Sermon Sun 19 May

We picked up a little on our theme from last week on living in both the 'now' and the 'not yet', and reflected on the God who does new things.

READINGS/ Revelation 21:1-6; Acts 11:1-18

SERMON
Let’s pray:
May the words of my mouth and the thoughts of all our hearts, be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our strength and our redeemer. Amen

I love these two readings.
Two disciples:
John in our reading from Revelation;
Peter, in our reading from Acts.
Two disciples,
both dreaming...
both having visions of God’s kingdom –
of what it looks like,
of what is permissible
of who is included.

John is caught up in a vision of the glory of what will be at the end of all time;
of what God’s kingdom will be when it comes in all it’s fullness.
We saw a little of what that was like last week –
and it’s so amazing,
so astonishing,
so wonderful,
that, well, we get to hear a little more about it this week.
God with us –
God making his home among us:
we will fully and truly and wholly be his people –
and he will be our God.
And even though at times we get small glimpses of glory in our lives now,
then it will be fully glorious.
We will see God face to face:
no more barriers between us –
the ones we put up between one another
and the one we put up between ourselves and God.
All of us, reconciled, and standing together on common ground –
no matter how different we are,
all united, as we stand before God in awe.

No more war and the suffering that comes from war –
for when all is fully known and revealed,
when everything is totally transparent,
we will better see the image of God in each other,
and understand how precious we are
how wonderfully we’ve been made.
‘God with us’ means:
no more death –
the old enemy has gone and all is new...
with death defeated,
no more mourning –
our hearts will be healed from the aching emptiness of grief,
will be lighter for not carrying that heavy load of sadness.
All, all of it, gone,
and in its place, joy.

God, who sits on the throne,
God, the Creator of time,
God, the beginning and the end of everything,
invites us to drink from the water of life.
We do so, and praise him forever.
Wow.
That is some vision.
It’s a vision that should stir up hope in our hearts and drive away fear,
and give us something to get up and out of bed for,
and on our knees and giving thanks to God
who rescues and restores and makes all things new.

This is the God we profess to have faith in.
The God who loves us so, so much, that he wants to spend eternity in our company.
What a vision of what happens whenGod dwells with us.
A vision that, as we thought about last week,
might inspire us to work towards even now, even in our present lives.
Imagine the eradication of poverty in our lifetime;
the end of countries feeling the need to spend billions
on stockpiling nuclear weapons – or indeed, any weapons.
Imagine all that money being put towards finding
cures for cancer, motor neurone disease... building better hospitals.
Imagine everyone with equal access to school,
equal opportunities to be the best and the brightest that they can be.
Imagine big corporations paying their fair share of tax,
and the money being spent on caring for the environment –
money funding projects to extract all the miles of plastic waste floating in our oceans...
money being used to find ways of packaging and carrying our goods that didn’t involve plastic.
Imagine: no more homelessness or hunger.
A place where all live and work together, in love, and for the common good.
That is the vision we see in part in John’s vision.
In the now, be inspired by the not yet:
find that one cause you’re passionate about,
that will bring life, cause joy, help others... get involved.
See the vision begin to move to reality,
for the Kingdom of God is in process, and we are called to help bring it in.

John’s vision refers to the ‘water of life’: who are the thirsty?
Well, in the vision, God invites all to drink.
And thinking of who may enter God’s kingdom,
let’s look at the other vision we head about:
Peter’s vision.
Peter has been travelling around the countryside;
he’s been sharing the story of Jesus, the one who gave him new life...
he’s been able, through the power of the Spirit to cause miracles to happen –
last week we heard about Tabitha, otherwise known as Dorcas.
Now, Peter is still in Joppa, and it’s here that he has his strange vision –
which we find him recounting in Acts chapter 11.
What is it he sees?
A great big sheet, coming down from heaven, upon which are all sorts of animals.
He then hears a voice, asking him to eat.
Peter’s horrified.
Why?
Because, as a good Jewish boy, the animals he’s being asked to eat are forbidden to him:
they’re not Kosher.
He refuses because they’re ‘unclean’.
And then the voice tells him that they have been made clean –
acceptable...
God basically saying, I’m changing the rules – I’m making new ones.
Peter has this same vision three times.
Immediately after the third time, there’s a knock at the door,
and three men are there, at the behest of a Roman centurion called Cornelius –
he’s also had a vision:
to send for Peter.

Peter heads off with them, goes into the house of Cornelius,
tells him and his whole household about Jesus, and then they’re converted:
they find faith in following Jesus, and are baptised:
these thirsty folk are
offered the water of eternal life and they jump at the chance to drink.
Peter then stays with them for a few days...
Now, this is practically unheard of:
no one who was Jewish would go to a non-Jews house –
let alone stay for several days in their company.
It would make the Jewish person ritually unclean.
But that’s the nub of Peter’s vision:
he suddenly understands... the rules have changed –
God is doing a new thing:
even non-Jews are invited to the party –
nothing and no-one is ‘unclean’;
all are welcomed in to the kingdom of heaven,
for all are beloved...
no matter how different.
The kingdom of heaven is a place where the borders are open,
the gates flung wide,
and where even the most unexpected –
especially the most unexpected –
are welcomed in and embraced.

When Peter heads back to Jerusalem and is challenged by the believers
there about spending time with the ‘unclean’,
He tells his story and asks:
‘Who was I to think that I could oppose God!’
And all agree.
It’s a huge sea change for all of them:
they’ve never done it this way before...
but with the vision and the realisation,
they break old habits, old traditions,
and set sail on a new course in their journey of faith.

Two disciples.
Two visions.
Of the kingdom where all things are made new;
of the kingdom where all are made welcome.
We need not be afraid of, or even annoyed by, the new –
of doing things differently;
we need not be afraid of those who might not be like ‘us’ –
of those who we may find uncomfortable...
for what we see in these visions this morning
is that it is God who is bringing in the new,
it’s God who bids all welcome,
and it’s God who calls us to play our part in kingdom building:
How will we follow that vision?
How will we make a start at transforming the world, one brick at a time,
and make the future kingdom a reality? Amen.