All
the Peoples of God
Sermon preached by Rev. Patricia Farris
October 1, 2006
Scripture:
Revelation 21:1-5
The
verses we hear this morning on World Communion Sunday are from the
very last book of the Bible, the Book of Revelation, in a passage
describing the new heaven and new earth that God is creating in Christ
Jesus. It describes how things will be in the fullness of time. It’s
a compelling and comforting vision, full of joy and promise and hope.
It points us to the future, God’s future for us, and gives us
a glimpse of what God has in store for us—a future created by
God, for us. It’s not a scary, horrific end time as some would
have us believe, but a beautiful culmination of God’s design
for humankind.
What
is this future to be like? Just these few verses let us know that
God’s future for us means that God will never give up on us
or abandon us, that God is creating something new for us where God
will be at home with us, where we will experience all the excitement
and joy of a wedding, where all tears will be wiped away and pain
and sorrow and death will be no more. What a beautiful future! What
a wonderful word of assurance and promise to hear on this morning.
Now
there’s an important aspect about this future that God is putting
together for us that we really need to pay attention to on this World
Communion Sunday morning, something about the future that may prove
to be a bit challenging for us. It’s found in verse three, printed
on the front of the Order of Worship this morning, and it jumped out
at me when I re-read this passage in preparation for this day. “See,
the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them as their
God; they will be his peoples.” Not “his people”
but rather “his peoples,” plural. Peoples. And that “s”
on the end of that word, that “s” that makes “people”
into the plural “peoples” is very intriguing—and
very challenging.
Because
usually, when we think about heaven, when we think about the new heaven
and the new earth, when we think about world communion, we imagine
a kind of unity in which God makes us all one. We stress our commonality
as children of God. We emphasize all those things that make us alike
in our worship of God. One bread, one body. We celebrate that in Christ
there is neither Jew nor Gentile, male nor female, slave nor free.
We rejoice that, on World Communion Sunday, no matter where or how
we’re worshipping God, we are united in this sacrament of Holy
Communion. All of that is true. Thanks be to God! (continued...)
"All
the Peoples of God" by Rev. Patricia Farris, October 1, 2006
But,
that one little “s” in verse 3 adds a whole ‘nother
dimension to this celebration. It reminds us that unity is not about
ultimate sameness. The vision into which we live in God is not about
giving up our distinctive cultures and languages and histories and
identities. It’s not about becoming something that we’re
not in order to be part of God’s great future. It’s not
about becoming some sort of generic mush of cloned believers who have
been air-brushed and sugar-coated and made all alike.
No!
That “s” in verse three proclaims that in the fullness
of time, in the completion of creation, in the everlasting tear-free
joy of God’s future, we will still be among God’s peoples,
all special, all unique, all essential to the holy plan. So that,
in the end, our diversity will still be a hallmark of God’s
plan, as it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be.
You
see, this fact about what God intends for the future holds powerful
and profound implications for the present. It calls us to honor and
value our very diversity. It calls to embrace the very things that
can set us apart—language, culture, difference. It shows us
that these differences are not things to be overcome or to be avoided,
but are to be embraced.
The
creation of God from the beginning is a creation of an astonishing
diversity of life forms and peoples. As Rabbi Jonathan Sacks has written
in his important book, The Dignity of Difference: “…the
one God, creator of diversity, commands us to honor his creation by
respecting diversity….the test of faith is whether I can make
space for difference. Can I recognize God’s image in someone
who is not in my image, whose language, faith, ideals are different
from mine? If I cannot, then I have made God in my image instead of
allowing him to remake me in his.”
He
quotes an ancient Jewish teaching: “When a human being makes
many coins in the same mint, they all come out the same. God makes
every person in the same image—His image—and each is different.”
Part
of the very beauty and power of this World Communion Sunday is the
way in which it lifts up our God-given diversity as well as our God-given
unity. While we worship here in Santa Monica this morning, with a
worship service designed to last 60 minutes, others are worshipping
in Bethany UMC in New Orleans where the service will last for hours.
This morning, the various Christian peoples are worshipping in big
cathedrals and beautiful sanctuaries and white clapboard meeting houses
and mud huts and storefronts and outside on the beach. This morning,
Christians are observing this sacrament in styles that are high church
and low church, formal and informal, traditional and contemporary.
This morning we are speaking the American English of southern California
and the British-African English of the Iware District in Nigeria.
(continued...)
"All
the Peoples of God" by Rev. Patricia Farris, October 1, 2006
We
witness this day that faith, rather than being yet one more factor
that divides and separates, can in fact be a force in this world
for reconciliation and peace. As more than 200 religious leaders
who met in Moscow last July stated: “Religion has the potential
to bind together diverse peoples and cultures despite our human
frailty, particularly in today’s context of plurality and
diversity.” The
word religion itself means “to bind together,” binding
us to God and to one another, with cords of love and commitment.
You know, if we were all the same, we wouldn’t need to be
bound
together, by the love of God, by the Holy Spirit, by the saving
power of the sacrament of Holy Communion.
Diversity
in unity. God’s peoples—distinct, diverse, different.
United in love and service. What a gift this is to our broken and
fearful world on World Communion Sunday, 2006, a world in which
differences divide us, and cause us to fear and even hate one another,
a broken world, bleeding, devouring itself in violence among tribes
and nations and regions and even religions. Our global worship this
day witnesses to the world that, as God’s many Christian peoples,
we commit to know and respect one another, to create partnerships
of service and mission just as we’re doing here in this congregation,
to build bridges of interaction and understanding, binding together
what must not be divided or diminished or destroyed.
For
even now, on this earth, among all the beautiful peoples of God,
God is creating something new for us where God will be at home with
us, where we will experience all the excitement and joy of a wedding
celebration, where all tears will be wiped away and pain and sorrow
and death will be no more.
May
God bless our worship this day and infuse us with a spirit of rejoicing
as all around the world we come to this table as we are—God’s
beautiful, diverse peoples, glorious in our diversity and united
in our Lord.
Amen
Notes:
Jonathan Sacks. The Dignity of Difference: How to Avoid the Clash
of Civilizations. New York: Continuum, 2003.
©Patricia
Farris , 2006. Permission is given for brief quotation with attribution.
All other rights reserved.
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