Sunday, May 22, 2022

Sixth Sunday of Easter
Acts 16:9-15;
Psalm 67;
Revelation 21:9-14, 21-27
John 16:23-33

Oh let the nations be glad and sing for joy, for you will judge the peoples with equity, and govern the nations on earth. Selah.

The first lesson from the lectionary since Easter has been from the book of Acts. This book describes the beginning of the Church, the time when the apostles and all the believers were trying to figure out what it meant to be a Christian. These are amazing stories of ordinary men and women who did extraordinary things, living faithfully and obeying the call of God in unexpected ways. Peter went into a Gentile home to share the Gospel and went before the Jewish Christian leaders to tell them they were wrong about the Gentiles. Paul stopped persecuting Christians and became the most zealous evangelist, and Ananias went to Paul despite Paul’s horrible reputation. They all believed the word of God and did what He told them to do. They believed the visions, believed the call, and obeyed.

Paul was heading for a particular place when the Holy Spirit stopped him and would not allow him to go that direction. Paul had a vision that sent him toward Macedonia; it was a man calling for his help. They reached Philippi, a city of Macedonia, and decided to stay there are few days. They went to the river outside the city, which was a gathering place for worship on the Sabbath. Just like Peter last week, Paul discovered a place where Gentiles were open to the Gospel. He was greeted by Lydia, a woman of prominence and a woman of faith. She was a minority in Philippi since the city had very few residents who believed in the one true God. Philippi was a community of retired Roman military men, most of whom worshipped the Roman gods. It is odd that the original vision was of a man, but a woman who received him. Would Paul have gone over to Macedonia if the vision had been of a woman?

Paul may not have ignored the vision, but we have to wonder what made those apostles and early Christians believe in the visions they saw. How did they know what was real and what was not real? Did they respond to every dream, every vision, every voice they heard? We see only the stories that were put into the scriptures, but for every true call from God we experience dozens of false calls, calls from the adversary to get us to go in the wrong direction. Certainly, they had similar experiences.

In this case, Paul responded to the vision of a man in Macedonia. Would he have believed it to be true if the vision had been of a woman? Is Lydia what he expected when he arrived in Philippi? I’m not so sure. But in this story we see that Paul presented the Gospel to those who crossed his path, no matter who they were. As Peter had learned that it was good to preach the Gospel to Gentiles, Paul learned that it was good to preach the Gospel to women. God sent him on a journey and met him with surprises, but in the end God’s will was done when Paul baptized her entire household. That was the beginning of the Church in Philippi and Lydia most certainly offered leadership among those early Christians.

It wasn’t going to be easy for any of them. The book of Acts does not just show us the wonderful growth of the Church as the apostles took the Gospel to the four corners of the earth. The stories also show us how they suffered for their faith. Stephen was stoned. Peter and Paul were imprisoned. The Christians were beaten and outcast from their communities, both Jewish and secular. Following Jesus meant that they would not have the support of guilds, in some places they could not even buy food in the marketplace. Faith often meant loneliness, poverty, and starvation.

Though many people interpret the book of Revelation as a timeline of the end times, the symbolism can be understood in political ways. John was warning the Christians of the difficulties they would face from the world. In the midst of the warning, however, are words of comfort and hope. “Stand fast and you’ll dwell with Jesus forever.” Each cycle of destruction in the book leads the faithful to worship God more and more.

The earth as we know it will not last forever. God will create a new earth, and it will be greater than we can ever imagine. The images in the final chapters of Revelation are incredible. The Bible begins with the story of creation and concludes with the story of the new creation. In this we have the hope that while our current world is broken, His new world will be perfect because He has destroyed all evil. We will dwell with Him, forgiven and transformed to be like Christ. We will be made perfect like Him. God finished the work of creation (Genesis 2:1-3), Jesus finished the work of redemption (John 19:30), and the Trinity will finish the entire plan of salvation by inviting the redeemed to dwell in the new creation. For now we live in the in-between, waiting for the day when the promise of eternity will be fulfilled.

