All Things New
Jay P. Rowland
10.31.2021
Revelation 21:1-6a
See I am making all things new Rev.21:5
Change is a basic ingredient of life.
Change is inevitable.
So why run from it? Why not lean into it?
Change--or perhaps the anticipation of change--provokes our most impulsive anxiety and fear. We tend to cling to the familiar past (or present) while backing away from the unknown future.
Sometimes change can be so profound and disorienting we are left grieving in its wake. Death is certainly one example of that. But whether it’s death we’re grieving, or the loss of certainty, or the loss of what we thought we knew or understood, whatever the profound change may be that’s left us disoriented, grieving is essential. It’s essential to the process of re-orienting to life on life’s terms while grieving the loss of ours.
And when it comes to grieving, it’s essential to include the Lord. And don’t hold anything back. Share your anger, your rage, your sense of disorientation; let it all flow. But don’t stop there. We are not wired to grieve in isolation—all by ourselves. It doesn’t work. We all need some framework of personal support—grief support group, counseling, all of the above. When it comes to life’s most profound and significant changes grieving is not only beneficial, it’s appropriate. And necessary. But opposing change? Good luck with that. Resistance to change is futile.
But it’s understandably common.
Change sometimes brings unmitigated suffering and harm. We’ve been experiencing that together on a global and national scale in recent months and years.
But some change is desperately needed, longed-for, and long-awaited. And prayed for.
Either way, we usually cannot stop or prevent the most profound changes we encounter. Yet we often expend a great deal of energy fearing or opposing what we cannot stop, when we could instead put quality time and energy into praying and meditating our way toward a deeper mindfulness and trust in the Lord. When we take the time to do so, we discover this creates mental/emotional/spiritual “space” to counterbalance our reactive fight/flight response. God enables us to resist our primitive brain’s fight/flight/freeze constriction and resistance through meditation; meditative prayer which allows us to be open to the new … open to the good that always comes along with any change no matter how awful that change may appear.
I think we know deep down in our spirit-heart that change has just as much potential to enhance life as it does to diminish it. In my own life I experienced unwelcome change in the form of corporate downsizing and the sudden loss of a job and the instability and fear that comes with it. Not once or twice, but three times. And yet, if those changes hadn’t happened, I might not have ended up being a minister. It wasn’t on my career radar back when I was trying to decide what I wanted to do with my life. Those changes led to a new direction and vitality of life for me that I did not self-orchestrate nor imagine.
Of course it all depends on what the change actually is. But change in and of itself is neither inherently good nor bad. It just is. It’s too easy to react to change impulsively with great fear and anxiety. I totally understand that. I’ve been there many times. But whenever my head was spinning from the reactive fear and anxiety, my breathing shortened, and it so easily compounded and built upon itself. And that process saps most or all of the valuable spiritual energy and resources which move us into reorienting to life anew.
We are living in a time of vast social and cultural and political shifts. This is disorienting. We don’t like it. We feel powerless. Even our most well-established religious practices and expectations will not be spared the changes these societal shifts are creating. So much is changing happening in so many areas of life people are reacting and clinging as a result. I see people becoming rigid and inflexible over the littlest, insignificant things. This is what happens when we get caught up in blind fear of change. Plenty of fight/flight/freeze on display out there.
Meanwhile, this is nothing new. It just is for us. History reveals that every 500 years the dominant form and structure of church has changed. The first major shift was when Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire in the fourth century. This created the Monastic movement. Then 500 years later the eastern and western churches split. Islam started to grow and “threaten” Christianity. Then in the 1500s the Reformation happened. And here we are 500 years later.
Rather than fear these momentous but natural shifts we cannot stop, rather than claim the sky is falling and the “church is dead” it’s far more life-affirming (and interesting) to engage and look to God to help us discern how God’s calling the church to new ways as God has faithfully done all along. The church is NOT DEAD. But it is changing.
The church is changing because society and the world is changing. The church offers nothing to us or to the world if it resists change while everything else adapts and re-orients to a changing world. Worship has always helped God’s people navigate the perils of change.
In his Introduction to The Book of Revelation (The Message Bible), Eugene Peterson noted that the early church learned in the midst of suffering from persecution that “if worship is neglected or perverted, our communities fall into chaos or under tyranny.” Forms of church and worship change every 500 years. But because worship and community are two sides of the same coin of the realm of God, the church continues wherever its worship remains robust and accessible.
Revelation was written by John of Patmos. Patmos distinguishes the John of Revelation from the other important New Testament figures also named John. The John of Revelation was a pastor. At the time, his congregations were living under intense persecution. First-century Christians were being arrested, tortured and executed for worshipping God in Jesus Christ rather than the Roman Emperor.
