The Beginning And The End
Sermon
Living In Hope
Cycle C Sermons for Lent and Easter Based on the Second Lessons
This reading from the book of Revelation, the vision of John, reminds us that Jesus is the beginning and the end, Jesus is the first and the last, the alpha and the omega. But even more than that, this reading reminds us to come to the Christ, to come to Jesus, to come to the water of life. Jesus poured his very self out to us and invited us to be a part of the work of the faith: a disciple. We are as invited to come with Jesus on a faith journey as Peter, Andrew, James, John, and all the others who followed Jesus were invited. The question is - what will we do with this invitation? Will we come to the living water of our faith, come to Jesus, and follow him? Will we move into the shade of the tree of life and encounter the rootedness we have with all those who have believed in God? Will we see our role in the church, in the faith, as a call on every part of our lives?
In John’s vision shared with us in the book of Revelation, we hear Jesus sharing his ancestry as a descendant of David, an essential relationship as the new church is formed from the Jewish people. But Jesus did not stop there. Jesus reminded John, and us, that Jesus would come once again. Jesus will come to be with his people, with the disciples of the faith those who choose to live in faith, hope, and resurrection.
On this Seventh Sunday of Easter, have we forgotten the joy of Easter morning? Have we gone back to the everydayness of our life here in this time and place? Or do we awake with a sense of hope and the presence of the living Jesus in our midst. Where is our faithfulness? If we were asked to write and share our statements of faith, what would we say? Not repetitive words of creeds, famous prayers, or hymns, but what are the deep beliefs of our hearts and spirits about God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, and our role in the church as the faithful people of God? It’s a question worth asking and a question worth answering.
In the good days, at the celebrations, when everything was going the way we wanted, it was easy to be joyous and hopeful in our faith. It is when times get tough, sad, or difficult that hope can be hard to find. I have an assignment for you. Sometime in the next week, take a moment in your prayer time to think about what you believe. If you were asked to share a statement of faith, the essence of how you experience God, Jesus, the Spirit, and your role in and through the Christian church, what would you share? Write this statement on paper, pray over it, encounter it in prayer, revise it, rewrite it, until it is the essence of how you experience your faith. You do not have to share it publicly, although it might be a wonderful experience to share them with each other. Read this statement as a part of your prayer ritual and let the words bring you into closer relationship with our God.
Jesus shared his belief and faith every day in his encounters with the disciples, with the strangers, with those who needed wholeness and healing, and even with those who questioned and ridiculed him. A part of Jesus’ prayer for the faithful was included in John’s gospel that will be shared this morning. This is a prayer offered on the night he was betrayed and arrested. Jesus prayed a prayer of intercession for us: “I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.”
Jesus’ prayer became a foundation for the forming of the United Church of Christ, that they may be one. This is the denomination to which I belong, a united and uniting church. Jesus is not seeking, nor is the United Church of Christ seeking, that we all agree with every word we each say, every word which preachers preach, or Christians say. Rather Jesus went deeper than that. Jesus asked that just as God and Jesus are one, in love, we too are called to be one. It is the love between Creator and Christ, between Christ and Spirit, between Christian and Christian that is the key. This prayer is all about being one in the love of God and in the love of one another. Do we do that? Do we love everyone at their, and our, very core?
We are called, as people of faith, as followers of Jesus to invite others into discipleship ― not to believe everything we say or experience ― but to know, through us, the love of God, to see the fruits of the Spirit of God: love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23). That is how people are invited into discipleship. It is not through rules and laws, although those can be important. It is not through how we interpret the holy scriptures, although that can be important. It is not through acts of charity and generosity, although those are important. Rather, people will encounter the living and risen Christ through our love. As the hymn says, “They will know we are Christians by our love.”
It is our call, our commission, to make disciples of all nations. We do not do that through doctrine, scriptural interpretation, or through teaching and preaching. We make disciples of all nations by our love ― and friends, the only way people know we love them is if we are willing to be in relationship with them. Our call is to go out ― yes to invite people in ― but to go out into the world and love, care, and build relationships with those who do not know God, who have not felt the moving of the Holy Spirit, with those who do not know Jesus. That is our call, to make disciples. As we reflect on our own faith, on our own beliefs, can we, will we, be about the work of the church ― the sharing of love and the making of disciples?
