do so, later here, than places where the world is flat. Both the morning birds and the night bugs are singing. . . again transition. . . and in the changeover, the passing of the baton, there is a moment, again a moment of harmony, and then I bring myself into the conflict because I too am fighting a battle. . . I long for the sleep of night, but yet we are starting our day, just one extra moment in bed would be a moment treasured, but alas no, it is time for work, and though my eyes are heavy, it is time for industry. . . heavy eyed industry. . . oxymorons are effective in selling tension. But it is this tension, that seems to awaken my senses. . . the cool air fills my lungs. . . and it awakens me, it restores me, it gives me life, and I find myself connected to the very basics of being human. . . feeling the simplicity of a breath, as people have all the way back to the first breath every breathed, in that prelapsarian world of eden, paradise before the fall, where Adam walked with God, as Genesis says in the cool of the day. . . again there is an image of the tension. . . paradise versus the fall. . . relationship with God versus sin and hiding. . . wholeness versus brokenness. . . being reminded of that tension, reminded of the basics of life. . .connects me to a world much larger than myself, and I achieve in that moment, perspective. . . to see more. . . different angles, different viewpoints. . . real sight. And I’m brought back to the literal, yeah we are up high, we see more. . . if you’ve ever been up on the practice football, the upper one, you can just see forever through the valley. . . but that brings up another tension as well. . . urban versus rural. . . cosmopolitan versus simplicity. . . skyscrapers and cultural elitism versus trees and backwater wisdom. . .we have both here represented in the diversity of our students. . . many strangers would say that here in paradyke we are cut off from the world, and therefore cannot see, but I find if I could show them this moment, I could cure so many of the problems of the world. . . that this beauty could humble the arrogance that causes so much strife in our world.

The last movement, wonders what it is in the moment that inspired me to feel that spiritual connection I feel that has given me this insight into the greater world. Is it the slow, that I lingered long enough to notice. . . or is it just the cool comfort, the fact that the air just feels so refreshing. . . that this wind, the cool breeze, is actually a manifestation of the Hebrew word, Ruach, breath, wind, spirit. . . pneuma in Greek. . . or something more, something close to heaven, something touching nature, the natural morning, the sun’s rise, the light slowly awakening, the harmony of the birds of day and insects of the night. . . is there something to the natural rhythm of life that we miss in our artificial world, the world measured out by the ticking of the clock. . . fetters are chains, but morning still comes with no alarm clock, no measurement of time, instead just the coming of the light. . . it is a question I do not get to answer, because like Hamlet is interrupted by the sweet Ophelia, the bell rings, and the natural moment ends. . . the clock, the chains of the clock, the responsibilities of the day, the requirements of life in society, in community, pulls me back in, calling me to task. . . I call the bell’s ringing a toll, alluding to John Donne. . . ask not for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee, the tolling of the bell is the tolling bell of death, but also the reminder that no man is an island, we are to live in community with others. . . and so we must live in that world, too. I join the others and together we start our day, but no bell can erase the moment, it may end the moment, but it cannot erase it. . . instead the moment becomes like a prelude, the music played at the beginning of the worship service. . . it calls us in, it sets the mood, it centers us so that we may worship God. . . it is an antecedent. . . like the idea that the pronoun refers to. . . the pronoun is the not the noun, at least not fully, but it takes its place. . . representing the whole. . . such are we called. . . and our jobs our duties, define us, but not fully, and it is good to be reminded of that at the start of a day. To be reminded of who we are, so that then we can can do what we are called to do.

There is that tension. . . I worked hard to bring it out in the images. . . between the self of being, and the self of doing. . . many people compartmentalize. . . they have two selves. . . they divide themselves, they live parallel lives, and they are never reconciled, broken and not whole. . . but if you can do what you are called to do in life. . . then you can be what  you are called to be in life. . . if you can live as if life were a prayer. . . an act of worship. . . then moments like these can be preludes of forming wholeness. . . and they can give you strength. . . that if rest of the world could just experience such things. . . much indeed would be healed. Who am I and what am I called to do. . . go find out, and be strong enough to resolve to follow that path to the end.