Revelation is a vision John received which he attributed to Jesus. It’s a vision noted for its mysterious symbolism and otherworldly imagery. Even so, this vision brought encouragement and hope to God’s people in the midst of their living nightmare. John refused to let the coercive, corrupt powers of empire corrupt and obliterate the most sacred expression of his people’s faith in God.
Because John knew that without worship neither John nor his congregations would hold up under the strain lurking over them every time they gathered to praise the True Source of Love and Life they needed more than anything else. But John was living in exile on the island of Patmos cut off from his other churches spread across the Roman Empire. What could he do in the face of the overwhelming power of the Emperor and the state?
What could John do? Not much.
The real question is what did Jesus do?
John received a vision while he was worshiping. John wrote down what he saw and heard and he sent it to the seven churches he pastored. John’s words were read aloud whenever these seven churches gathered to worship. Any one of these churches and worship services could at any time be attended by spies for the Emperor.
John was determined to keep worship alive for his congregations despite the constant risk of arrest and death. Today, two-thousand years later we find his terminology and imagery and symbolism difficult to understand. But we must realize there were hostile eyes and ears looking at and listening to his words.
Eugene Peterson notes, “Besides being a pastor, John is a poet, fond of metaphor and symbol, image and allusion, passionate in his desire to bring us into the presence of Jesus believing and adoring. … The rush of color and sound, image and energy, (can leave) us reeling. But if we persist through the initial confusion and read on, we begin to pick up the rhythms, realize the connections” to the profound and recurring themes and promises of the entire Bible.
The most important thing about the Book of Revelation is John of Patmos’ passionate desire to reveal the saving power of the presence of Jesus to his suffering people. And the natural human response was and is to believe and adore Him.
There are so many problems and crises and situations which divert our awareness toward just about anything and everything other than the presence of Jesus.
Why not invite John’s passion to compel us to pray about our own passion for Christ in the midst of our own strange and disorienting times. Revelation has nothing to offer if we are all doing fine and feeling content with how the world is and where our life in this world is leading. But if you’re not “fine”--if you’re reeling from grief or anxiety or any particular situation in your life or the world right now, then Revelation 21 invites you into John’s personal vision of hope and trust that springs from the power of the Love of Jesus Christ to make all things new.
All things!
New.
That’s not good news to those who don’t want anything to change or become new.
We overlook the presence of Jesus every day. But that’s our loss. Life has a way of squeezing from us our awareness of the presence of Jesus and squelching our trust in Him. Such was the case for John’s congregations in the first century. Such is the case today given everything we’ve experienced lately. This doesn’t mean we lack sufficient faith or that we’re not strong or courageous enough. It means we’re made of flesh and blood and spirit. It means we bleed, we hurt and we suffer. It means we are mortal.
If you identify with any of that, then the vision shared in Revelation 21 is worth your attention. This vision of hope and assurance is presented through unusual and unbound and otherworldly images of the presence of the living Christ. Maybe our concept of the living Christ has become stale, predictable, insufficient for life on life’s terms.
Hear the voice from the throne today saying loud and clear for all to hear,
See, the home of God is among mortals.
The home of God is not in any building or buildings.
God does not dwell in any singular place or time or among any single nation or people.
The home of God is among mortals. That’s wherever people are.
Where is God? God dwells with you, me and us.
And God dwells with those people too--they and them.
God’s dwells among God’s people throughout God’s creation. Therefore God’s creation will prevail. Oh, we all see creation is getting abused, scarred and damaged. Just like Jesus was. Brutally treated. But God raised Jesus. And so God’s creation, including you and me, will live on. But it will be different. The risen Jesus wasn’t recognized by those who knew him best.
All things new.
We don’t know exactly what new will look like. But the former things are passing away:
“Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God …”
Because God dwells with us God will see us through. And so one day we will know the truth of the vision:
God will wipe away every tear …
… death will be no more …
…. mourning and crying and pain will be no more. …
… for the first things will have passed away ...
… And the Lord will swallow up death forever …
It will be said on that day, Lo this is our God for whom we have waited these many years so that he might save us. This is the Lord for whom we have waited.
Then, and soon, we will behold:
See, I am making all things new.
In the midst of all the change and fear and anxiety, here is something worth remembering and holding onto today; here is something to cherish, here is something worth thinking about and reflecting upon and bringing into prayer every morning when we awaken and every evening when we lie down …
“See, I am making all things new.”
All things
new
