A Vision For The Future
Sermon
When we decided to form a Ministry Team in our Benefice (group of six parishes working together), we thought it would be a good idea to start with a Myers-Briggs personality indicator test.
We wanted to discover which direction different people on the team were coming from, and how different people would tackle problems and challenges. And we wanted to gain some understanding of the way our different minds work and what excites different people. Then we wanted to build on the different strengths we had, so that we could work well together as a team.
The results of the personality indicator test were very interesting. We discovered that most of us were extroverts, that some were "initiators" but didn't necessarily need to see a project through, and that others were "doers" but not keen on initiating. We also discovered that just two of our number were "visionaries" with the ability to offer a vision for the future for our Benefice and our new Benefice Ministry Team.
So the Myer's-Briggs personality indicator has given us a useful tool to enable us to use everyone's strengths to the maximum and to minimise the weaknesses, so that each of us should be able to play an optimum role on the team.
The visionaries in the team have developed another, unexpected role too. They're both able to "see" in pictures or visions, and this is proving quite a powerful way of determining where we feel God is leading our parishes. The visionaries "see", the iniators initiate action, and the doers put it all into practice. Of course, it's nothing like as clear cut as it sounds and there's plenty of overlap between roles, but it does seem to be a promising way of starting.
But there are a few problems with visions. It's never completely clear whether or not the visions come from God, or indeed, are in accordance with God's will, although those members of the team who are intuitive can often help here. More difficult is the fact that visions have to be interpreted, and it might be that everyone comes up with a different interpretation.
There are some elements today which seem to be fairly standard in dreams and visions. For instance, water in the form of a sea or a river usually indicates life, a room with tables or desks usually indicates some form of study, and a person in a white coat often indicates a tutor or teacher. These are all modern images with modern meanings, but putting the images and the meanings together in different combinations can prove quite tricky. Life gets even more complicated when considering visions or dreams from centuries past and from an entirely different culture, and this is what we have in the New Testament book of Revelation.
The book of Revelation was written as resistance literature at a time of ruthless persecution of the early Church by the Romans. The book is therefore written in a sort of code. It's full of symbolism which sounds strange and sometimes bizarre to modern ears, but which would have been familiar to a Middle Eastern culture from about 200 BC to AD 200, when this type of literature was at its height in Jewish and Christian circles. The vivid descriptions in the book are not literal but symbolic, and many of them are based on the Old Testament books of Ezekiel, Zechariah, and Daniel.
In today's reading from Revelation 5, Jesus Christ is described as a "Lamb, looking as if it had been slain....with seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth." Seven is a number used to mean either "universal" or "perfection". Horns refer to power, and eyes refer to knowledge. So the slain Lamb with seven horns and seven eyes is a symbolic way of describing Jesus Christ, crucified for us, perfect in every way, with universal power and universal knowledge which will reach every corner of the globe.
In today's reading, God has a scroll sealed with seven seals indicating the importance of the message, but it's a scroll which no-one can open. Perhaps the scroll contains God's plans for the world. The author weeps with frustration because it seems as though this important scroll with its crucial message is doomed to remain closed forever. But then Jesus, described as "the Lion of Judah" steps forward. Jesus Christ is the only one able to open the scroll, and when Jesus takes the scroll, he's worshipped by all in heaven as a king.
Although he was brutally executed on a cross, Jesus never ceased to love human beings, even those who were torturing him and those who caused his torture. He even pleaded with God for forgiveness for them all, and by extension for all human beings. The book of Revelation sees this act of Jesus as producing an unblemished Paschal Lamb, the ultimate sacrifice for all sins, for all time, for all people. And through this act, Jesus has claimed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation. He has made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve God, and they will reign on the earth.
No-one was worthy to open the scroll except Jesus. No-one was worthy to serve God, except Jesus. But through his death on the cross, he has made everyone worthy to serve God. Human beings have been rescued. Through no act of our own, we're now worthy not only to reign on earth as God's people, but also to share in the glory of Heaven just as Jesus shares in that glory.
What does this mean in practice for us today? Perhaps it's a bit like the plants on my windowsill at home. If I forget to water them, they die. If I inadvertently stand them in a draught, they die. If I omit to add any feed to the water, they die. If they have insufficient light, or stand in blazing sunlight, they die. But when conditions are exactly right, they burst into glorious, brilliant bloom.
Without Jesus, we die. With Jesus, we are nurtured and nourished and conditions for our growth are exactly right, and we burst into glorious, brilliant bloom. That brilliant bloom is an amazing life, packed with fun and joy and delight and health. Jesus called it "eternal life" and we can experience it in a thrilling and inspiring way now, but in an even more exciting way after we die. All of us are called to be "priests". That is, we called by God both to live that life and to draw others to it so that the Kingdom of God extends throughout the world.
