new & improved

from my sermon on Jan 1, 2012 from Rev. 21:1-6a

I had a good message going...until yesterday. I had the message all done before I took all of this week off, picking it yesterday evening. I wanted to talk to you about New & Improved. Where have you heard that phrase before? Only in every single advertisment for every new product! We have used New & Improved so much that it has become OLD & STALE. I wanted to talk to you about New Year's Resolutions.....I know, I know, you are going to lose weight, you are going to diet and going to exercise more...or you are going to attend worship more or read the Bible this year. I applaud you who make these resolutions; it is a noble and worthy endeavor for you to take responsibility for your lives, for you to become more personally accountable. It is like you are becomig a New & Improved YOu.

It was a good message, but I have a God message for you today. God's message to you on this first day of the new year is "I am making all things new." Hear this: Our God is making all things new. Say it in your soul: Our God is making all things new. Say it our loud with me: Our God is making all things new.

You see, it is not just your making some New Year's resolutions, it is God making a resolution to show how much God loves you. I am asking you to be open to what God desires for you....what is God's heart for you. Listen to what the scripture says, God's resolution is for you to have no more tears, no more death, no more mourning, no more crying, no more pain. That is God's ultimate desire for you. I know at this time of year, your pain may be intensified. People say Merry Christmas to you, and you don't feel so merry. People say, Happy New Year, and you don't feel so happy. The days are the shortest, and the nights are the longest. Please know that sadness and grief and depression are not God's ultimate desire for you. You may need to come to the altar rail today and kneel with your hands upraised so that one of us pastors may pray with you and anoint you with oil. You may need to come here in order to hear God's heart for you. You may need to hear God say to you, I am making all things new.

In the church, God is making all things new too. God's intent is for our healing. In one week we will be launching Stephen Ministry training where some 10 laypeople will get 50+ hours of training in listening and caring for persons who are hurting. Caring ministry is not just for clergy. Our Point service is catching on. The first family to become members of our congregation joined two weeks ago through that service. Other folks are catching the vision of kingdom work through the Point. We found a social network site that lets people volunteer for projects. The Point is on there, advertising their going to distribute clothes to folks who live on the street and go to Church under the Bridge. We have already had some 5 families of 13 people sign up. These are people who have not come to worship but have caught the vision of service to others. Our Long Range Planning Group is helping us to get focus in fulfilling our vision statement of Serving All. We know that we have to discern and prioritize those we need to reach first. Our God is making all things new.

God is working in the wider world too, making all things new. The scripture talks about a new heaven and a new earth. Who would have ever guessed we would have had an Arab Spring? Tunisa...Tunisa of all places on the earth started off questioning the dictatorship...then Egypt...Libya....Yemen...now Syria..Who saw this coming? The passage talks about a new Jerusalem. We remember that the word Jerusalem means "city of peace." We pray it may be so. We pray that God is making all things new.

The Rev. to John is a book about hope....not fear. It was written to 1st Century Christians undergoing persecution. The message is one of enduring, being patient, looking for the inbreaking of God's rule. It is not just about last things, but about things that last, ultimate things. It is about keeping the faith, doing justice, especially when it is hard to do it.

New & Improved comes not by our effort, or our effort alone. It is God's desire to transform you, the church, the whole creation.

This may be scary to you, to be made new means change. What is even scarier....that God is not able to do this...that God doesn't make all things new. That God is distant, uncaring, impotent. Then we would be stuck. I pray that God is the one who camps out with us, literally tabernacles with us, goes the journey with us, makes all things new.