Sunday morning we got to about half these ideas, but I'm blogging most of my notes. After we read the text(s) I like to ask people for their impressions, then share some of my own, and then discuss how the passage at hand relates to Where We Live.
We have—
Three Creation texts:
Isaiah 25:6-9; Psalm 24; Revelation 21:1-6a
Three Resurrection texts:
Isaiah 25:6-9; Revelation 21:1-6a; John 11:32-44
1st Isaiah and Revelation both bring us apocalyptic
• apocalypse – ἀποκάλυψις
• calypso – Καλυψώ
The first reading, Isaiah 25:6-9 is from Isaiah's "Little Apocalypse"—chapters 24 through 27. It is the first reading for Easter Afternoon / Evening in all three lectionary years. It's also my current signature verse on my main theology blog.
Isaiah 25:1-10 is for Easter Evening years ABC and for Easter Day year B and for Proper 23A/Ordinary 28A • most recently experienced on Sunday, October 12, 2014
Psalm 24 also for Proper 10B/Ordinary Time 15B/Pentecost 7 • last experienced on Sunday, July 12, 2015
from my main theology blog last Wednesday:
In this passage we hear about the New Jerusalem, the city of God that formed the axis mundi between heaven and earth, where the old now has passed away—a common colloquialism for "dying"...
Jesus Christ, the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, tells us "Behold! I make all things new!" No more death, no more sorrow, no more tears. A well-tended garden grows into a city. Easter is about hope. Christianity is about hope. Christianity is about death and resurrection, about God's incarnation in Jesus Christ, and then about the presence of the risen Christ in each one of us. Our dwelling is in the city. We make all things new? We become Hope for the Flowers and Hope for the City.
PS I wrote this after spending some time with Sunday's lectionary texts earlier today and in five minutes or fifteen or fifty minutes couldn't say everything I wanted to. It's all very very dense and rich. The Greek for God's dwelling with us is the same as in John 1:14, "the word became flesh and dwelt among us." In essence that's pitched a tent, a tabernacle (remember Ark of the Covenant?), a portable shelter. Succoth – the Festival of Booths – remembers and celebrates that sheltered precariousness! In The Message version of the bible, Eugene Peterson says "God moved into the neighborhood." True. God did move into the 'hood, but didn't stay put inside the house, condo, or apartment. God moved around alongside the people everywhere they went, just as God in the Spirit calls all of us to do.
Psalm 24
"The earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof; The world, and they that dwell therein.
For he hath founded it upon the seas, And established it upon the floods."
Revelation 21:1-6a
1Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. 2And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 3And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "See, the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them as their God; they will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them; 4he will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more, for the first things have passed away." 5And the one who was seated on the throne said, "See, I am making all things new." Also he said, "Write this, for these words are trustworthy and true." 6Then he said to me, "It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give water as a gift from the spring of the water of life."
The Resurrection Account in John's gospel happens in a garden. A well-tended garden grows into a city. Revelation 21 brings us the city of the new creation, the new Jerusalem.
new earth is new land, soil, dirt, sod turf! The ground we walk on every day. "The Earth is the Lord's" and not ours. We steward the ground.
World / Planet / Cosmos
first earth is protos
skene = tabernacles, the little tents, houses, in Succoth, the feast of booths
21:3 people here is laos; humans is anthropos
21:5 throne of God is the cross of Calvary: cross / throne // death / resurrection
You need to be dead to be resurrected!
beginning and end / (origin not protos) arche // consummation, goal, not eschatos telos
John 1:14 pitched a tent, a movable dwelling; "moved into the neighborhood" in Pastor Eugene Peterson's Message version
How about us? Pitching a tent, living, and loving amidst our neighbors, midst all creation.
I tried to get people to imagine walking amongst their neighbors as Jesus' presence. Moving into their 'hood in various ways,
First Isaiah, Revelation: all people = universalism
