SERMON OF MAY 2, 2010
M. Bruce McKay
 Pilgrim - St. Luke’s United Church of Christ
 “The Power of a Vision”
 Revelation 21:1-6, John 13:31-35

I was talking with someone the other day who had recently come to worship at Pilgrim-St. Luke’s for the first time.  I asked her what the experience had been like.
“Something happened that surprised me,” she said.  “It was like the sun came out.  It was still cloudy outside, but during worship the sun came out.  I can’t really explain it, but everything was bathed in a brilliant light.”
It was in the brilliance of this same light that the seer writing the book of Revelation saw a vision of “a new heaven and a new earth…the Holy City, the New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband…”
It was in the brilliance of this same light that the seer saw a vision of a world where God would wipe away every tear and mourning, crying, pain and death itself would be no more.
How’s that for a vision that is “otherworldly?”
How’s that  for a vision that seems totally disconnected from the world as we know it – the world as it is - a world where tears still flow freely, where death and injustice often seem to reign, and where mourning and crying and pain are all too prevalent.
Some would say that this “otherworldly” vision is simply a distraction when it comes to dealing with the real world problems of poverty, drugs, violence, racism and war.
Some would say that we have enough on our hands without hankering after some make-believe city in the sky that is no closer to coming to earth today than it was nearly 2,000 years ago when the seer first saw it.
And perhaps they’re right.
Perhaps we should dump the Book of Revelation and stick to the here and now. 
After all, the passage we just heard is only a dream that in the minds of many will never come true.
 
Bertolt Brecht, the German writer and poet, highlights the hopelessness of such dreams coming true when he writes:
"Ah the grass, oh the grass, will look down at the sky,
And all the pebbles will roll up the stream,
And we will all be good without batting an eye,
We will make our earth a dream,
On St. Nevercome, Nevercome, Nevercome Day."
Perhaps this vision in the 21st Chapter of the Book of Revelation is all just “pie in the sky by and by” and we shouldn’t waste our time reading it, let alone trying to determine what it might mean for how we live our lives today.
Perhaps those who would say this (or think it) are right.
And perhaps not.
While the minds of many of us may well agree with Brecht, there is still something about the vision in the 21st chapter of Revelation that we can't completely cast aside – any more than the person I spoke with recently is able to cast aside her experience of the sun coming out in worship, when it was still cloudy outside.
As much as we may want to let go of this vision there is something about it that won’t let go of us!
 
This vision speaks to our deepest longings as human beings for that day when death will be no more and all the death-dealing forces at work in the world will bow before the life-affirming forces of love, compassion, community, justice, and peace.
This vision, for many of us, is rooted in how we see the world – as people of faith. There are essentially 3 ways of seeing the world in which we live and each goes with a particular way of responding to life. (The following draws on Marcus Borg’s The Heart of Christianity, p. 34-37)
The first way to see the world is as a hostile and threatening place – a place where people are out to get you – and get your stuff.  Thomas Hobbes, the English philosopher, said that life is “violent, brutish and short.”  This way of seeing the world creates fear and isolation as people work to protect themselves from all the hostile forces at work in the world as they see it.
The second way to see the world is as indifferent to human effort.  It’s neither hostile nor supportive of our lives – our hopes – our dreams.  If we see reality this way then we’re likely to still be defensive, cautious and calculating in our approach to life.  We’re likely to be most concerned with ourselves and those who are important to us.
The third way of seeing the world is as a life-giving, wonder-producing place of exquisite beauty.  The last words of the young, but dying priest in the novel Diary of a Country Priest by George Bernanos reflect this way of seeing the world.  The person beside him at his death bed was concerned that he hadn’t received the sacrament of last rites.  He urgently expresses this concern to the dying priest who replies just before drawing his last breath - “Does it matter?  Grace is…everywhere.” (p. 253)
This way of seeing the world affirms the gracious abundance of a God who feeds the birds of the air and clothes the lilies of the field – a God who sends rains on the just and unjust – and it is this God “in whom we all live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:28).
Seeing the world in this way we see a radical connectedness throughout creation – we see all human beings as those created in God’s own image - as children of God and somehow as our own sisters and brothers – we see, as Martin Luther King Jr. saw so clearly, that we are all “tied in a single garment of destiny.”
Seeing the world in this way leads to radical trust and a willingness “to lose one’s life” to find it – a passion to love others as God loves us – for the sake of a vision that goes beyond ourselves – beyond the horizon of the world as we know it.
Seeing the world in this way we are able to see the world as God intended it to be – we’re able to see the dawning of a new day – a day when “justice will roll down like waters and righteousness like an everflowing stream” (Amos 5:24). 
Because of Easter - we know that God is able to raise up not only a new heaven and a new earth – but a new humanity. 
Because of Easter - we know that God is able to bring courage out of any fear, hope out of any despair, and life out of any death.
Because of Easter we can see all things through the light of God’s glory revealed in the eternal, ever-present, ever-powerful love of Christ.
The resurrection reminds us that God is able to overcome the world’s worst work and make something new – a new creation, a Risen Christ, a Gospel people.
That’s what the person saw during worship that Sunday when the sun came out and it was still cloudy outside.
Seeing this doesn’t mean seeing “pie in the sky by and by” but seeing God’s power in the present here and now.
 
