I Am Making All Things New! Easter 5C
It’s worth reminding ourselves that The Bible is not “a book.” It is a library of books that includes poems, letters, apocalyptic visions, stories, myths, proverbs, historical narratives, and of course, four Gospels, which comprise their own genre. As such, this library of various kinds of literature have been written, edited, and redacted over nearly three thousand years, and further interpreted with each new translation that comes along. Understanding all of this, it should be obvious that there is no such thing as “a biblical world view.” Rather, The Bible presents a great variety of worldviews which have been further interpreted by translators and commentators throughout the ages of its ongoing existence. It consists of many living documents.
One might say that the Bible’s one consistent unifying theme is a deep concern with how we are to live here and now. Here being on this planet, and now being the present time. As such, the Bible shares this concern with at least several other religious traditions including Hinduism, Buddhism, Daoism, Confucianism, Judaism, Islam, and of course, Christianity. Furthermore the Bible offers scant evidence that it is concerned with how one, or how a community, might get into heaven. In fact, the Bible shows little concern at all about what happens when we die. Rather, it seeks to map out ways in which we might better live with one another, and bring whatever imaginings or hopes may be represented by the word “heaven” into this world here and now. Which generally means, how might we reconcile all those things that separate us from one another?
Finally, the potpourri of excepts for this Fifth Sunday of Easter offer another Biblical point of view: things are always changing. Nothing stays the same. The Bible, like everything in the known Universe itself, is constantly in a state of change as conditions on the ground evolve and change as well. The texts mean to challenge us to accept the truth that change is a good thing.
For instance, Peter has left the parochial world of living in and around Jerusalem and discovers, in a mystical vision, that the God of Abraham, Issaac, Jacob and Jesus shows no partiality. Not only does the vision shatter all notions of eating kosher, it shatters Peter’s belief that only circumcised Judeans can follow Jesus. Peter is so shaken by this revelation, that he goes right out into the region of Joppa and in the name of Christ and the Holy Spirit baptizes a household of Gentiles and eats with them. Both his companions and the believers back in Jerusalem cannot believe it. We must remember that the term “Gentile” simply means all others who are not circumcised Judeans, and suddenly Peter is ready to welcome Gentiles into the community of Christ without distinction. And also animals of all kinds. [i]
This diversity of God’s kingdom is echoed in Psalm 148, which predates the books of the New Testament by many many centuries. The Psalm envisions that all people, all creatures, and all of the environment can praise the Lord! This includes all angels, the sun and the moon, mountains, the sea, hills, fruit trees and cedars, sea monsters, Kings, all peoples, young men, maidens, old and young together, wild beasts, birds, creeping things, and also much cattle! This world is one whole and holistic community of life, and as Jesus in John 13 proclaims, a community of Christ-like Love. [ii] We are to love one another as he has and continues to love us. We are to love the environment as he has and continues to love us. We are to love every thing and every creature as he has and continues to love us. Love, as attraction and union is at the heart of the entire universe.
For as the vision in Revelation that concludes the entire
Bible proclaims:
"See, the home of God is
among mortals.
He will dwell with them as their
God;
they will be his peoples,
and God himself will be with
them;
he will wipe every tear from
their eyes.
Death will be no more;
mourning and crying and pain
will be no more,
for the first things have passed away."
Everything is being made new. As the old things pass away, a new world comes into play. As one commentator suggests, it is like Baseball. The old teams shall pass away, and new players from every kingdom on earth shall make a new team – the team of Christ-like Love! And not only the team, but a new stadium, with seating enough for all. All are welcome on the team and in the new stadium. The fundamental pain of human separation shall finally be over as we recognize and accept God’s presence among us as God seeks to “wipe every tear from [our] eyes. Death will be no more, and pain will be no more, for the first things have passed away.” [iii]
We might note that these visions of overcoming long periods of human separation from one another and from the God who continues to create all that is seen and unseen all come from periods of great darkness. As the narrator of the Gospel of John notes, “And it was night.” It was in a moment of darkness between the betrayal of Judas and the denials of Peter that Jesus announces his return to God his Father in which he and the father are to be glorified! It is to say that the betrayals and denials cannot and will not thwart the divine intention that this world is to become a Community of Christ-like Love.
Community, from the Latin communitas, by the way, denotes a coming together with no hierarchical arrangements – in which Love is no longer trivialized as an emotion, or debated as a philosophical virtue under scrutiny. This glorification of Christ inaugurates a new paradigm, a new era, in which even Love is made new. For now, Jesus is to be the distinctive definition of Love. [iv]
These various visions of how to live here and now collected in The Bible speak directly to the Church which is called to be the vanguard community of Christ-like Love. And lo, we stand divided amongst ourselves, both in the Church Universal, and in the smallest of local congregations. The words of Joe Hickerson, later finished by Pete Seeger, echo through the centuries, “When will we ever learn, when will we ever learn…” Just as Peter was astonished to learn, we all, each of us, have a role to play to continue Christ’s work of reconciliation in a broken and divided world – we are to reconcile the whole world and everything therein. The first things will pass away, with or without us. All things are being made new. One day we all shall be One, as Christ and the Father are One. May we be open, day by day, to the ways in which the Holy Spirit means to move us, shape us, and renew us as God’s own people. May our Community of Love let Christ-like Love be the distinguishing mark of who we are and whose we are, by which others, even those utterly unlike us, will want to be part of the new thing God is doing even now in the midst of the present darkness that seeks to divide us. Amen.
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