Skip to main content

Introduction to Worship for 10/30/2016

Revelation 7:9-17

The Revelation to John is a challenging book to read and understand. It was written in symbolic language in a time of great danger and persecution. Its language of visions is a kind of secret code that the writer used to encourage Christians to remain faithful and to stand firm against opposition.

The message of Revelation for Christians today is the same. We live in God’s world and we affirm God’s reign over the whole of creation, while waiting for the time when Jesus will come to bring God’s reign to fulfillment.

This is part of what John saw, heard, and wrote down:

In God’s dream of the world,
no one will be sad
because God’s home is with every one of us,
almost like God pitches a tent next to where we live.

In God’s dream of the world,
no one will cry
because everyone will live in peace
so there will be no fighting and arguing.

In God’s dream of the world,
no one, woman, man, or child, will be hungry,
and everyone will have a home.

Can you imagine anything better?
In God’s dream of the world,
God will never, ever leave us.
Sickness and death will disappear.
What a glorious day that will be!

What do you think the people thought when they got John’s letter telling them about God’s dream?

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Introduction to Worship for 8/27/17

Disappearing: The gift of Disappearing is a tricky one, although I think it is a terrifically important one for American Christians, and particularly mainline WASP Christians to understand and claim. Psalm 19 Galatians 2.20: “...[I]t is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” Disappearing comes in those moments when we can see the world beyond ourselves as it is, undistorted by ourselves in the frame. Sometimes, as in Psalm 19, it comes in moments of awe, when we are so caught up in beauty or in process or in relationship that our sense of self ebbs away, leaving only the experience. Sometimes it comes when our illusions about our false self are stripped away, and we stand undefended before the truth of our lives. Either one can be a powerful motivation for change. Both allow us to see ourselves as part of God’s plan, in relationship to others. Both...

Introduction to Worship for 5/14/2017

Stand Firm: This week’s scriptures set up a strange tension. On the one hand, rock is used in a positive way: God is referred to as a rock and a fortress in Psalm 31:3. In 1 Peter 2:1–10 we are told Jesus is a living stone, and that we ourselves are being built like living stones into a spiritual temple. And yet, in the reading from Acts we read the story of Stephen the deacon being stoned to death because he stands firm in faith and witness to Jesus. Like fire which we will celebrate in a few weeks at Pentecost, rocks are both good and bad. Acts 7:55–60 When we last read about the early Christian community, they enjoyed the “goodwill of all” (Acts 2:47). This regard was short-lived. In Acts 4 we learn that Jewish leaders came to Peter and John, “annoyed because they were teaching the people and proclaiming that in Jesus there is the resurrection of the dead” (Acts 4:2). The leaders ordered Peter and John to cease their witness. They did not, and the number of Jews believing...

Introduction to Worship for 7/23/2017

Looking Ahead—Seven Weeks on “Gifts of the Dark Wood,” by Eric Elnes:  I want to prepare you for the rest of the summer, starting on July 23, when we will be exploring the ideas raised by Eric Elnes in his book called “Gifts of the Dark Wood: Seven Blessings for Soulful Skeptics.”      Dr. Elnes writes, “This book is about finding your place in the world at the very point where you feel furthest from it. It’s about recognizing the fierce beauty and astonishing blessing that exists within experiences that most of us fear but none of us can avoid…failure, emptiness, and uncertainty are as critical for finding our way through life as they are unavoidable” (p. 2).      Dr. Elnes takes the expression “the Dark Wood” from Dante Alighieri, who wrote in the Divine Comedy that the Dark Wood was a place of stumbling, of turning away from God because of sin and terror. Yet there is also a strong tradition in Christianity that insists that the Dark Wood is ...