Revelation 21:10,22-22:5

Revelation 21:1-6Today I’m concluding a little series of sermons called “Reinventing The Church.” Although our Christian Faith is strong and life-giving and in need of no reinvention at all, not the same can be said for the institution we call the Church which is entrusted to carry that faith and reflect Jesus Christ to the world.

Someone reminded me the other day of the petition some well-meaning but misinformed Christians have been passing around for years now. It asks you to sign the petition and send it to the Federal Communications Commission to oppose atheist Madelyn Murray O’Hare’s attempts to ban all religious programming from radio and TV. As you may know, this is actually one of those “urban legends” with no basis in reality – not to mention the fact that Madelyn Murray O’Hare hasn’t been seen or heard from in years. The FCC at one time had to post a special link on their website to tell people to not call or write about this because it was causing chaos with the phone lines and mail system. As one government official is alleged to have said, “That’s the trouble with Christians. They’ll believe just about anything – even if it’s not true!”

That’s quite a judgment against the Church, don’t you think? Many people consider Christians to be just plain stupid. And I’ll tell you what – today, I feel pretty stupid myself because I was one of the people who used to pass that petition around!

But wait, there’s more in this story that illustrates the problems with the Church today.

One ministerial colleague of mine told me that he wouldn’t sign that petition even if it was true! I couldn’t understand why. He said not only would he not sign the petition, but he would go the other way and support Madelyn Murray O’Hare in getting religious programming off the air. Shocked, I asked, “Why would you do such a thing?”

He answered, “Hey, have you ever SEEN the junk Christians put on TV?”

Well, I’ll have to admit that I sometimes shudder when I flip through the cable TV channels and check out the religious shows. Oh, there are some good ones, but they are far outnumbered by show after show that spews poison, judgment, condemnation, anger, and a kind of self-righteous arrogance .I don’t know if you’ve ever noticed, but on religious TV, the world is a horrible place, people are filthy, disgusting creatures, and God’s destruction of it all just can’t come soon enough.

Maybe my friend is right! Maybe we should support Madelyn Murray O’Hare and get that garbage off the air!

Or…maybe we should take a better approach, and pray for the reinvention of the Christian Church. As I’ve shared over the past several Sundays, part of my idea of this new Church would be to become a community of people who deliberately extend the Good News of Jesus Christ to others by accepting people for who and what they are, forgiving people for who and what they are not, and loving folks unconditionally over the long haul so that redemption and transformation can occur through the power of the Holy Spirit. I think that would be a Church that looks a lot like Jesus lived.

I’d also pray for this reinvented Church to welcome people who think. In fact, the world desperately needs thoughtful Christian people who are capable of seeing through the problems the world faces, and devising faithful ways of addressing them. We need Christian doctors, and scientists, and intellects. Even more, we need Christian people who trust so much in God that they are willing to ask questions, explore doubts, and help other thinkers find their way to God. Christianity is intended to be a thinking person’s faith! A Church like that would look a lot like the relationship Jesus had with his disciples when he was with us. Talk about a bunch of thinkers and questioners!

And, of course, this reinvented Church must become a community that dreams high dreams for the world, just like a mother dreams high dreams for her children. We must become a community of people who throw themselves every day into the work of trying to bring that better world into being for the sake of ALL God’s children. The Church needs to be involved not in condemning the world, but making the world a better place. A Church like that would look a lot like the life Jesus lived. Remember how he said that God sent him to proclaim good news to the poor, freedom to the prisoners, recovery of sight to the blind, and release to the oppressed?

Now, one final element in this reinvented Christian Church. Thinking about my friend’s aversion to religious TV programming, it occurs to me that what we so often see on TV is a kind of Christianity that has lost it’s hope. The world, according to many Christians today, is a terrible place. People are sinful and fallen. The only good thing that will ever happen is that Christ will come again and destroy this great big mess and transport us up to heaven where we’ll live happily ever after. There are even some Christians who’ve made millions of dollars writing books about that, and tens of millions who read them.

But let me ask you, “Where is the HOPE in that? Where is the HOPE not for the few, but for the many? Where is the HOPE for the WORLD?”

I wonder how you would feel about being sick and then being taken to a hospital where just about everyone dies? No one – except for a select few – ever gets out alive.

Would you go to such a hospital –a hospital with a 5 or 10 percent survival rate? A hospital that offers no real hope to the vast majority of people?

Of course not.

And that’s precisely why millions of people are turning away from the Church.

People have enough hopelessness in their lives. We have enough hopelessness in this world. We don’t need one more institution that exists just to make us feel worse than we already do.

And that’s why Jesus started the Church! Did you know that? Really! The Church wasn’t invented because the world needs more ham and bean suppers! It wasn’t created to preserve the beauty of 19^th century European marching music that we call “hymns”. The Church wasn’t made just to fill up a block of empty time on our Sunday morning schedules!

No, the Church was invented to be a hospital – a hospital that dispenses HOPE in the midst of a broken and bruised world – HOPE not for the few, but for the many – HOPE not just for some, but for everyone!

