The House of Bread: A Service for the Eve of the Nativity of the Lord

 

The Eve of the Nativity of the Lord

December 24

The House of Bread

An empty, life size, wooden manger waits at the front of the Sanctuary.

This service requires: at least two readers, including the celebrant; one or more young women or girls to carry the bread and place it in the manger;  the bread should be an intact loaf ca. 12’’ long and wrapped in a white cloth; one or more grandmothers to bring the bread from the manger to the Table. 

Prelude:

Gathering Song: “Of the Father’s Love Begotten” 309/108

Lighting the Christ Candle

We light the Christ Candle from the candles of the Advent Wreath in silence.  Or the Christ Candle is carried in during the first hymn.

Call to Worship

People will come from east and west

   and from north and south,

   and will eat in the Kingdom of God.

Indeed, some who are last will be first,

   and some who are first will be last. Luke 13:29-30

We are celebrating the feast of the Eternal Birth 

   which God has borne 

   and never ceases to bear in all eternity... 

But if it does not also happen in us, what good is it? 

   Everything depends on this, 

   that it should take place in each of us. Meister Eckhart

As we listen again to the story of Christ’s birth in Bethlehem,

   may he be born as well in our own hearts.

May the Light of God’s life shine in our darkness!

*Processional: “Once in Royal David’s City” 49/140

If the Christ Candle was not lit earlier, someone may process with it now.

In those days a decree went out from Emperor Augustus 

that all the world should be registered.  

This was the first registration 

and was taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria.  

All went to their own towns to be registered. 

Luke 2:1-3

This story begins with an imperial edict.  

   The strong man in Rome thought he was in charge.  

   He gave orders to soldiers and bureaucrats, 

   who carried out his will.

Little did he know.

The future emerges not from the wealthy and powerful, 

   not from the armed and affluent, 

   not from the bullies and the buyers.

   not from the connected and the confident. 

But from the rest of us: 

   the homeless, the refugees, the victims, the workers, 

   the poor, the broken, the outcast, and the lost.

Little did he know.

“The people who walked in darkness

   have seen a great light;

   those who lived in a land of deep darkness— 

   on them light has shined.”   Isaiah 9:2

May the Light of God shine this night

   into the controlled and restricted darkness of our world.

May the Light of God shine this night.

Song: “In the Bleak Midwinter” 36/144

Joseph also went from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, 

to the city of David called Bethlehem, 

because he was descended from the house and family of David.

Luke 2:4

Bethlehem.  The name means, “house of bread,” in Hebrew.

“I am the Bread of Life.

   Whoever comes to me will never be hungry,

   and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.” John 6:35

“I am the living bread that came down from heaven.  

   Whoever eats of this bread will live forever; 

   the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.” John 6:51

“And the Word became flesh and lived among us.” John 1:14

Song: “O Little Town of Bethlehem” 44/121

He went to be registered with Mary, 

to whom he was engaged and who was expecting a child.

Luke 2:5 

Mary is the young woman to whom God’s Messenger comes, saying:

“Greetings, favored one!  

   The Lord is with you!” Luke 1:28

When the messenger shares with her the good,

   but very disturbing, news, 

   that she will bring the Son of God into the world, she says:

“Here am I, the servant of the Lord; 

   let it be with me according to your word.” Luke 1:38

May it be with all of us 

   according to the saving, liberating, healing Word of the Lord.

May God’s saving presence be born in us.

May we not fear the reactions of those who do not see what God is doing.

May God’s saving presence be born in us.

May we live in joyful expectation, as goodness grows within us.

May God’s saving presence be born in us.

*Song:  “See Amid the Winter’s Snow” 51/——

While they were there, 

the time came for her to deliver her child. 

And she gave birth to her firstborn son 

and wrapped him in bands of cloth, 

and laid him in a manger, 

because there was no place for them in the inn.

Luke 2:6-7

Song: “Still, Still, Still” 47/124

During the song, a girl/young woman carries a loaf of bread wrapped in white cloth and places it in the manger.

To add insult to injury,

he is born in a barn,

laid in a feed-trough for animals.

He is unnoticed and unwelcomed by humans, at first.

He feels our vulnerability,

   the anxiety, the grief, the hunger, the utter dependence.

