Sermon Tone Analysis

Happy end of the Year!

            Happy end of the Year?

That doesn’t sound right - that doesn’t have a good ring to it… Let try                               something else

 

“Grace and peace to you from the one who is, who always was, and who is still to come”

            Much better!

Today we celebrate the “Reign of Christ”

            and that greeting is the opening verse from our reading from John’s Revelation

                        and What a powerful greeting that is

                                    Powerful - yet in the culture of the day and in today’s culture                                              extremely subversive

Let’s explore it a bit

            It is an apostolic benediction

                        A message or blessing  from the early followers of Christ.

The salutation combines both Greek (“grace”) and Hebrew (“peace”)

                        /Grace,/ that is, the good-will of God towards us and his good work in us;

                                    and /peace,/ that is, the sweet evidence and assurance of this grace.

It is message to not only one group of people - but all people

                        Subversive

 

And then “the one who is, who always was, and who is still to come”

                Since before Abraham He *“was”* and *“is”* the "I am"

                        and He *“is”* and *"always was"*, the eternal Logos or Word;

From the beginning of John’s gospel

            /In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was      God.

2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things came into being through      him, and without him not one thing came into being.

What has come into being 4      in him was life, and the life was the light of all people.

5 The light shines in the             darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it./

and *"who is still to come"* - the promise of the Return of Christ

                        God from everlasting to everlasting

                                    Subversive

 

Consider the world in which this is written - where the state religion is worship to the emperor - who was understood to be a deity

            And consider our own culture today where everything is acceptable relative to the      eye of the beholder

                        ‘What’s true for you is fine and as long as you respect what is true for me’

 

To further dig into this culturally challenging statement - it falls on the day that we celebrate the Reign of Christ

            The liturgical year concludes with this relatively new feast,

                        instituted by Pope Pius XI in 1925 - to celebrate the jubilee year and the                                   16th centenary of the Council of Nicea.

(from which we get our Nicene                                     creed)

                                    It *also* was intended to affirmed the primacy of Christ in the face                                             of rising nationalism and fascism

 

This inclusive greeting (Grace and Peace) YET a greeting which states the *primacy* of Christ - This is truly challenging to the any worldly culture - at any time.

In that message of Christ in the past, present and future - everlasting to everlasting

            there is a message of completeness

 

And in fact the entire reading from Revelation today is a message of completeness

            From the seven spirits

                        Where the Holy Spirit, called /the seven spirits,/ not seven in number, but                                    the infinite perfect Spirit of God, in whom there is a diversity of gifts and                            operations.

Number seven in Revelations is used 52 times,

            - symbolically seven in Hebrew writing stands for completeness or wholeness

                        we see it twice in today passage

                                    the second time is where it speaks of the seven churches in Asia

                                                there were more then seven churches in Asia (although they                                                 were the most noteworthy) but the number seven is to mean                                                ALL the churches in Asia

The message of completeness continues with the mention of Christ as the “firstborn of the dead, and ruler of the kings of the earth”     

            Also “/to Him be the glory and the dominion forever and ever”/

                        And finally Christ affirms this message by saying /“I am the Alpha and the                          Omega,” /

                                    The first and last letters of the Greek alphabet indicate that God is                                      all encompassing.

And Christ continues by saying what John said /“who is and who was and                          who is to come, the Almighty”/

*In this short passage from Revelations John opens the stage to a limitless image*

* *

The Book of Revelation provides an incredible vision.

It is the product of the marriage of hope and despair, of promise and pain.

It is a book~/dream~/vision~/poem~/letter written in all probability toward the                            end of the first century by a banished Jewish Christian leader named John                               who was in prison for his faith on the Isle of Patmos.

From elsewhere in Revelations

            That - /he will wipe every tear from their eyes.

Death will be no more/…

                        /“See, I am making all things new.”

/

/                        …“It is done!

I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end/.”

God through the words of Revelation offers us a vision of a brand new life;

            A life lived in a brand new order in a brand new way.

The results of the Reign of Christ are all around us - if we have eyes to see them

            Last week, I watched as Jackson, my son, going on the ice for skating lessons

                        He stopped skating just after he got on the ice to stoop down and say a few                       words of encouragement to a girl in his class

                                    Now this girl is small for her age, she has big thick glasses and                                             hearing aids, many physical challenges

                                                This is her first sport that she has tried and her parents are                                                    somewhat nervous of this new venture

                        Jackson is only just turned six - he does know all of what is going on

                                    He didn’t do it because I was looking, he didn’t look up at me at all                                   in the stands

                                                And he didn’t do it for anything is return

                                                            He simply got up and continued skating - not                                                                        looking back at the beautiful smile on the girl’s face

                                                This is not merely the moment of a proud father - this is a                                                    moment where I saw a vision Christ’s servant love, of the                                                    new creation - working through another

 

 

Maybe some the images in Revelation are frightening and confusing to you,

            Serpents and lakes of fire, and demented creatures

                        - but don’t be distracted by that

What God has to say in this letter is that:

            no matter what comes against you in this life;

                        no matter if all of the power of pain and chaos of the universe seems to                              overtake you all at once;

                                    no matter if you can not control one single thing or fix one single                                        thing in your life,

                                    the worst is over, the healing has already begun.

The lamb is on the throne.

In the midst of this message today of Christ’s dominion over all things

            God immutable power

                        Is the message that He /“freed us from our sins - by his blood”/

 

 

To understand Revelations for our day,

            We have to understand the nature of hope.

For Christians hope is not a wish.

It is not a tooth under a pillow,

                                    Or fingers crossed

                                    Or just one more 649 lottery try.

Hope for a Christian is an assurance,

                        A firm and binding promise.

It is a sure thing.

Hope is not a feeling - It is a fact.

It is a fact rooted in the reality of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ

                                    And assured by the amazing, steadfast, unshakable love of God for                                    God's people.

God will not be shaken.

Hope is independent of circumstances and it will never be conquered by evil.