The Promise Fulfilled (Revelations 21: 1-6)

(A sermon preached November 5, 2006 at University United Methodist Church, East Lansing MI by Kennetha Bigham-Tsai)

Today we remember and celebrate loved ones we have lost in the past year. And, the truth be told, we also remember and celebrate, in our hearts, loved ones lost in years past. But we do not remember alone or even as individual families. We remember as a community of people who come together in loving fellowship. We remember as a church body which covenants with all who walk through its doors to be with one another in love.

So today is a day of communal remembrance. We celebrate and remember the people whose lives have so touched ours. And we also remind ourselves and celebrate the reality that they are still with us—because we and they are all part of a communion of saints—an eternal communion with generations past, present and future. We are with them and they with us as the eternal community of God’s children—a community whose reality stretches beyond this life—a community whose reality stretches beyond physical death.

Friends, this is a day of remembrance. But there is even more to this day than remembrance, for this day also offers us an opportunity to reflect upon the covenant that God entered into with us at creation; the covenant which God has kept and is keeping in the act of redemption; the covenant which God will fulfill at the end of time.

This covenant is basically a promise. This is a promise that stands in the face of death and pain and suffering, and declares that they do not have the last word. For that last word rests, not with our struggles in life, but with the promise of a loving God—the promise that God will renew and redeem and restore the creation and that God will be with that creation in love.

And so we have this passage in Revelations today, a passage which speaks of a new heaven and a new earth. This passage speaks of a creation renewed and restored perhaps to that state that it was in the beginning when it was so intrinsically good that the writer of Genesis could not help but utter the constant refrain, “And God saw that it was good-- that it was all good—that it was indeed good,” (cf. Genesis 1:31).  

The creation was good, but that story in Genesis also tells us that the good creation was and is marred by the reality of sin and separation from God. The creation, while still good to some extent, has somehow fallen short of the ultimate good God intended. And we know this because we know that amidst the good in life, there is also war and poverty and famine. Amidst the good in life, there are broken relationships and broken promises. Amidst the good in life, there is also death and pain and illness. There is suffering in our present world—suffering that seems to stand against God’s intent for the good creation—suffering that leads the whole of God’s creation to groan as in labor pains for the hope of its final redemption, (cf. Romans 8:22-23).

The creation groans for redemption, and God indeed promises redemption—a redemption of the whole of creation that can be accomplished only through the very presence of the living God. Look at what our scripture tells us about a vision of this redeemed creation.

 “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth…I saw…the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God …And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘See, the home of God is among mortals. God will dwell with them; they will be God’s peoples, and God… will be with them. God will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more…See I am making all things new,’” (Rev. 21: 1-5).

This is a vision and a promise of a radically restored and renewed and redeemed creation—a redeemed creation marked by the presence of God and the end of all suffering and death. This is God’s promise, and it is not an empty promise. For, this promise of presence and redemption and an end to suffering has been fulfilled in Christ.

God has fulfilled this promise by becoming incarnate in the person of Jesus Christ, the one who came to be Immanuel, God with us. God has fulfilled this promise through the life and example of a Christ who came to stand with us-- to nurture, to heal and to feed us spiritually. God has fulfilled this promise through a Christ who, through his own death and resurrection, conquered death and who is with us now in Spirit. And, God has fulfilled this promise and will fulfill it completely through a Christ who will come again.

Through this Christ, we have hope of redemption and restoration of all of life.  We have hope that we will reach our final fulfillment and will exist in the presence of the glory of God revealed in a Christ who remains the good shepherd—the good shepherd who will wipe away every tear.

This is the promise and the hope which this passage in Revelations extends to us. And I don’t know exactly what the full and final consummation of this promise will look like, but my faith tells me that the ones I have loved (the ones we have loved) and who have gone on before us have already experienced the fruition of this promise. My faith tells me that they are therefore already completely redeemed and restored and already dwelling in the presence of God’s glory. So, while we may weep at their passing, they are exulting in God’s glory. Their joy has been brought to fruition, for they dwell in the presence of the glory of God where there is no more suffering but only endless and unbroken fellowship with the divine.

If we are to have any hope in your lives, then we must have assurance for ourselves of this promise of redemption and divine presence. For, it is such assurance that keeps us going and gives us hope. It is such assurance that has given many who have gone before us hope amidst the travails of life.

