“What Do You See?”
Revelation 21:1-7
First Presbyterian Church
The Reverend Donald E. Ray
September 16, 2007
Can you see it? The
moving van is turning the corner on its way out of the cul-de-sac. The
realtor sold-sign once in the front yard, leans against the side of the garage. Our
new neighbor is on the front porch. It’s
God! (Not George Burns for those of
us old enough to remember the movie) It’s
really God!
What does God look like? Attempts
at that picture have been grossly inadequate and distorted. What
John saw was the neighborhood already changed; the whole world different; a new
heaven and a new earth. Hope
inspired, he saw a new Jerusalem like a bride prepared for the covenant of
marriage.
When I read Scripture or other works, meditate and pray,
listen to a sermon, sing a hymn, I am prone to think; to subject the text to
reasoning; to pursue meaning. It’s
been an interesting seven weeks since in the spinning out of responsibilities,
this Sunday fell to me. I have had
some rich experiences with imaging which is why I sort of volunteered. But
my default pattern is to process in words and thoughts and ideas and sentences
strung into paragraphs.
Our children most Sundays have opportunity to gather and
participate in Worship Arts. We are
keeping the children among us this morning because I suspect as adults, many of
us will need their help. We will all
have opportunity to do Worship Arts this morning. If
you have not already done so, avail yourself of paper, backing boards, crayons
and markers that are in the pews. Our
ushers will assist in distributing these if there are not enough for each one at
your seat. I will continue offering
words and ideas for a few moments but I invite you at any point when your vision
comes, to be creative and picture it. If
I were sitting in your place, I would be a bit uncomfortable right now. I
do my best with T-square, angles, and scale rulers. But,
a blank page and colors--free hand is a little scary. I
could do it as a child, maybe that creativity is not totally buried. Your
product may be imagery, color, clearly defined, or…It is your vision—the
revelation of Jesus Christ that is made known to you.
The New Testament book of Revelation in its 22 chapters contains some of
the most vivid imagery in the Scriptures. The
first sentence of the book reads, “The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God
gave him to show what must soon take place; and he made it known by sending his
angel to his servant John, who bore witness…even to all that he saw.” (Rev.
1:1-2) John’s graphic reporting of
his vision stirs wild, dramatic pictures in our imagination. But
I think twenty centuries awaiting that scene to play hardly fits the revelation
“which God gave him to show what must soon take place;” In
the climactic moment of the book, the point which is what it’s all about,
certainly what it is about for us: John writes, “Then I saw a new heaven and a
new earth;” What does that look
like when “God has moved into the neighborhood, making a home with men and
women and children.”
What do you see? This
morning, we have had a glimpse and have opportunity after this hour to enjoy
more of the creativity of those in our congregation. Our
call to worship came with pictures and music imaging the beauty and splendor of
creation and life. Pictures of the
more sordid have been offered to move us in confession. What
we see, I think, can take us beyond words alone. Paintings,
quilts, photographs, shawls, floral arrangements, poetry, tunes and lyrics can
stir something in us.
That which is stirred in us then becomes a vision if we
risk the venture beyond thought and reason and framing ideas. When
we image, envision; what do we see? While
as I said, I have had some fascinating experiences imaging in meditation, visual
art is not my forte—not sometimes even my mezzo piano. When
I was in
Creativity is about the often inspired vision of the
creator. John describes his vision
so. God has moved into the
neighborhood and made a home among us. In
that inspiration, our vision is of a new heaven and a new earth.
The value of words is not to be depreciated. “What
do you see?” is only to say that words may give rise to images, pictures,
vision as readily as they trigger thoughts and ideas in more words. On
Thursday evening as the choir rehearsed this morning’s anthem, I had a
momentary overload attempting to envision all in its word pictures; hills and
valleys, corn and lily and thorn growing, fountains, mist, ocean waves rolling,
sun, a comet streaking across the sky. Marketing
experts know that more sales are generated by visual ads than by text
description. So our vision can stir
us in our life of faith.
What we have seen, heard and felt; memories; meditation may
already give rise to your vision now to be pictured. These
moments will be mostly in quiet to afford opportunity for your vision to come
clear. I will offer a phrase or two,
Psalms, poetry that may bridge any dry spell or block; but here on the isle of
Prendergast, God’s messenger brings a revelation of Christ, a new heaven and a
new earth to us.
The vision comes, to borrow Tom’s words from last week,
“When we live our lives expectantly, without specific expectations.”
The Psalmist wrote,
“I lift up my eyes to the hills---
From where will my help come?
My help comes from the Lord,
Who made heaven and earth. (Psalm 121:1-2)
What do you see?
Helen Steiner Rice wrote:
Each time you look up in the sky or watch the
fluffy clouds drift by,
Or feel the sunshine warm and bright, or watch
the dark night turn to light,
Or hear a bluebird gaily sing, or see the winter
turn to spring,
or stop to pick a daffodil, or gather violets
on some hill,
or touch a leaf or see a tree,
It’s all God whisp’ring, “This is me.”
And I am faith and I am light, and in Me
there shall be no night.”
What do you see?
Jesus said, “A sower went out to sow…” (Matthew 13:3)
What do you see?
We have not time to do justice to your vision. As
worship is preparation and equipping for the rest of life, hopefully this taste
may wet you appetite for image and creating in your reading and meditation and
prayer and living each day. Amen.
As Cindy and I discussed plans for this service, the question of offertory came up. With the image of green offering, I suggested Kermit the Frog’s “Bein Green” Before I could shoot myself in the foot and dismiss it as momentary insanity, Cindy had obtained the music and enlisted Melanie to sing it. As you look for these moments at your creation, perhaps wondering a bit about it and about yourself, the Gospel according to Kermit calls us to-----“wonder.”
©
Copyright 2007 First Presbyterian Church