When Someone You Love Dies

10-7-15

Lexington UMC                                  “When Someone You Love Dies”

John 11: 1-37

Everyone should have a piece of red yarn at your place.  Get the person next to you to help you tie the red yarn on your wrist.

I read a story about a woman who became very sick.  She had to go in the hospital, and after a while the doctors said her condition was terminal, and they and they sent her home, where she was confined to her bed.  This woman had an eight-year-old daughter who was not aware of how sick her mother was…didn’t know that she was going to die.

But one day the little girl was standing outside the bedroom door when the doctor came by (this was during the days when doctors made house calls).  She overheard the doctor say these words to her daddy.  “I have to be honest with you.  It won’t be much longer now.  In fact, before the last leaves have gone from that tree outside her window, she will die.”  The little girl heard all of this, but her daddy didn’t know she heard it.

A little while later, the father was sitting at the table drinking coffee and he wondered where his daughter was.  After looking all over, he saw her out in the yard.  She was picking up the leaves that had begun to fall.  She was using pieces of red yarn to tie the leaves back onto the tree limbs.

Now look at your red yarn.  This is a reminder to all of us, that we all have people in our lives right now that we are not ready to let go of.  We do, don’t we?  And it is to remind us of all have had people we love that have died… and we weren’t read to say goodbye to them…were we?  That’s what we are talking about this evening…  about when someone we love dies.

Everybody hold up your red yarn.  This is something we all know about.  And did you know that Jesus knew about it, too?  Let’s read about it in John chapter 11.  The scripture passage is printed on the sheet in front of you.  I’m reading from the New Living Translation.  <Read John 11: 1-37>

I.               When someone we love dies, we are tempted to focus on what we do not know.

What I mean by that is that we are tempted to focus on all the questions that newspaper reporters focus on when they are writing a story.  You know those questions?

Who?  When? Where?  Why? How?

All these questions we are tempted to focus on…and we don’t know the answers to them. 

·      We don’t know who.  Not really.  One person we think is young and healthy, and next thing you know, they die unexpectedly.  Another person we think is old and sickly, and they live on and on.  Right?

·      When?  According to the U.S. Census Bureau’s website, a person dies every 12 seconds.  But we don’t know when our time will come – nor when our loved ones’ time will come.

·      Where?  We don’t know where we will die, do we?

·      How?  Mostly we don’t know, unless we have a terminal illness.  Even then, we are sometimes surprised.

And then there is the big…BIG…question.  The “why?” question…  Why did the other person die and not me?  Why did they have to die so young?  Why didn’t God do something?

The “why” question was what Mary and Martha wanted to know from Jesus.  They both said, “Lord if you had been here…what?...my brother wouldn’t have died.”  Implied in that was…Why, Lord?  Why weren’t you here?  Why didn’t you do something?

Yesterday, Emily Kate turned 17.  It made me remember when I was 17.  You remember being 17?  The big thing I remember about being 17 is that that was the year when my dad died.  And the question I wanted to know was why?  Why, Lord?  Lord did my dad have to die so young?  Y’all ever feel that way?

Now – of course there is a medical explanation to our why question.  There is even a philosophical answer.  None of that satisfies, though.  We want to KNOW…and we don’t…and if we get stuck in the Who? When? Where?  Why? How? cycle we will be miserable. 

II.             Instead, let’s focus on what we do know.

Here are some things we do know about death and dying:

1.     Death is a part of life.  We all die.

Benjamin Franklin once said, “In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.”

Now, Ben Franklin was smart and all, but I am a little more convinced when I read this truth in God’s Word, aren’t you? 

Heb. 9: 27

James 4: 13-14

1 Peter 1: 24-25

2.     Our spirits are eternal.

We were created in the image of God.  God is spirit, and God is eternal.  Therefore we are spirit, and we are eternal.  There are many Scriptural references that point to this.  Let’s just look one from 1 Cor. 15:

1 Cor. 15: 51-57

3.  Grief is a natural part of human life.

John 11: 35 says, “Jesus wept.”  Why did Jesus weep?  He wept because he was fully human, and grief is a part of life.  It hurts when someone we love dies.  It hurts to see others around us grieving.  One of my favorite characters in the movie Steel Magnolias is Dolly Parton’s character, Truvy.  Truvy says, “I have a strict policy that nobody cries alone in my presence.”

4.     Even though we grieve, we grieve with hope.

Christians are people of hope.  We are resurrection people!  It is one of the foundational beliefs of our faith.

