Sermon—April 25, 2010
St. Paul’s…Cambria
Father Fred Heard
John 10:22-30
I never was sure…no actually I never really thought that I would ever preach much from the Book of Revelation and certainly not about “end times.” But here we are! I saw our Green Commission folks planting things in the Quiet Garden on Thursday, and told them I was writing a sermon regarding the end of the world and they wanted to know if they were wasting their time doing the planting or if I had a date for them. I told them they had to come this morning to get the date…then they wanted to know if I knew who the anti-Christ was, and I told them I needed another couple of weeks of research before announcing that name…but that I was pretty sure it wasn’t President Obama!
And we read in today’s gospel Jesus is asked to reassure the people that he is the Messiah and if he is truly the ONE. Jesus answered, “I have told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father’s name testify to me; but you do not believe, because you do not belong to my sheep.”
Well, there are so many things that we have been told about Jesus and that He has told us about Himself and about God, and still we do not believe. Strange isn’t it. Jesus speaks to us pretty directly about the end of the world…but again, we do not believe. Are you prepared for the end of the world on December 21, 2012? That is supposed to be the magic date. That’s less than two years away! One older gentleman told me he wanted to live at least to that date to see if the world is really going to end!
That date is “pretty scientific.” Supposedly it is based on a prophecy contained in an ancient Mayan calendar…at least that is the story from the recent sci-fi thriller 2012. So should we take it seriously? Did you know there is a book called The Complete Idiots’ Guide to 2012? Turn to that book, and you will find that there are more than 600,000 websites devoted to this very theme!
People enjoy being scared! I remember as a boy walking by a funeral home with my friend, and we would jump up to try and peer in to the windows where we thought the viewing rooms were located. An apocalyptic film, of course, is a favorite Hollywood scheme for opening all kinds of amazing special effects. By anyone’s calculation, the end of the world is just as scary as a good vampire movie.
The Book of Eli has been advertised as “a post-apocalyptic tale, in which a lone man fights his way across America in order to protect a sacred book that holds the secrets to saving humankind.” Now my dear Brothers and Sisters, there is a sacred book that holds the secrets to saving humankind. It is probably, however, not the one moviemakers have in mind.
There is much silliness about the end of time. There are many tales. They usually merit hardly a yawn. Does anyone remember Y2K? The dawning of the year 2000 was surely the end of time, according to some. And you know what, we woke up January 1, 2000, and not a thing had changed…and most of our computers had made the successful leap to the new century! There are many Christians who are convinced by such works as Tim LaHaye’s Left Behind novels that the rapture is near at hand. Well, I enjoy a good book just as much as anyone else…like I absolutely love the entire Harry Potter series. However, for me to expect pictures to move in their frames or people to go flying on brooms through the air as they do in Harry Potter, is just as silly as someone expecting one of Tim LaHaye’s books to be fact.
Before Tim LaHaye, of course, there was the book, The Late, Great Planet Earth by Hal Lindsey. This book, which was the best‑seller of the 1970s with more than 28 million copies sold, told how the birth of modern Israel signaled that we were in the “end times.” Lindsey also predicted that Christians would soon be raptured. It’s been almost 40 years now, and nothing predicted in Lindsey’s work has happened.
This is upsetting from the standpoint that many of these stories just make Christians look very foolish. A number of folks are into numerology. There was the person who suggested that the earth would end in 1988 and gave 88 reasons for his claim. Jay Leno has discussed “666 Cough Preparation” as the band played the theme music from the movie The Omen. When I was in the Legislature, I would get letters from folks who would be discussing the numbers 666 and how they related to the political times in which we lived. This was all tied to the Federal Reserve System and the Rothschild Banking Family. It really is hard to respond with a straight face…but they believed what they wrote. Some very sincere, but insecure, Christian believers have made the rest of us look absolutely ridiculous.
People of every generation have awaited the end of time and the destruction of the earth. This is in spite of the fact that Jesus, the ultimate authority on such things, has already told us that no one knows when that day and hour will be. In Mark we read, “But about that day or hour no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.” Jesus even cried out against those who keep looking for signs. “An evil and adulterous generation,” he said, “looks for a sign.” But still a bunch of authors continue to write novels on this fear-inducing theme. Even Franklin Graham said this week that his father still has one sermon he would like to deliver on the “end times.”