Here is a truth: Jesus came to bring unity. He restored unity between God and humanity. He gave unity among people. All this he achieved when he gave his life for the life of the world. In the wretched darkness that was Good Friday, the star of unity, Jesus our Lord, shone brightly for all to see.
But, let’s be honest: we still do live in a disjointed, divided, and discordant world. Until our Advent Lord returns to restore all things and bring unity into full completion, we will still have the remnants of disunity around us. Let me give you one stark example.
Today in Palestine, there is a wall around the little town of Bethlehem. There the thousands of people who live in that city are more or less held captive to their situation. The Bethlehem wall is a symbol of sad divisions that still exist between people.
Just like the Berlin Wall of days gone by, the Bethlehem wall has graffiti and messages painted all over it. One message reads, “This wall may take care of the present, but it has no future.” Another message echoes the words of President Reagan in Berlin, “Tear down this wall.” Yet another message cries out, “We all bleed the same color.” Another simply reads, “Forgive!”
My friend Reverend Loren McGrail was a missionary in Palestine. From her I know that things continue to be difficult in Bethlehem. There seems to be no unity… and yet the star of unity is still shining in Bethlehem today. The star of unity shines through the Christians, Jews, and Muslims who work together for justice and, for those who stand up to the occupation of the Palestinian territories, for those who love and act on that love in every interaction they have.
Brothers and sisters, let us be crystal clear, the star of unity will shine brightly as we find our unity not in our skin color, ethnic background, common language, or common socio-economic status, but faith; in abiding together in faith, hope, and love.
As the noted Christian author, A.W. Tozer, once wrote, “Has it ever occurred to you that one hundred pianos all tuned to the same fork are automatically tuned to each other? They are of one accord by being tuned, not to each other, but to another standard to which each one must individually bow. So one hundred worshipers meeting together, each one looking away to Christ, are in heart nearer to each other than they could possibly be were they to become “unity” conscious and turn their eyes away from God to strive for closer fellowship. Social religion is perfected when private religion is purified.” [in Tozer’s book “The Pursuit of God”]
My friends, in Christ… we are one! I love what G.K. Chesterton once wrote, “We are all in the same boat in a stormy sea, and we owe each other a terrible loyalty.” We could name our boat on the stormy sea, “Transition.” We owe each other fierce loyalty. We owe Jesus our faithfulness and our allegiance. We owe God, as an offering of gratitude, a righteous life, a generous life living out the faith we have and hold until the new heaven and the new earth come to be. Together, together ― we can abide in faith and hope and love. That was the prayer of Jesus, the beginning and the end, the alpha and the omega, prayed for us. May it be so. Amen.
In John’s vision shared with us in the book of Revelation, we hear Jesus sharing his ancestry as a descendant of David, an essential relationship as the new church is formed from the Jewish people. But Jesus did not stop there. Jesus reminded John, and us, that Jesus would come once again. Jesus will come to be with his people, with the disciples of the faith those who choose to live in faith, hope, and resurrection.
On this Seventh Sunday of Easter, have we forgotten the joy of Easter morning? Have we gone back to the everydayness of our life here in this time and place? Or do we awake with a sense of hope and the presence of the living Jesus in our midst. Where is our faithfulness? If we were asked to write and share our statements of faith, what would we say? Not repetitive words of creeds, famous prayers, or hymns, but what are the deep beliefs of our hearts and spirits about God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, and our role in the church as the faithful people of God? It’s a question worth asking and a question worth answering.
In the good days, at the celebrations, when everything was going the way we wanted, it was easy to be joyous and hopeful in our faith. It is when times get tough, sad, or difficult that hope can be hard to find. I have an assignment for you. Sometime in the next week, take a moment in your prayer time to think about what you believe. If you were asked to share a statement of faith, the essence of how you experience God, Jesus, the Spirit, and your role in and through the Christian church, what would you share? Write this statement on paper, pray over it, encounter it in prayer, revise it, rewrite it, until it is the essence of how you experience your faith. You do not have to share it publicly, although it might be a wonderful experience to share them with each other. Read this statement as a part of your prayer ritual and let the words bring you into closer relationship with our God.
Jesus shared his belief and faith every day in his encounters with the disciples, with the strangers, with those who needed wholeness and healing, and even with those who questioned and ridiculed him. A part of Jesus’ prayer for the faithful was included in John’s gospel that will be shared this morning. This is a prayer offered on the night he was betrayed and arrested. Jesus prayed a prayer of intercession for us: “I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.”
