When I was a kid, I used to get a magazine in the mail every month, I think it was Canadian Geographic for kids or something similar, and one of my favorite parts was on the second to last page. It was about 9 pictures, super close up, and the game was to see how many of those objects you could identify from that super close-up perspective. So I thought I’d begin this morning with that game for all of us: can you identify the following:
Transition:
Sometimes it is hard to see what things really are when we are up to close. When our perspective is too tight in, when we don’t have any context, when our frame of reference is too narrow. And here is where our faith really helps us because we get a different perspective on life. Here is where our involvement in a community of faith – our church – really helps us because we get other perspectives on life from people who know us and love us. And here is where our exposure to other Christians outside of our immediate circles really helps us because we get to see life and faith from their perspectives.
This week Ernie shared a newsletter with me – it was from the Catholic seminary here in Edmonton. I read that one of the things the young men studying to be priests do is go on a one-year long – yes, one YEAR long – media fast. Except for a couple hours each Saturday, there is no TV, no facebook, no phone, no internet, no newspapers, no youtube, no email, no movies. The story talked about how the young students learned silence, learned to pray, learned to listen to God, learned to be with people and be present with people and listen both to people and to God at the same time. And how they learned to be alone; quiet; with God.
Last week, I had the great privilege of being the co-chair for our denomination’s Ordination Examining Council, which was in Calgary. This is the group that our churches ask to examine those individuals who feel called to be Ordained – to become “Reverends” – and that the council then investigates and grants a recommendation back to the church who then does the actual ordination. It’s a little complicated but here is the point: all six of the people we examined were fantastic, and they each inspired and encouraged me in different ways, but two had a unique perspective. Chung and Geo are Burmese Christians from the Chin people in Burma, and they pastor at the Vancouver Chin Baptist Church. Geo is a full time welder, as well as pastor. Chung is a full time construction laborer, as well as a pastor. They both fled to Canada to escape persecution, arriving within the last 6-8 years, and they both had stories to tell. Chung was 19 when the Burmese army descended on his village and arrested him while he was teaching in the school. He told us his story of being hooded and tied and thrown into the back of the army jeep, kicked and punched repeatedly for 90 minutes as they drove, stopping at a stream where they held his head underwater until he passed out. He was thrown in prison without trial, and was there for 3 years, his hands and teeth were broken, at one point he was buried up to his neck. He stood before the council and in a quiet voice just shared what had happened to him because his people, the Chin, are 94% Christian. Then he got suddenly quiet, and as the co-chair I was sitting up front and could see his emotion well-up, and he was quiet for about 30 seconds or so while he regained his composure, and when he spoke next I could only shake my head in amazement. I wondered what horrific detail was coming next, what in his story he was about to share that had made him have to stop and gather himself. Emotionally I had readied myself for something even harder to hear. But you know what he said next? He regained his composure, looked up and the council, and smiled and said something to the effect of “I thank God for all that happened to me, because while in prison I met a man who introduced me to a living personal relationship with Jesus.” The moment when he had to stop was not at the pain, but at his amazement at the goodness of God who came and met him in the middle of torture and pain and danger. He told us how this man, his teacher, who would sneak him off to the latrines, where they could hide during the rest period in the heat of the afternoon, and tell him about Jesus and disciple him. Someone ratted out his teacher, who refused to implicate Chung, and thus was beaten twice as hard and every time he was hit he cried out “Hallelujah! Amen!”. We were all incredibly moved by his story, his faith, and his perspective. Very different from ours. It suddenly made real to me Jesus’ strange saying, “Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” (Matt 5:10).
Pivotal Moments in the Biblical Story:
This last little while we have been working together to see some of the “big picture” perspective on Scripture, through a sermon series I’ve called “pivotal moments in the Biblical story”. Recently we looked at the birth of the church on the day of Pentecost in Acts 2, and then we looked at Paul’s conversion on the Damascus road. Today I want to take you to one more place, one more pivotal moment in the Biblical story, one that provides us with a very different perspective than the one from which most of us live our daily life, because it is different from all the others in this series in one major way: This pivotal moment has not yet happened.
Rev 21:1-22:5
“Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the old heaven and the old earth had disappeared. And the sea was also gone. 2 And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven like a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. 3 I heard a loud shout from the throne, saying, “Look, God’s home is now among his people! He will live with them, and they will be his people. God himself will be with them. 4 He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. All these things are gone forever.”