The book of Revelation has its own special effects. And some of it is frightening. It is written in heavy symbolism. The church was being persecuted when Revelation was being written, so the meaning of some of it had to be veiled. We don’t know how much of it was intended to be taken literally. It is debated about whether it should have ever been included in the Bible…like so many other scriptures, there is much that people wildly interpret; and truth be told, they have no notion about the real meaning of much of the Book. Revelation symbolism is sometimes disturbing. But much of it is awe-inspiring and majestic.
This morning, we spotlight Revelation 7:9-17: “After this I looked, and there was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, robed in white, with palm branches in their hands. They cried out in a loud voice, saying, "Salvation belongs to our God who is seated on the throne, and to the Lamb!"
And all the angels stood around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, singing, "Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen."
But you see our book ends differently than any apocalyptic thriller. “Never again will they hunger; never again will they thirst. The sun will not beat upon them, nor any scorching heat. For the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd; he will lead them to springs of living water. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”
“And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.” Think how tears would flow in theaters across this land if people knew how the apocalypse really does end with the Creator of everything that is, or was, or ever will be wiping away the tears from His children’s eyes. Hollywood is really not in step.
Since this topic of the end of time keeps rearing its ugly head, and since some people really do worry about it, let’s spend a few moments giving the subject a little perspective. The first thing we need to say is this: This world will come to an end some day, but the odds of it happening in our lifetime are very, very remote. Every scientist will tell you that there will be an end to this universe some day. Nothing in this universe lasts forever. If God wills it, the end could be today, but chances are it is a long way off. I don’t care what the Mayan calendar says, or Nostradamas, or Tim LaHaye or Hal Lindsey this earth has been around for millions of years and may be around for millions of years yet to come. Nobody knows and please don’t listen to me. Listen to Jesus. Sure, something cataclysmic could happen this afternoon, but the odds of the world coming to an end in our lifetime are very slim.
Those who have invested time and energy in the global warming movement may beg to differ. There is no question that we are in an unsettling time of climate change. We need to take seriously the warnings of reputable scientists, and make responsible changes in our use of energy. Your grandchildren’s future may be at risk.
The spread of nuclear weapons is also a matter of deep concern. Years ago Albert Einstein warned us that the unleashed power of the atomic bomb has changed everything, except our way of thinking. Because we have not changed, “this earth drifts towards unparalleled catastrophe.” Who would argue with Albert Einstein on this question? I was very pleased to see our President take a strong stand in bringing world leaders to Washington last week to discuss this very topic.
We have the horror of international terrorism. Technology is wonderful in many ways, but in the hands of terrorists, we have good reason for fear. The perfection of a suitcase-sized nuclear device is still a legitimate concern. We live in a world in which a small group of crazed and determined individuals can wreak havoc on society. It may be only a matter of time until we have another catastrophe at least on the scale of 9/11.
Kurt Vonnegut wrote a novel years ago titled, Cat’s Cradle. In this novel an important book comes to light. Its somewhat lengthy title is, What Can a Thoughtful Man Hope for Mankind on Earth, Given the Experience of the Past Million Years? The chief character of Vonnegut’s book is anxious to read this mysterious book. But when he does, he finds that it doesn’t take long. The whole book consists of one word: “Nothing.” What can a thoughtful man hope for mankind on earth, given the experience of the past million years? Nothing.
This is a scary world and it is God’s world. Ultimately, God is in control of this world’s destiny. Humanity can ruin the planet in scores of ways, but we cannot defeat God’s over-all purpose for creation. There are positive images for our future contained in the scriptures. Are we afraid to allow hope into our lives?
Once there was a Quaker minister named Edward Hicks. He depicted God’s promises for the future in a painting which he called “The Peaceable Kingdom.” He painted several dozen versions of this theme. He gives us a beautiful vision of a world at peace. It is a world where babies can play with wild animals and where people of different races can sit down and eat together. Hicks took his inspiration from the Scriptures that present God’s future kingdom. “The wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid, the calf and the lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them.”