Jesus’ prayer became a foundation for the forming of the United Church of Christ, that they may be one. This is the denomination to which I belong, a united and uniting church. Jesus is not seeking, nor is the United Church of Christ seeking, that we all agree with every word we each say, every word which preachers preach, or Christians say. Rather Jesus went deeper than that. Jesus asked that just as God and Jesus are one, in love, we too are called to be one. It is the love between Creator and Christ, between Christ and Spirit, between Christian and Christian that is the key. This prayer is all about being one in the love of God and in the love of one another. Do we do that? Do we love everyone at their, and our, very core?
We are called, as people of faith, as followers of Jesus to invite others into discipleship ― not to believe everything we say or experience ― but to know, through us, the love of God, to see the fruits of the Spirit of God: love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23). That is how people are invited into discipleship. It is not through rules and laws, although those can be important. It is not through how we interpret the holy scriptures, although that can be important. It is not through acts of charity and generosity, although those are important. Rather, people will encounter the living and risen Christ through our love. As the hymn says, “They will know we are Christians by our love.”
It is our call, our commission, to make disciples of all nations. We do not do that through doctrine, scriptural interpretation, or through teaching and preaching. We make disciples of all nations by our love ― and friends, the only way people know we love them is if we are willing to be in relationship with them. Our call is to go out ― yes to invite people in ― but to go out into the world and love, care, and build relationships with those who do not know God, who have not felt the moving of the Holy Spirit, with those who do not know Jesus. That is our call, to make disciples. As we reflect on our own faith, on our own beliefs, can we, will we, be about the work of the church ― the sharing of love and the making of disciples?
Here is a truth: Jesus came to bring unity. He restored unity between God and humanity. He gave unity among people. All this he achieved when he gave his life for the life of the world. In the wretched darkness that was Good Friday, the star of unity, Jesus our Lord, shone brightly for all to see.
But, let’s be honest: we still do live in a disjointed, divided, and discordant world. Until our Advent Lord returns to restore all things and bring unity into full completion, we will still have the remnants of disunity around us. Let me give you one stark example.
Today in Palestine, there is a wall around the little town of Bethlehem. There the thousands of people who live in that city are more or less held captive to their situation. The Bethlehem wall is a symbol of sad divisions that still exist between people.
Just like the Berlin Wall of days gone by, the Bethlehem wall has graffiti and messages painted all over it. One message reads, “This wall may take care of the present, but it has no future.” Another message echoes the words of President Reagan in Berlin, “Tear down this wall.” Yet another message cries out, “We all bleed the same color.” Another simply reads, “Forgive!”
My friend Reverend Loren McGrail was a missionary in Palestine. From her I know that things continue to be difficult in Bethlehem. There seems to be no unity… and yet the star of unity is still shining in Bethlehem today. The star of unity shines through the Christians, Jews, and Muslims who work together for justice and, for those who stand up to the occupation of the Palestinian territories, for those who love and act on that love in every interaction they have.
Brothers and sisters, let us be crystal clear, the star of unity will shine brightly as we find our unity not in our skin color, ethnic background, common language, or common socio-economic status, but faith; in abiding together in faith, hope, and love.
As the noted Christian author, A.W. Tozer, once wrote, “Has it ever occurred to you that one hundred pianos all tuned to the same fork are automatically tuned to each other? They are of one accord by being tuned, not to each other, but to another standard to which each one must individually bow. So one hundred worshipers meeting together, each one looking away to Christ, are in heart nearer to each other than they could possibly be were they to become “unity” conscious and turn their eyes away from God to strive for closer fellowship. Social religion is perfected when private religion is purified.” [in Tozer’s book “The Pursuit of God”]
My friends, in Christ… we are one! I love what G.K. Chesterton once wrote, “We are all in the same boat in a stormy sea, and we owe each other a terrible loyalty.” We could name our boat on the stormy sea, “Transition.” We owe each other fierce loyalty. We owe Jesus our faithfulness and our allegiance. We owe God, as an offering of gratitude, a righteous life, a generous life living out the faith we have and hold until the new heaven and the new earth come to be. Together, together ― we can abide in faith and hope and love. That was the prayer of Jesus, the beginning and the end, the alpha and the omega, prayed for us. May it be so. Amen.