I want to close with one detail of this poem that I have yet to explain. . . and that is that the bell had rung in the poem. . . and I was not in class. . . I was on the way certainly, but I was outside when the bell rang. . . and so was going to be late. Sometimes, such is the case. . . . sometimes things are more important than being on time. . . wholeness and discernment of who you are is always more important, but never let philosophy allow you to gild over your crimes. . . like Hamlet. . . being yourself,  your full self is not a path that is of guaranteed ease. . .usually it is quite the opposite. . . so if it is you, you being you, the real you, and you are late, own it, without excuse, without explanation. . . and take whatever consequences come. . .only you would know the difference, but to do otherwise is to hide, to rationalize, to cheapen yourself. . . to return again to brokenness. . . You are on a quest to come to know who you are. . . learn, by any means necessary, and then give of yourself completely, hold nothing back, for this is love in its very fullness. Amen.

A New World

A New World

A sermon delivered by Rev. Peter T. Atkinson

April 3, 2016

at Gordonsville Presbyterian Church, Gordonsville, Virginia

Revelation 1:4-8

Let us pray,

Help us to see despite our eyes

Help us to think outside of our minds

Help us to be more than our lives

For your eyes show the way

Your mind knows the truth

Your being is the life.

Amen.

4John to the seven churches that are in Asia: Grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven spirits who are before his throne, 5and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To him who loves us and freed us from our sins by his blood, 6and made us to be a kingdom, priests serving his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. 7Look! He is coming with the clouds; every eye will see him, even those who pierced him; and on his account all the tribes of the earth will wail. So it is to be. Amen. 8“I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.

We continue with Easter this week. The Lilies are gone, though their scent remains. I don’t see the bonnets that I saw last week. We already sent the children out to pick up all the eggs, though there may be one or two eggs hidden so well the kids missed them, but we probably won’t find them until next year. Most folks are back to work. Our boys at Blue Ridge had one day off and now they are back to school. The Easter aisle at Walmart has already turned to their back to school theme or something like that. . . all the clearance sales are over, so  you can’t find bunny print placemats anymore or Star Wars and Frozen themed baskets. All of the celebrations of Easter are behind us. The old world has already forgotten, but here for us Easter is more than one day of celebration, instead we commemorate it as a season. It is not just one Sunday, but many, actually all of them. Though the old world turns its eyes to the next thing. . . the new world, this Easter world, lives on eternally, as Christ does. We celebrate not simply that Christ has risen, but instead that Christ is Risen, and as such the world is made new.

I didn’t realize, nor plan it, I hadn’t looked ahead from week to week, but have instead been reacting week to week to the lectionary passages, and I didn’t do it on purpose, but 3 of the last 5 sermon titles I’ve selected have all included the idea of newness. Last communion Sunday was a “New Perspective” last week’s was “A New Creation” and this week’s is “A New World.” I came up with this title because I was reading the selection from Revelation, and I thought to myself this is how you should address a letter to churches in the light of Easter. This John, who is of Patmos, the writer of the Book of Revelation, addresses his work, sending a copy to 7 different churches on Asia Minor, what was then part of the Roman Empire, and now Turkey. It was an area where the primary language was Greek, where the primary demographics making up the early churches were Gentile, rather than Jew, though you had some mixed together, where the culture of the towns, the business models, the customs and practices were more Roman than middle eastern, but to be Christian there at that time was dangerous. Persecution was a part of their Christian Life. I believe that his book of Revelation has a real important historical contextual meaning about this persecution, and its chief theme, or message, is to convince and support, and encourage the Christians that make up these 7 churches to Testify, to witness, openly, to the World that was made new by the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, even though to do so would cost them greatly in respect to the Old World. To openly witness meant trouble to your business, to  your livelihood, to your family, even in many cases to your very life, but John believes that the New World very much transcends the sacrifices made as the Old World passes away.

Look at what he claims in his greeting, which I said is the way that we should address letters that we write in and about this New World.

He writes:

4John to the seven churches that are in Asia: Grace to you and peace

By way of introduction he sends them grace, he sends them peace. . . grace the embodiment of life changing forgiveness. . . the kind of forgiveness that wipes the record clean, and offers a fresh start, rendered righteousness, that one can put on, like new and gleaming white clothing. . . the kind of forgiveness that offers a second chance, even a 70X70 chance, but would never lower the standards, not even one iota. . .  and peace, peace which passes all understanding, peace which transcends the forced peace of the Pax Romana held together by oppression and an iron fist, centurions and legions, fear and domination, replaced with real, whole, and holy peace, found when people follow the covenant that is written on their hearts and made known to them in and through their savior, Jesus Christ

from him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven spirits who are before his throne,

Here John appeals to God, the God present in the moment, the God embodying the is, the eternal present, as has always been, is and will always be. . . encapsulated here is the Name of God, I am that I am, I will be what I will be. . . Yahweh, Jehovah, THE LORD. . . the kind of eternal that cannot be extinguished by the highest pinnacle of cruelty and evil, the symbol of domination, and torture, even the nails of the cross. . . and by seven spirits, I think he means the fullness, he is perfect, complete, total, like the perfection of a week, on which the seventh day is for rest. . . . . and the throne is there because this is the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords. . . he is sovereign, and he rules.