Why do we not talk about these positive images from the Scriptures about the future? We’ve allowed extremists to extract a tiny portion of scripture to distort what the Bible really does say about God’s plan for the world. They’ve gotten rich, they’ve lifted the rest of us up to ridicule, and they have scared us.
What the Bible truly says about the future is this: God is in control of the future and God will not forsake God’s children regardless of what may come. We don’t know what the future may hold, but we know Who holds the future. Yes, Christ told us He would return someday, but that should not be a reason for anxiety, but for great joy. We should not be dependent on the wisdom of some barely literate self-ordained preacher. We should place all of our faith in the teachings of Jesus Christ. Jesus said he would be back someday. He is our Lord and Savior. His return can only be good news for those who love Him. What’s the big deal? In the meantime, we have all kinds of very real obstacles in the real world we have to face every day.
The real message of Revelation is that God will be with us regardless of our circumstances. When the book of Revelation was written, Christians were suffering miserably at the hands of the civil authorities. The writer of Revelation wanted them to know this was only a temporary situation. God would not forsake them for long. And that message of hope and faith is just as real today as it was then.
We can say to all the forces of evil in this world, “You have lost already!” That is what the writer of Revelation was saying about those who were persecuting the early church, “You have lost already!” Even more importantly, the writer wanted all Christians to know that even when it seems evil has the upper hand, whether in the world at large or in our individual lives, God is still in control. God will never forsake us regardless of our circumstances.
And so the story ends, and there are many incidents in our lives when that is the case…but we can tell Hollywood how the story ends. All God’s children will experience tragedy or loss in their lives. But as Paul Harvey would say, “the rest of the story” is in Revelation: “Never again will they hunger; never again will they thirst. The sun will not beat upon them, nor any scorching heat. For the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd; he will lead them to springs of living water. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.” That’s how it ends. That is truly the rest of the story. The God of all creation wipes away tears from His children’s eyes. AMEN
St. Paul’s…Cambria
Father Fred Heard
John 10:22-30
I never was sure…no actually I never really thought that I would ever preach much from the Book of Revelation and certainly not about “end times.” But here we are! I saw our Green Commission folks planting things in the Quiet Garden on Thursday, and told them I was writing a sermon regarding the end of the world and they wanted to know if they were wasting their time doing the planting or if I had a date for them. I told them they had to come this morning to get the date…then they wanted to know if I knew who the anti-Christ was, and I told them I needed another couple of weeks of research before announcing that name…but that I was pretty sure it wasn’t President Obama!
And we read in today’s gospel Jesus is asked to reassure the people that he is the Messiah and if he is truly the ONE. Jesus answered, “I have told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father’s name testify to me; but you do not believe, because you do not belong to my sheep.”
Well, there are so many things that we have been told about Jesus and that He has told us about Himself and about God, and still we do not believe. Strange isn’t it. Jesus speaks to us pretty directly about the end of the world…but again, we do not believe. Are you prepared for the end of the world on December 21, 2012? That is supposed to be the magic date. That’s less than two years away! One older gentleman told me he wanted to live at least to that date to see if the world is really going to end!
That date is “pretty scientific.” Supposedly it is based on a prophecy contained in an ancient Mayan calendar…at least that is the story from the recent sci-fi thriller 2012. So should we take it seriously? Did you know there is a book called The Complete Idiots’ Guide to 2012? Turn to that book, and you will find that there are more than 600,000 websites devoted to this very theme!
People enjoy being scared! I remember as a boy walking by a funeral home with my friend, and we would jump up to try and peer in to the windows where we thought the viewing rooms were located. An apocalyptic film, of course, is a favorite Hollywood scheme for opening all kinds of amazing special effects. By anyone’s calculation, the end of the world is just as scary as a good vampire movie.
The Book of Eli has been advertised as “a post-apocalyptic tale, in which a lone man fights his way across America in order to protect a sacred book that holds the secrets to saving humankind.” Now my dear Brothers and Sisters, there is a sacred book that holds the secrets to saving humankind. It is probably, however, not the one moviemakers have in mind.
