Sermons for the Month
DATE: May 10, 1998
SERVICE: Sunday: Easter V
TEXT: Revelation 21:1-6
Sermons for the Month
"The Gospel Truth"
DATE: May 10, 1998
SERVICE: Sunday: Easter V
TEXT: Revelation 21:1-6
"To all of you Saints here this morning, grace and peace to you from God our Father, from His Son, Jesus Christ and His Holy Spirit. AMEN
In the early days of silent movies special effects were nil and storytelling techniques were simple and straightforward. Instead of creating scenes of rising and setting suns, or blooming then drooping flowers, the screen would be covered by a placard reading simply "Time Passes" or "A Year Goes By...." The audience got the message. But before movies, vaudeville and stage plays relied on these moments of inserted explanation to move the story line along, the orginators of all theatrical production, the Greeks, had devised a classic way to achieve the same end. They called it the chorus. The "Greek chorus" was a necessary accompaniment to the main players on the stage. The chorus provided commentary and insights on the story as the actors went from one snapshot vignette to another. It was the responsibility of the Greek Chorus to tie together all these scenes as the actors brought the story to life. Without the choir, Greek theater would have been disjointed and two-dimensional -- flat characters with undeveloped reasons for the sufferings they endured. Last Friday night, Linda and I watched the Disney Studios animated version of the Hercules myth. It featured its own version of a Greek choir to help encapsulate some of the Disneyfied plot of this new tale. Animated to appear as a 1960s black "girl group" (like Diana Ross and The Supremes), this Greek choir sang a narrative to the Hercules story then emphasized their points by repeating the refrain "... and that's the gospel truth!" Besides the obvious historical and artistic shortcomings of Disney's animated Hercules, this movie musically demonstrated what the term "gospel" has come to mean for popular culture. Each time the Motown Greek chorus belted out their "gospel truth" refrain, they did so to punctuate as fact, the hard-nosed, hard-edged, hard-boiled truth about the world in which we live. Come to think of it, "gospel" truth no longer means the "good news" truth of Jesus Christ. It has become simply a cliche for the "cold-hearted vision and version" of the facts. Think of it as Lilly Tomlin ending her comic schtick as "Edith Ann" with "And that's the truth." Today's understanding of "gospel truth" is no longer transformative. It is merely informative ... often brutally honest. In postmodern culture, to tell the "gospel truth" is to declare emphatically "I'm not lying." "The gospel truth" is now a positive declaration of a negative, a description of something you're not doing. So tell me: When did the "gospel truth" become nothing more than a promise against lying? When did the miraculous "good news" of the "gospel truth" get funneled into such a narrow, hard-edged definition? The "good news" that the Revelation of John describes in today's text is certainly not winnowed down or watered down. In this vision, John hears the divine declare "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end" (v.6). This is the testimony of God who is the truth: the beginning, center and end of all creation. God the Alpha and God the Omega is a God who is present with us everywhere and at all times. This is the gospel truth we sing about, praise about, shout about each Sunday morning here at Faith.. While Disney's dancing Greek choir only provided a running commentary on the events either past or present, the genuine "gospel truth" proclaimed by John's vision in Revelation offers a glimpse into the future -- a crystal ball of what is destined to come. John promises us a "gospel" future in the finest sense -- not hard-nosed or cold-eyed, but glorious and new. The Revelation window in front of us captures these themes. First, a "new heaven and a new earth" untarnished by our past sins and stubborn shortcomings awaits us. A new and holy Jerusalem will descend into our midst to serve as God's dwelling place. You see that pictured up above. Second, even more miraculous is the fact that through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ as the lamb of God—you see the lamb right there—w e are now welcomed citizens of this new Jerusalem, the intended inhabitants of this new heaven and new earth. The "gospel truth" our window proclaims is an exciting, exhilarating story of redemption and deliverance. Historically, Christians have used a clever symbol to illustrate the true scope of this gospel-good news. Like God's own declaration that our redeeming Lord is the "Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end," this symbol demonstrated the power and pervasiveness of the gospel. Our stained glass Alpha and Omega are behind the organ pipes. You can see them from the outside. However, our window also demonstrates the global reality of God's "gospel truth" in another way. In our window you see the top of a globe. Sitting as if to cover it is the lamb of God. The size of the lamb relative to the world points up the fact that our task to proclaim the gospel to all points of the compass. Let me add, the "gospel truth" we are to proclaim is meant to more than just inform. It is meant to transform. The good news we are to tell is not some elaboration of divine principles. The good news we are to share is the embodiment of divine love in a person. In the words of the gospel of Philip: "Truth did not come into the world naked, but it came in types and images." The Word Became Flesh .... John challenged the church of his day as I do you here this morning to be and tell the "gospel truth" of Jesus Christ. Already, just a few decades after Jesus' resurrection many churches had already become skinflint, hard-nosed messagers of guilt to the world -- more informative than transformative, more destructive that constructive. John wanted our "gospel" news to mean more that simply "I'm not lying." He wanted our "gospel" news to be the truth that God is working in our midst now to bring in the new heaven and the new earth. Today, we celebrate Mothers' Day. Mothers notoriously labor so hard and lovingly for their families that they suffer extraordinary amounts of guilt wondering if they have done enough. Mary C. Hickey and Sandra Salmans document this phenomenon in their fascinating and humorous book, The Working Mother's Guilt Guide (New York: Penguin Books). They contrast the childless period in a mother's life with life after children: Then, she showered and dressed. Now, she gets the children out of bed, asks the children to get dressed, begs the children to get dressed, dresses the children herself, skips the shower and dresses herself (if there's time). Then, she read the paper and sipped a cup of coffee. Now, she gulps a half-cup of coffee, referees battle over prize at the bottom of the cereal box, hunts for lunch boxes, throws out yesterday's sandwich, scrapes curdled milk from thermos, makes PB & J sandwiches (again), and reheats the coffee in the microwave. Then, she spends the lunch hour at the gym. Now, she drives to her son's school for car-pool duty, persuades five kids to get in the car, fastens four seat belts around five kids, listens to scatological rhyme, and drives back to the office. You might think that any power mom expending all this energy and effort could feel justly satisfied with the achievement. But no, research demonstrates she feels the pang of guilt whenever she leaves a weeping child in the arms of the daycare worker; she phones the daycare center in the morning, afraid that the child has smothered himself in a dry cleaner's bag; she insists on baking cookies for the class party because she is afraid to buy cookies at the store for fear others will think she doesn't have time for her kids; and she considers quitting work completely because she feels her kids need more of her time. No matter what mothers do, there is someone there to help them with their guilt. Moms: Know that your guilt is nothing more than informative; it informs you that no matter how much you do, you have not done enough. We all know you want to be a good mother. The good news, is God wants you to be a guilt free mother too. For that reason, he gave himself for the forgiveness of your sins, the relief of your guilt, that you might enjoy the peace that passes all human understanding. It is He who empowers change in your life. While misplaced guilt says you're defective; Jesus says you're effective. Guilt says you should be in tears; the good news says that God wipes away all tears. This is the good news Jesus shares with you today. May his grace and peace be with you always.
AMEN