He breathes the aromas of life in a barn.

He tastes the milk of human nourishment.

He hears the sounds of animals and wind,

   and his parents’ tired, hopeful, relieved words,

   soft and low.

He feels the texture of cloth and straw, and cold air on new skin.

He sees in the dim light the glistening face of his mother.

All this he takes on,

   draping over himself to inhabit like a tent,

   from which to know the world…

Even though it is he through whom God creates the world,

   breathing it into being at the beginning,

   saying, “Let there be!”

   and, “It is very good!” From Genesis 1:1-31

For a child has been born for us,

   a son given to us;

authority rests upon his shoulders;

   and he is named

Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God,

   Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. 

His authority shall grow continually,

   and there shall be endless peace

for the throne of David and his kingdom.

   He will establish and uphold it

with justice and with righteousness

   from this time onwards and for evermore.

The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this. Isaiah 9:6-7

Song: “While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks “ 59/118

In that region there were shepherds living in the fields, 

keeping watch over their flock by night.

Luke 2:8 

Shepherds on the night shift,

   workers in the field,

   shivering in the star-light,

   imagining a better life,

   wanting to go home.

   Forgotten, invisible, taken-for-granted;

   doing a job no one else wanted.

We give thanks for the servers and the watchers, 

   the caregivers and the waiters;

   the stockers and the loaders,

   the cashiers and the clerks,

   the drivers and the cleaners,

   the mechanics and the secretaries.

We give thanks for those who prepare the soil,

   plant the seeds, watch over the plants as they grow, 

   then harvest and process the produce. 

We give thanks for those who care for animals,

   and for the animals, who give us many benefits.

On those same hills a boy named David also watched over sheep.

   He was God’s unlikely chosen king.

Now God’s new unlikely chosen king,

   a descendant of David by adoption,

   is born in the same town:

   the Bread of Life emerges from Bethlehem, 

   which means “House of Bread”.

*Song: “Angels, From the Realms of Glory” 22/143

We carry the loaf of bread from the manger to the Table.

Then an angel of the Lord stood before them, 

and the glory of the Lord shone around them, 

and they were terrified. 

But the angel said to them, 

“Do not be afraid; 

for see—I am bringing you good news of great joy 

for all the people: 

to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, 

who is the Messiah, the Lord. 

This will be a sign for you: 

you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth 

and lying in a manger.”

And suddenly there was with the angel 

a multitude of the heavenly host, 

praising God and saying, 

“Glory to God in the highest heaven,

   and on earth peace among those whom he favors!”

Luke 2:9-14

Song:  “Before the World Began”                                                                                                       John L. Bell

1. Before the world began one Word was there;             

Grounded  in God he was, rooted in care;            

by him all things were made in him was love displayed, 

through him God spoke and said,  “I am for you.”

2. Life  found in him its Source, death found its end;              

Light found in him its course, death found its end;           

for neither death nor doubt nor darkness can put out        

the glow of God, the shout, “I am for you.”

3. The Word was in the world which from him came;            

Unrecognized he was, unknown by name;         

one with all humankind, with the unloved aligned,   

convinc-ing sight and mind, “I am for you.”

4. All who received  the Word by God were  blessed,         

Sisters and brothers they of Earth’s fond  guest.         

So did the Word of  grace proclaim in time and space,   

and with a human face, “I am for you.”   

When the angels had left them 

and gone into heaven, 

the shepherds said to one another, 

“Let us go now to Bethlehem 

and see this thing that has taken place, 

which the Lord has made known to us.”

So they went with haste 

and found Mary and Joseph, 

and the child lying in the manger. 

When they saw this, 

they made known what had been told them about this child; 

and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds told them. 

But Mary treasured all these words 

and pondered them in her heart. 

The shepherds returned, 

glorifying and praising God 

for all they had heard and seen, 

as it had been told them.

Luke 2:15-20

Mary’s Treasure Box*

Children gather at the chancel to hear the story.

Song: “Love Has Come” —/110 

God of grace and wonder:

   may our leaders be gentler,

   and our hospitality far warmer,

   than what we offered you

   on that night long ago,

   coming into our world.

