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United Open Hearts, Open Minds, Open Doors Weekly Sermon |
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Oct 11 – Pastor out-of-town |
“Making All Things New” November 1 When
I was a youngster I sort of believed in monsters. I mean that. I sort of knew they didn’t exist, yet I
still had a lingering fear that they did exist. I would not be their victim. They would not trap or snare me, and I
would not listen to their seductive schemes.
I remember rehearsing in my mind “if a shady person offers me a
compromising deal I won’t take it. If
I see a monster I’ll run in the opposite direction. If a demon corners me I’ll cry out to
Jesus! Only God will be able to save
you. The monster may kill the body,
but it’s my soul that God wants.” These
were the mental exercises which my young mind went through to protect myself
from possible supernatural threats; a sort of spiritual defense training, not
unlike any other defensive training.
In driving class you learn to anticipate the movement of other
cars. In martial arts class you
practice moves to counter attacks by others, and in the military you drill to
be ready for potential threats. You
have to understand at that time in my life I was surrounded by the concept of
monsters. There were those Alfred
Hitchcock movies that stirred up fear, and Saturday afternoon movies on
television of Godzilla, Mothera, King Kong, Dracula, and the like. All of these movies instilled a sense of us
against them, only to be reinforced by the Sixties secret agent shows which
took on super villains. All
of these formed a sense of a surreal fantasy reality. I knew it wasn’t real, but yet there were
these reoccurring possibilities that it might happen. I came to a point where I didn’t want to
be a victim. I refused to let those
possibilities ruin my future; I was going to take charge and make a
difference. So in junior high I
founded a club. We called ourselves
Nemesis. We were going to take on and
stop evil in our world. I remember
sitting on my bunk bed with an old cassette recorder. I was making a recording called “Kill All
Monsters.” The cassette consisted of
the sounds of fictional monsters and the requests to military units to blow
them away. I invited my friends to
record the demise of their scariest monsters.
We all knew that the best way to get rid of a monster is to shoot
it! The monsters aren’t like us. We are human and they are not, and they
deserve to be blown away. Right! The
funny thing is, is that monster mythology is still around. It is still stirring up fear in the minds
of the young and old, and movies and television shows abound with the notion
of ‘something’ coming to get us. I
wonder why that is? Maybe it’s just
because we like that sort of thing.
Maybe it is because we haven’t strengthened our commitment to
Jesus. Or maybe it’s because we can’t
distinguish the monster from the rest of us.
One
of the things that has changed in monster lore is the back story of the
monster. Back when I was a kid a
monster was a person who did something bad and that is when they became
monsters. Or else someone or some
monster turned them into a monster.
The only possible solution was for the monster to die. But
today monsters are more like us. They
look like us. They have family
problems and ambitions just like us.
And for the younger crowd, these monsters like lively music parties
and want to date the ‘average’ girl.
Gone are the days when monsters were disconnected royalty, or the
eccentric scientist or landowners. But
then again we still have evil in our world.
We still have those who perpetrate evil against other human beings;
those who seek the same things that we do and act in dehumanizing ways: putting down others who are different or
who think differently. Where
do you see evil in our world? What are
the things that frighten you? Even though such things may frighten us, they
will never last. They will never
triumph. We should never forget to cry
out to Jesus. Our God is closer than
the hairs on our heads. Our God knows
our hurts and fears. And our God is
ready and willing to take on the monsters that confront us. Just open your hearts and ask. Our
scripture reading this morning is from the Book of Revelation Chapter
Twenty-One and starting with verse one.
The writer of Revelation looks forward to the end of human grief and
loss. The writer envisions a God that
comforts and brings an end to tears and even death. Many of us experience the Book of
Revelation as foreign territory. It
seems like a wilderness of wild events and unfamiliar imagery. Most of the book consists of the visions of
the writer which offer the readers little ease or comfort. Many have sought guidance from more
experienced readers. Some Christians
have interpreted the symbolic language of the book literally, and they have
misused its meaning to foster fear in the minds of their fellow believers. They have done this in sermons, in Bible
studies, fiction books, movies, and even in their political positions and
beliefs. The whole intent of their
message is to scare people into a relationship with God. That is quite surprising, since that is
not the way Jesus instructed his disciples. Take
for instance in verse sixteen the height and length of the walls of New
Jerusalem is one thousand and five hundred miles, which is twelve thousand
stadia in ancient measurements. When
I was living in Kansas City I heard on the radio that I could see the
International Space Station if I looked in the right place in the sky. Although I searched, I never did see the
space station that orbits two hundred and fifty miles above our planet. Taken literally, the writer sees the top of
Jerusalem’s wall that is six times further away than the International Space
Station. It is poetic language twelve
thousand stadia, twelve gates, twelve tribes, twelve foundations, and so
on. It is figurative, and not exact;
the words of imagination and not reality. There
is to be a new heaven and a new earth, and the chaos of our lives has passed
away. Passed away - not blown up by
our greed and desire for false prophecy.
God takes action. God creates
something new. And God provides a new
place for us to dwell. This new place
will be where God dwells with the people and makes tent tabernacle and
dwelling place to be with us. This new
place will be contrary to our old place.
This
new place will be home. God will be
home with us; home where every tear is wiped away from our eyes; home where
each and every one of us is loved. It
doesn’t matter if we are rich or poor, male or female, young or old, of the
flesh and those of the spirit. We will
be home where all of our distinctiveness can be embraced and turned toward
God’s purposes. “Thy kingdom come,
thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” When we embrace the way of Christ we enter
into the kindom of God, which is already here in some ways. We also inherit the hope of the reign to
come, when God’s love and power will have sway in all we do. All wrongs will be righted and there will
be neither suffering nor sorrow anymore.
This is our hope, and this is the hope of our brothers and sisters in
Christ who have already died; that together we will rise in Christ. Together we will live in the promises of
God, in our supernatural union, and our communion of saints with us will have
peace in the presence of our God. When
we strengthen our relationship with God, our fears will diminish. When we yield ourselves to God’s spirit,
and let that Holy Spirit have purpose and meaning in our lives God will have
made tent with us; dwelled in us and through us will take on the monsters of
our world. In
the Name, of God the Creator, Christ the Redeemer and the Holy Spirit that
sustains our lives, Amen. Pastor
Golden Neal |