1 Cor. 15: 13-20

1 Thess. 4: 13-18

5.     When we die we go into the presence of the Lord.

We don’t know the particulars of what happens when a person dies.  I know that there are books out there…  Heaven is For Real…  Ninety Minutes in Heaven…  I’ve read those and I like them.  But what my faith rests on comes from this book – the Bible.

2 Cor. 5: 6-8

Luke 23: 42-43

6.     We will see our loved ones again.

Yellow ribbon…  Now get the person next to you to help you tie on your yellow yarn.  Wearing a yellow ribbon to remember a loved one that is far away has been a custom for hundreds of years.  Nobody really knows where it started.  I remember in the 70’s when Tony Orlando did a song, “Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Old Oak Tree.”  It was a song about forgiveness…a guy getting out of prison and all.  But it goes way, way back before that.  There was a popular marching song for the US military – I don’t know if they still use it.  I know it goes as far back as 1917.  It goes,

'Round her neck she wears a yeller ribbon,

She wears it in winter and the summer so they say,

If you ask her "Why the decoration?"

She'll say "It's fur my loved one who is fur, fur away.

Now if it is fur her feller…it’s a promise to be true until they meet again, right?  But it’s a symbol that in general says, “I will hold you in my heart until we meet again.  I won’t forget.”  That’s what we all could say today about those we love.  That’s what this yellow yarn is for tonight.  To remember.  And to know that we will see them again…

Do I believe we will know each other on the other side?  Sure do!  I Cor. 13: 12…

III.           Where is God when it hurts?

From yesterday’s Upper Room…  The Scripture is Is. 66: 13…  “The Lord says, ‘As a mother comforts her child, so I will comfort you.’”

The story is about a man named Gary Story, from Kentucky, who had to tell his six-year-old daughter that the parents of her best friend were divorcing.  His daughter began to cry, and they tried to comfort her…not knowing what to do, Gary took his daughter in his arms and carried her outside.  Eventually she rested her head on her dad’s shoulder and they just stood there looking at the moon together.

Fast forward 30 years – and Gary’s daughter is now a foster parent of a child who would cry at night because he missed his mother.  She remembered what her dad did for her, and she took the little boy in her arms, and took him outside, and they looked at the moon together.  After a while, he stopped crying.

Gary closes with these words, and this is how we will close tonight. 

“I think of those times in our lives when God touches us with love and grace in moments of hurt and uncertainty.  Those memories bring comfort and peace…”

"Ticket to Ride"

7-26-15

Lexington UMC                                  “Ticket to Ride”

Luke 13: 31-35

“I think I’m gonna be sad.  I think it’s todaaaay, yeah!  The girl that’s drivin’ me mad is goin’ awaaaay.”

I know this is a pop song and all, but I have to tell you…I hear so much sadness and disappointment in these lyrics.  Don’t you?  It’s the cry of a broken heart.  Do you recognize the sound?

We heard that sound earlier when we read these words of Jesus:

Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it!  How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!

To put it another way…  Jerusalem’s got a ticket to ride.  And she don’t care.  And Jesus’ heart is broken.

How strange sounding that must be for those who worship other gods.  “Isn’t your God all-powerful,” they might ask.  “Yes,” we would say.  “Our God is all-powerful and mighty to save!”  “Then how could your all-powerful God possibly be sad and disappointed?” they ask.  Well?  Good question, right?

The answer to that question goes back to the way that God made us human beings.  God made us with the ability to choose…to choose life or death…to choose to love God or reject God.  Without that free choice we would be no better than robots – we could never have a real, authentic relationship…and a real, authentic relationship with us is what God had in mind from the beginning.  God wouldn’t settle for anything less.

The fact that God in Christ is weeping over Jerusalem shows just how far God will go in protecting humanity’s freedom to choose.  God will take it all the way to the cross, won’t he?  And beyond!  Our choice…that  is what is at the heart of this message today…our choice…

1.     Every single one of us has a ticket to ride today.  Do you care?

Inside your bulletin you will notice a ticket.  On one side it reads, “Ticket to Ride.”  On the other side, it reads, “Do you care?”  I’m going to ask you to do something with that ticket later on in the service.  Will you use it?  Will you walk away?  For now, hold on to it.

So picture in your mind Jesus standing looking over the city of Jerusalem, his arms open wide…  He is sad at their rejection.  Now, let’s back up a few verses and see some of the things that happened before Jesus wept over Jerusalem.  Before Jesus got sad, he got mad.