Pictures are often deceiving. I am learning to use my new camera, testing it on subjects I’ve never succeeded capturing in the past. A few weeks ago, I caught streaks of lightning. Sunday night I managed to get detailed images of the moon. The photos we see of events like lightning and the eclipse are deceiving because the photographers often use editing techniques to enhance the real. In my pictures, the moon looks so large compared as if I were standing close to it because I was able to use a zoom lens to get a close-up. A wide angle shot at the height of the eclipse showed the moon was barely visible and tiny compared to the houses and trees in my neighborhood.

I once took a picture of a bird at the zoo. The bird appears large in the photo, perhaps three feet tall, but I wasn’t able to catch the reality. It was taller than me, standing level it could look me in the eye. Anyone who has been to the Redwood forests of northern California understands how pictures can be deceiving. We have all seen pictures of these giants, but the photos do nothing to tell the real story. You have to stand in one of the groves and see one of these magnificent trees to truly comprehend their sheer size and majesty. Even if you see a picture of a person standing near the trees, or a picture of a car driving through one of the trees, those people and cars seem more like toys than the trees like giants.

There are so many images in today’s passage; it is a visual image of heaven given to us in words. We can’t even imagine the reality and won’t be able to do so until we are in the midst of it all. The City of God, the New Jerusalem, is so big that it would cover about half of the United States. We want to relate this image to our human experience; we want to try to imagine a city that looks like a perfect cube measuring 1400 square feet along the width, height and depth. It doesn’t make sense to our human minds; cities aren’t perfect cubes that big. However, John was describing the indescribable with words to which his readers could relate: this vision he saw was immense, magnificent, and greater than anything in this world.

The assigned passage does not cover the whole description, but it is worth reading on through Revelation 22, where John describes the Tree of Life. I often think about that tree and wonder about the size. It is often depicted as being twelve different trees because it bears different types of fruit, however God can do anything, and I imagine that it was one enormous tree with a new harvest every month. Can you imagine how big it would have to be to provide fruit for all those whose names are writing in the book of life. Can you imagine a tree that can bear different types of fruit each month?

It is worth considering the number twelve, not just as the number of months in a year, but as a number of another type of fruit. While the modern versions of the Holy Bible list only nine fruit of the spirit (Galatians 5:22-23), I think it is interesting that the Latin Vulgate lists twelve. “But the fruit of the Spirit is, charity, joy, peace, patience, benignity, goodness, longanimity, mildness, faith, modesty, continency, chastity. Against such there is no law.” [Gal. 5:22-23, Latin Vulgate] We automatically think of fruit like apples, oranges and peaches when we think about a tree bearing fruit, but wouldn’t it make sense that the Tree of Life might bear fruit in keeping with faith? What an awesome world in which we would be living if these were the fruits on which we were living! After all, they say you are what you eat.

When we read this passage from John, we try to imagine what he is describing, but our imaginations are simply incapable of seeing that which we will see in that day. It is like we are looking at a picture that is deceptive. We will be delightfully surprised to see the City of God, to dwell in the presence of God and the Lamb, to drink from the River of Life and to eat of the Tree. And though it will be immense, it will be personal and intimate and perfect.

The Psalm for today includes a word that is used more than seventy times in the psalms and a few times in a poetic portion of the book of Habakkuk. That word is “Selah.” It is not easy to define this word, though many suggest that it is simply a liturgical word in the midst of the psalm to direct the music, as in a rest or a stop in modern musical composition.

However, there are those who think this word actually suggests something much deeper than just a pause in the music, that it is also instructional to the singer and listeners. The word “Selah” is thought to mean something like “stop and listen” indicating that the words deserve some extra attention. Others take this meaning even further, suggesting that it is related to the Hebrew word that means “to measure.” With this understanding the listener and singer are given the command to do more than just listen, but to also consider or “measure” the words. In this way, the verse to which it refers should be heard and understood and applied to our lives. Listening is more than hearing the crash in the night; it is stopping to really listen to understand what is happening.