There is much silliness about the end of time. There are many tales. They usually merit hardly a yawn. Does anyone remember Y2K? The dawning of the year 2000 was surely the end of time, according to some. And you know what, we woke up January 1, 2000, and not a thing had changed…and most of our computers had made the successful leap to the new century! There are many Christians who are convinced by such works as Tim LaHaye’s Left Behind novels that the rapture is near at hand. Well, I enjoy a good book just as much as anyone else…like I absolutely love the entire Harry Potter series. However, for me to expect pictures to move in their frames or people to go flying on brooms through the air as they do in Harry Potter, is just as silly as someone expecting one of Tim LaHaye’s books to be fact.
Before Tim LaHaye, of course, there was the book, The Late, Great Planet Earth by Hal Lindsey. This book, which was the best‑seller of the 1970s with more than 28 million copies sold, told how the birth of modern Israel signaled that we were in the “end times.” Lindsey also predicted that Christians would soon be raptured. It’s been almost 40 years now, and nothing predicted in Lindsey’s work has happened.
This is upsetting from the standpoint that many of these stories just make Christians look very foolish. A number of folks are into numerology. There was the person who suggested that the earth would end in 1988 and gave 88 reasons for his claim. Jay Leno has discussed “666 Cough Preparation” as the band played the theme music from the movie The Omen. When I was in the Legislature, I would get letters from folks who would be discussing the numbers 666 and how they related to the political times in which we lived. This was all tied to the Federal Reserve System and the Rothschild Banking Family. It really is hard to respond with a straight face…but they believed what they wrote. Some very sincere, but insecure, Christian believers have made the rest of us look absolutely ridiculous.
People of every generation have awaited the end of time and the destruction of the earth. This is in spite of the fact that Jesus, the ultimate authority on such things, has already told us that no one knows when that day and hour will be. In Mark we read, “But about that day or hour no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.” Jesus even cried out against those who keep looking for signs. “An evil and adulterous generation,” he said, “looks for a sign.” But still a bunch of authors continue to write novels on this fear-inducing theme. Even Franklin Graham said this week that his father still has one sermon he would like to deliver on the “end times.”
The book of Revelation has its own special effects. And some of it is frightening. It is written in heavy symbolism. The church was being persecuted when Revelation was being written, so the meaning of some of it had to be veiled. We don’t know how much of it was intended to be taken literally. It is debated about whether it should have ever been included in the Bible…like so many other scriptures, there is much that people wildly interpret; and truth be told, they have no notion about the real meaning of much of the Book. Revelation symbolism is sometimes disturbing. But much of it is awe-inspiring and majestic.
This morning, we spotlight Revelation 7:9-17: “After this I looked, and there was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, robed in white, with palm branches in their hands. They cried out in a loud voice, saying, "Salvation belongs to our God who is seated on the throne, and to the Lamb!"
And all the angels stood around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, singing, "Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen."
But you see our book ends differently than any apocalyptic thriller. “Never again will they hunger; never again will they thirst. The sun will not beat upon them, nor any scorching heat. For the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd; he will lead them to springs of living water. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”
“And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.” Think how tears would flow in theaters across this land if people knew how the apocalypse really does end with the Creator of everything that is, or was, or ever will be wiping away the tears from His children’s eyes. Hollywood is really not in step.
Since this topic of the end of time keeps rearing its ugly head, and since some people really do worry about it, let’s spend a few moments giving the subject a little perspective. The first thing we need to say is this: This world will come to an end some day, but the odds of it happening in our lifetime are very, very remote. Every scientist will tell you that there will be an end to this universe some day. Nothing in this universe lasts forever. If God wills it, the end could be today, but chances are it is a long way off. I don’t care what the Mayan calendar says, or Nostradamas, or Tim LaHaye or Hal Lindsey this earth has been around for millions of years and may be around for millions of years yet to come. Nobody knows and please don’t listen to me. Listen to Jesus. Sure, something cataclysmic could happen this afternoon, but the odds of the world coming to an end in our lifetime are very slim.