Jesus is on the way to Jerusalem.  He has been teaching, and some Pharisees came up to him and said, “Get away from here, for Herod wants to kill you.”

What is behind this warning that the Pharisees gave Jesus?  We don’t really know.  Are their intentions good?  Are they trying to help Jesus out, or trick him?  All that we know for sure is that they are trying to tell Jesus where he can and cannot go. 

Now let’s stop here for a second.  This is almost too much to believe!  Religious people trying to tell Jesus where to go…  What were they thinking?  But here we are 2000 years later… still trying to tell Jesus where he can and cannot go.  Aren’t we?  “Jesus couldn’t possibly want to have anything to do with those folks,” we say.  “They’re not like us!  They are not even in our denomination!”

Or maybe we say, “Jesus, you stay here in church and mind your own business.  I don’t want you coming to my home.  You might not like what I watch on TV.  I don’t want you going to work with me.  You might not approve of how I act at work.  I don’t want you hanging out with me and my friends.  You might not like some of the language we use.  I don’t want you getting involved in my politics.  You see what I mean?  You stay in your place, Jesus.”

Here’s where Jesus got mad.  At least I think he got mad.  When the Pharisees told him not to go to Jerusalem because Herod wanted to kill him, Jesus said, “Go and tell that fox for me…  Listen, I am casting out demons and performing cures today and to morrow and the third day I finish my work.”

What do you think Jesus was feeling when he said those words?  To help you answer that question, I will put up the emotions from Disney Pixar’s movie, Inside Out…  There’s Anger, Fear, Joy, Disgust, and Sadness.

So when Jesus told the Pharisees, “You go and tell that fox Herod something for me…”  What do you think Jesus was feeling?  Maybe anger?  Certainly not fear!

I think Jesus was mad about the Pharisees trying to tell him where to go.  I think he was mad at Herod for thinking he could possibly stop God’s plan.  And then I think he was sad over the way people would reject him.  Did you notice that Jesus compares Herod to a fox, and himself to a hen?

The fox was a crafty, sneaky varmint…wanting to feed its own selfish hungers.  The hen wanted to gather the chicks underneath her wing to protect them.  One represented Herod…the government…the earthly powers that be…the way of the world…kill or be killed…  The other represented Jesus…  represented God’s desire for us.  Listen to these words from Psalm 36: 7…

How precious is your steadfast love, O God!  All people may take refuge in the shadow of your wings.

The earthly powers that be…the way of the world = the fox.  God = the hen.  Here’s the big question:  “Where are we in all this?  As Christians?  As a church?  Are we more like Foxy Loxy or Henny Penny?  Are we focused on our own selfish interests, or are we trying to take others under our wing?

Remember the heart of this message…  Who are we?  We are the ones who have a ticket to ride.  Take your ticket and look at it again.  You’ve got a ticket to ride.  Each of us is one of the chicks that God the mother hen longs to hide under the shadow of her wings.  Do you care?  But here’s something else to consider…

2.     Not only are we ticket recipients – we are ticket ambassadors.  We are supposed to spread the good news to others that they have a ticket to ride as well.

Can we make someone use his or her ticket?  No.  Can’t do it!  However much we love them, they are free to not care.  It might make us sad.  We might weep over them like Jesus wept over Jerusalem.

Is it our (the church’s) job – to be ticketmasters…to dispense the tickets?  No.  Here’s where the Pharisees got it wrong.  They thought they were the ticketmasters.  If you want to get to God, you had to come to them – do all the stuff they did – become like them – and then you could have your ticket.

When Jesus challenged them, they got upset.  Didn’t they?  The Pharisees didn’t get upset with Jesus for leaving too many people out.  They got upset with Jesus for opening his wings too wide – for offering a ticket to the people that they didn’t think were ticket-worthy.  “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them,” they grumbled.

We’re not the ticketmasters.  That’s not our job.  Jesus bought the tickets with his own blood.  He gives them out.  Neither can we make someone use their ticket.  Our job is to first use our own tickets, then to spread the news to others… to spread the news of Jesus’ fabulous offer: “You’ve got a ticket to ride!  This ticket is a gift to you.  It was paid for by Jesus himself.”

I can picture the church – as she follows Jesus – becoming like the hen…with her wings open, inviting all to come underneath for shelter.  If we are following Jesus, church, I think this has to be our posture.  Arms open wide.  We make the invitation - and sometimes…many times, we will be rejected.  But we keep pressing on toward the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

And we make sure we keep the main thing the main thing.  Have you ever heard the old saying, “The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing?”  On Wednesday night we talked about how that the Israelites had made God’s big deal into their little deal.  God wanted the Israelites to rebuild the Temple when they returned from exile, but they faced opposition.  So they quit working on the Temple and focused on building their own houses instead.  They made their own interests the main thing.

