The Alpha and the Omega

Revelation 22:1-13

Today is the end of the Millennium. Tomorrow we begin the 3^rd Millennium since the birth of Christ. So what does one preach on such an historic moment in time?

When Cathy asked me to preach today, I joked that I could summarize a thousand years of church history. I see some ready for a nap already. Seriously, though, it is hard for us to comprehend what has happened in the church during the last millennium which began in the so-called Dark Ages. Few of us have any concept of church history for more than a few hundred years. During the past 1,000 years of church history:

• There were the crusades to convert the world by force
• There was an intellectual revival in the 12^th and 13^th C. that led to the rise of Universities, many related to the church
• There was a new wave of monasticism that gave us St. Francis
• There was a great Inquisition seeking out those independent thinkers in the church who dared to ask questions
• There was a great schism between the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Churches
• This was followed by an Age of Reformation and the Protestant Reformation that brought us persons like: Erasmus, Martin Luther, Zwingli, John Calvin, and the Anabaptists.
• Note I have not yet come to the beginnings of our own denomination under the leadership of Alexander Mack in 1708
• We could add the periods of revival that swept Europe and then the New Worlds, as this country was still known.
• We could talk about the issues of separation of Church and State, Christian social reforms of the 19^th C, and the changing nature of church and society in the 20^th C.

But the question some Christians are asking as we come to the end of the 2^nd Millennium is this: Do we live in the "end times" or are we at the beginning of a new era? Of course that question is not new. For hundreds, even thousands, of years, there have been those Christians who believed the end was near. We could for example identify the Millerites who, in the 1840s closed their stores and gave away their goods believing the end of the world was coming October 22, 1844. Some will remember the writings of Hal Lindsey's The Late Great Planet Earth which predicted the end to be in 1981 but instead made Lindsey a wealthy man. Or even more recently was the prediction that the Rapture would be on October 28, 1992.

Matthew tells us that Jesus was asked the same question by his disciples and answered: "... about that day and hour no one knows, neither the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father."

What is clear to most of us is that we are living our way into a new era. Loren Mead in his book, The Once and Future Church, suggests we are moving into the 3^rd major era since the founding of the Christian Church. ⁽¹⁾

1^st was the Apostolic Era when the church was new and was able to remember the teachings of the Apostles. The Church of this era was focused on serving and converting the world, as well as caring for the sick, the prisoner, the widow, the fatherless, and the poor. This early church was made up of faithful people living in a world that was hostile to what the church stood for. In many places it was a capital offense to relate with or to be a Christian.

The 2^nd Era began with the conversion of Emperor Constantine in 313 AD. and grew progressively as Christianity became in name and law the official religion of the Empire. There was now no separation of the world, the church and the state. Loyalty and obedience became the norm, and protest (as in Protestant Reformation) caused conflict. So powerful was this church/state control that colonists to the New World insisted that there be a separation of church and state to allow for religious freedom. And yet, most of us would acknowledge that Christianity has had "favored religious status" for over 200 years. We are, are we not, a "Christian" nation?

But, now, according to Mead, we are entering into a new era that has not become fully clear to us who now live in between the 2^nd and 3^rd Era of the Christian Church. When did this change begin? Mead retells a fascinating story of William Willimon and Stanley Hauerhaus who describe when the change began in their own experience. (The Once and Future Church, p. 23)

Our parents had never worried about whether we would grow up Christian. The church was the only show in town. On Sundays, the town was closed down. One could not even buy a gallon of gas. There was a traffic jam on Sunday mornings...when all went to their respective Sunday schools. By overlooking much that was wrong in that world - it was a racially segregated world, remember - people saw a world that looked good and right. ... Church, home, and state formed a national consortium that worked together to instill "Christian values." People grew up Christian simply by being lucky enough to be born in places like Greenville, South Carolina or Pleasant Grove, Texas (or, we could add, Nappanee, Indiana).

When and how did we change? Although it may sound trivial, one of us is tempted to date the shift sometime on a Sunday evening in 1963. Then, in Greenville, So. Carolina, in defiance of the state's time-honored blue laws, the Fox Theater opened on Sunday. Seven of us - regular attenders of the Methodist Youth Fellowship... - made a pact to enter the front door of the church, be seen, then quickly slip out of the back door and join John Wayne at the Fox Theater.