Open our hearts and our homes

   to the refugees, the undocumented, and the homeless today.

   May we remember that we were aliens too,

   whom you welcomed into the household of peace.

By your grace and your Spirit

   let us inhabit the good creation,

   under your order of peace, justice, and liberation.

Remove our fear

   that sours into violence.

Remove our hatred 

   that closes our hearts to the cries of others.

Remove our resentment

   that darkly dwells on what we think we have lost.

Turn our faces to your Light,

   shining in the face of Jesus,

   revealing to us the truth, goodness, beauty, and grace

   you have poured so generously into our hearts.

Let us see him in the face of everyone.

   Amen.

  

Offering

The Earth and everything on it,

the world and all its people,

they all belong to God.   Psalm 24:1

Offertory Music: 

*Doxology: “O Come, All Ye Faithful” 41/133 

Words of Institution

On the night when Jesus was born,

   in Bethlehem, the House of Bread,

   his parents prayed and the angels sang,

   and the shepherds came to visit him.

On the night before he gave his life 

   for the life of the world,

   the Lord Jesus took bread.

On the night when he was born,

   the Creator became a creature,

   the Infinite was placed in a manger, 

   the Word became flesh,

   the Spirit became matter,

   Wisdom came into time, 

   and the Presence became present.

He gave thanks to God,

   and broke the bread,

   and gave it to his disciples, saying:

   “Take and eat.  This is my body, given for you;

   do this in remembrance of me.”

The celebrant breaks the bread in two pieces.

On the night when he was born,

   humanity was raised to heaven,

   people were united to God,

   the Creator emerged within creation,

   sinners were saved,

   the lost were found,

   the blind were given their sight,

   the lame were empowered,

   the captives were freed,

   debts were remitted,

   and the dead received life.

He took the cup, saying:

   “This cup is the new covenant in my blood,

shed for all people for the forgiveness of sins.

   Whenever you drink it, 

   do this in remembrance of me.”

The celebrant fills the cup.

On the night when he was born,

   the light began to shine

   on those who lived in a land of deep darkness.

“The light shines in the darkness

   and the darkness did not overcome it.” John 1:5

Eucharistic Prayer and the Lord’s Prayer

Creator God:

You send Jesus Christ into our world

as Savior, Redeemer, and Messenger of your will.

As your Spirit,

your holy Ruach,

the One to Whom Mary said “Yes!”

who dwells everywhere and fills all things, 

infused her body with the grace and Presence

of your holy Word,

let that Spirit here and now

emerge within this bread and this cup,

making them the Body and Blood

of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ,

your Word, given for the life of the world.

O God, like a mother who will not forget her nursing child

you always feed and remember us.

And so we are bold to pray in the words Jesus taught us,

saying: Our Father….

Receive the Body of Christ!

   Taste the fountain of immortality!

   Alleluia!  Alleluia!  Alleluia!

All commune from the broken bread.

Communion Music: 

Charge

Jesus said:

“You are the Light of the World.” Matthew 5:14

We who have received his Light

become his Light. 

Candlelighting Ceremony

We light our candles from the Christ Candles.

Please be careful….

*Song: “Silent Night, Holy Night” 60/122

In the beginning was the Word, 

and the Word was with God, 

and the Word was God. 

He was in the beginning with God. 

All things came into being through him, 

and without him not one thing came into being. 

What has come into being in him was life, 

and the life was the light of all people. 

The light shines in the darkness, 

and the darkness did not overcome it.

 And the Word became flesh and lived among us, 

full of grace and truth. 

From John 1:1-14

*Recessional Song: “Go, Tell It on the Mountain!” 29/136

+++++++

*Mary's Treasure Box

Loosely based on the story in the children's book by that title, by Carolyn Walz Kramlich.

Necessary props:

- Wooden box, apparently handmade

- Raw wool

- Straw

- "Gold" (I use Hanukkah Geld)

- Frankincense (have an incense burner handy)

- Myrrh

With the children talk about and pass around each item in the box.  There needs to be a lot of myrrh because Mary didn't use it when she intended to: to anoint the body of Jesus on Easter morning.

 

Tacking on the Straight Path.

 Installation Sermon + September 11, 2022 + Trumansburg, NY

Proverbs 3:1-10

I.

