Scripture: Revelation 21:1-6; Romans 12:2; Romans 12:3 Series: 2021
Concluding the ‘Reset’ series, this sermon calls the congregation to reset their world by reorienting their vision toward faithfulness right where they are rather than toward distant political power. Drawing on Revelation’s promise of a new heavens and new earth, Lincoln’s ‘are we on God’s side?’, and Romans 12’s call to be transformed by the renewing of the mind (and not to think too highly of oneself), it insists we are not the messiah and cannot save ourselves. Christ has already won the victory; unlike Henry V’s band of brothers still facing battle, our task is to witness to the resurrection and to love the people right in front of us.
Illustrations: medieval-new-king-same-old-king, lincoln-second-inaugural, augustine-restless-until-rest-in-god, henry-v-st-crispins-day-band-of-brothers
January 24, 2021
Reset Your World
Revelation 21:1-6
The middle ages was an age of knights and kings and princesses and Queens, and most of our stories from the middle ages are about kings and princesses and knights. They were written by the educated who were almost all men and almost entirely connected to the court or the church. There are these chronicles of kings and of wars like the war of the roses between the Yorks and the Lancasters or the Anarchy, a less well known period after the death of Henry I’s only legitimate successor in 1135. The anarchy consisted of a battle between Henry’s chosen heir, Empress Matilda (who had been married to the Holy Roman Emperor Henry V, and Stephen of Blois, who was Henry’s nephew, whose wife was also named Matilda. This civil war lasted almost 20 years before a treaty let Stephen finish his reign while naming Empress Matilda’s son, Henry, the heir to the thrown. Simple stuff, right? Henry II married Eleanor of Aquitaine and they have Richard the Lion-heart and King John, and on and on. But for most folks during this period, new king, same as the old king. New king will probably increase taxes and may ask you to fight, but otherwise, who he was didn’t matter. On continental Europe, rulers changed more frequently and territories shifted a lot more. There were thousands of principalities and duchies that would change, and the people would think, new duke, same as the old duke: what does it have to do with me?
My friends, we are concluding our series called Reset, on resetting our lives. A few weeks ago we started with Resetting Your House in light of the birth of Jesus Christ and how we can reorient our lives and our houses towards Christ. Two weeks ago we talked about resetting our bodies. How we can see food and how we see our bodies in light of being created in the image of God. How we can cleanse our bodies and work towards that but it starts with resetting how we see ourselves. Last week, we talked about resetting our soul, and how when we do the things of God, we reset our soul, who we are, and how our church is a place to do those things. Today, we are talking about resetting our world. And my brothers and sisters, our world needs a reset right now. There is this nasty word, “politics” and a lot of personalities and emotions tied up in what has been happening in our country. There are a lot of assumptions about who is right and who is wrong, assumptions about who is on God’s side.
On March 4, 1865, 36 days before Robert E. Lee surrendered and 41 days before he was assassinated, Abraham Lincoln gave a speech at his second inauguration as President. The campaign had been challenging. People were tired of war. His reelection had been in doubt for most of 1864, really until Sherman won the Battle of Atlanta. And even then, without a southern state voting, Lincoln only won 55% of the vote against the inept former General George McClellan, so not only is the future Reunited States divided, but the Union was divided about the course of action for the country.
So Lincoln spoke:
Neither party expected for the war the magnitude or the duration which it has already attained… Both read the same Bible and pray to the same God and each invokes His aid against the other.
The question for Lincoln was not is God on our side, but are we on God’s side?
Resetting our world starts with this. Are we on God’s side? And I want us all to act like medieval peasants for a little bit, and not think of the King or President, not think of Washington or Austin, but think about right where we are.
In Latin, the word for the world is Saecula, root of our english word, Secular. Secular means worldly in English and often has a negative connotation to the church, but it is a descriptive term for the world. Not the globe or planet, the world that we inhabit.
Now, with the internet today, it is easy to focus so much on power and centers of power and transfers of power, but Jesus doesn’t have a lot to say about Caesar or even Herod. Jesus has a lot to say about how to live right where we are, starting with faithfulness right where we are and how we relate to the people around us. And I think that it is really important to not fall into the temptation of only imagining our world as the planet, or to imagine politics as elections and political parties, because we lose sight of what Jesus does and how he lives. Jesus doesn’t talk about Caesar very much, but he challenges Caesar. Jesus doesn’t talk about the next Sanhedran election, but the sanhedran don’t like him. They hear his words and rumors of his words and take him seriously, and they know that if his words are true, than the structures of society must change.