That evening has come to represent a watershed in the history of Christendom, South Carolina style. On that night, Greenville, South Carolina - the last pocket of resistance to secularity in the Western world - served notice that it would no longer be prop for the church. ... The Fox Theater went head to head with the church over who would provide the world view for the young. That night in 1963, the Fox Theater won the opening skirmish. ⁽²⁾

Each of us could note when and where the 2^nd Era of Christendom changed in our lives. The changes we have seen and might name include:

• the opening of stores and malls and restaurants and gas stations on Sunday;
• school events that no longer revolve around church calendars;
• the competition for peoples attendance on Sunday mornings faced by the church today including our newly-discovered social freedom to stay at home on Sunday morning; and
• the dramatic rise of non-Christian religions in our country today (though more noticeable in other areas of the country than in Nappanee).

The question for many in the Christian Church as we come to the end of this Millennium is this: "Are we living in the end times or the beginning of a new era?"

The Revelation of John was written to an oppressed people to help them see an end to life as they knew it and to give them a vision of the coming of God's Kingdom. The Christian Church in John's day was living in the Apostolic Era when the world was hostile to the values held by the church. Christians were persecuted. John the Revelator, a bishop of the church, was exiled to a deserted island to cut him off from the church he loved and led. But John found a way, writing in code and mysterious language, to encourage the Seven Churches of Asia. And these writings that make up Revelation include both words of warning and encouragement to the young churches.

John encourages the churches by keeping in front of them the hope of a new day. A Vision of the New Jerusalem is lifted up for them, a new day when Jesus is on the throne and tears and death and mourning will be no more.

In the verses we read together this morning, John describes the River of Life flowing from the throne of God through the streets of the city. And on either side of the river is the tree of life with twelve kinds of fruit. It is a reminder of the Garden of Eden - God's creation - where life is good and the forces of evil have no power.

Hang in there! John says to the Church, God is still in control and one day soon life will be better. Remember the promise of our Lord Jesus, who says, "I AM coming soon...I AM the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end."

The Book of Genesis, which literally means the book of beginnings, opens with these words:

In the beginning God.... God is the Alpha, the first, the beginning of life. And in the opening verses of John's Gospel we find the affirmation that Jesus, the Word, was with God in the beginning. "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 was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it."

Returning to Genesis, we read: In the beginning God created.... Again we have that basic affirmation that God is the source of life. We find in 2 beautiful creation stories in the first two chapters of Genesis outlining the creation of the heavens and the earth, light and darkness, waters and sky and dry land, plants and birds and living creatures and animals ... and finally, human beings created in the very image of God. In the beginning God created.

And this affirmation is quickly followed by one very powerful word describing all that God has created: Good! And God saw that it was good. We find a verbal picture of God's good creation in the second chapter of Genesis - we call it the Garden of Eden. From this Garden, a river flows out of Eden to water the Garden and to bring life to all of creation. And in the midst of this Garden we find the tree of life. Ah, but there is something else in the Garden, isn't there? The serpent! The serpent, the tempter of the man and the woman. The serpent cursed by God for tempting God's good creatures to sin and be sent out from the Garden.

God, the Alpha, the beginning, the creator. But return with me to the Revelation of John and the vision of God, the Omega, the end, the re-creator of life. Chapter 21 gives us the verbal picture of a new heaven and a new earth ... a new Jerusalem where God dwells again with his people.

And then listen to the description of this heavenly dwelling place described in chapter 22: There is a river of life flowing from the throne of God into the streets of the city; and there is the tree of life bearing fruit ... but note what is missing from this picture, the serpent -

vs.3, Nothing accursed will be found there any more.

The Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end. There is no doubt that John held out this vision of a new Garden of Eden, a new creation, a new heaven and a new earth to the Christians of the Apostolic Era who were being persecuted for their faith.

Today, we Christians of the 21^st Century on the verge of a new Millennium, can also be encouraged by the Revelation of John. We live in an age of uncertainty about the future, but as Matthew reminds the 1^st century disciples as well as 21^st century disciples: God is with us! Hear again, People of God, these words of Jesus: "...remember, I Am with you always, to the end of the age."

God is the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end. God is the creator and sustainer of life who calls us to live life in the Here and Now and promises to be with us always, to the end of the age.

And let all God's People say, "Amen!"

Sermon by Herman Kauffman
Union Center Church of the Brethren
December 31, 2000

1. The Once and Future Church: Reinventing the Congregation for a New Mission Frontier by Loren B. Mead, An Alban Institute Publication, © 1991.

2. Stanley Hauerwas and William H. Willimon, Resident Aliens (Nashville: Abingdon, 1990, pp.15-16.