Grace and Peace to you from God, our father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
“Sometimes I feel like I’m gong down for the third time”, she said. She as a single mom, holding down a job at a busy hospital in the Human Resources department and she had three kids under 12, a house to clean, a lawn to mow and a car to wash. Her plate was so full she couldn’t even see herself in the mirror across the room.
We’ve all felt like that I suppose. The technology that’s supposed to make our lives easier seems to simply add tasks. I went to NYC for a workshop and didn’t check my email for 2 days (I refuse to get a black berry. I’m afraid I would go down for the third time) and I had a record 95 emails, 37 of which had to be opened and responded to in some way. Ah! modern life.
We hear so much bad news. There is little progress on the war in Iraq and sectarian violence looms, possibly keeping us there when we long to cut the apron strings. The oil spill in the gulf reminds us of how precarious our oil supply is and how much damage it can do to the fishing, oyster and shrimp industry in the Gulf and worse case scenario, if oil comes to the beaches of Mississippi, Alabama and Florida the whole vacation industry could be wiped out and our national economic recovery could be strained even further.
It is really good news in our second lesson that the sea will be no more. The sea was always a symbol of chaos, disorder and threat to the people of Israel. Unlike the Egyptians, Phonecians and the Romans who all had navies, the Israelis never developed a navy or a fishing industry in the Mediterranean. The sea was a place to be feared and many of the gospel stories have a setting on a turbulent sea. The sea is a place of watery chaos, death and destruction.
St. John tells us “I saw a new heaven and a new earth coming down out of heaven from God, And the sea was no more.
What St. John means is that chaos, disorder and death will be no more. No more Hurricane Isabel’s that flood New Orleans and inundate Bowley’s Quarters and Middle River. No more Tsunamis that take the lives of thousands in Indonesia. There will be peace reigning. The Hebrew word for it is Shalom which means perfect peace.
The rest of the lesson defines shalom. Shalom is what happens when all the resources of creation are shared equaled and everything is used for the good of all. There will be abundance - enough for all – no more 1% of the population hoarding 90% of the wealth – everyone enjoying all that God has made. Love, obviously, will rule and reign in everyone hearts because God will dwell with us in person.
The word for this is tabernacling. A tabernacle was a temple, God’s abode on earth in the form of a tent. That’s how nomadic people conceived of it. As the Israeli’s stopped being nomadic herders and settled in the land and built cities, the tabernacle became a temple. Here is the New Jerusalem – God himself is the temple. His presence, his awesome love will dispel all fear – the survival of the fittest mentality – that draws us to such selfishness and self-protectiveness will evaporate like the morning mist under the warmth of the summer sun. “God will wipe away all tears from their eyes’.
I love that image. Remember how in the garden of Eden, God hand sewed clothing for Adam and Eve to hide the shame of their disobedience. Here in the new Eden, heaven on earth, God personally wipes away the tears of all his children. Touching them tenderly like a mother or a father could clean a scraped knee or kiss a boo-boo.
Notice all that is absent from this New Jerusalem. Death, mourning, crying and pain – all the brokenness of life will be obliterated and we will become immortal beings. St. Paul said it pretty much the same way in 1 Corinthians 15: the perishable will put on the imperishable and the mortal, immortality. All you doctors and nurses will be out of jobs, you counselors who fix souls also. St. John gives us a vision of Shalom of eternal peace.
So what does this our destiny say to us in the present? How does this promise of Shalom speak to us in the midst of our grieving, of our suffering with degenerative arthritis or hearing loss? What does this promise of peace say to us in the midst of the struggle to find a new job when the waves of this economic Tsunami overwhelm us?
This morning on NPR I heard Krista Tippet speaking of Desmond Tutu. God’s power of shalom is the power of love released. Debbie and I lived in Zimbabwe for two years form 1980-82. We used to go to South Africa on vacation to pick up canned food and supplies, especially auto parts, we couldn’t get in Zimbabwe. Apartheid resigned in those days – hate and the Devil exploited everyone’s fear. Everyone we met, black and white, was obsessed by race relations and the system which enslaved all of them.
After independence and the many years of brutal violence, they had to build a nation from the ashes of apartheid. Desmond Tutu, Archbishop of Johannesburg proposed an amnesty and forgiveness to anyone who would confess their crimes, black or white.
People came to confess by the thousands – to crimes of torture and murder, horrible things. It had an amazing impact. It was like cleaning the engine of a car from all the gunk that clogged it.
Bishop Tutu spoke about how the system had affected him. He talked about being on a plane when turbulence hit. He said in the quietness of his mind, “Dear God, let this pilot be a white man”. He had been so conditioned by his society to believe that black people were inferior to whites, that in a time of crises he even believed it himself. He felt ashamed of his own fear.
Jesus resurrection, Easter, which we still celebrate, is the sign that this new day is coming. It is the prelude to love’s symphony that will follow.
Let the music of the resurrection bathe your ears, soothe your fears, and give you confidence to swim the sea.
In Jesus’ name. Amen
Pastor John