This passage from Proverbs asks the Creator to make our paths straight.  A gathering of Jesus' followers needs to consider this, especially when stepping out together in mission with a new Pastor.  What does the straight path look like in these unstable, uneven, and treacherous times? 

The Israelite community that composed and gathered around these Proverbs holds that the straight path has to do with keeping the Creator's commandments.  They even promise that things will go very well for us in this life, if we do!  Each of these verses has two movements: the first part encourages the community to keep the faith, and the second part indicates the resulting benefit.  The people are first  encouraged to obey the commandments, stay loyal and faithful, turn away from evil, and give generous offerings to the Temple, in return for which they could expect to receive long life and "abundant welfare," a good reputation, "healing" and "refreshment" for their bodies, and even material prosperity, complete with vats overflowing with wine!  In other words, the deal is: do what the Creator says and the Creator will make you healthy, wealthy, and wise.  What's not to like?  Sign me up!

The writers of Proverbs are not idiots; they don't give us mindless platitudes and aspirational but empty promises.  They know far better than comfortable American white people how the world really works.  I mean, their tradition starts with a band of slaves and continues through a history mostly featuring defeat, exile, and conquest.  Proverbs is written by sober, hard-nosed realists, who understand what it means to be continually blown off course and have their GPS constantly "recalculating."  

Yet they stubbornly affirm that we really do emerge into the Promised Land of the Creator's blessed shalom, which Jesus calls the Creator's "kingdom" -- a beloved community of equity, justice, health, and, yes, prosperity -- when we stay on the straight path and keep the Creator's commandments, which, as we see in Jesus, are all about love.

The aspect of the straight path that is most difficult for us to swallow, I suspect, has to do with what it means for us to keep the commandments.  Not only are we Americans, who don't like being told what to do, but we are Presbyterians, who constitutionally mistrust authority of any kind.  

When we hear some religious leader start going on about keeping the commandments, our defenses and suspicions understandably go up.  We immediately assume he (and it is always a he) is nagging us about one or both of two things.  On the one hand, he wants us to maintain very strictly a list of trivial pietistical rules, like some of the Torah practices that Jesus complained about and often broke, or the medieval Roman penitentials that Luther rejected.  For Presbyterians it could include enforcing some arcane and even obsolete detail from the Book of Order.  On the other hand, people who rail about keeping the commandments too often just want to impose repressive personal sexual regulations on people, usually other people.  And that's about it. 

When we selectively reduce keeping the commandments to things like this, they become just a way of getting what we want, keeping things the way we like them, maintaining the practices and rules that make us comfortable.  Proverbs calls this "doing whatever is wise in our own eyes," or in the eyes of the ones in charge, which usually means us.  And it's not good.

II.

Keeping the Creator's commandments actually happens when we actively come to live together according to Jesus' Way of kindness, compassion, inclusion, gratitude, generosity, thanksgiving, humility, and joy.  Following Jesus inevitably means living in solidarity with, and advocating for, the marginalized and the suffering, the oppressed and the excluded, the poor and the weak, the sick and the imprisoned, and to learn to see things, like the Bible itself does, from their perspective and with their best interests at heart.  

Living according to Jesus' Way of love involves more creativity and discernment than simply reading a rule from a book and enforcing it literally in every situation.  It requires us to be present and conscious of what is happening around us, to "read the room," as we say.  

Maybe it's kind of like sailing.  What little I know about sailing I got from the very few times I have been on sailboats, and from Patrick O'Brian novels.  But I have learned that the most direct line to the destination, the effectual "straight path," is almost never a literal straight line.  It requires continual awareness and response to changing conditions with some skill.  The actual "straight path," in the sense of the path that will get you where you want to go, is an erratic zig-zag of tacking, especially if the wind is against you.  Otherwise you don't attain the goal at all; you simply drift where the wind and current take you.  

One motto of our tradition says that the church is "always being reformed according to the Word of God."  We need such constant reformation because the conditions and circumstances of mission are always in flux, requiring a change of tactics, even though the goal on the horizon stays constant.  It could be a good thing to remember for a church with a newly restored, giant weathervane on the steeple.  We don't simply go wherever the wind blows us; but we do need to take the wind into account when setting our course.  

