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COME! Revelation 22:12-21
The Rev. Dr. Richard W. Reifsnyder
1st Presbyterian Church
Winchester, VA
Mary 12, 2013
The one who testifies…says, "surely I am coming soon." Come, Lord. Jesus!
Revelation 22:20
John's vision—and indeed the Bible itself—ends with Jesus' announcement that he is coming soon. In fact this whole chapter is filled with this idea of "coming." Jesus is coming, so, come to Jesus, come, Lord Jesus.
Does that message that Jesus is coming again seem more like a comfort or a threat to you? What would you do, if you received the astonishing news that Jesus was coming back in a month? I can imagine two basic reactions. Some of us, out of fear would change our lives immediately. We might start going to church more often, probably every day. Prayer would become a much higher priority in life. We'd give more generously. We would seek reconciliation, with a member of our family, neighbor, co-worker, and certainly with God. Or we might have a very different response. We might do nothing differently. Some would be defeatist about it:"There is nothing I can do at this late hour. God has already decided my fate. I might as well continue what I have been doing all along." Others would change nothing but with the opposite attitude. Thomas Aquinas, when asked what he would do if he knew the end was coming tomorrow said, "I would do exactly what I did yesterday. Either I'm prepared now or I never will be."
Life is a series of preparations, isn't it? We play youth soccer to prepare ourselves to play for the high school team. In high school we prepare so we will get into college. In college, we're preparing to be able to go to grad school or get a good job. In our first job we make ourselves ready for the next opportunity. We prepare throughout life to insure our finances will carry us in retirement. In retirement we prepare for? Well, you know! In all our preparations, if we are wise, we've lived with that sense of readiness for Jesus to come, in the present and at the end. He is the Alpha and the Omega, after all, the beginning and the end.
John concludes his vision with a seemingly disjointed, Hodge podge of sayings, uttered in an almost breathless, staccato fashion, but what unites them is they comprise an invitation. Jesus is coming, so "come" join in, be part of the family in assurance that in the long run, God will take care of you.
We're bombarded with invitations, most of us. Within the past couple of weeks I received an invitation to go to a financial planning seminar, to buy a subscription to Atlantic magazine at half price, to come to an auto dealer to test drive a new car, to receive a free hearing test (Lynn probably thinks that would be a good one to assess what she is convinced is my selective hearing), to attend a church webinar, which for $79.95 promised to give me 5 simple principles which will turn around our church's sagging attendance and stewardship. Most of these invitations go straight into the trash bin, don't they?
But then we get the invitations we are eager to accept….an invitation to join friends to watch the Apple Blossom Grand Feature Parade…an invitation to attend a favorite niece's wedding in Columbus…an invitation to go to the prom. I know it's Prom weekend, and I've been amazed to discover how elaborate so many of these are--- balloons with an invite printed on them set to spill out of your intended date's bedroom door when she opens it; 1500 posts it notes with "prom?" on them on your girlfriends car when she gets ready to drive to school in the morning. "Will go with me Laura?" flashing up on the scoreboard, at the end of the soccer game. The pressure to come up with something clever would have done me in…and Lynn will tell you even my marriage proposal was sorely lacking the romance of a good Cary Grant movie.
But there are invitations we are inclined to accept, because we know it's a good offer—it's something we want. Revelation concludes with an invitation. It is I, Jesus, who says "come." Let everyone who hears, "come." Let everyone who is thirsty, "come." If you are hungry, the bread of life is there for you; if you are thirsty, the water of life is ready as a gift for you. Don't hold back. Come, take what's being offered.
It sounds so simple; this invitation to the spiritual life, this life lived in fellowship with the living Lord. Why do we make it so hard or sound so unappealing, that we consign the invitation to the trash bin of our lives.
So many of us live with a certain unresolved paradox. We are so busy, all the time. It is even a mark of accomplishment. O you are so busy, you must be doing such important things. And yet at the same time we sometimes are filled with boredom, restlessness, a kind of anxiety-- busy, but wondering if all our activity really matters, really makes a difference. We're filled and unfilled/unfulfilled at the same time. Jesus invitation is not to a life removed from such struggles, not to leave our many faceted world, but find a way to live in it firmly rooted in the center of all things. Jesus, as Henri Nouwen puts it, "does not speak about a change of activities, a change in contacts, or even a change in pace. He speaks about a change of heart, which makes everything different, even while everything appears to remain the same.