In what direction? That is the thing. It is easy to claim Jesus, The devil himself sees Jesus as Lord, it is hard to follow him.
Last week, when I was talking about resetting our soul, I mentioned this line from Augustine, that we are restless until we rest in God. Augustine does this as a prayer, it is at the very beginning of his confessions. We are restless until we rest in you, O Lord. Our goal is being with God. Our goal is not collecting power but to be with God, as well, the Bible shows us what is going to happen to this world. And that is where we get to our reading for today: a new heavens and a new earth.
And this new heavens and new earth does not mean that we should do whatever we want to the present earth or where we are. What it does do is guide us in how we live and love in our present. Resetting our world begins with realizing our world is the world we inhabit here and now, it is the places we go and the people we see. Resetting our world is resetting how we see our world. How do we see where we live? How do we see our neighbors? How do we see our family? How do we see our church and our surroundings? Resetting our world is about transforming our vision and transforming our minds.
As Paul says in Romans 12, “let us not be conformed to the world but be transformed by the renewing of our minds.” The word that was translated as “world” in Greek is aioni, the root of Aeon. Yes, world can be one translation, but “age” is more direct. Let us not be conformed to this age, to this time. Let us not be people of this time but people of God’s time.
This renewal of mind is how we reset our world in not only this age but this place. We renew our mind by renewing our vision. In light of what God has done. In light of what God will do for us all. Its so important, for Paul and for all of the history of the church, to remember that faith and the life of faith is not something that is static. It is dynamic. It Ebbs and flows. Faith is a journey not a fixed point. Faith is a journey to God. It’s not about saying “I believe in Jesus” and then you are finished. God is continually transforming you and we are continually deciding to follow Jesus. We need to be renewed in our mind and in how we see the world. We need to remember what God has done. We need to reflect on what God has done. We need to pray about what God has done on the cross with Jesus. We need to pray for what God has done in Jesus through entering the world by forgiving us of our sins. But God is not finished. Through God’s mercy, we have been graced new life. As well, thinking of this text from Revelation, we must remember our future with God: our new heavens and new earth. The point of Revelation is not the struggle but the end. God wins and every tear shall be wiped away from our eyes. More than that, what Revelation points to is that we are not the saviors of the world. You are not the Messiah, my brothers and sisters. I am not the Messiah. I am not Jesus. I cannot save you.
In Romans 12:3, after calling us to renew our minds, Paul says, “Because of the grace that God gave me, I can say to each one of you: don’t think too highly of yourself. Instead, be reasonable.”
Be reasonable. Don’t think too highly of yourself or what you can do. There is no human alive that can save you. I cannot save you, I cannot even save myself. We are deceived into thinking that we have what it takes, which is a pride and hubris that is hard to break. As well, sometimes we can be deceived into focusing so much on the struggle that we forget what it is all for and where we are going, like Shakespeare’s famous Saint Crispin’s Day speech from Henry V, which goes back to the Middle Ages in the middle of the War of the Roses. Henry goes to fight the French and he is outnumbered and instead of cowering to the numerical superiority of the French, in Shakespeare’s retelling, he gives the famous speech.
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers; For he to-day that sheds his blood with me Shall be my brother; be he ne’er so vile, This day shall gentle his condition; And gentlemen in England now a-bed Shall think themselves accurs’d they were not here, And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks That fought with us upon Saint Crispin’s day.
Henry is concerned about his soldiers who don’t care. What are they going to do in battle? Many of the folks in the army are like, “new king same as the old king. Why should I die for him? Wouldn’t it be better if I was back in England and I wasn’t conscripted. Wouldn’t that be great?” I am always blown away by this speech. I think, Wow! We Band of Brothers. Yes, this is awesome. I get goosebumps. Yes, We are together. Yes, the Victory Is Ours! the honor is ours! Today, we are brothers and sisters. We are a band. The amazing difference, though, between Henry’s speech and our life of faith is that the battle has already been won. The battle has already been fought. Jesus is Victorious. Our place now is not to continue to fight for Jesus. Jesus has already won. Our job now is to witness to that victory. To point to that victory in the midst of the not-yet, in the midst of the Brokenness of this world that is still in front of us. We reset our world when we claim in our lives the reality of the Resurrection. God has overthrown death and something new is possible. God wins! Let us reset our world by focusing right where we are. We don’t need to fight for God. We need to love for God. We need to focus on the people in our lives, the people that we can love because God is with us. We are not alone. We don’t need to live as if we were. We don’t need to live as if we must save ourselves. You are free. You’re free to reset your world, to renew your vision to remember that you are a child of God.
In the name of the Father and the Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.