Note how many of the verbs in the vision from Revelation are in the present and not the future tense – “`See, the home of God is among mortals...See I am making all things new!’” 
How?
How is this happening?
How is God making all things new?
God is doing this in the lives ordinary people of faith who see God’s vision for the world and allow that vision to shape their lives.
During Bible Study one day someone described a time in her life when she was deeply troubled and depressed.  She was far more aware of God’s absence than God’s presence and had no clue as to what it meant for her to live the life God intended her to live.
And yet she continued to pray.  One day, as she was praying, she saw something she’d never seen before.  In her mind’s eye she saw in front of her an enormous pair of hands.  They were so large that they were all she could see – until the hands lowered – and she saw nestled in them a tiny version of herself.
There was no doubt in her mind that the hands she saw were the very hands of God – holding her with such tenderness and such power that she knew they would never let her go. This vision has shaped her life ever since.
There’s a woman who lives deep in the bayous of Louisiana.  She’s raised over a dozen children.  Most of them were foster children that she adopted.  She and her husband had done such a remarkable job raising all these children that a city newspaper sent a reporter to interview them. 
When the reporter asked her why she’d done this, the woman replied, “I saw a new word a’comin’.”
The vision in the Book of Revelation – the vision of a New Heaven and a new earth isn’t “pie-in-the-sky by and by,” but power in the present here and now – when we allow this future vision to shape our present lives.
When Jesus says, love one another as I have loved you he’s not talking about what we believe, but how we live. 
He’s talking about seeing the world through the light of God’s love and trusting that no matter how cloudy it may get – no matter how stormy our lives may be – no matter how deep the darkness may become - the light of God’s love revealed in this vision of God dwelling with us and among us is “trustworthy and true.” (Rev. 21:5b)
It’s this vision that creates the gleam in the eye of those who have every reason to weep! (Paul Rogat Loeb, The Impossible Will Take a Little While, p. 128)
It’s this vision that enables us to love one another just as Jesus loves us!
It’s this vision that creates hope when all seems hopeless!
It’s this vision that creates the passion to work today for a tomorrow that may or may not come in our lifetime!
It’s this vision, in the words of Vaclav Havel, that creates “the ability to work for something because it is good, not just because it stands a chance to succeed.” (Paul Rogat Loeb, The Impossible…, p.82) 
It’s this vision that the writer of the Book of Proverbs had in mind when he said, “where there is no vision, the people perish”   (Proverbs 29:18 KJV).
Whether we know it or not, I believe that many of us have seen this vision – otherwise it would have no hold on our hearts.  As Thomas Merton reminds us, using another of our five senses, “You can’t hunger for what you have not tasted.” 
 
In the light of this vision we are all one – gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered, English speaking and non-English speaking, white, black, brown or any other skin color, legal or illegal immigrant.
When my great grandfather was called to serve the First Presbyterian Church of Houlton, Maine he traveled 17 miles west from Richmond Parish, New Brunswick, where he’d been serving the Richmond Parish Presbyterian Church.  When he brought his family across the border into Houlton in the last decade of the 19th century, there was no question as to whether or not his wife and children could come with him. 
There was no question as to whether he was a legal or illegal immigrant to the United States. 
There was no question as to whether he was welcome or not.
In those days, for white, Scottish protestants going from New Brunswick to Maine was virtually the same as  going from Maine to New Hampshire, or New York to Pennsylvania. 
We are a nation of immigrants.  Unless your ancestors were Native American or came to this country against their will chained below the decks of slave ships you are an immigrant or the descendent of immigrants. 
There are now 12 million people in this country without the proper papers to show that they are here legally.  We could call them what people once called Italian immigrants – WOPS – those who are “without papers.”  Or we could call them neighbors – and love them as we love ourselves.
As our federal elected officials work to craft comprehensive immigration reform and we reflect on our feelings about this issue, Jesus reminds us that there is always a higher law than the law of the land.  That law – that commandment – is to love one another just as Jesus loves us.  That law may lead Christians to take different positions on specific legislation, but if the position taken is only in response to the law of the land and not the higher law of love as well, then it’s not a position that has been shaped by our commitment to Christ.
In the light of God’s vision of the holy city, the new Jerusalem, we are all one.
Those who created our nation saw this vision, even if they didn’t let it fully shape their lives.
Langston Hughes, a descendent of slaves, saw this vision in his poem, “Let America be America Again”
Let America be the dream the dreamers dreamed—
Let it be that great strong land of love
Where never kings connive nor tyrants scheme
That anyone (man) be crushed by one above.
O, let my land be a land where Liberty
Is crowned with no false patriotic wreath,
But opportunity is real, and life is free,
Equality is in the air we breathe.

It was the light of this vision that shone in worship that day for the person who knew she was in God’s presence as surely as she knew that it was still cloudy outside.
God’s vision for our congregation is to be a community of faith where people see their deep connection with others – including those we don’t know and those whose lives appear to be very different from our own.
 
God’s vision for our congregation is to be a community where people see how God’s home is within and among us – giving us grace and courage to live in communion with God and in community with one another by living the life – the unique and precious life - that God has given each of us to live.
When we see our lives - our life together – and our world through the vision in Revelation 21 and trust that vision enough to let it shape our lives then the sun will be out, not matter how cloudy it may be!
To God be the glory!
Alleluia!  Amen!