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Where
are you going to see the fireworks this Friday? There is something
about fireworks that attracts crowds. Perhaps it’s the bright lights,
the booming explosions, the music that it seems to always accent, or
maybe it’s just getting together with a bunch of people. Whatever it
is, you can bet that crowds will assemble all over America Friday
night to celebrate the 232nd anniversary of our country’s
independence. Where are going to see the fireworks? One of the
unwritten rules of fireworks is that always, in every show, the
best is yet to come. Nothing will top the grand finale. That
is the tried and true design of firework shows.
I think we are wired to expect that the best is yet to come.
That has been God’s promise throughout our history. God promised
Abraham that the best is yet to come. The promise given
to David was the best is yet to come. When Jesus met
with his disciples in the Upper Room before his death and on the
mountain after his resurrection, his message was clear – the
best is yet to come. So as we come to the last page of the
Bible, it is no surprise that we find a description of the best that
is yet to come. Listen to only part of the picture from Revelation
21:22-26. Here now the Word of the Lord:
22I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the
Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb. 23And the city has no
need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God is its light,
and its lamp is the Lamb. 24The nations will walk by its
light, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it.
25Its gates will never be shut by day—and there will be no night
there. 26People will bring into it the glory and the honor
of the nations.
The Word of God for the people of God. Thanks be to God. In
this passage John described for his readers the city that is yet to
come. This week we continue our series of sermons entitled Summer
Music Fest 2008. This week’s song was written as a two stanza poem
celebrating Lloyd Stone’s heritage as an American. He wrote it in
1934. The world had recovered from the War to End All Wars and was
several years away from the sequel. The lyricist had hopes for his
land and for those around the world:
This is my song, O God of all the nations, a song of peace for
lands afar and mine;
this is my home, the country where my heart is; here are my hopes, my
dreams, my holy shrine:
but other hearts in other lands are beating with hopes and dreams as
true and high as mine.
My country's skies are bluer than the ocean, and sunlight beams on
cloverleaf and pine;
but other lands have sunlight too, and clover, and skies are
everywhere as blue as mine:
O hear my song, thou God of all the nations, a song of peace for their
land and for mine.
Lloyd Stone was
only 22 years old when he wrote those words and yet he captured such a
beautiful thought. Today as we celebrate our nation’s birthday, let
us also acknowledge the beauty and sentiments of other nations, and
even anticipate a time when we shall share the same home – the
best is yet to come.
The Best is Yet to Come where the city illuminates with God’s presence
John, the author of
Revelation, points out the absence of some very important elements in
our world – a place of worship, the sun, and the moon. None of those
are needed for they were only symbols of the promised reality.
Remember when Jesus was talking with the woman of Samaria and she
wanted to argue about the best place to worship. Jesus simply told
her about a time when those kinds of divisions would be no more, “true
worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth.” The
Temple is not present, because God is in the middle of the city. The
vehicle for focusing on God is no longer needed. The sun and moon are
no longer needed, because God is light and these heavenly entities are
mere symbols of that light. Much like the moon is barely visible and
completely unnecessary in the daylight, so will the sun and the moon
be when the best that is yet to come has come.
C.S. Lewis captured some of this beautifully in his fifth book of
The Chronicles of Narnia, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.
Prince Caspian who is now a king is guiding an expedition to the end
of the world, when they discover that the water, long bitter upon
which they had been sailing, was now quite sweet:
… The King took the bucket in both hands, raised it to his lips,
sipped, drank deeply and raised his head. His face was changed. Not
only his eyes but everything about him seemed to be brighter. “It's
like light more than anything else,” said Caspian…And one by one
everybody on board drank. And for a long time they were all silent.
They felt almost too well and strong to bear it; and presently they
began to notice another result ... there had been too much light ...
the sun too large (though not too hot), the sea too bright, the air
too shining. Now the light grew no less - if anything it increased -
but they could bear it. They could look straight up at the sun
without blinking. They could see more light than they had ever seen
before. And the deck and the sail and their own faces and bodies
became brighter and brighter and every rope shone.
It is a beautiful image as though everything that preceded that
experience was experienced under a deep overcast or even a fog.