For instance, we have to say "Black lives matter" today because Black lives haven't mattered very much at all in our history; so in order to maintain the straight path of equity we have to adjust course so that these lives are lifted up now. 

In his ministry, Jesus seeks out the broken, excluded, and hurting, and makes restoring them his primary work.  Therefore, a gathering of Jesus' followers has to be continually making this same calculation, sensing and adjusting to the cultural winds and waves, feeling for the places of greatest need and pain, to keep on course to its ultimate destination: the Creator's beloved community.

Jesus embodies the straight path that Proverbs talks about, emptying himself to fill the emptiness of others.  The Creator challenges, empowers, leads, and sends out every gathering of Jesus' followers to act in the world according to these values.  Discipleship is something we do with, in, and for physical bodies in specific circumstances, times, and places.  That is our mission.  The Creator calls on us to cling to this path, this Way of active love, even in the turbulence and headwinds we face today. 

III.

What about the reward?  What about all those blessings and benefits promised in the reading from Proverbs?  If we live like Jesus, how do we then become healthy, wealthy, and wise in this life?  More importantly, when do we get the overflowing vats of wine?  

In our reading from his first letter to Timothy, the "Apostle Paul" says to shun all the craven behavior he lists earlier in the chapter, culminating in the love of money, which he famously says is the "root of all evil."  He then goes on to echo Jesus' teaching about justice, gentleness, and keeping the commandments.  And he reminds his own disciple that always at the center is the crucified Jesus Christ, "who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords," bringing us to the goal, that destination on the horizon, the Creator's Kingdom: "eternal life."

In other words, the quality of life we share together in the gathering that lives by these commandments, is itself the reward.  Because if we live together in shalom, in balance and harmony with each other and the Earth, in an economy of sharing and mutual care, in a deep democracy in which all voices are heard, then everybody benefits: we come to participate in the life, and the abundance, of the whole creation. 

So the blessings described in Proverbs, right up to the full barns and wine barrels, these are for all.  We have to act together as disciples in the world in a way that embraces the "all" of Jesus' good news.  The benefits of commandment-keeping are shared among everyone, like everything else on this planet and in this life.  

In the Orthodox Divine Liturgy the celebrant chants a prayer over the eucharistic gifts, offering them "on behalf of all and for all."  I love that.  We benefit when and because everyone benefits.  The Creator has provided more than enough for all!  What we do we do for all.  Not just all people either.  Or even all living beings.  All creation!  The Creator invites everybody to participate in and enjoy the blessings of creation.  We do receive those benefits of commandment-keeping... we receive them provisionally together in the gathered community, looking ahead to the day when we all receive them.

Therefore we answer the Creator's call by gathering together with intention to hear, discern, interpret, and respond to the Word, assessing the conditions, sharing experiences, and implementing strategies for living according to Jesus' Way in our time and place.  We inviting others to share in this life.  We live more simply, we do restorative justice, we include, respect, celebrate, and learn from our differences, we give voice to the silenced and voiceless; we act with non-violence, humility, and forgiveness, exhibiting open-hearted generosity.  We become examples and even evangelists (gasp!), telling the good news by walking together much more lightly and with deep respect, thanksgiving, and wonder upon this holy Earth. 

Here is a little roadmap for moving forward in a new ministry together: look to Jesus, listen for his voice, and follow him.  I conclude with words that I know your new Pastor will agree with: Let's get busy!

++++  

Everything Belongs.

Revelation 5:11-14

May 1, 2022 + Smithtown

I.

In his spectacular vision that we call the book of Revelation, the Apostle John sees Jesus in the heavenly throne room in the form of a slaughtered Lamb who is nevertheless alive and victorious.  The lamb image comes mainly from the book of Exodus where God instructs the people to take the blood of a lamb and paint it over the doorways of their homes as a sign to the angel of death to pass over them and preserve them from the final, terrible plague descending on the Egyptians. 

John's vision includes both uncountable thousands of singing angels swirling around God's throne, and “every creature under heaven and on earth and in the sea, and all that is in them,” together singing that the Lamb is worthy “to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing,” building to a crescendo.  