What a vision and a challenge the book of Revelation offers us. Are you ready for it?
We wanted to discover which direction different people on the team were coming from, and how different people would tackle problems and challenges. And we wanted to gain some understanding of the way our different minds work and what excites different people. Then we wanted to build on the different strengths we had, so that we could work well together as a team.
The results of the personality indicator test were very interesting. We discovered that most of us were extroverts, that some were "initiators" but didn't necessarily need to see a project through, and that others were "doers" but not keen on initiating. We also discovered that just two of our number were "visionaries" with the ability to offer a vision for the future for our Benefice and our new Benefice Ministry Team.
So the Myer's-Briggs personality indicator has given us a useful tool to enable us to use everyone's strengths to the maximum and to minimise the weaknesses, so that each of us should be able to play an optimum role on the team.
The visionaries in the team have developed another, unexpected role too. They're both able to "see" in pictures or visions, and this is proving quite a powerful way of determining where we feel God is leading our parishes. The visionaries "see", the iniators initiate action, and the doers put it all into practice. Of course, it's nothing like as clear cut as it sounds and there's plenty of overlap between roles, but it does seem to be a promising way of starting.
But there are a few problems with visions. It's never completely clear whether or not the visions come from God, or indeed, are in accordance with God's will, although those members of the team who are intuitive can often help here. More difficult is the fact that visions have to be interpreted, and it might be that everyone comes up with a different interpretation.
There are some elements today which seem to be fairly standard in dreams and visions. For instance, water in the form of a sea or a river usually indicates life, a room with tables or desks usually indicates some form of study, and a person in a white coat often indicates a tutor or teacher. These are all modern images with modern meanings, but putting the images and the meanings together in different combinations can prove quite tricky. Life gets even more complicated when considering visions or dreams from centuries past and from an entirely different culture, and this is what we have in the New Testament book of Revelation.
The book of Revelation was written as resistance literature at a time of ruthless persecution of the early Church by the Romans. The book is therefore written in a sort of code. It's full of symbolism which sounds strange and sometimes bizarre to modern ears, but which would have been familiar to a Middle Eastern culture from about 200 BC to AD 200, when this type of literature was at its height in Jewish and Christian circles. The vivid descriptions in the book are not literal but symbolic, and many of them are based on the Old Testament books of Ezekiel, Zechariah, and Daniel.
In today's reading from Revelation 5, Jesus Christ is described as a "Lamb, looking as if it had been slain....with seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth." Seven is a number used to mean either "universal" or "perfection". Horns refer to power, and eyes refer to knowledge. So the slain Lamb with seven horns and seven eyes is a symbolic way of describing Jesus Christ, crucified for us, perfect in every way, with universal power and universal knowledge which will reach every corner of the globe.
In today's reading, God has a scroll sealed with seven seals indicating the importance of the message, but it's a scroll which no-one can open. Perhaps the scroll contains God's plans for the world. The author weeps with frustration because it seems as though this important scroll with its crucial message is doomed to remain closed forever. But then Jesus, described as "the Lion of Judah" steps forward. Jesus Christ is the only one able to open the scroll, and when Jesus takes the scroll, he's worshipped by all in heaven as a king.
Although he was brutally executed on a cross, Jesus never ceased to love human beings, even those who were torturing him and those who caused his torture. He even pleaded with God for forgiveness for them all, and by extension for all human beings. The book of Revelation sees this act of Jesus as producing an unblemished Paschal Lamb, the ultimate sacrifice for all sins, for all time, for all people. And through this act, Jesus has claimed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation. He has made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve God, and they will reign on the earth.
No-one was worthy to open the scroll except Jesus. No-one was worthy to serve God, except Jesus. But through his death on the cross, he has made everyone worthy to serve God. Human beings have been rescued. Through no act of our own, we're now worthy not only to reign on earth as God's people, but also to share in the glory of Heaven just as Jesus shares in that glory.
What does this mean in practice for us today? Perhaps it's a bit like the plants on my windowsill at home. If I forget to water them, they die. If I inadvertently stand them in a draught, they die. If I omit to add any feed to the water, they die. If they have insufficient light, or stand in blazing sunlight, they die. But when conditions are exactly right, they burst into glorious, brilliant bloom.
Without Jesus, we die. With Jesus, we are nurtured and nourished and conditions for our growth are exactly right, and we burst into glorious, brilliant bloom. That brilliant bloom is an amazing life, packed with fun and joy and delight and health. Jesus called it "eternal life" and we can experience it in a thrilling and inspiring way now, but in an even more exciting way after we die. All of us are called to be "priests". That is, we called by God both to live that life and to draw others to it so that the Kingdom of God extends throughout the world.
What a vision and a challenge the book of Revelation offers us. Are you ready for it?
