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“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