Gifts of Love 4

If all I got out of all the time and effort that went into that jeep over the last two years is a laundry list of sermon illustrations, at least I got something, right. I was so certain that everything was taken care of. The new engine would fix all the problems. Maybe a small blip here or there like a battery or something, but nothing truly inconvenient. And I believed that right up until it stranded me on the side of the road in the middle-of-nowhere Texas the first weekend in November. It was just an alternator, and completely my fault- apparently if you submerge something that generates electricity into a giant pool of water, you can run into issues, but it was the final straw for me…ok for Lindsey, it was the final straw for Lindsey, and when she told me to go buy a truck, I smiled, said yes ma’am and finally all the bad times with my vehicle were over, right? Two days after the jeep had stranded me on the side of the highway for the last time, I got to buy my new truck.

I bought that truck two and a half weeks ago. I’ve loved having a truck. I’ve proudly showed it off to everyone. But most importantly, I’ve been happy knowing that, at least for the foreseeable future, my vehicle issues are gone.

Five days ago while driving 75 down the highway at 5:45 am, I hit a deer. Apparently I was incorrect in thinking that all my vehicle woes were over.

How certain we as people often are that we are in control of what goes on around us. We assume our supremacy and power over the world. Modern conveniences have made it to where we can go where we want when we want, do what we want when we want. We often genuinely believe that we can make things be the way that we want them to be. We buy into that idea of control. If we pull the right strings, exert the right influence, make the right plans, everything will go exactly how we want it to. We pronounce ourselves masters of our lives and of our fates, the proverbial captains of our own ships. We buy into that idea completely, even though experience and evidence teach us that that idea is really just an illusion. There are plenty of things outside our control, nearly everything is, in reality, outside our control. Those of you who have experienced major life disruptions that you didn’t anticipate, plan for, or ever think possible know exactly what I mean, but even small moments should remind us that we are not the only deciders of what happens in our lives and in our world.

Today’s passage is just a few short verses from the beginning of the book of Revelation. Revelation isn’t as scary or as confusing a text as we often make it out to be, and while I’m not diving into the whole of the book, knowing a few things about the text and its setting help in clarifying the few verses we are looking at this morning. The writing is addressed to seven churches who are in very different situations despite being relatively close together. The towns on the tips are 170 miles apart, the others are all inside that area, and they are all cities of some prominence in an increasingly important region of the Roman Empire.

As far as the powers at be in the Roman Empire were concerned, dedication to the state was THE most important thing. You could do whatever you wanted, believe whatever you wanted, follow whoever however you wanted, as long as all of that took second place to your loyalty to the empire when push came to shove.

The seven churches on the receiving end of this writing are all different. Some have cozied up to the empire, enjoy the fruit of its labor and while they may not say, or may not even realize, that they give priority to the state and its well-being and function over faithfulness to God, they do. To them, John makes it clear that if they’re not being rejected by a state that demands their loyalty first, then they aren’t fully following God. Other churches aren’t giving their primary allegiance to the state, instead giving it to God, and are paying the price. John begs them to hold on, to continue being the shining example of a costly discipleship. But both groups, all followers, need to know why allegiance to a kingdom and a ruler that isn’t tangible, isn’t earthbound, is important. I don’t think we are in a place that’s significantly different. We, like the thousands of years worth of followers of God who have come before us, often do a much better job focusing on the things which we think we have some control over. I also recognize that when it feels like everything is spiraling out of control, it can be difficult to believe that there is order and control anywhere in all of creation. I think today’s passage speaks to both and reminds us of Jesus’ supremacy and where God’s primary work is.

We are in

The New Revised Standard Version Introduction and Salutation

4 John to the seven churches that are in Asia:

Grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven spirits who are before his throne, 5 and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth.

To him who loves us and freed us from our sins by his blood, 6 and made us to be a kingdom, priests serving his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.

7 Look! He is coming with the clouds;

every eye will see him,

even those who pierced him;

and on his account all the tribes of the earth will wail.

So it is to be. Amen.

8 “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.

The New Revised Standard Version Introduction and Salutation

4 John to the seven churches that are in Asia:

Grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven spirits who are before his throne, 5 and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth.

To him who loves us and freed us from our sins by his blood, 6 and made us to be a kingdom, priests serving his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.

