not left behind

from my sermon on 11/1/09, All Saints' Sunday, from Rev. 21:1-6a

Left Behind....have you read any 0f the books? I have. Not because they are great literature, which they are not. However, there is plot, character development, drama, a love story. Not because they are biblically and theologically correct, at least not according to what I believe. I read them because they were popular. Some 12 or 13 volumes have sold more than 60 million copies. I read them because people in the churches where I served were reading them.
What I didn't like most about the books is similiar to what I don't like most about the Halloween is going. Halloween seems to be about ghosts, goblins, and ghouls. In a word about fear. The Left Behind series seemed to be about scaring people into the faith.
The Revelation to John is about something else. In fact, I can tell what the book is about in one word. It's about hope.
Some people say that it is written in code language. It is not. It is not about trying to stay hidden. The very title says it about revealing, about unveiling. There are lots of symbols in the book, but most of the time they are explained right there in the text. Ten or multiples of ten are numbers of inclusion. Twelve or its mulitples are numbers for the people of God. So, when 144,00 are among those saved, it is saying alll of God's people are included, not left behind.
I took a course this summer with Mickey Eiford, a recongized scholar on the Reveleation to John. He confirmed what I had long felt about the book, really a sermon. He gave me confidence to preach from it this day, as it rarely comes up in the lectionary cycle.
He said that there are a series of visions. They are not predictors of the future, but bring hope for today. They repeat over and over again the message of hope. I had a member of my former church who happened to be an Aggie and who taught Sunday School. Bill said, "I've read the end of the book. God wins." That's the hope in a nutshell.
Today's scripture is the last vision in the REvelatkion. God makes all things new. Mickey said that new didn't mean to create, but to transform. In advertising language, we would say new and improved.
No more death. For the early readers, no more martyrs' death. No more mourning, crying, pain. for the early readers, no more persecution. It was dangerous to be a Christian at the end of the first century when this book was written. The text still resonates with those who are being persecuted for their faith around the world today.
We don't live with the pressure of being excluded from the social and economic circles like those early Christians. WE don't live with a death threat hanging over us. So how are we to appropriate these words?
The basic truth is still the same: Even when it seems as if things aren't so good, God is still in control; we keep on keepin' on, keeping on, doing the right thing, even if others don't; our reward is sure, if not now, in the age to come; evil is real and must be dealt with.
And the best news is that God dwells with us, and will be our God, and we will God's people. The word for home and dwells is literally, tabernacle. Remember when the Hebrew children wandered across the wilderness for 40 years, and God's presence went with them in the tabernacle. That's what it says here: God tents with us. God will be with us wherever we go. In life or death. Emmanuel, God is with us.
I actually got to know the 3 saints of this church who died this past year. Anne loved the mountains of New Mexico. She had a lingering terminal disease and used the time she had to prepare all of us for her dying. When she died, she was buried in Santa Fe, N.M. Carolyn was a church lady. She was our church secretary for many years. Edith was a charter member of this congregation, helping to mow the lawn in its early year. When her husband Tom died after 42 years of marriage, she continued to see him in their house. When I did her funeral service just one week ago, I talked about how they were inseperable. We who believe in the communion of saints, who's to say that they aren't.
The good news for today is that God doesn't want any left behind. God tents with us, in life and in death. That is our hope.