In this passage, the word “Selah” is used twice. The first is following a benediction. “God be merciful unto us, and bless us, and cause his face to shine upon us.” Stop and listen; measure these words and those that which comes after, “That thy way may be known upon earth, Thy salvation among nations.” God blesses us to be a blessing and the purpose of that blessing is so that the world knows His salvation.

That’s what the apostles understood when they obediently followed those visions into the unknown. God’s blessings to us are not for our own good, but for the good of the world.

The second time we see the word “Selah” in this Psalm comes with a directive to the people, that they, meaning all nations, be glad and sing for joy. God’s mercy and judgment is given without favoritism; the blessings are not meant for one people, but for all people. God’s grace extends far beyond our borders, beyond our walls, beyond our opinions and biases.

The apostles and early Christians might have been surprised by the way God was directing their ministries to people they did not expect. We often experience the same uncertainty, but we are reminded that God has a plan we cannot see fully. Like heaven, we see God’s work through limited eyes, and we will one day see more clearly. For now, however we are to trust in God and walk in obedience to His Word that is calling us to share the Gospel with all those to whom we are sent.

Selah. Stop and listen. Understand that God has created and redeemed the whole world and one day the whole world will sing His praise.

I live in a big city, the seventh largest in the U.S. with a population of nearly two million people. Traffic is terrible, and though they are trying to expand the highways, the construction gets in the way at rush hour, and it takes us much too long for us to get from one place to another. A zoning policy that is not well known is that the planners are trying to ensure that every citizen can accomplish everything they need to do in a day by driving less than seven miles. This doesn’t always work out for everyone, especially when families have dual incomes; some people need to commute farther for their jobs. However, most people in the city are just a few miles from all types shopping, churches, doctors, municipal buildings, libraries, etc.

This often means that there are multiple of the same type of places very near to one another. Have you noticed how often there are competing drug stories right across the street? There are five different kinds of auto parts stores in less than a mile near my home. Every town has an auto mile where you can find any brand of vehicle. There was a road in another town near where we once lived that was “Church Row.” It was almost like the street was zoned only for churches. There was one after another. I can’t imagine what traffic was like on a Sunday morning. You might think it would make more sense to merge those churches, especially since some, if not all, were struggling. Some even had similar heritage (I think there were three different Lutheran churches and multiple Baptist churches in a matter of blocks.) Yet, each of those churches, though all Christian, were unique. They each had their own style of worship, their own mission focuses, and their own preferences in the administration. They all share Christ but had aspects that make them unique. And it was those unique aspects that make their identity.

I love my church. I like liturgical worship, lectionary-based readings and preaching, a variety of music. I like the focus on the sacraments and the symbolism found in our worship space. I have tried other types of worship, and I appreciate those who enjoy and prefer their practices even though I was not particularly comfortable with them. That’s ok! We all have unique personalities and like the chain drug stores, there are those of us who are loyal to a particular type. I am delighted to know that there’s a place where someone who likes to shout “AMEN” can go and worship God in a style that gives them joy, but also a place for the quiet, introspective type to find the joy of God in prayer and listening.

We often mourn over the fact that there are so many church bodies because it seems like we are too divided, and yet what a blessing it is to have so many different ways available to us so that everyone can find God in a style that suits their personality! God gives us what we need in many and various ways. That “church row” might seem impractical, but it is actually a gift because it offers opportunities for church to people from every culture. We want our pews to be full, but our task is to share Jesus and every person needs to find ways to experience Him that fills them with joy.

How did Paul know that he was obeying a vision? What made him follow? Did he ever have any other visions that he ignored? Would he have followed the vision if it had been the woman Lydia who had called him to come? It is impossible for us to answer these questions, but it is helpful to realize that the apostles most likely suffered from the same kind of questions that we ask today. For every story of a healing, there must have been a dozen people who weren’t healed. For every conversion there must have been hundreds that never came to faith.