5and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness,

This remember is a call to witness and Jesus Christ has led us in that witnessing. . . we follow

him when we witness to him. . . even unto the cross, but he says that Christ is also, not just a witness, but also he is:

the firstborn of the dead,

He has beaten death, of what should fear, he has conqured death, of what shall we be afraid, this is a new world remember, and in this new world Christ is:

and the ruler of the kings of the earth.

For what power can they have over him if there violence fall flat, if their cross has no power to kill, if their tyranny can be transcended, the no stone can seal the tomb? The king’s of the Earth have no power. . . it’s like that movie Labyrinth with David Bowie, where the girl wishes that he brother will be taken away, and then when he is she has to battle her way through the great maze, only to get to the center, but have it be too late, but that entire world, the power of the so called goblin king, every lie he has told her, every fear he implanted in her falls apart when she says, “You have no power over me.” Christ does the same to the powers of this world. It is:

To him who loves us and freed us from our sins by his blood,

Sacrifice matters, it means something, it marks love, it fills love, it is love. . .willing sacrifice, giving up of your very life for your friend, love has no great mark than this. . . and Christ not only says it, he does it. He shows us again the way. . .

6and made us to be a kingdom,

Subjects, servants, inhabitants, protected by the king, it is a covenant relationship for sure, but we are more than mere peasants, mindless followers, no we are:

priests serving his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.

This new world is not just for now, but forever, and ever amen. Our greeting, this greeting is a prayer, but wait there is more for:

Look! He is coming with the clouds;

Yes we are to witness, but he will witness also for himself, for he comes again, making himself known to the world

every eye will see him,

Every one, every eye, the entire world, this new world he has built, he rules, he will also make completely known, and not just for the innocent,but for all, even for the sinners, the deniers, the betrayers, the parts of us in all all of us that has the capacity to deny and betray even now:

even those who pierced him; and on his account all the tribes of the earth will wail. So it is to be. Amen.

Everyone, no one is to be left out. . . but all will wail. . . is that wailing of pain, is that wailing of the old passing away, is that wailing of sacrifice, is that wailing joy, complete, total, utter joy, filling us, changing us, and rising up in us like uncontrollable, undeniable, emotion. . . so it is to be, so it will be, again Amen.

8“I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.

The beginning, the end, and everything in between. . . God, the Lord God, is, was, will be, eternal, and Almighty. . . no end, and no end to power. . . to this we witness. To this John of Patmos witnesses in his letter to the churches. You see he makes the witness, he makes the claims, he tells the whole story, he describes in detail the new world, and then he makes the claim, the call, the desperate plea for all who have ears to hear, in these seven churches to listen. In this greeting is a description of this New Easter World that we now get to live in, even with the old seeming to still be lingering. . .

Looking ahead, this Easter season encaptures why it is good to preach from the lectionary. Doing so takes you through parts of the Bible you sometimes would otherwise avoid, or never get around to. - But let me digress because this week I went to my great Uncle Bill’s funeral, and as those family gatherings tend to do,when they get together more distant relations, the ones you seem to only see at funerals, though there were times in the past where there more. . . when these things happen, stories get told and remembered. . . . I was reminded of my Grandfather, who used to like to play clever jokes, especially with the family of his generation, he would exchange gag gifts at Christmas with one of my other uncles, and they would try to out do each other with cleverness. . . so he wanted to give the greatest gift ever. . . he said it was something that every one must want, because every one always said they wanted to get it. . . he cut a circle of wood, and wrote the letters, “T” “O” and then a big Dash, and then “I” and “T” spelling out TO - IT. . . he had made a “Round To It” saying it must have been really valuable because everyone always was trying to get a “round to it.” Ha ha clever huh-- but yeah we often never get around to preaching books like Revelation. . . and I looked ahead, and all of the weeks of Easter have readings from Revelation. . . so we we’ll take a look. . . We’ll take a look at the new world Easter has created, we’ll take a look at this John of Patmos, we’ll take a look at what it meant to witness that Jesus Christ is Lord, and that the world is very New, then. . . and it may give us a glimpse of what it should look like now. If our brief intro to Revelation that we did in Sunday School before Christmas was any indicator, it should be quite a journey. I look forward to taking it together. Amen.