ÒTwo Places at OnceÓ
April 6, 2013
Revelation 1:4-8
Stephens City UMC
Grace
and peace to you from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
I.
The following is
fact: you cannot physically be two places at the same time.
A. You are either here or you are there but not
simultaneously.
1. Will Willimon who travels a
lot because people want to hear him preach and teach tells of the time he took
off in an airplane from an airport in New York City very early one morning.
2. He saw the sunrise over New York Harbor.
3. That evening he sat at a beautiful seaside restaurant
in Malibu, California.
4. He saw the sun rise on one end of the country and then
saw the same sun set on another.
5. ThatÕs quite an experience but he was not in two
places at the same time. (Willimon, ÒHere and There,Ó
April 6, 2013).
B. Willimon is telling the truth about his experience but John
the writer of Revelation is also true to his experience and he explains how he
was two places at the same time.
1. Because of his Christian faith John was exiled on the
island of Patmos.
2. Today you might want to visit there because resorts
with wondrous beaches await you, but back in JohnÕs day and age it was a place
you did not want to go.
3. ThatÕs because it was sort of an ancient Alcatraz.
4. The Roman Emperor would send political trouble makers
(and Christians fit into that category) there to rot.
5. The authorities would provide you with a one way
ticket and once there you werenÕt coming back. (Willimon,
ÒHere and There,Ó April 6, 2013)
C. But John writes that while he was physically exiled,
that he was free Òin the spirit.Ó
1. He did not allow his physical location to define him;
instead he allowed his spiritual location to define him.
2. Now John had every reason to be spiritually low
– even down and depressed but despite what he saw around him his spirit
was high because he experienced the presence of the risen Lord whom God raised
from the grave on Easter.
3. The effect was that he felt gratitude rather than
grief.
D. Today is Low Sunday on the church calendar – low
not just because thereÕs a big drop off in worship attendance one week after
Easter but also because our spirits have a tendency to drop off and become low
after the high of Easter.
1. Normally from the Lectionary I would have decided to
preach from John 20 where Jesus appears to the fearful disciples in the Upper
Room following his resurrection and Thomas (the doubter) is absent and Jesus
has to return later to engage Thomas in conversation and witness to him the
nail prints and other wounds from his crucifixion to enable Thomas to believe.
2. ThatÕs what I normally would preach on but as I prayed
over the Lectionary the passage from Revelation spoke to me as this is the only
time in the three year cycle that there is a reading from the first chapter of
Revelation.
3. I think it spoke to me because while all of us can get
physically low, what is a more common experience unfortunately is that we get
emotionally and spiritually low.
4. We get down in the dumps and might describe our
experience as being in a spiritual Patmos.
E. And thatÕs when the good news of the resurrection
transports us so we can be two places at once – physically in one place
and spiritually in another.
1. Your life situation may be that you feel like you are
trapped, imprisoned, entombed and canÕt get out.
2. You are just stuck – physically, emotionally and
spiritually.
3. But this is the LordÕs Day and he is risen – alleluia!
4. As I said last week Jesus isnÕt done talking or done
walking and the Lord is on the move.
5. And because he is on the move you can move.
6. Your physical circumstances might not change, but
absolutely, positively because of the resurrection your spiritual circumstances
can change.
7. Whenever you find yourself in that down situation
remember that you are the LordÕs and he knows you by name.
8. Moreover, recall what John saw in his vision – a
new heaven and a new earth and because of Jesus you will be part of that new heaven
and new earth.
F. My hope for you on this the second Sunday in the
season of Easter is that you will catch that vision because that is the vision
of the true reality.
1. So often youÕll hear preachers proclaim ÒLetÕs all get
motivated by our worship this morning to go out and serve the Lord in the real
worldÓ but it seems to me that God is saying that this is not the real world.
2. The real world is the kingdom of God.
3. This world is unreal because there is hunger and
disease and sadness and sorrow and fear and sin and death.
4. In the real world as God defines the real world there
is plenty and health and wholeness and happiness and assurance and forgiveness
and everlasting life.
5. The bad things I named earlier do not exist in the
Kingdom of God and John saw that in his vision.
6. Holy Communion is a visible and experiential way of
seeing and being part of the true world that exists in the kingdom of God.
7. At this table is the physical and spiritual food that
you need.
8. At this table people gather as brothers and sisters
and not as enemies.
9. At this table the resurrected Lord is present with us
and he is not entombed nor are we.
10. By this meal the Lord Jesus Christ transports us from
this fallen, confused and corrupt world and we are enabled to enter the true
new world that is the kingdom of God.
11.According to GodÕs definition this world is a fantasy,
and a bad one at that, but we can be transported to the true ÒrealityÓ which is
the heavenly kingdom where GodÕs will is done.
12. And like John I make this proclamation to you because
of my confidence in the one who is the Alpha and the Omega and Òwho is and who
was and who is to come, the Almighty.Ó (Revelation 1:8)