Sermons at St. John’s Presbyterian Church
The
Magical Mystery Tour Part I
Scripture
Readings: Revelation 1 4-8
Stop
for a moment and think about all that is going wrong in your life and
the
world. This
shouldn’t be hard to do for
most of us find that our troubles can often become our world. They consume us. We struggle with them each
day. They keep us awake at night, and
when we sleep they become our nightmares.
Many of us probably come in this morning with our problems
already on
our minds.
Now
I ask you to get mystical with me.
Step
back from those problems that consume you and take a flight with John -
a
magical mystery tour. This
flight is a
strange one because we go in more than one direction in space and time. Take a trip for a moment
on a space shuttle
out beyond the earth, into space…and look back at the blue
ball, which is
earth, and keep going out beyond the edge of the universe. That is one flight. Now, at the same time fly
inward, into the
universe of your soul. Pass
the masks
that we wear and the roles that we play; pass pains and pleasures and
judgments
of your body. Fly
through the closets
filled with secrets, guilt and shame; fly deep past the black hole of
loneliness. That is
the second
trip. Then jump in
a time machine and
travel backward past last week's problems, past the last presidential
election,
past 9/11/01. Pass the death of your husband, mother or father. Fly back in time, past the
invention of the
TV, past the founding of the United States, past Easter Sunday: this
one and
the first one. Observe along the way, but keep going.
Travel beyond Moses meeting God on Mt. Sinai, beyond
Abraham and
Sarah, back to hunter and gathering societies, back to Adam and Eve. But don’t stop
there. Keep going
past the evolution of mammals,
and the first living cell on Earth, all the way back to the big bang,
or the
big whatever it was. Go
back to the
beginning, before anything. That
is the
third trip. Now, at
the same time you
are traveling in those three directions, go forward into the future,
past Sunday
brunch, past the tax deadline, past your appointment with your boss, or
your
job interview, or your marriage counselor.
Fly into the future, beyond the end of the Iraq war, a
long flight no
doubt but keep going. Go
beyond global
warming, beyond the acceptance of human clones, to a time when the
United
States is no longer a super power. I don’t know about you,
but I find this
flight to the future to be a hard one to make because the future is so
unknown,
even unimagined. So
try this, fly
forward to your death. I
take you on
four flights - John would take you on seven: north, south, east, west,
up to
heaven, down to hell and inside. Either way, in the process of these
four
flights, external, internal, behind and before, we come to the opening
of John’s
Revelation:
“To the seven churches in the provinces of Asia. Grace and peace to you
from him who is, and
was, and who is to come, and from the seven spirits before his throne,
and from
Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, the first born from the
dead, and
the ruler of the kings of the earth.”
John
is writing to seven real churches, and at the same time the seven
churches
represent the complete church both globally and mythically. Grace and
peace are
the gifts we receive from God. From
what god? From the
God who was, and is,
and is to come, from the God of the past, present and future, and or,
from the
God who exists, before, during and after history, and before, during
and after
our conception or perception of Him. From this declaration alone, we
can see
why John would have such a problem with idolatry: our images of God are
just
that, our images. They
become trapped
by our imagination, our perception, and serve the desire of their
creators for
power and privilege. The God who is, was and is to come is greater than
our
individual or collective knowledge or imagination of her.
John
doesn’t explain the identity of the seven spirits. Zechariah 4:10 makes
reference to the seven who are the eyes of
God throughout the earth. The
seven
spirits may be the spirit of the seven churches, or the spirit of the
faithful
in the seven churches who have already died, or it maybe reference to
what we
name as the Holy Spirit. We
know from
Ch. 1 v.20 that the churches have seven angels and that the churches
are seven
lampstands. There
are angels watching
over the churches, and the churches shine light into the world. This
image is
likely a metaphor drawn from the menorah, the Hebrew candelabra, which
has
seven lights and represents the light of God from the burning bush. So too, it seems, for
John, the church is
represented by seven lamps, each with seven candles, watched over by
seven
angels, and represented by seven spirits with God in heaven.
I
like the image of part of our spirit already in heaven with God,
working out a
plan for the faithful. This
twists the
time and space dimensions considerably, taking what is usually seen as
a future
kingdom in heaven into an alternate present, an alternate universe, or
the same
universe from a much larger perspective.
