A New Hope Rev Stuart Simpson Sermon 1 st May 2016 John 14:23-29 Revelation 21:10-22:5 Star Wars: I recently sat down and watch the latest Star Wars movie with my two boys. It brought back memories of when I went with my father to see the first Star Wars movie. I can remember experiencing the amazing world of aliens and the expanse of space. It opened my eyes to the wonder of imagination I wonder if that is how we feel when we read the book of Revelation? The imagery is like that of Star Wars which we know is fiction Monsters, aliens, bright beings of light, new worlds and a God Today s image is of a beautiful city which the writer seems to have trouble describing in his language The city of God is complex a marvelous alien city filled with light, covered in precious stones and metals And this place is coming to dwell on the new earth In the previous lines we hear this: 1
see, the home of God is among mortals, He will dwell with them as their God; They will be his peoples, And God himself will be with them; He will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; Mourning and crying and pain will be no more For the first things have passed away. A wonderful, powerful picture movie science fiction block buster? What is God really saying to us in this image that we can understand and take seriously and what does it mean for us today? Are we to take this book this prophesy seriously? The closing words of Revelation certainly say it is something we are to take seriously And he said to me, These words are trustworthy and true, for the Lord, the God of the spirits of the prophets, has sent his angel to show his servants what must soon take place. So if we believe this then what? I believe the words we ve heard this morning are words of hope 2
A New Hope which is funny because one of the Stars Wars movies was called a New Hope And yet the new hope God is talking about is one that is real The image we are presented is that of a time when Heaven and Earth will be one Heaven is the place where God is so really the picture is of God s awesome, wonderful, healing, holy presence fully on earth the reality of heaven will be the reality of earth Lake Matheson: how many of you have ever been to lake Matheson in the South Island? right way up 3
4 upside down It is one of the most beautiful lakes I ve ever seen and on a clear day the reflection is so perfect that if you turned it upside down you wouldn t know. This is the new hope that one day heaven and earth will be fully one Where we live, God will be Where God is we will be There will be no grief, pain, loss, hurt If we explore the Revelation picture further, we will see that the doors of the city are always open open to all We will finally meet the lamb face to face God who met us in our reality and made it possible for us to be with God God who came to us, dwelt with us, died for us, rose for us and breathed his spirit into us
And we will experience the healing of pains too deep to know and fears to awful to express A New Hope! But how long O Lord? Can t you see the state of the world, can t you hear the cries of your people, don t know the desperate are despairing? A new hope is needed now, O Lord, not soon but now! Go back to the picture of Lake Matheson the picture is not fully right! If we see the picture of lake Matheson again let s imagine it represents the earth/creation Jesus came so earth/creation could be restored to God this is now possible it has begun but also continues Like the two pictures overlapping and yet not fully inline yet 5
If this is the case, then we should be able to see that God is actually doing a whole lot of things in creation right now I think often we are just simply blind to them The New Hope began ages ago As soon as people decided to turn away from God, God has chased us, longed for us, sought us out And in moments we have turned to God, our eyes have opened we have held out our arms to God and then whipped them back, like a fake highfive God has continued to proclaim hope through his prophets often this proclamation meant changing direction in life, which people fought hard against God continued to witness his love by raising a nation as his own so all people could be redeemed God knocked, battered, shouted, wept for us to come home until God recognized the only way would be for God to meet us face to face, in the mire of our lives, in the false freedom we so long to hold onto In Jesus the New Hope was finally initialized without relying on human s fickle will, stubbornness and blindness The new hope continued and continues to be worked out in and through God s people and also in places of hope, forgiveness and love 6
One such example that I share with the Evening Service a couple of years is that of The Tree of Life very apt because of the Tree of Life in the reading today, which the sculpture is based on A symbol of hope in the face of war It is a sculpture, created by four artists, Kester, Hilario Nhatugueja, Fiel dos Santos and Adelino Serafim Maté in Maputo, as part of a co-operative called Associação Núcleo de Arte in Maputo. The scheme was created by the Mozambican Christian Council and supported by Christian Aid. It was Bishop Dinis Sengulane's idea which led to the creation of an organisation called "Transformacao de Armas em Enxadas" or "Transforming Arms into Tools". Sengulane who was one of the people credited for 7
creating the opportunity for peace following the Mozambique Civil War. The "Transforming Arms into Tools" organisation supplied the decommissioned weapons to the artists and his group for this and many other related pieces of sculpture. Around the bottom of the main trunk, which weighs half a ton (c. 500 kg), there are some complementary sculptures of animals. The animals are a turtle, a lizard and two birds. These too are made from welded guns. Weapons are important symbols in Mozambique. An AK47 still features on Mozambique's flag. This sculpture was made from weapons which include Kalashnikov AK47s, Walther 42s, German MP 40s and British 4.85mms. The millions of weapons in Mozambique were the remains of the civil war that was funded by South Africa and Rhodesia and involved emigrants from both of their regimes. One million people were killed and the war only ended when the Soviet Union collapsed and the funding ended. The tree of life symbolizes the possibility of life after death healing of people broken by war Ultimately a symbol that God has overcome all that leads to death, war and hate 8
Something we need to remember in moments such as on ANZAC day That sculpture was made in Mozambique and is now resting in the London Museum, but what about closer to home? Where do you see Hope in your own lives? Where are the places that heaven and earth are touching now? NT Wright in his book Surprised by Hope said that Church buildings were built with beautiful adornments, glorious paintings and frescos, and filled with inspiring music, because it was believed that in these places heaven and earth were closest together the veil was thin the picture most aligned This might be true in some ways, however I believe that the veil of heaven and earth is thin in the moments we show hospitality to the stranger, love to the enemy, forgiveness to those who hurt us, kindness, joy, peace What are we looking for in life? Where are we looking? Do we see New Hope? If not, then let s open our eyes actually let s ask God to open our eyes to see Heaven in all its glory and to see what God is doing in our lives and the lives around us Don t be surprised by what you see 9
Don t be surprised when you realize you are part of the New Hope. 10