What is God’s big deal, according to Jesus?  What’s the main thing?  When Jesus was asked what the most important commandment was, what did he say?  We can find it in Matthew 22: 37-40…

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.  This is the greatest and first commandment.  And a second is like it:  You shall love your neighbor as yourself.  On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

This is God’s big deal.  The big deal… The main thing… The question is - Is this our big deal – our main thing…or have we made something else our big deal? We could think of it this way: If we all have a ticket to ride – then we could say that God’s big deal is the train.  We could call it the Love Train.  Couldn’t we?  Love God with everything we’ve got…love our neighbor as ourselves…  We’ve got a ticket to ride on the Love Train.  That’s the big deal!

I think we are guilty of sometimes making other things into the big deal.  We take a big deal and turn it into the big deal.  I’ve seen it happen over the last few weeks.  I don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings, but I have to tell you - I’m about sick and tired of seeing Rainbow Flags and Confederate Flags on my Facebook feed, y’all! 

I promised at the beginning of this series that I would address some of the issues that we have witnessed in our country over the last several weeks have gotten a lot of attention – like the Supreme Court ruling on same-sex marriage, and removal of the Confederate Flag from the State Capitol Building. 

This is not a sermon on the issue of homosexuality.  I preached that one not too long ago, and if you’d like to see it, it’s up on my blog.  I don’t plan on preaching a sermon on the Confederate Flag, and I’m not here to tell you to take yours down or to put one up.  What I do want to ask you to do today is to not let a big deal become the big deal.

We are living through some monumental shifts in our society.  It’s like living through the 60’s and 70’s all over again – except different.  You do recognize that, don’t you?  It’s a big deal.  We ought to really think about these issues – and not just react to them.  We need to learn to ask the question: “How do we, as faithful followers of Jesus Christ, respond to the changes we see happening?”

One way we could respond would be to get hung up on “yesterday.”  Remember that Beatles song from 3 weeks ago?  We could pine for the good ol’ days before all these changes.

That might be tempting – but there is a big problem with that.  The main problem is that we simply can’t go back to yesterday.  Not really.  We can be nostalgic.  We can be in denial.  But life has to be lived forwards…can’t be lived backwards.  Regardless of how we feel about it, things have changed.

As we close out this series, I want us to remember something about these changes in our society.  These things are directly connected to the Scripture that we shared today.  I want us to remember a couple of things – 3 things, really: 

• ·       No group of Pharisees (or any other of us “religious experts”) get to tell Jesus where he can and cannot go.  No group gets to do that.  Not even us.

We need to remember that when we are tempted to say something like, “Jesus couldn’t possibly be behind some of these changes.”  Really?  We know that?  Are we going to be so arrogant as to tell Jesus where he can and cannot go? 

• ·      No political powers that be…  No “Herod” who is in office now or who will be in office in the future can thwart the plan and purpose of God!

The Kingdom of God is not in jeopardy.  Whatever you or I or anybody else says… God is still Sovereign.

You might be among the those folks who were disappointed by the Supreme Court ruling or by the Confederate Flag being taken down from the Capitol.  You might be among those who were happy about the decisions.  I’m of the opinion that both sides need a hug about now.  There have been a lot of stones thrown from both sides.  My point is - whether these changes make you happy or sad – they have not de-railed the plan and purpose of God.  God still wins, people.  Your political candidate might or might not win…your preferred political policy might or might not win…  But in the end, God still wins! 

• ·      No decision made by the Supreme Court…no declaration by any group of politicians or any governor…can ever change the church’s mission.  God’s big deal is still supposed to be the big deal for the church.  The name of God’s train is still the Love Train.  It hasn’t changed.

And nothing that has happened over the last few weeks has affected your and my ability to do what God has called us to do…  to be disciples of Jesus Christ - to use our ticket to ride, if you will…  and to make disciples of Jesus Christ – that is to tell others that God’s arms are still open wide.  They’ve got a ticket to ride, too!

You’ve got a ticket to ride.  Do you want to stand on the platform arguing?  Or do you want to get on the train?

