TODAY CAN BE THE DAY
Scripture: Revelation 21:1-6

FOCUS: We need not wait for the end of the world to come to experience the kingdom fo God, God can make all things new beginning here and now.

There is certainly no more controversial book in the Bible than the one from which I just read. No matter what you think about The Revelation to John, you can probably find some biblical scholar somewhere who would agree with you. Scores of good folk have spent and are spending their entire lives seeking to make sense out of what some would call a hopelessly obscure piece of literature. There are about as many conclusions as there are readers of this strange tale.

Some proclaim loudly that it offers clear glimpses into the future and speaks of the end of time. Most often such folks are convinced that the end is coming real soon, just as have been their predecessors for two thousand years, all of whom have so far been wrong. Others argue that in order to avoid the ire of the Roman government John was writing to the churches he loved in intentionally veiled language, the key to which those to whom he wrote would have, about events of the day. It is their position that the purpose of the book was to encourage those who were facing persecution and abuse at the hands of a ruthless Roman monarchy. Still others embrace the book as a great piece of poetic literature filled with symbolic images which should be taken metaphorically.

There are those now and have been those since before the New Testament was complied who would argue that it is a mistake to consider Revelation as a legitimate part of New Testament scripture. No lesser saint than Martin Luther once said of this book, “Christ is neither taught nor known in it.” He argued that he found it to be neither apostolic nor prophetic, two criteria officially required for inclusion by the early church and the synods established for the purpose of determining the makeup of the New Testament. Though he reluctantly accepted Revelation as a part of the canon, that is the officially approved collection of books considered to be sacred scripture, John Calvin’s less than enthusiastic opinion of the book is reflected by the fact that it is the only New Testament book on which he did not write a commentary.

Most scholars agree that Revelation was the last book to be accepted into the canon. The church had completed one synod during which certain books were accepted as biblical canon. Revelation was not included. During the 300s there was a period of several decades in which much discussion took place concerning the book’s inclusion. An influential group of bishops argued against it based on the difficulties inherent in interpreting its message. They were concerned that such a book was ripe for abuse by those seeking to make it say what they wanted it to say. Finally in 397 at the Council of Carthage it was agreed that Revelation would be included as a final book in the New Testament canon. Still today the Eastern Orthodox Church excludes it from its scripture.

So what does your pastor think about the book? Well, I must admit that I find it rather confusing. But I also find much beauty in it and am convinced that at its heart is a wonderful message of hope and optimism. I think our District Superintendent, Walker Epps, said it the best I have ever heard it said when we were discussing the fact that I had been asked by the youth to do a study on Revelation some time back. Walker confessed that he found the book to be a bit overwhelming and bewildering at times, but that he wholeheartedly endorsed the one clear message which is a common thread throughout. What message? The message that there is much evil and much good in the world, that they are constantly in conflict and that, by God’s grace, in the end, whenever that may be, good is going to win.

Can you figure out when the end of time will be by reading the book? Perhaps there are those who can, but I am not among their number. Was this a message of hope and encouragement intended for seven troubled and persecuted churches over which the author had pastoral responsibility? It most certainly was that. Was it written as a condemnation of the abuses by a particular corrupt government, and some identifiable contemporary leaders? I think so. But I am also convinced that it is much more. John says that what he wrote was God’s word given to Jesus and then passed on by angels to John. I believe that this is an inspired book which offers not only hope for the future but also guidance for today. And I believe that its dire warnings and adamant condemnations of abhorrent behaviors are intended neither only for those living in the first century nor exclusively for those living at the end of time, rather that they have relevance for all people of all time..

It seems to me that the message of John’s Revelation is ever contemporary. There are demons all around us and there have been demons around every generation since the beginning of time. There have been those whose natures certainly were the very antithesis of Christ’s in every century. The list is legion. Nero, Hitler, Idi Amin, Pol Pot, Saddam Hussein, Ben Laden, to name just a few.

Life was not easy for John as he wrote. Nor was it for those to whom he wrote. John was in exile, alone on the island of Patmos in the the Aegean Sea. The faithful in the churches he so dearly loved were subject to intense persecution by Domitian’s ruthless Roman regime. John needed a message of ultimate hope and so did the good church folk. They needed to hear the good news that in the end good, and God is a part of all that is truly good, is going to triumph over all that is evil.

While John surely understood that complete victory over sin cannot be achieved this side of heaven, he also recognized that we are, none the less, called to experience the miraculous power of the kingdom of God here and now and to share its joy with those whose lives touch ours every day. After all, it was Jesus who called upon us to pray that God’s kingdom would come on earth as it already had in heaven.