We rationalistic, sophisticated, modern people may find it easy and convenient to dismiss angels as mere archaic, mythic decoration.  But angels — in Greek the word is literally “messengers” — serve the important function of mediating God’s will to the world.  Perhaps we could say that, if God is Light, then angels work like photons or rays conveying that Light to our sight, if we have the eyes to perceive it.  

As creatures of heaven, angels deliver, express, represent, and reveal the vast universality and inclusive vision of the Most High God.  The angels point to the Lamb because the Lamb demonstrates the essence and nature of God as infinite, unconquerable, self-giving, self-emptying, self-offering love.

Still bearing the deep gashes of sacrifice, the Lamb shows us how God triumphs over, absorbs, and neutralizes the violence and hatred endemic in the world.  In Exodus, the final plague represents the culmination of the terrible consequences, mostly in the form of ecological disasters, the Egyptians brought down on themselves by holding a people in slavery for 400 years.  Injustice always brings catastrophe.  By the sign of the lamb's blood, God acts graciously to preserve the Israelite people from getting swept away as collateral damage in this comprehensive and unspeakable disaster, the sudden death of every first-born.  Thus the life of the lamb, offered up for the people and brushed on their doorways, protects them from judgment and death.  

In the gospels, John the Baptizer declares Jesus "the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world," anticipating how Jesus would give his life "for the life of the world," protecting the people from the violent and inevitable consequence of sin in the same way as the Passover lamb protected the Israelites.  Only, because in Christ the Lamb is God, this happens on a cosmic and universal scale and is effective for all creation.  The book of Revelation is about the cataclysmic consequences brought down on any polity or regime that privileges one group, divides others, spawns flagrant inequities, inequalities, violence, and oppression, and destroys the earth.

The point, the meaning, is the same: we get preserved and protected from the violent consequences of sin by the life of self-giving love exemplified in Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, and poured into our hearts by the Spirit.  The angels therefore declare the slaughtered Lamb as worthy “to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing.”  

II.

The Lamb reveals God's truth and goodness in the good news of radical reversal; in which the losers of the world, the broken, bereft, victimized, disenfranchised, marginalized, weak, and rejected, like the abject slaves in Egypt, suddenly win.  By the offering of his own life/blood, the Lamb redeems and saves humanity, disclosing the love that is the meaning and destiny of all creation.  

The most basic and also most deliberately hidden fact about the Bible is that it is written by and for a bunch of escaped slaves and their descendants.  We cannot understand Scripture at all unless we relate to and identify with the situation of those who remember how they were “slaves in Egypt,” but who now know themselves to be, through no efforts of their own, delivered, liberated, redeemed, and saved.  

Those who were nothing, God delivers into everything; while those who make themselves everything, like the Egyptians, inevitably get reduced to nothing.  To know God is to live in praise and gratitude, deeply conscious of what we have received.  It is to say with the old hymn, "I once was lost but now I'm found, was blind but now I see."

That good news is always that life is not about what we gain in terms of power, fame, and wealth, or any of the things society would have us believe it is about.  Life is not about what we get for ourselves.  In the Lamb we see that it is really about what we renounce, what we offer up, what we lose.  It is about what we give and share and contribute.   As Jesus says, it is only when we lose ourselves that we are able to receive what God is always seeking to give us.

In response to the angels’ song, in John's vision he then hears “every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them” also singing a similar refrain.  Every creature refers to literally everything: every grain of sand and every mountain, every fungus and plant, every microbe and insect, every animal and bird and fish, every molecule and electron, every rock and tree, every cloud, river, puddle, and ocean, everything that God breathes into being by the Word, everything stamped with God's imprint of Holy Wisdom, which is to say everything that is, lives to praise the Creator, who is “the One seated on the throne and the Lamb.”  

The Lamb and the One seated on the throne have become melded together in praise, so that the cross, where God — the Lamb — pours out his life in his blood for the life of the world, the final act of God’s self-emptying, is revealed as the modality by which God does everything.  Even creation itself, which happens by God’s speaking, is God’s self-emptying, as the infinite love of the Trinity overflows and pours into the nothingness to make something, everything.

