Easter 5 Sermon

Easter 5
May 2, 2010
Rev. 21:1-7; John 16:12-22
Receiving what is new

In the name of Jesus, amen. And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” Do you hear those words and say “Uh oh. That can’t be good.” We have learned and experienced that what is new isn’t always better. New Coke? Windows 7? Give me old Coke and Windows 98 please and I’ll be just fine. Newer isn’t always better. It asks a lot of us, with the changes and the chances of something that is unknown.

Yet the one seated on the throne- Jesus, the Lamb who was slain but lives forevermore says that he is making all things new. Whether we want what is new is not the issue. It is how we receive the new that is important.

While Jesus was living he was always doing new and different things. Raising the dead back to life was new. Being in the superior position yet humbling himself by washing the feet of his students could also be called new and different. In that foot-washing episode Jesus even gave them a new commandment, a new teaching: Love one another just as I have loved you. By this all people will know that you are my disciples if you love one another.

Breaking bread and calling it his body. Taking a cup of wine and telling his beloved disciples that this was his blood of the new covenant was all very new. It was all very different. And while it is new, it is also good.

We receive what is new by the grace of God. Our loving God helps us to receive what we have been given. We may be uncomfortable with what is new. Serving others might not make us uncomfortable, but how do you feel when you are served? Sometimes I bristle when people try to help because in my mind I can do it myself. I didn’t ask for any help and I don’t need any help. And then God pokes me in the ribs and helps me to see clearly that sometimes people have a need to help. It doesn’t matter if I didn’t ask for help. The help is there as a gift and I should be able to receive a loving gift from someone else. When someone ‘washes my feet’ God tells me I should stop my protestations and simply say “Thank you.”

We receive what is new from God because we have come to learn from God that He has our best interests at heart. Our focus last week was the Good Shepherd, who leads us to feed and drink and rest and shelter. God has our best interests at heart. This does not mean that everything in life will be peaches and cream. Our best interests may mean a failure that teaches us that we cannot coast through our schooling without ever opening our textbooks. Our best interests may mean learning the value of a dollar and the value of hard work, the value of simple pleasures. We learn how to work and we learn how to be retired. We learn how to live independently and we learn how to be married. We learn how to rebuild after the real tragedy of divorce. We learn how to be single after our spouse is taken from us in death. And God is with us through all of those times, helping us to receive what is new. Our best interests may mean a health crisis that causes to re-evaluate our lifestyle. It may mean spending time rehabilitating ourselves after realizing that our actions have consequences.

God has our best interests at heart. So God has left us his living and active Word. God loves us, chastens us, disciplines us, encourages, guides, and supports. We receive the new thing, or things, that God is doing.

And it might not be such a challenge, because this new thing really isn’t that new. The love of God isn’t new. He has loved humanity ever since there was a humanity. God has been merciful through thick and thin. But the ways of God are often covered over or obscured. We get so busy focusing on all the many things that need to be done and we assign such tremendous value to those things that we lose sight of God. We lose sight of Christ’s cross and empty tomb. We lose sight of the glorifying Holy Spirit. And so we lose our way. More accurately, we lose God’s way for our life.

We set out to chart our own course, make our own path, because we know what’s best and no one can tell us otherwise. The devil’s lies have so completely captivated us that while we shake hands with our right hand, our left hand is busy stabbing our neighbor in the back. We deceive our coworkers and help them to stand yet never disclose that we were the ones who took credit for their idea and thus caused them to fall. We treat our children with selfishness, considering them to be a hindrance to my enjoyment of life or as a burden. We grow cold in our love for our spouse because we take them for granted and never consider their gifts. We set out on our own way, our own path, because we have lost God’s way for our life.
The Lamb on the throne told John to write down that he was the beginning and the end, the alpha and the omega. That is completion. That is totality.

God is total. There is nothing that is lacking, nothing that is deficient, with Him. And what did I just say about God? He has our best interests at heart. He gives us those difficult teachings, those new concepts to put into practice because that is what is best for us. Love your neighbor? It is good for you to love your neighbor. Obey your parents? That is good for you as well. Teach and discipline and love and your children? That is in your best interests.
We receive God’s love, which is nothing new, rather it is quite ancient. God declares His love for us in the blest baptismal flood, sweeping us into his family, marking us with the ancient and eternal sign of the cross. God’s love, God’s challenge, God’s warning and God’s encouragement is heard in the Word. God’s love and God’s relevant reality is confessed in the Creed. God’s love is tasted in the body and blood of Christ in the communion meal.

Receiving what is new is rarely easy. It is rarely comfortable. Yet we receive what is new from our gracious God. He dwells with us and among us. He forgives our sin. He covers our sin with the blood of the Lamb. He is our God. We are his people. And by his grace, with our best interests at heart, God gives us what is new and God strengthens us to receive it for our good. SDG