On Easter Sunday gathered around the dining room table we were asked to share a favorite Easter memory a fun way to get to know some new people. I shared about being at my Grandparents house, and throwing model airplanes off the balcony and chasing them. Then others shared a fond snippet from their life. I started thinking about that – and I wanted to ask you about your first Easter memory – maybe the Easter basket left by the Easter Bunny, the egg hunt, or dying Eggs, getting all dressed up in your Easter best, just think back to your first Easter memory. Do you have one in your mind, where were you? Who was with you? Did it involve family and or church? Now with that memory firm in your mind think back to last week – what you did for the most recent Easter? This I hope it a little easier, but no guarantees. With these two memories in mind you are now holding on to the beginning and the end of your Easter career thus far. The span of Easters when you were able to celebrate Jesus’ resurrection and new birth, even if as a child you did not get all the wonderful life giving ramifications.
Our Easter careers, like most things in our lives, have a beginning and an ending which is a central theme from today’s passage. Yet reading from Revelation can get people a little nervous because I think most people don’t understand this book. That is why we are going to have a sermon series on the book of Revelation. We are in the season of Eastertide when we look for and discover new life revealed. So for us all to get ready for this adventure I would ask you all to read the final book of the Bile sometime this month. It only has 22 Chapters so that means less than a chapter a day. Of course you could just zip right through it if you are so inclined. We might not answer all the questions but we will start to explore the purpose of such a colorful book and how it might help us with our faith.
First we need some background. The word revelation comes from the Greek word, “Apokalypsis” which is of course where we get the word apocalypse meaning disclosure, unveiling or revelation. And all of this unveiling came from God through Christ and was communicated to John by an angel. Now if you are wondering if this is the same John as the Gospel writer, the answer is no- we can tell this by their use of Greek, the Gospel writer was very eloquent, while this author struggles with the Greek and so it is thought to be a Palestinian Jewish Christian. Yet no matter the author or the mystery that seems to be embedded in the work, the purpose of Revelation is clear; to bring the New Testament to a close with a consummation of God’s plan of judgment and salvation, bringing it to close with hope.
But I digress from the theme- beginning and an ending. Our two passages today are just that – the first taken from Exodus – when God first reveals God’s name to Moses saying “I am who I am, or I will be who I will be”. So from the minute we have a leader for the people, God’s name is revealed and we are told that this will be God’s name for all generations- and here we are still thinking of God in this amazing way. For God is the one who is beyond language, beyond time and who will live beyond all our measurements. God connects God’s name to the relationship God shares with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the ancestors of our past. Then declares this is my name forever– right now in the present and always and then finally promises to be that same God for all generation- as time marches on- past, present and future.
This thought is echoed by John while he writes from exile on the isle of Patmos for he is being persecuted for his faith. But he offers “grace” and “peace” from him who is and who was and who is to come. Why? Because God who is constant, who never changes, who will be with you no matter what is happening in your life, will also be with your great great grandchildren in theirs; a fact to treasure.
We have all been through the big storms of this year, landslides here and storms around the county, reminding me of some big storms when I lived back east. At that time, I had a really good sense of security knowing that my house, the manse the church provided had been in this location for over 200 years. I had the feeling that whatever was going to happened to that house in this location would have already occurred. Because two hundred years is a long time for us mere humans even though it is a blink of an eye to God – the one who is, who was, and who is to come.
Another way of saying this is that God is eternal. Before the world was created God was, during every war and every springtime – God is, and no matter what lies ahead for you and for me, God will be there too. God is without beginning and without end, which is why the statement “I am the Alpha and the Omega” is so powerful. You see God knows we have a hard time with eternity, our minds can’t quite grasp this fully- so God gives us a paradigm we are familiar with, the beginning and the end of the alphabet. For if there is one thing all of us know it is the alphabet. God is saying I am A to Z, I am everything you can create with every letter in your language, I am all that is in the world and every hope, dream and disappointment you have ever experienced. God is the fullness of time, the richness of experience, our beginning and our end.
The story is told of a person new to the church celebrating her third communion and long before she was baptized or really understood her faith, if any of us really ever do. But this woman felt the spirit moving and yet wondered a little when she saw these words printed in the bulletin:
Christ has died.
Christ is risen.
Christ has come again.
She muses to herself after reading these words, “Hmmmm. I know I am relatively new to this Christianity thing, but have I missed something crucial?” Afterward, someone helpfully confirmed that the typo was in fact a typo. It should have read, “Christ will come again.” For we are still waiting for Christ’s return. But on this Sunday after Easter we are continuing our anticipation. Yet the typo helps to remind us what we are waiting for; Christ returning and every eye will see him and the whole world will say, “Yes. So it is to be, Amen.” For the God who is before everything and lives beyond all thought, will one day certainly bring us to the moment of completion, a time when all the promises will be fulfilled and our waiting will cease.
You see Revelation is a symbolic story of just that. One person’s vision of what God’s conclusion might look like, told in a style known as Apocrypha. This style is found in parts of the Old Testament like Daniel and in other Greek writings of the time. Numbers, symbols and dramatic events all have their place in apocryphal literature. That is why John writes to the seven Churches – which he lists later as Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodicea. Churches located in modern day Turkey. You see seven is a number of completion and wholeness – or in other words he is writing to the entire church. It reminds me of when we all recite the Apostle’s Creed, saying we believe in the holy catholic Church. What we are often missing is that catholic with a little “c” means universal or all-embracing church. Do we believe Christ’s church is all embracing, all-inclusive? Can I have a, “So it is to be Amen….”
Thanks for the revealing message.
As a visitor to Aptos I will join your service this morning.