5 And the one sitting on the throne said, “Look, I am making everything new!” And then he said to me, “Write this down, for what I tell you is trustworthy and true.” 6 And he also said, “It is finished! I am the Alpha and the Omega—the Beginning and the End. To all who are thirsty I will give freely from the springs of the water of life. 7 All who are victorious will inherit all these blessings, and I will be their God, and they will be my children.
8 “But cowards, unbelievers, the corrupt, murderers, the immoral, those who practice witchcraft, idol worshipers, and all liars—their fate is in the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death.”
9 Then one of the seven angels who held the seven bowls containing the seven last plagues came and said to me, “Come with me! I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb.”
10 So he took me in the Spirit to a great, high mountain, and he showed me the holy city, Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God. 11 It shone with the glory of God and sparkled like a precious stone—like jasper as clear as crystal. 12 The city wall was broad and high, with twelve gates guarded by twelve angels. And the names of the twelve tribes of Israel were written on the gates. 13 There were three gates on each side—east, north, south, and west. 14 The wall of the city had twelve foundation stones, and on them were written the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.
15 The angel who talked to me held in his hand a gold measuring stick to measure the city, its gates, and its wall. 16 When he measured it, he found it was a square, as wide as it was long. In fact, its length and width and height were each 1,400 miles. 17 Then he measured the walls and found them to be 216 feet thick (according to the human standard used by the angel).
18 The wall was made of jasper, and the city was pure gold, as clear as glass. 19 The wall of the city was built on foundation stones inlaid with twelve precious stones: the first was jasper, the second sapphire, the third agate, the fourth emerald, 20 the fifth onyx, the sixth carnelian, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth chrysoprase, the eleventh jacinth, the twelfth amethyst.
21 The twelve gates were made of pearls—each gate from a single pearl! And the main street was pure gold, as clear as glass.
22 I saw no temple in the city, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. 23 And the city has no need of sun or moon, for the glory of God illuminates the city, and the Lamb is its light. 24 The nations will walk in its light, and the kings of the world will enter the city in all their glory. 25 Its gates will never be closed at the end of day because there is no night there. 26 And all the nations will bring their glory and honor into the city. 27 Nothing evil will be allowed to enter, nor anyone who practices shameful idolatry and dishonesty—but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.
22 Then the angel showed me a river with the water of life, clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb. 2 It flowed down the center of the main street. On each side of the river grew a tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, with a fresh crop each month. The leaves were used for medicine to heal the nations.
3 No longer will there be a curse upon anything. For the throne of God and of the Lamb will be there, and his servants will worship him. 4 And they will see his face, and his name will be written on their foreheads. 5 And there will be no night there—no need for lamps or sun—for the Lord God will shine on them. And they will reign forever and ever.
A Big Pivotal Moment:
This is obviously a big pivotal moment! I want to break it down quickly to 3 pivotal moments, working backwards.
1. We believe God will bring this age to an end and establish a new heaven and a new earth, in God’s time. Jesus will come again in glory. The dead will be raised, and all will be judged: the unrighteous will be punished and the righteous will be rewarded, both everlasting. The passage I just read obviously looks ahead to that time, and obviously it is a pivotal moment in the Biblical story.
2. We also believe that at the end of our lives on earth, the next thing we know will be our experience of this vision of eternity. Now we don’t need to get into the debate about whether that is our instantaneous experience or whether we go into some sort of “soul sleep” – all that matters is that the end of our life on earth will be a pivotal moment when we step from this life into the eternal life.
3. We also believe that something of this eternal Kingdom started with Jesus, we became citizens of this New Kingdom when we accepted Jesus as Lord, and so it is to be experienced in the now.
So What?
Each of these 3 pivotal moments impacts us now. Here is the question: how? How does knowing that God will bring this age to an end, and establish a new heaven and new earth that will be all just like I read from Revelation, impact our life today? Your thoughts??
How does knowing (head, heart, spirit) that the end of our lives today is nothing more than the threshold we step across from this life into the next life impact our life today?
And finally, how does being citizens of this “new Kingdom” NOW, impact our lives today?
Perspective:
There is a perspective to live by. Will you step back a bit? Zoom out?? Open the eyes of your heart???
Conclusion
Rev. 22: “17 The Spirit and the bride say, “Come.” Let anyone who hears this say, “Come.” Let anyone who is thirsty come. Let anyone who desires drink freely from the water of life… 20 He who is the faithful witness to all these things says, “Yes, I am coming soon!” Amen! Come, Lord Jesus!”
From CS Lewis, “The Last Battle”, CHAPTER SIXTEEN: FAREWELL TO SHADOWLANDS