I have a hunch that were John to write to the churches of the twenty first century one of the things he would say to us might well be that many of us have missed the whole point of his controversial writing. I think he might tell us that he did not interpret his vision to be primarily about predicting history or nailing down the dates for the end of time. He might tell us that he was not led to believe that there was anything in his vision which was intended to point particular people, except perhaps those in the roman government, and that he never intended for his treatise to become an impossibly obscure puzzle which would distract folks from the fundamental message of God’s love and grace. I think John would say to us that in this great book he was encouraging an attitude of praise and offering the gift of hope, for the future and for today.

Oliver Sacks is a renowned British neurologist and prolific author of fascinating journal articles and books relating some of his most interesting cases. In one article he writes of a fascinating and intriguing neurological anomaly. As some of you know, Tourette's Syndrome is a bizarre disorder that causes victims to have any number of physical and verbal tics. Some of its victims have constant facial twitches, others find themselves uncontrollably uttering verbal whoops, beeps, and sometimes also strings of the foulest curse words. One man whose story Dr. Sacks relates is a Tourette’s victim whose ticks included deep, lunging bows toward the ground, a few verbal shouts, and also an obsessive-compulsive habit of constantly adjusting and readjusting of his glasses. The man’s profession, a highly skilled and well respected surgeon! Somehow and for some unknown reason, when he dons mask and gown and enters the operating room, all of this fellow’s tics disappear for the duration of the surgery. He loses himself so completely in that mission that for a few minutes or hours he is cured. When the surgery is finished, he returns to his odd quirks of glasses adjustment, shouts, and bows.

Sacks did not draw any spiritual conclusions from this phenomenon, yet I find this doctor a very intriguing example of what it can mean to "lose yourself" in a role. There really can be a great transformation of your life. All things can be made new, as our scripture says, when you are focused on just one thing--focused to the point that bad traits disappear even as the performing of normal tasks becomes all the more meaningful and remarkable.

Something like that is our Christian goal as we seek to bring the kingdom of God to earth for this time and in this place. We are called to love one another and all of God’s other children everywhere, as Jesus loved us. We are called to love God the Father as completely as did God’s Son. To do that, we need an infusion of a kind of love that does not arise naturally from the context of the world as we know it. If we are to be empowered for such a mission we must lose ourselves in Jesus, we must focus on only one thing, on being his disciples. When we do we find that even our ordinary day-to-day activities become deeply meaningful as a strangely wonderful kind of love from another place fills our hearts, as at least for a season our destructive human quirks are laid aside and our spirits are made whole, as the kingdom of God comes to earth in our midst.

This morning we have the opportunity to gather at a common table, there not only to remember but also to look forward. It is good and right that we should come and kneel and ponder the depth of mercy and grace which are the fruits of God’s love for us. It is good to come and to remember the sacrifice Jesus made for each one of us. We are called by the sacrament to confess our sin, to repent of our foolishness. Indeed the liturgy tells us that only as we do so are we worthy to come. But we are also called to remember in these moments that God promises to make all things new, not only in our lives beyond the grave but also here and now. As The Message says in verse three of the scripture we have before us today, there is a voice crying loudly, yearning to be heard. “Look! Look! God has moved into the neighborhood, making his home with men and women!”

When I was growing up I knew all the neighbors and was welcomed in all their homes. For the most part I could just walk through the back door as freely as if I were at home. For most of us it is not like that anymore. Though we may know a few of our neighbors we certainly don’t know them all. And our doors are more often than not locked even when we are at home. It is an unfortunate sign of our times that we are often disconnected from our communities, often unaware of needs around us, forced to be suspicious of strange cars and strange faces.

In his vision from God John heard the proclamation that there was a new resident in the neighborhood and in all neighborhoods. God has moved in, has chosen to dwell among us mere mortals. God has taken up residence on my street and on yours. God is on every street in every nation. The problem is that so many of us are too afraid, too busy, too distracted, too weighed down by the past to notice.

But there is hope. As you come to the table this morning know that you are called to come prayerfully, to confess your sin, to repent and then to welcome that new resident fully into your life, knowing that by God’s grace and through the sacrifice of God’s son, you are forgiven. Come and rejoice in the sure knowledge that death is defeated, gone for good. Know that though there will still be days of trial, in the end, mourning, crying and pain will be defeated. Come move beyond the past and allow God to make all things new, not some day in the distant future, but here and now. We don’t have to wait until sometime in the distant future to experience the kingdom of God, it can be ours here and today can be the day that it comes. For your sake, for the sake of your neighborhood, and for the sake of the kingdom of God, let it be so. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, AMEN.