At the Apple Blossom sports breakfast this year, the theme of the speakers was "it's hard work and determination more than talent even, that makes for success." Pittsburgh Steeler and Baltimore Raven hall of famer Rod Woodson, talked about the experiencing we've all had the experiencing of trying to hold our breath under water, or having someone else hold our head under water, until we desperately want a breath. You have to want your dream, you'll goal with that kind of determination, if you are to secure it, he has saying. I'd add a codicil to that, arguing that the goal has to be worthy---and not simply narcissistic or self aggrandizing. The goal has to be a God worthy goal, consistent with Jesus invitation to us, to find the living water.
I recently attended a conference where the focus was on trying to understand why the "nones" are increasing so rapidly in the U.S. Not "nuns" but the people who indicate that they have no religious affiliation and who although they may claim to be spiritual, have their own variety disconnected with any traditional religious organization. Something like 19.7% of the American population, nearly 1/3 of those under 30. I was appalled to read that 40% of the college freshman surveyed about things that made them afraid, said "Christians…Christians were scary." Apparently churches are viewed as rigid, narrow, intolerant by a growing segment of the population, and so their response to the invitation is "no thanks" That concerns me---makes me sad, because the hungers, the thirsts are still there. Why is the message becoming less compelling to some—maybe some in your family, your friends, your neighbors? Religion—that's your thing—but not for me.
I wonder whether in part it is how we communicate. The Bible ends with its core message—the grace of the Lord Jesus be with all the saints. The very last words are a message of grace, of God's love for us, warts and all, God forgiveness for us when we mess us, God's power for us to help bring healing and justice to the world. There's this little warning, that the lectionary actually eliminates from the reading, but which I didn't, promising plagues to those who add or detract from the words of this book. I'm wondering if what that's getting at, is our tendency to keep adding or subtracting to what is the core message of the gospel—GRACE—and so messing it up. Grace yes, but first you better get your sexuality straightened out. Grace yes, but you better be sure your politics are right. Grace yes, but you better be against the things I, speaking for God, think you ought to be against. Grace, but you better clean up your act 1st—and then blessing will be yours. I wonder whether we have to work harder at making the message more inviting to those whose hungers and thirst are still very real, but don't find our offering compelling—not by cheapening the message, but by living it more convincingly. It is still true what C.K Chesterton said 100 years ago, "It is not that the gospel has been tried and found wanting…it is that it has still not been fully tried."
The Bible ends with this invitation to embrace the deep hope that in the end, all will be well, for God is in charge. But there is also a deep sense of longing, for what is not yet. "Come, Lord Jesus, come!" is intended to be our invitation, for Jesus to come, that fear may be turned to joy, hate to love. Come, Lord Jesus, that wars may cease and peace reign, that the patterns of the world might change and justice and compassion may prevail.
John apparently thought the Jesus would be coming soon, as did much of the early church. But 2000 years later, we have long since recognized that God's time is not ours. No contemporary leader has better grasped that tension between the invitation for God to be present and reality of our longing for what it not yet, than did Martin Luther King.
Just after the march on Selma in 1965, many in the civil rights movement were getting discouraged and wondering whether his way of non-violence was working, and were asking "how long must we wait." King gave one of his most memorable statements of faith.
"I know you are asking today, "How long will it take?" Somebody’s asking, "How long will prejudice blind people's visions, darken their understanding, and drive bright-eyed wisdom from her sacred throne?" Somebody’s asking, "When will wounded justice, lying prostrate on the streets of Selma and Birmingham and communities all over this land, be lifted from this dust of shame to reign supreme among God's children?" How long will justice be crucified,and truth bear it?"I come to say to you, however difficult the moment,however frustrating the hour, it will not be long, because "truth crushed to earth will rise again." How long? Not long, because "no lie can live forever."
How long?..... Not long, because "you shall reap what you sow."
How long?..... Not long because the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.
How long?..... Not long because mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord,
How long?..... Not long because his truth is marching on.
How long?...... Not long.
The Book of Revelation ends with this invitation to invite Jesus into our world and into our lives, to the end that his kingdom might come, in confidence that his will be done on earth as it is in heaven. How long will that be? Not long. Till then, we live knowing that in the Lord our labor is never in vain, for the grace of the Lord Jesus is with us all.
THANKS BE TO GOD WHO GIVES US THIS VICTORY IN JESUS CHRIST OUR LORD