5 Easter

The Baptism of Brooks Broten

May 19, 2019

Revelation 21.10, 22-22; John 13.31-35

+ If you’re anything like me, if you have been active in the Church over the years, you no doubt have encountered other Christians who tell us things like this:

“You know we’re in the last times, right?”

Or,

“When the Rapture comes, you want go with it, because to be left behind is terrible.”

There were even references recently to Revelation and the end times when the United States moved its embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem (a reference I didn’t understand no matter how hard to tried to unravel it)

I personally never understood these comments until I later heard that they come from some Evangelical churches that have found these interpretations of the Book of Revelation to mean that what is written in that book is happening right now.

And with the popularity of such books as the Left Behind series (which I personally find to be major manipulations of scripture, not to mention very badly written books), we have seen even more clearly some Christian’s ideas of how the Book Revelation somehow is interpreted in the light of current events  current events.

Later, as I sort of studied it a bit, I found a big problem with such teaching:

Almost every Christians since the time of Jesus believed they were in the “end times.”

The problem with this is that the rallying cry of these being the “end times” it’s been said of every major era of modern history.

People thought it was the end times when the Black Death rolled through Europe.

People thought it was the End Times when the Protestant Reformation raged, or when the Turks invaded Europe or when the French Revolution happened.

People thought it was the end times when World War I came.

People thought it was the End Times during the 1918 Flu Epidemic.

People definitely thought it was the end times when Hitler rose to power.

People in the 1950s were saying it was the end times with the Communist threat from Russia and China.

Or they were saying it was the end of times when kids started listening to Rock and Roll or the Beatles came to the U.S, or anytime during the very tumultuous 1960s.

And I remember my aunt, who belonged to the First Assembly of God Church, saying it was the end times in the 1980s.

I remember her saying that we should not have VISA cards because VISA was a clever guise for the Mark of the Beast—the numbers 666.

If we were to believe everyone who cried it was the end times, we could honestly say that the end times have been happening for at least 2,000 years. 

I solved my confusion about this issue by doing the only thing I could do in the fact of all that confusion:

I simply re-reading the Book of Revelation from beginning to end.

And you know what happened?

I was able to claim—or re-claim—it, and helped me to read it anew.

And I was able to see that the Book of Revelation really isn’t about “End Times”

Still, I think there are a lot of us who feel very differently about the Book of Revelation.

Revelation is a strange book.

It can be a frightening book.

But—and I know this might seem strange to many Christians— I don’t see it as a book of prophecy, as many Christians do.

I don’t see it saying anything definitely about future governments or some messianic Anti-Christ in our midst or that we are living in the so-called “last days” or what have you.

Mind you, I do believe “anti-Christs” come and go through history.

I do believe that powerful people who represent every anti-Jesus, anti-Christian ideals of loving God and loving others and respecting the worth of dignity of all peoples are real, and those people are, by definition anti Christ.

But, for that matter, anytime any of us run counter to these Christian ideals, we too become kind of “anti-Christs” to those around us.

Still, what I do see it doing is speaking to us through some beautiful and powerful poetry on what is happening in our lives, right now, as Christians, and about how, in the end, Christ is victorious.  

I think it is important for us to re-claim Revelation in this way —and, in doing so, re-read it with a new lens. 

In our reading this morning from Revelation, we find some very strange esoteric images—not an uncommon thing when we read Revelation.

We find this morning these images of a new heaven and a new earth, of this new Jerusalem, where death is no more or tears or crying.

It is a place of beauty and glory.  

It is a place of unending life.

And it is here that I think the Book of Revelation speaks loudly to us.

Even we, as Christians, sometimes struggle with the reality of death in our lives.

Even we fear it at times.

And that is all right.

That is normal.

Of course, death is a part of life, and certainly it’s part of my job as a priest.

I knew that going into it.  

But, let me tell you: it still is hard, often.  

And for people who have to deal with this mystery of death on a regular basis, there have to be ways to find strength and comfort in the midst of death.  

One of the ways I find my way through this sometimes constant dealing with death is by turning to the scriptures.