This image also works internally as well as externally: there is an element of our
psyche that is
already tapped into the heavenly kingdom, which suggests a cosmic
struggle for
grace and peace within our little soul.
Just as the Holy Spirit is present within us, so a part of
us is present
via the Holy Spirit with God and Christ in Heaven.
Next
John introduces three new titles for Jesus Christ:
the faithful
witness,
the first born from
the dead, and ruler of the kings of the earth.
The faithful witness: Jesus shows us the way to live and
the way of
God. His life and
teaching testified to
this God of grace and peace. He
brings
grace and peace even when it meant sacrificing his life.
In John’s esoteric vision, firstborn from the
dead takes on
multivalent meaning too. Firstborn
can
mean before history as well as within history, and first back from the
other
side of history, the future. It
can
also mean firstborn into enlightenment in this life, both in the
Buddhist sense
and the Christian sense of being born again here on this earth. Of course all of these
meanings are held
within the primary event, according to John, of the historical death
and
resurrection of Jesus. Firstborn
from
the dead means that the state torture and death did not finish him. He is alive. And if he was killed and
is alive, then there will be
others. Firstborn
implies a second and
a third, a seventh and a millionth.
Seeing Christ as firstborn from the dead brings courage
and openness for
us to be born again in the present world, and hope that courage and
faithfulness now is worth more than gaining the pleasures and avoiding
the pain
of this current world.
First born from the dead means that Jesus is Alive. A poor, no name peasant
with no earthly
sword, no army, with no life simply won’t go away. Now, he is not merely
thought of as King of the Jews but ruler of
the kings of the earth. This
is, of
course, a direct slap in the face of the emperor of Rome. All who feared death
professed Caesar as the
ruler of the kings of the Earth. Now all these powerless, no name
followers of
the firstborn from the dead expect to be next in line, and are
proclaiming him
ruler of kings.
This strange vision has powerful implications for
history: As Jack
Miles points out, “No
regime can declare itself above review.
All power is conditional; and when the powerless rise, God
may be with
them.” (Miles, Jack. Christ.
Knopf, NY. 2001)
While this title, ruler of the kings of the earth, has
immediate, historical implications which persecutors of Christians were
quick
to see, this is a cosmic title as well.
That is, as important as politics are, any and every
political goal
falls far short of the cosmic goals of Christ. Our knowledge and
faithfulness
are temporal, limited, prone to fault of sin and ignorance. All kings, including
ourselves, know only
temporary moments of fleeting power.
The
same principle applies internally to our psychology as well. There are so many
different psychologies
telling us who we are and what we are made of.
They lead us to the promised land, giving us the law in
the DSM (Diagnostic
and Statistical Guide of Mental Disorders) and paying homage
to the God of
insurance and popular opinion. We
value
psychology for it helps bring grace and relief into our lives, but it
will
always fall short of being our savior, for it comes filled with bias
and
ignorance common to the human mind and soul.
Medicine might give us relief, but no matter how good we
get at matching
or stifling chemical reactions of emotions, medicine will not make us
whole. The same
truth applies to our
religious power and theology. Our
thinking, on whatever subject, as important and valuable as it is, is
not the
experience or the complete truth of the living God.
But
scripture tells us there is a God down deep in our soul, and beyond the
farthest reaches of the universe, both inside and out of space and
time,
visible in Jesus Christ, who was killed but is now alive, ruling all
the kings
of the earth.
It
is just this amazing power of the universe, found in a simple peasant
in a
backwater country two thousand years ago who lives today and in this
moment,
loves us and frees us from our sin by his blood, and has made us to be
a
kingdom of priests to serve his God and father – to him be
glory and power
forever and ever. Amen!
Happiness
and wholeness, peace, justice and divine power are found in being loved
and
loving, being forgiven and forgiving, through recognizing that you were
loved
and forgiven before you were born, before the beginning of time, that
you are
loved and forgiven now, and are loved and forgiven in the future. And you are called to be a
kingdom of
priests, empowered by the spirit as individual souls and the Church to
be
Christ alive, to love and forgive.
Justice will come; wholeness will come. It
was, is now, and is to come.
As we let go of our time and space requirements for God
and God’s love,
John’s vision breaks into our soul, into our world and we see
the Glory of
Christ, mourn the tragedy of his death, and yet proclaim that he is
still, the
Alpha and the Omega, the one who is and who was and is to come, the
Almighty!