"Imagine"

7-19-15

Lexington UMC                                   “Imagine”

Rev. 21: 1-6

I was walking in the front door of an Elementary School one day, and I saw an inspirational quote painted on the wall. It is a quote from William Arthur Ward, and it read:

If you can imagine it you can achieve it. If you can dream it, you can become it.

“What a cool quote,” I thought. And for the most part, I agree with it. It’s a good quote for an Elementary School.  I think we should teach our kids to imagine and to dream, don’t you?

But I have to confess something to you this morning. I don’t entirely agree with this quote. Why? If imagination and dreaming always led to achievement and becoming, then as a kid I would have been able to play basketball like Larry Bird and I would have been able to throw a baseball like Nolan Ryan. That’s what I imagined when I was playing in my yard, you see.

I’m not a kid anymore, but I still can close my eyes and imagine the future. When you imagine the future, what does it look like? I want you to hold that question in your mind. We are going to come back to it. When you imagine the future, what does it look like?

This is the third message in the Beatles series, and I hope you are getting something out of them. The first week we looked at “Yesterday” – the past. Then last week we looked at our present – the hand we’ve been dealt today – and we heard the whispered words of wisdom from Jesus’ mother, Mary. “Let it be,” she said. “Let me become what you have called me to be.” Have you prayed that prayer yet today?

So past, present…now it is time to imagine the future. What do you imagine, when you think about the future?

Two weeks ago, when I talked about “Yesterday,” I said that it was natural and normal for us to look at and long for yesterday – especially when our today is painful. Remember that?

1. In the same way, when our today is painful, it is natural and normal for us to look for, and imagine a future…somewhere out there where things are better.

That’s what I think John Lennon was doing when he wrote this song. He was going through a very tumultuous time…personally, professionally, and with the world he saw around him. He was saying – “Imagine with me a future that is better than today.”

And John wanted a better future. His current circumstances were pretty rocky! The year was 1971. The Beatles had broken up. The lawyers were still picking over the remains of his old band like a bunch of vultures. Every day for him was like fighting a battle. John Lennon and his wife, Yoko, were trying to get custody of Yoko’s daughter. Every day for their family was like fighting a battle. On top of that was the war that was going on in Vietnam. Do you remember the war in Vietnam?  I was too young to fight in that war, but I had family that did.  What I remember from that time was that every day my mom and dad would turn on the news, and there would be another report of the battles that were going on, and people being killed.  That’s what John Lennon was watching, too.

In addition to the personal and professional and family turmoil, there was trouble in John’s homeland – England.  There was a period of tremendous violence and fighting between the Catholics in Northern Ireland, and the Protestants. It was a time in history that became known as “The Troubles,” and it lasted from 1969 - 1997. Catholic and Protestants – fighting and killing each other. And John was watching this going on.

Can you see why he sat down at a piano in 1971 and wrote,

“Imagine there’s no countries. It isn’t hard to do. Nothing to kill or die for and no religion too. Imagine all the people living life in peace…

You might say, “Well that’s just a bunch of hippy-mamby-pamby-wishful thinking.”

I remember the 60’s and the 70’s…I remember the actual hippies…and I have to tell you – the hippies were not wrong about everything. Personal hygiene? Questionable. Free love? Probably not the best idea. But to dream of a better future? To imagine a better future? We all do that!

Haven’t you longed for a better future? I’ll bet you have. I’ll bet you thought to yourself – sometime when you were a student – “Man, this is hard. I can’t wait until I graduate some day. Won’t that be nice?” No more pencils, no more books, no more teacher’s dirty looks… You know?

Or if you ever served in the military – maybe you thought, “If I can just get through boot camp.” If you served in combat – fought in a time of war – you thought, “If I can just live through this – maybe someday I can go back home and we can live at peace.”

Maybe you have suffered physical pain, and you thought, “If I can just get through this surgery,” or “If I can just get through this rehab and get back on my feet.”

The Bible says that all Creation groans and longs for a better future. Did you know that? That is what the Apostle Paul wrote in Romans chapter 8…

I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory about to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God…We know that the whole creation has been groaning in labor pains until now. (Rom. 8: 18-19, 22)

“Groaning in labor pains…” You mothers out there are probably thinking, “You think you know something about longing for the future…try being in labor and birthing a baby!”

So we long for a better future… Don’t we? Well I’ve got some good news and some bad news for us this morning. You want to hear the bad news first?

The bad news is – our imagination is too small…too limited.

The good news is –

2. God’s real future for us is better than we can even imagine. Can I quote the Apostle Paul one more time? The King James Version puts it beautifully, I think…

“Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him.” (1 Cor. 2: 9)

When you close your eyes and imagine the future – what does it look like?