Those who have invested time and energy in the global warming movement may beg to differ. There is no question that we are in an unsettling time of climate change. We need to take seriously the warnings of reputable scientists, and make responsible changes in our use of energy. Your grandchildren’s future may be at risk.
The spread of nuclear weapons is also a matter of deep concern. Years ago Albert Einstein warned us that the unleashed power of the atomic bomb has changed everything, except our way of thinking. Because we have not changed, “this earth drifts towards unparalleled catastrophe.” Who would argue with Albert Einstein on this question? I was very pleased to see our President take a strong stand in bringing world leaders to Washington last week to discuss this very topic.
We have the horror of international terrorism. Technology is wonderful in many ways, but in the hands of terrorists, we have good reason for fear. The perfection of a suitcase-sized nuclear device is still a legitimate concern. We live in a world in which a small group of crazed and determined individuals can wreak havoc on society. It may be only a matter of time until we have another catastrophe at least on the scale of 9/11.
Kurt Vonnegut wrote a novel years ago titled, Cat’s Cradle. In this novel an important book comes to light. Its somewhat lengthy title is, What Can a Thoughtful Man Hope for Mankind on Earth, Given the Experience of the Past Million Years? The chief character of Vonnegut’s book is anxious to read this mysterious book. But when he does, he finds that it doesn’t take long. The whole book consists of one word: “Nothing.” What can a thoughtful man hope for mankind on earth, given the experience of the past million years? Nothing.
This is a scary world and it is God’s world. Ultimately, God is in control of this world’s destiny. Humanity can ruin the planet in scores of ways, but we cannot defeat God’s over-all purpose for creation. There are positive images for our future contained in the scriptures. Are we afraid to allow hope into our lives?
Once there was a Quaker minister named Edward Hicks. He depicted God’s promises for the future in a painting which he called “The Peaceable Kingdom.” He painted several dozen versions of this theme. He gives us a beautiful vision of a world at peace. It is a world where babies can play with wild animals and where people of different races can sit down and eat together. Hicks took his inspiration from the Scriptures that present God’s future kingdom. “The wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid, the calf and the lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them.”
Why do we not talk about these positive images from the Scriptures about the future? We’ve allowed extremists to extract a tiny portion of scripture to distort what the Bible really does say about God’s plan for the world. They’ve gotten rich, they’ve lifted the rest of us up to ridicule, and they have scared us.
What the Bible truly says about the future is this: God is in control of the future and God will not forsake God’s children regardless of what may come. We don’t know what the future may hold, but we know Who holds the future. Yes, Christ told us He would return someday, but that should not be a reason for anxiety, but for great joy. We should not be dependent on the wisdom of some barely literate self-ordained preacher. We should place all of our faith in the teachings of Jesus Christ. Jesus said he would be back someday. He is our Lord and Savior. His return can only be good news for those who love Him. What’s the big deal? In the meantime, we have all kinds of very real obstacles in the real world we have to face every day.
The real message of Revelation is that God will be with us regardless of our circumstances. When the book of Revelation was written, Christians were suffering miserably at the hands of the civil authorities. The writer of Revelation wanted them to know this was only a temporary situation. God would not forsake them for long. And that message of hope and faith is just as real today as it was then.
We can say to all the forces of evil in this world, “You have lost already!” That is what the writer of Revelation was saying about those who were persecuting the early church, “You have lost already!” Even more importantly, the writer wanted all Christians to know that even when it seems evil has the upper hand, whether in the world at large or in our individual lives, God is still in control. God will never forsake us regardless of our circumstances.
And so the story ends, and there are many incidents in our lives when that is the case…but we can tell Hollywood how the story ends. All God’s children will experience tragedy or loss in their lives. But as Paul Harvey would say, “the rest of the story” is in Revelation: “Never again will they hunger; never again will they thirst. The sun will not beat upon them, nor any scorching heat. For the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd; he will lead them to springs of living water. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.” That’s how it ends. That is truly the rest of the story. The God of all creation wipes away tears from His children’s eyes. AMEN