As we wrap up this short series on Gifts of Love, giving because of our love of God and others, I think it makes sense to pay attention to John’s description of Jesus and his work, and recognize that at its core, these words are words of purpose and encouragement. John starts by describing Jesus as the one who is, who was, and who is to come. Jesus was not finite, wasn’t someone with a tombstone that tracked his beginning and end. Jesus has been all along, from the foundations of the earth, is still existing and working on their behalf in the world, and will always do so. Just as Jesus was not confined to an earthly existence, neither is his work of Love on our behalf. Jesus is infinite, and in a world where everything has a beginning, middle, and end, its hard to comprehend a power that doesn’t. I can just imagine a follower of Jesus in Laodicea wondering why on earth they should give up all of their wealth and comfort that they’ve received because of their partnership with the Roman state. “So I have to throw a few hunks of meat on the altar at the local temple every once in a while- big deal. I can be completely loyal to the roman empire and still be faithful to God.” The imagining doesn’t take much, just ignore or find a way to justify your way around that teaching of Jesus about serving two masters and your set. In the same way I can imagine a poor, beat down follower of Jesus in Smyrna, who has made it clear that the roman empire is not her first priority, God is, and has taken loads of shame and abuse for it. She’s about to hear the following words from John; “Do not fear what you are about to suffer,” and she’s going to wonder if this is the breaking point. Can I really keep going? Is it really worth it? Whether or not the romans are eternal is irrelevant when surviving is the question you don’t have the answer to. She knows all she’s got to do to avoid the abuse and to begin to regain her honor in her community is to throw a few hunks of meat onto an altar and swear her loyalty to Caesar- just words and a cookout really- why not to make all this end. I don’t know that John’s words are a magical cure for either of them- words rarely are, but maybe the reminder that the choice is between an eternal Christ and an earthly kingdom that will, like all other kingdoms before and after, change and fall- maybe thats a good reminder.

And then its not just that Jesus is eternal, timeless. Jesus action on their behalf is rooted in love and purposed for their freedom. And by his actions, he made us into our own kingdom- one not defined by borders or nationalistic loyalties but by freedom, true freedom, given to us by God. The followers of God are part of an empire, but not one that looks, acts, or functions like the earthly one they are used to. Instead, it is a kingdom of people free to serve God and serve each other in love. The Roman Empire definitely didn’t function like that. Culturally, you certainly didn’t serve people because you loved them- you served people who could help you get ahead, who could raise your status, your public honor. And yet in Jesus’ kingdom, they are called to serve God, which is consistently portrayed throughout the bible as synonymous with serving neighbor. The two kingdoms could not be more different.

The New Revised Standard Version Introduction and Salutation

7 Look! He is coming with the clouds;

every eye will see him,

even those who pierced him;

and on his account all the tribes of the earth will wail.

So it is to be. Amen.

8 “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.

And then John reminds them that there will be a moment that comes in which the kingdom that they prioritized matters immensely. Where all people, even those who most everyone would say had power over Jesus, the ones who commanded and carried out his death, will recognize the difference between a finite, earthly state, and an eternal being, eternal kingdom. They spent their time on earth deciding which one would save them from whatever they were most concerned about, most afraid of. They had opportunity after opportunity to choose between Nation and God and they did, every single one of them, make that choice a million times. But only one of those two options existed before all and will exist after all. Only one of those two can truly save.

Lets not make the mistake of pretending that we are any different. We are still earth-bound beings torn between heavenly and earthly priorities. More directly, especially in todays cultural climate, we find allegiance to specific visions and direction for our nation being a litmus test for who we make space for and who we don’t. The mistake we often make in the process is conflating God and Nation, telling ourselves that our allegiance to one is because of, or related to, our allegiance to the other, and in doing so completely miss the warning from Jesus about serving two masters.

Its not all that difficult to spend a significant amount of time worrying about various political events, reading different political stories, watching political pundits debate the things that concern us, and then write, talk, or argue about our own interpretation or vision, all while our bibles collect dust in the corner of the room because we’ve forgotten that our primary citizenship and allegiance is not to this finite, earth-bound kingdom but instead to an eternal one that existed long before this one began and will exist long after it disappears.

Johns words to individuals torn between two kingdoms- one superior but difficult to understand and one inferior but tangible- are definitely words we need to pay attention to. And perhaps the reminder that we not the first, only, or last people who will find ourselves in this position is good as well. To those of us in that spot, John simply reminds us that God loves us, that God has always loved us, that God will always love us. That Jesus lives out God’s love on our behalf to provide us with a freedom that no earthly kingdom can offer, and it is a freedom that will carry us into eternity with god. Praise be to God.