Everything is thus breathed into being by God, bearing God’s seal, God’s signature, God’s frequency, and God’s identifying mark.  Everything participates in the same eternal outpouring and flow of life and love.  Everything is made out of the precipitation of God’s breath for the purpose of sharing in the goodness, joy, blessing, and praise of God together.  As theologian Richard Rohr as said in the title of one of his books: Everything Belongs.

III.

John sees in heaven the raucous, bright, shining, colorful, wild, diverse, explosive, ecstatic rave of joy and praise, which sets the tone for what is to come.  In some ways it reveals what is in the scroll because it is a blissful celebration of God’s love which is permeated in and through everything.  

This truth has to be established; it has to shape our consciousness, filling us with hope and joy, to give us fortitude and courage to face what is to come later in the book, when the Lamb actually starts opening seals and the awesome goodness of God collides with the twisted and foul corruption, illusion, violence, and hatreds that have pushed toxic tendrils into out souls and through our world.

It is also at the same time a vision intended to govern and inform our approach to the world in which we live.  For if everything is created to praise God, if every voice of every creature is specifically shaped by God for the purpose of participating in the glorious dance of goodness and love, if God designs the whole place and every piece of it to function as a great mosaic of blessing and shalom, then we need to live in response and partnership and communion with others, no matter who or what those others are.  In that knowledge we can only affirm the whole place, and everyone and even everything in it, as a spectacular and miraculous gift, the pinnacle of which perhaps is our very ability to know this and consciously join in the chorus of thanks and praise.

We have to approach “every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them” with the respect, compassion, gratitude, and wonder they deserve as instances and expressions of God’s love and wisdom, manifest in time and space.  We must address and cherish everything as an unspeakable miracle with which we only engage according to the sovereign will of the One who created it.  

That means that we may treat no part of creation as a mere object that we may dispose of as seems best to us.  Not people, not animals, not bugs, not trees, not rocks, not water, not air.  Yes, we need to interact with and engage with creation; life is a network of interactive, complementary sharing.  But we only access other created beings for the glory of God, with deep humility and thanksgiving.  We take no more than we need, and we ensure fair and equitable distribution so that no one has too little and no one has too much.  We reduce what we take; we replace what we have taken; we reuse and recycle what we have used; we repair what we have broken; we restore what we have degraded and replenish what we have depleted; we correct imbalances we have made.  We clean up our messes.  We leave the place as we found it if not better.

For we are guests here on this planet, in this creation.  Every Sunday I have reminded you that “The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof, the world and all those who dwell therein.”  The world does not belong to us.  We need to behave here only according to the will of our Host, who makes the whole place for joy and praise, love and communion, compassion and blessing, delight and peace, for all.

By what right do we silence, out of our own selfishness, any voice that God created for praise?  By what right do we hoard, commodify, extract, and exhaust beings God fashioned for the benefit of all?  By what right do we poison land, water, and air, kicking the chemistry of the atmosphere out of balance?  By what right do we trash the magnificent vineyard that God has generously placed in our care?

IV.

The Book of Revelation will continue and display in horrendous and gory detail the consequences of not living according to the life of the Lamb... but even all that horror is temporary.  Because God inevitably triumphs in the end with the emergence of a new heaven and a new earth.

Often overlooked in the Exodus story is the fact that once its blood gets smeared over the doors, the people consume the lamb.  They eat it as part of the liberation meal that became both the Jewish seder and the Christian Sacrament.  Thereby we become the lamb; we take on the lamb's life and mission.  We participate in the Lamb's self-offering, compassion, humility, generosity, simplicity, and inclusion.  We become together the sign of God's love, witnessing in our relationships, actions, words, and thoughts. 

Our Westminster Shorter Catechism begins with the amazing affirmation that “the chief end of human life,” that is, our main purpose and function as humans here on the earth, “is to glorify God and to enjoy God forever.”  This is what the angels are doing with their song; this is what the whole creation does in singing as well.  And it is the whole reason we exist at all.

May everything we do, everything we say, everything we even think, be an expression of this awesome sentiment; and may that joyful, humble, awestruck, thankful hymn be ever in our hearts, guiding every thing we do: 

“To the one seated on the throne and to the Lamb 

be blessing and honor 

and glory and might 

for ever and ever!”

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