5th Sunday of Easter
Revelation 21:1-5
John 13:31-35
"Heart Prints"
Revelation 21:
1:1* ¶ Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more.
2* And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband;
3* and I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling of God is with men. He will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself will be with them;
4* he will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain any more, for the former things have passed away.”
5* And he who sat upon the throne said, “Behold, I make all things new.” Also he said, “Write this, for these words are trustworthy and true.”
John 13:
31* When he had gone out, Jesus said, “Now is the Son of man glorified, and in him God is glorified;
32* if God is glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself, and glorify him at once.
33* Little children, yet a little while I am with you. You will seek me; and as I said to the Jews so now I say to you, ‘Where I am going you cannot come.’
34* A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; even as I have loved you, that you also love one another.
35* By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
Grace and Peace to you from our Lord and Saviour, Jesus who is the Christ. Amen
The apostle John is imprisoned on the island of Patmos. He is aging and looking forward to the next life. As he looks longing across the sea, a vision, a revelation comes from God picturing the new life, the new heaven, the new earth, a new Jerusalem and John writes of this vision, this revelation from God. In this book simply entitled, Revelation, we have a picture, in imagery of John’s day of heaven, of the new life in Christ.
Listen again to part of that revelation:
¶ Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more.And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband;
He continues:
and I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling of God is with men. He will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself will be with them;
4* he will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain any more, for the former things have passed away.”
Can you feel the joy, the brilliance, the newness of this life with God through Christ? Do you have a sense that it is beginning now on this earth through, the life of Christ as he dries the tears, gives the promise of the resurrection. As he brings healing or strength, and gives comfort to those who are distressed?
One small phrase gives a clue to John’s feelings as he lives in isolation upon that island. Notice he says "for the sea was no more!’
This idea comes from a sermon in the Augsburg Epistles series by Pastor Robert Borgwardt.
John is saying something very significant in those few words. He is speaking about separation, he is speaking about the sea separating him from his friends, his books, Christian fellowship, separation from the land where Jesus walked and lived, separation from all that made life bearable for John. So John says very clearly that heaven will be a place where there will be no more separation. There will be completeness, a togetherness, a union of all things.
John found in his vision a promise from God that through the power of the resurrection, through the salvation won for us by Christ, each person will experience a sense of closure, or completeness in life. Unions will take place, people will be fully reconciled, answers to the why questions of life will be answered. A trusting faith in Christ will be brought to its completion. Healing will take place in all the broken areas ’of life, and perfect love will allow everyone to be a brother and sister to each person and a perfect child to God, all this will happen in heaven, in the new dwelling place.
All of us live now with a bit or a lot of separation in our lives. We can be separated from God through our sin, separated from ourselves through the brokenness of this world.We can be separated from each other through our unwillingness to love others as we love ourselves.
As we trust in Christ now to lead our lives, beginning of closure, a beginning of, completeness, an ending to the separations in our lives is beginning. As we trust more and more in Christ, the more, we will find that we don’t have to achieve closure, or completeness within our selves but we can surrender that to Christ. He will achieve completeness for us.
Jesus tells us in our gospel lesson that one way we can feel the new heaven and new earth now, is to love one another.
He says: that you love one another; even as I have loved you, that you also love one another.
John saw in his vision of the new heaven and the new earth of completeness of love. And Jesus tells us in the gospel lesson that loving one another is the most complete way to live.
C. S. Lewis says this about love: To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly be broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket -- safe, dark, motionless, airless -- it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, and irredeemable.... The only place outside Heaven where you can be perfectly safe from all the dangers of love ... is Hell. 1
Love is all around us. Love is the only way to live completely in Christ. But love can hurt you. Love can make you miserable and at the same time give you a feeling of joy. Once we start thinking about this word love, all kinds of things start happening. Questions, doubts, wonderment, values, ideas, relationships, all come into play. Yes, this four letter word seems simple enough, but in reality, it is the most, difficult thing, the most difficult concept we can encounter.
Did you know that Jesus gave only two commandments in the New Testament? One about loving God and the other this one about loving each other. The commandments are written in different versions in different places in the New Testament, but essentially, they are alike. He commands us to love. But that word commands is difficult for us Lutherans, because we believe that we live not by the demands of the law, but by the grace of God. So, why does he command us to love? Why does he order us to love?
Notice who Jesus was addressing when he gave this commandment. He was addressing his disciples, people who were already part of his family, people who had experienced his grace, people who were in a relationship to him. The new command has nothing to do with life or becoming a child of God. Christ has forgiven us and given us life before we even thought of obeying him. The new command does not tell us, "Do this if you want to be saved," but rather, "Do this if you want to glorify God ".
Do this if you want to praise God, do this if you want to serve God. It is thus not a command to qualify us for the kingdom. It is a command to us as members of God’s family. Only here does Jesus addressed his disciples as "little children." He is speaking to them as part of the family, not as people who are seeking admission. He is not telling them how to become members but how we are to act as family members.
Why does Jesus command us to love, because God has loved us so much that we are motivated to reflect his love to others.
God through Christ has loved us and we are commanded to reflect that love to those around us.
A nice little poem says it best I think:
Heart Prints
Whatever our hands touch
We leave fingerprints!
On walls, on furniture
On doorknobs, dishes, books.
There’s no escape.
As we touch we leave our identity.
Oh God, wherever I go today
Help me leave heartprints!
Heartprints of compassion
Of understanding and love.
Heartprints of kindness
And genuine concern.
May my heart touch a lonely neighbor
Or a runaway daughter
Or an anxious mother
Or perhaps an aged grandfather.
Lord, send me out today
To leave heartprints.
And if someone should say,
"I felt your touch,"
May that one sense YOUR LOVE
Touching through ME. 2
Lord, send me out today to leave heart prints on those around me. Lord, help to to reach out with your heart of love.
There are a million ways that we can love one another.
A closing poem says it best;
She sat alone in an old folks home,
Lonely and old and gray;
She wished that someone-just anyone,
Would call on her that day.
DID YOU?
He lay for days on his hospital bed,
The hours were long, and hard;
He wished someone-just anyone,
Would write him a card.
DID YOU?
Her loved one had died, just a few months ago,
All sad and lonely she sat;
She wished that someone-just anyone,
Would drop in for a chat.
DID YOU?
He was far from home on foreign soil,
Feeling sick, lonely, and blue;
He wished that someone-just anyone,
Would write him a line or two.
DID YOU?
She spent long hours, that teacher,
Giving the best she knew;
She wished that someone-just anyone,
Would say a brief "THANK YOU."
DID YOU?
That matter of Christian service
We are living it day by day;
When we help someone-just anyone,
As we walk along life’s pathway.
DID YOU? 3
Amen
Written by Pastor Tim Zingale April 30, 2007
1 from grace Mail
2 from [WordsOfFaith] Heart Prints
3 author unknown from Inspiration Lane