That’s what happens when it is all about “we.” We forget that we do not know the mind of God. We do not have a complete picture of His plan. Our image of success is deceptive. We want to fill the pews and to grow like the church next door, but what God truly wants from us is faithfulness. We have a purpose; we have work to do, and that work is to share the Gospel in a voice that will be heard by the one whom God has opened their heart to hear. That voice might loud and joyful, full of AMENS or quiet and introspective with prayerful listening. God knows and He’s called us to be true to our own identity for His sake. We can’t do that if we are so busy trying to be something we aren’t for people who can’t hear because God is not drawing them to Himself.

It is sad that there are so many different churches, but that’s how it is in this world. The passage from Revelation makes a promise, however. There is a time coming, hopefully soon!, when there will be no need of a temple, or church, or river community because we will dwell in the New Jerusalem. We will dwell in God’s eternal Kingdom, and there will be no need for special places for us to worship in our own personal, individual ways.

We have that today, although not as it will be. See, we do meet in different buildings with different practices, but as long as the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the foundation of those places, then we are one body. We share in the same promises; we are called to the same mission. We are blessed with the same Holy Spirit who gives us everything we need to follow God’s vision for our lives today. When God is our focus, then all we have to do is speak and we will be heard by the hearts God has opened.

Jesus knew it would be this way. He warned the disciples, “Behold, the time is coming, yes, and has now come, that you will be scattered, everyone to his own place, and you will leave me alone. Yet I am not alone, because the Father is with me. I have told you these things, that in me you may have peace. In the world you have trouble; but cheer up! I have overcome the world.” He was addressing the disciples and the fact that they would scatter after His arrest, but isn’t it also true for us today? Aren’t we scattered and in our own worries and fears of failure, and don’t we also sometimes forget the right focus of our ministry?

When our churches seem to be failing, when our pews are empty and we aren’t sure what will happen to our congregation tomorrow, we can have hope: Jesus Christ has overcome the world. We can live in peace even in the midst of chaos because God is with us. We gather together not to be successful but to rejoice in our God. When that is our focus, we will see God doing great things among us.

Life does not always provide for us what we expect. We do have to be careful to discern whether the dreams and visions that we receive are true and that they are from God. As we willingly follow God’s call, obediently sharing the Gospel with those who cross our path, we may experience something different than we expect, but we will see the blessings of God clearly.

This is the will and purpose of God: He calls us to take the risk, to go out into the world and find those opportunities that He has prepared for us to share His Gospel. We just need to go out in faith. God knows when and how it will happen. Thanks to the mark of Christ, we have nothing to fear; our names are written in indelible ink in God’s Book of Life. We aren’t called to worry about the numbers of people in our pews or doubt whether we are doing everything we can do to be successful. We are called to believe. We are called to take one step at a time, sharing with one person at a time.

We don’t need to wait for the Heavenly Jerusalem to come because God’s Light already shines on us even though it seems like there are too many different churches along the road and the people inside are not what we expect. As the body of Christ, we dwell in His glory now just as we will dwell with Him forever, together with all believers in every time and place. The psalmist wrote, “Oh let the nations be glad and sing for joy, for you will judge the peoples with equity, and govern the nations on earth. Selah.” Let us stop and listen to hear His call so that we can follow obediently to His Word.

We can believe in the indescribable promise written by John of the New Jerusalem because we know the end of the story. We already have a place in this incredible city because we have been forgiven. That hope is our foundation, and it is even more beautiful than the jewels John uses to describe it. So let us dwell in this world as if the New Jerusalem has already come to us and share the Gospel so that those hearts which God has opened might hear and receive the forgiveness and hope of Jesus Christ and the peace that comes from knowing that their names are written in God's Book of Life.