EASTER 7C - Acts 16:16-34; Psalm 47; Revelation 22:12-14, 16-17, 20; John 17:20-26 -

20 May 2007 - A sermon preached by The Rev. Peter A. Munson for St. Ambrose Episcopal Church, Boulder, Colorado

Embracing the Moment, Embracing Life, Embracing God

INTRODUCTION - “Driven Out” vs. “Come”

The Bible, as you know, begins with high drama. There is the emergence of light in the darkness, and very soon afterwards, the emergence of life. We have the two different creation stories in Genesis 1 and Genesis 2, with Genesis 2 bringing us the image of the garden of Eden. It doesn’t take very long, though, for things to go haywire. In Genesis, Chapter 3, there are two trees given special mention. One is the tree of life. The other is the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Adam and Eve disobey God’s command to not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And Chapter 3 ends this way:

“Then the Lord God said, ‘See, the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil; and now, he might reach out his hand and take from the tree of life, and eat and live forever’ - therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from which he was taken. He drove out the man; and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim, and a sword flaming and turning to guard the way to the tree of life.” (Genesis 3:22-24)

In Chapter 4 of Genesis Cain murders Abel, in Chapter 7 it rains and rains and floods the earth. You get the picture. We’re not in anything like Eden anymore. Mankind has been driven out of Eden, and in some ways, the whole rest of the Bible is the story of man trying to find his way back to Paradise.

When we get to the very end of the Bible, and the very last chapter, we hear the tree of life mentioned again. “Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they will have the right to the tree of life and may enter the city by its gates.” (Revelation 22:14) We then hear about the “water of life”, and instead of the image of mankind being driven out of Paradise, we hear language of invitation. Mankind is being invited back into Paradise. The language is symbolic language, just as in the early chapters of Genesis. But this time, man is not being driven away from God. He is being invited to enjoy eternal life with God. Listen:

“The Spirit and the Bride say, “Come.” And let everyone who hears say, “Come.” And everyone who is thirsty come. Let anyone who wishes take the water of life as a gift.” (Revelation 22:17)

Towards the very beginning of the Bible, then, we have the image of mankind being driven out of Paradise. At the very end of the Bible, the people of God are hearing something very different. “Come! Enter into life. Enter into eternal life. Come! Return to Paradise!”

If you read the Bible carefully, what you discover is that eternal life is not something that comes to us only after this life has ended. If that were true, we wouldn’t have this language in John 6 where Jesus refers to himself as the Bread of Life. We wouldn’t hear Jesus saying “I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.” (John 10:10b) We wouldn’t hear Jesus saying things like, “For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.” (Matthew 16:25) We wouldn’t have Jesus telling the woman at the well, “... but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.” (John 4:14)

The context of these statements is such that they don’t just apply to the afterlife. They are words that say eternal life begins the moment you embrace God, the moment you orient your life towards him. Sure, the world is still a messy, complicated place, where evil still exists, and many folks are still in love with the way of violence, destruction, and death. The kingdom is not yet fully realized, as the Bible scholars like to say. But the story of the New Testament is that God wants his people to have access to the tree of life again. You can embrace eternal life by accepting God’s invitation to come. You can embrace eternal life by embracing God. And the way you embrace God is to see your life as a precious gift, and live your life as fully as you possibly can, because God is the Author of Life, and God is in the very midst of life.

The invitation to come back to Paradise was there from the very moment that Jesus said, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand” (Mark 1:15) and then added, “Follow me.” (Mark 1:17) In other words, “Come.” Come back to the tree of life, which is now available to you. Come to the waters of salvation.

Isaiah caught the vision, too. “Ho, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and you that have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.” (Isaiah 55:1)

In other words, come and partake of that which is absolute gift. You can’t buy salvation or eternal life. You can’t earn it. All you can do is come into God’s presence, and receive it. Remember the words from Revelation? “... let anyone who is thirsty come. Let anyone who wishes take the water of life as a gift.” (Revelation 22:17) Anyone. No exceptions. All you have to do is come, and say, “Here I am, Lord. Here I am.”

OUR TENDENCY TO GO AWAY

Sometimes we think this news is too wonderful for us. Sometimes we think there must be more to the story, that there must be more we have to do. Sometimes we don’t feel worthy of this unconditional love and unconditional gift. And sometimes we just get distracted with other things, things that don’t really satisfy.

Some of these things might look like they offer life, but all that glitters is not eternal life. If it is not somehow bound up in God - and many, many things are bound up in God! - then it is not life-giving.

We have this tendency to move away from God. It happens whenever we start taking life for granted. It happens whenever we fail to see life, the people in our lives, our creativity and our passions - all of it - for the amazing gifts that they are. When we forget to see the beauty of the mountains... when we forget to see how amazing our children our, even when they drive us crazy sometimes... when we fail to see how God is all around us and even with us, breathing life in us through the power of the Spirit... then we are moving away from God.

God is not driving anyone out of the garden of Eden anymore. We can choose to walk out of Paradise, any time we want to. God - the Author of Life, the Tree of Life, the Bread of Life, the Water of Life, the Way, the Truth, and the Life - is looking at us, and saying one simple word. “Come!”

AN ONGOING INVITATION, AND A CHOICE

Every moment of every day, we have a choice. Will we embrace that moment as a gift from God? Will we look around, and keep looking, until we see the truth - that God is indeed with us in that moment? Will we embrace that moment - whatever is going on - and in doing so, embrace life? For in embracing life, we are embracing God.

This is the ongoing invitation of God. “Let everyone who is thirsty come. Let anyone who wishes take the water of life as a gift.” We can choose to ignore the invitation. But that doesn’t mean that the invitation goes away. For the moment that we come to our senses and say to ourselves, “Man! This thing I’m pursuing right now doesn’t have anything to do with life or paradise or eternity!” - the moment we realize that, and pause, that is the moment that we hear that the invitation is still going out, because it is always going out.

“Come!” The Spirit and the Bride say, “Come!” And let everyone who hears join in the invitation, and say, “Come!” Let anyone who wishes take the water of life... as a gift.