Later in this service we will sing, as our prayer hymn, the well-known piece, “It is Well with My Soul.” This hymn was written in 1873 by Horatio Spafford. Some of you may know his story. Spafford’s wife and daughters were traveling by sea when there was a tragic shipwreck. All four of his daughters were lost. His wife survived and sent back what must have been a wrenching telegram. It read, “Saved alone.”

Spafford, as he made his way by ship to meet his grieving wife, passed the very place where his children were lost. And there, in the midst of his own pain, he began to write the words to this famous hymn.

“When peace like a river, attendeth my way, when sorrows like sea billows roll; what ever my lot, thou has taught me to say, it is well, it is well with my soul…And Lord, hast the day when my faith shall be sight, the clouds be rolled back as a scroll; the trump shall resound and the Lord shall descend, even so, it is well with my soul,” (United Methodist Hymnal, no. 377, vs. 1 and 4).

I have to believe that Spafford could write these words in the midst of such tragedy only because he believed that God’s promise of redemption and presence had come to fruition in Christ. He could write these words only because he believed in a Christ who fulfilled God’s promise to be with him in his mourning and in his pain-- in a Christ who fulfilled God’s promise to be with him in his loss.

I have to believe that Spafford could write this hymn only because he believed in a Christ who fulfilled God’s promise of restoration and redemption by conquering death and offering us all hope of that final victory—that final victory in which no parent would ever have to experience the loss of a child—that final victory in which no one would ever have to experience the loss of someone they loved—that final victory in which death and mourning and crying and pain would be no more.  

I have to believe that Spafford could write the words of this great hymn, despite such grave tragedy, only because he must have understood the promise which is expressed in this passage in Revelations and which rests in Christ –the promise that every tear would be wiped away, that death would be no more—and that all of the saints—he and his daughters—us and our loved ones-- would all dwell in the promised glory of God declaring to one another and singing with a great company of the angels, “It is well with our souls.”

This is the promise that we find in our passage for today—that though we may mourn for a time; though we may struggle for a time; though we may bemoan the brokenness and limitations of this world, joy and redemption come in the morning, and God in Christ is with us through it all.

This is the promise that God holds out before us. And, this promise has been fulfilled through the life, death and resurrection of Christ and will find its final fulfillment in Christ’s return. But there is more, for God’s promise of redemption and presence to all of creation also is fulfilled in and through Christ’s body--the Church. This promise of redemption and presence is fulfilled in and through the Church when we embrace each other and the world in love—when we hold one another and the world in prayer—when we mourn and remember together and when we reach out to others who mourn—when we do something to share each others burdens and the burdens of a hurting world.

As the Church, we represent the fulfillment of the promise that Christ will dwell with mortals—that Christ will be with humanity even in the midst of suffering--and that the creation will be redeemed and renewed through Christ.  

Friends, we are the Body of Christ for each other and the world. We are the presence of God and the vehicle for redemption for each other and for others who are so in need of divine presence and redemption in their lives. We are the Church, and so we are here to be present with one another--to hold each other in the embrace of God’s redemptive love—and to hold others in that same embrace.  .

As we memorialize our loved ones in just a few minutes, we will light a candle and sound the bells for each person in our community who has died in the past year. Friends and family members will be invited to stand. Those of you who stand, please know that this whole community stands with you, extends God’s redemptive love to you, and is here to help you to celebrate and remember your loved ones and to wipe away every tear from your eyes.   

And friends, as Christ’s Church, we don’t just stand with one another and hold one another in the embrace of God’s redemptive love, but we stand with and hold the whole world in that embrace. That is why we light a candle for peace, because we hold the world in the embrace of our prayers for peace and for the redemption of all violence. That is why we also will light a candle for those who have died in armed conflict, because, through our prayers, we hold and embrace every mother and father who has lost a beloved child to a war. We hold in prayerful embrace every person, military and civilian, who has died in an armed conflict and all those who mourn them. We hold all of these persons in our thoughts and prayers—we hold them all in the spiritual embrace of redemptive love that the Church as the Body of Christ is called to extend to the world.

This is the promise of redemption and presence that we as the Church fulfill in faith and through the power of the Holy Spirit. This is the promise fulfilled--that neither death, nor mourning, nor pain shall reign. But through Christ and through Christ’s Church there will be springs of living water—water as a gift given from the springs of the fountain of life. Through Christ and Christ’s Spirit-empowered Church, such water, the very symbol of life sustained and renewed, shall flow from and to each of us and to the whole world. And, we and the whole world shall drink together and live.  Amen.