There is a common theme we find through all Scripture.

And that common theme is this:

the defeat of death.  

Or as the great Episcopal theologian William Stringfellow called it: “authority over death.”

I agree with him 100%.  

I think he is absolutely right about that.

Stringfellow saw it most profoundly in the life of Jesus.  

There we see this authority over death most profoundly.

We see it every time Jesus healed the sick, calmed the storms, cast out demons, ate with sinners, cleansed the temple, raised the death, carried the Cross.

And of course, in the Resurrection, which we are still celebrating in this season of Easter, it is all about authority over death.

In all of this, we see the God of life—God in Jesus—being victorious over death.

This view of life over death speaks to us most profoundly during this Easter season.

During this  season, what we have found most vital to our understanding of living into this Easter faith is the startling fact that death truly does not have power over us.

We, as Christians, cannot let the power of death control and direct our lives.  

As Christians, as followers of Jesus who crossed that awful boundary between life and death, and came back, we must truly be defiant to death.  

Of course, that ultimate victory over death happens only when we can face death honestly.

True victory over death is when we can see death in the light we hear about in today’s reading from Revelation.

Only then do we realize that death has no victory over us.

Because of what happened on Easter, because of the Resurrection, because Jesus did die, yes, but God raised him that tomb, and because Jesus walked victorious upon the chains of death, we know now death does not have the last word in our lives.

 Over this last year and a half especially, I can tell you, it would’ve been easy for me to just give into this victory death strives for over life.

Mourning does that do us.

It weakens us and saps our energies from us.

We all get stuck in mourning patterns.  

But, for us Christians, we can’t be stuck in such death.

We must live.

And we must move forward.  

We must  stand up against death.

I can tell you that, right now, in my own life, I am very tired of death.

I am weary of dealing directly with it.

I am tired of dealing with its after-effects.

I am tired of dealing with its seemingly overpowering presence.

But, standing up to death, even when we’re sick of it, is not easy.

Choosing life, with all its uncertainties, can be scary.

Even when moving forward into life  and living our lives fully and completely, we realize it can be frightening.

We are, after all, heading into the future which is unknown to us.

But that, again, is what I love about Revelation.

What Revelation promises to us, through all that poetry and imagery, is that death will lose, hatred will lose, violence will lose, evil will lose, war will lose—and goodness, and holiness and LIFE will be victorious.  

That isn’t wishful thinking.  That’s isn’t being naïve.

Rather, this is what it means to be a Christian.  

This is what it means to believe in the God of life.

That is what I means to follow Jesus.

Yes, following Jesus means following him to the Cross and to that dark tomb.  

And to death, yes.

But it also means following him into the great unknown on the other side of the Cross and the tomb—into that glorious, light-filled, unending life that swallows up death and darkness and war once and for all.

It means following him to the point in which the God of unending life raises him—and us—into unending life as well.

"See, the home of God is among mortals,” St. John tells us in our reading for today.
“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."

Those are words of absolute and glorious victory.

But more so, they are words of life—of a life that goes on forever and ever.

As we travel through these last days of Easter, as we head into this week in which we celebrate Jesus’ ascension to that place of life and light, into that place in which the God of life and light dwells, let us do so with true Easter joy.

Let us do so rejoicing from the very core of our bodies.

We are alive.  

This morning, we are alive.

Life is in us.

We are followers of Jesus.

We are filled with life and love.

As we heard Jesus say in our Gospel reading for today, “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciple, if you have love for one another.”

Those words are our words this morning as well.

We are filled with love and life.

We are celebrating love and life.

We are celebrating life and renewed life in the baptism of Brooks.

When we renew our Baptismal promises, we are celebrating the unending life that is ours through baptism.

And it is all very, very good.  

We have much to be thankful for and in which to rejoice.

So, let us be thankful for this life.

Let us rejoice in it.  

And let us realize that in rejoicing in our lives and in the life within each of us, God has truly prepared for us, as we heard in our collect this morning, “such good things as surpass our understanding.”

Amen.