If you were to ask me why you should become a Christian, I’d offer you many reasons. But one of the most important would be that the world needs people of HOPE! You yourself need HOPE in order to face your challenges, and maximize your potential, and be a happy person! Your children and grandchildren need HOPE! The community in which you live, your neighbors, and the world all around are in desperate need of HOPE!

And the Christian Faith is all about that! It is all about HOPE!

Did you notice in today’s reading from Revelation how the Bible describes the world?

Picture Jerusalem. What a sad and tragic place Jerusalem is. Barbed-wire enclosed settlements. Rancid refugee camps. Suicide bombers. Helicopter missile attacks. Assassinations. Reprisals. Shootings. Revenge. Children on both sides nurtured to hate their neighbors.

Picture Jerusalem.

For many Christians, all that is going on there is a sign that God will soon lift us up out of this mess! The day is coming when we’ll leave this awful world and fly away!

But did you notice the passage? This is a vision not of people being taken UP to heaven FROM Jerusalem, but of a NEW JERUSALEM coming DOWN from heaven to the people! This is not a picture of God forsaking Jerusalem, but of God SAVING Jerusalem!

It’s as if God is saying, “Picture Jerusalem as you know it to be! See it as it is with all its wailing and gnashing of teeth. But now, come up to this mountain peak with me and take a look at what I’m creating. Take a look at Jerusalem AS I’M MAKING IT TO BE!”

This is a story of HOPE!

While all those Church people are booking their flights to get UP out of here, God is booking a flight to get on DOWN here! Listen to my slightly modified version of the text:

“And he carried me away in the Spirit to a mountain great and high, and showed me the Holy City, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God. It shone with the glory of God…the old Jewish Temple and the Al Aqsa Mosque are just museums now, because God Himself becomes the Temple-Mosque to which all the people come. And not just some people, but all people – Jews and Palestinians alike. And not just ordinary people, but kings and heads of state, too – Ariel Sharon and Yasser Arafat go to worship at the Temple-Mosque together. The barbed-wire is gone and armored personnel carriers no longer patrol, for the gates of the city are open 24-hours a day, 7-days a week. No impure or injurious things will be able to come in and touch the people there, for they are God’s people, and their names are written in the Lamb’s book of life. And there in the arid mountains of Judah, a river begins to flow. Its source is the throne of God, and it flows right through the city and on out into the world. And on either side of the river stands the tree of life, bearing new fruit every month, and people can come and eat it for free and never get old and die. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations – Iraq, America, Nigeria, North Korea…all nations made well with the medicine of God’s love. No more TV pictures of starving children, chanting mobs, burning flags, rolling tanks – only pictures of playing children, singing choirs, waving banners, and weapons of mass destruction melted down and turned into agricultural machinery so there will be plenty of food for everyone. And there will be no more night. You’ll never have to be afraid of the dark again in the new Jerusalem.”

HOPE! That’s what Christian HOPE looks like.

And into the middle of this world where so much hopelessness is sown, God sends a new Jerusalem – a new Church. And did you notice the movement in the passage? This Church does not wait for people to come to it, but comes down from heaven TO the people!

And the message it bears is the greatest message the world has ever heard. This is what it says in three easy steps:

First, this world is a beautiful place. It is capable of so much more than we can fathom. Why, when Mt. St. Helens blew her top at 8:32 AM on May 18^th, 1980, the surrounding area was covered in ash and life was virtually extinguished. But just a few months later, green shoots began to peek up out of the ash, and the world was re-born!

The same thing can happen, you know, out of the volcanic ash of racism, and terrorism, and cancer, and violence, and death.

This world is alive with the HOPE of God!

Second, people are good. Precious. Beautiful. Valuable. Worth loving and even redeeming when they go wrong or when life beats them down. This is the message of the Gospel! This is what Jesus came to say and do! You and I have been created in the very image of God, and the potential for our lives is unlimited! I think of my friend Linda – a paraplegic who went on to become a medical doctor. It wasn’t easy. There were all sorts of obstacles in the way. But Linda trusted in the God of HOPE, and became far more than anyone could have believed!

And the same is true with you! I don’t know what you’re facing in life right now, but what I do know is that you are a person of worth, ability and incredible potential. And when placed into relationship with the God who made you that way, you can handle any challenge that life throws at you! As Carl Burke likes to say, “There ain’t anything gonna happen today that you and God can’t handle together!”

This is a beautiful world that is full of life and promise! You are a beautiful creature with so much going for you! And then one more part of the new Church’s message…

The full beauty of the world and the incredible potential of your life hang on the shoulders of God. God is the One who unlocks the secret places from which possibility flows! God is the One behind the new life at Mt. St. Helens! God is the One behind Linda’s incredible accomplishment! And if you will place your trust in God, and ask God to help you follow His ways in your everyday living, and for courage to open your life to the invasion of God’s Spirit, God will not let you down!

You will discover more and more the beauty of this amazing world God created. And you will discover the beauty and power and potential of you!

I see HOPE coming down out of heaven to the world today! I see HOPE streaming into your life! Can you see it, too? And I see the Church as a hospital of HOPE, bringing to broken and battered people the medicine of God.

Will you join that cause? Can we become such a Church?

As we leave the sanctuary today, I hope you’ll go and spread the message of HOPE!