Colors become more vivid, warmth more felt, though never too hot, and
light is a different quality. The closest thing I can get to this
distinction is to invite you to stop by the store this afternoon and
buy one tomato. Go home, slice it, and eat just one slice. Then
pick a tomato off the vine in your backyard or ask your neighbors if
you can borrow one of theirs. Slice it and eat just one slice. We are
still living in the land of the store bought tomato, but the
best is yet to come. There the city illuminates with God’s
presence.
The
Best is Yet to Come where kings assimilate to one common sovereign
“The kings of the
earth will bring their glory into it.” This is the promise of John
and what a bold promise it is. Do you know what kind of majesty it
takes to draw other rulers into what appears to be a willing
submission? It takes the majesty of the Lord God the Almighty and the
Lamb. The book of Daniel tells a story about Nebuchadnezzar, the
emperor of ancient Babylon, who in spite of warnings against pride,
could not stop himself. He went for a walk on the roof of the royal
palace and looked out on his empire saying, “Is this not magnificent
Babylon, which I have built as a royal capital by my mighty power and
for my glorious majesty?” While he was still speaking he was
chastised from heaven for his pride and put in a divinely appointed
time out, “Until you have learned that the Most High has sovereignty
over the kingdom of mortals.”
Kings have a difficult time yielding authority. I know this, because
once, when I was 18 years old, I was a king. I had been promoted to
the position of Head Fry Cook at the Kentucky Fried Chicken in
Findlay, Ohio. This was a position that brought with it a key to the
store. I was one of only three people in the entire town with keys to
the store and it did not take me long to draw on the benefits of this
lofty title. I gave myself the best jobs, bossed people around even
if I had no real authority over them. I was a real jerk and let the
power go to my head. Perhaps it was me of whom Lord John Emerich
Acton wrote to Bishop Mandell Creighton in 1887: “Power tends to
corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost
always bad men.”
We continue to live in the shadowlands, the land of the store bought
tomatoes, where head fry cooks can be oppressive rulers, but the
best is yet to come. There is a promise of place where the
city illuminates and kings assimilate to one common sovereign.
The Best is Yet to Come where all Nations Integrate into one city
“People will bring into it the glory and honor of all nations,” are
the words chosen by John to describe the new city. Many commentators
believe that the verse means that people will willingly offer all
their treasures and that may be the case. However, I believe it is
more than that. I believe that there is a recognition in this passage
of the truth of the adage, “the more the merrier”. Leon Morris wrote,
“John does not envisage the salvation of a tiny handful and the
destruction of the vast majority of mankind …God’s purposes will not
be thwarted.” Here is the hope of a city where everyone’s identity is
intact and integrated into one glorious community.
This is the genius of this country at its best. We truly are a
melting pot, with ethnic groups from all over the world. A few of us
are so blended that it is difficult to discern anything but our
European or African heritage. Others can claim with pride their
Vietnamese, Irish, Italian, Philippine, Turkish, Tanzanian, German, or
some other ancestry. At our best we can be one nation under God and
still claim our roots of distinction.
Such has not been the case in other lands. There have been forced
migrations, suppressed cultures, one people played against another
people. This was the situation in Finland in the late 18th
century. Finland was a Russian Province during the life of Jean
Sibelius. His work, “Finlandia” was written for a national pageant
that was a disguised attempt to “Russify” the nation. Instead,
Sibelius’ piece had the opposite effect. It provided a sense of
national identity and made a strong statement during a time when free
speech had been, for all intents and purposes, banned. This music,
inspired by the grace and beauty of his homeland, became so identified
with Finnish national aspirations that it was banned in 1917. Out of
a time when identity was being powerfully suppressed came music of
inspiration and glory. How wonderful it is that this tune of national
inspiration became linked with a poem of international hopes. We are
still living in the shadow lands, in the land of store bought
tomatoes. But we have a promise.
This is the promise of the best is yet to come – people
from every nation will come and gather under the banner of one city
and one God, all divisions eliminated and all evil obliterated. Gates
are continually open; darkness and the fear that comes with it are
gone. Unity, peace, freedom for all people - the best is yet to
come.
So this Friday attend the fireworks, sing the songs that celebrate our
independence as a nation, eat well, and remember the best is yet
to come. Amen. |