If the best future we can imagine is one where we graduate from school, then our imagination is much too small.  If the best future we can imagine is one where we get a good job, buy a house, have a family, or take a trip to Hawaii – then our imagination is much too small.  If you think the best thing that could happen to you is to win the lottery, they your imagination is too small!

Even if we get bigger than that…  Even if we imagine a time where there is peace on Earth…  Even if we imagine a time where people are not fighting each other in the name of their religion…a world where there is harmony.  As good as that would be – that’s still way too small compared to the future that John talks about in Revelation 21.

John – and now I’m talking about John the Apostle – not John Lennon…  was having a pretty tough time of it himself.  When it wrote these words, it was about 60 years or so after Jesus died, rose again, and ascended into heaven.  John’s whole world had seemingly fallen apart.  Jerusalem had collapsed, being destroyed by the Romans in 70 A.D.  The people in Jerusalem were either executed or exiled.

Everywhere you looked, Christians were being arrested and imprisoned or fed to the lions accused of being traitors to the Roman state.  John the Apostle was arrested and sent as a prisoner to a small island called Patmos which was near Greece.  I’ve never been there, but I’ve heard that if you visit the island of Patmos, you can go to the place where John was thought to have been imprisoned and see the cave where he was chained to the wall.

This was the place where John – his whole world torn apart…exiled and imprisoned…chained to a wall, saw a vision of God’s future.  And he wrote this vision down as a letter of encouragement to Christians in Asia Minor who were being persecuted.

·        Just imagine – John says – a future where God wipes every tear from your eyes.  We’ve shed some tears lately as a church family, haven’t we?

·        Just imagine – John says – a future where Death will be no more…no more mourning, crying or pain.  How does that sound to you?

As a pastor, I have to tell you that this is one of my favorite passages in the Bible.  Why?  Because I have to stand beside the grave of the people that I love and the people that you love and offer a word of hope.  And thank God I don’t have to just make something up!  There is a future that is worth imagining!   And it is better than we can even dream of!

But it gets even better.  Really! 

You hear a lot of people talking about us leaving Earth and going to heaven…

·        Just imagine – John says – a future where, in the end, instead of us evacuating Earth and going to heaven…heaven comes to Earth.  God actually makes his dwelling place here!

·        Just imagine – John says – a future where God makes all things new.  Notice I didn’t say where God makes all new things…instead, God makes all things new. God’s good creation is actually a part of God’s good future!

Think of it!  God makes his dwelling place with us!  God makes all things new!  I love the way The Message puts this: 

God has moved into the neighborhood, making his home with men and women. (Rev. 21:3)

If we believe John’s vision of the future, then we see that God’s future is a future that involves transformation, not evacuation.  This is very different from a theology that says that it doesn’t matter what we do to this Earth…that it’s going to be destroyed and we’re going to go somewhere else.  I don’t believe that.  I don’t believe that that’s God’s future for Creation.  God’s got something better than that.  He’s going to make all things new.  God is going to move into the neighborhood, and make his home with us.  I believe God wants us to take care of the neighborhood in the meantime.

In the meantime…  That’s where we live now, isn’t it?  And these are “mean” times.  They are times where people get sick and die.  They are times when terrorists open fire and kill innocent people not just overseas, but at home in Chattanooga, Tennessee. In the meantime…times are mean.

But imagine God’s future.  I think it is time for God’s people to get their imagination back!  I hear too many of God’s people today moaning and groaning about how bad things are getting.  It’s like we’ve got this persecution complex.  It is the very opposite of what John was saying.  John who really was being persecuted, was imagining God’s future, and saying, “Live hopefully!  In the end, God wins!”

Can you see him in your mind’s eye?  John…chained to the wall of a cave…so full of hope for the future that he encouraged others!

The world is thirsty for that kind of hope.  Christians ought to be the most hope-filled people on the planet when it comes to the future! What if that is what the world heard from Christians instead of the negative, complaining stuff we have been putting out?  If we were filled with that kind of hope for the future, I’ll just bet that a lot of folks would want to join us on the journey to God’s future.  Don’t you?

Some of you here today are thirsty for that kind of hope.  I know it!  So hear the invitation of the One who is the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end.  The Lord says, “To the thirsty, I will give water as a gift from the spring of the water of life.”  Come and drink living water today.  Come drink in the hope John writes about, and experience today a foretaste of God’s unimaginably good future.  Then let’s share that hope when we leave this place!