Sermon ~ 04/07/2013 ~ Second Sunday of Easter ~ “The Alpha and the Omega”

04/07/2013 ~ Second Sunday of Easter ~ Acts 5:27-32; Psalm 118:14-29 or Psalm 150 Revelation 1:4-8; John 20:19-31 ~ Communion Sunday.

The Alpha and the Omega

“‘I am the Alpha and the Omega,’” says our God “‘who is and who was and who is to come, the Sovereign.’” — Revelation 1:8.

My late mother used to say, “If you want to really know what’s going on in the world, don’t pay any attention to the news.  When you open up the newspaper in the morning turn to the comic strip section first.”  You see, she believed that day to day reporting was, for the most part, just a series of facts— she even referred to them as “so called facts.”

Facts don’t always have the ability to tell you the full impact, the full truth about what’s going on.  In a real way, when you follow just facts it feels like what you are seeing is simply chaos.  There are too many facts and they don’t connect, don’t provide a sense of the whole.

Indeed, that’s why an analysis of facts is necessary.  And analysis, Mom believed, is what the comic strip section brilliantly gives.  Good strips— Peanuts, The Wizard of Id— reflect not just a particular moment in time but the flow of time, the steady center and the general direction.  In short, I think my Mom was probably right.  Pay attention to the comics section first.

Of course, today, newspapers are a dying breed, the comic strip section along with them.  Certainly one reason for the demise of print is the advent of the Internet.  Newspapers and comic strips seem to be transferring to the web.

In fact, not only do I read the news mostly on line I, personally, know two people who draw comic strips professionally.  Both of them have a presence on the web.

Now, I’ve discovered something else relating to that, and it does surprise me some.  If you pay close attention to what your friends are talking about on Facebook, what they post, it can be a little like following the news— chaotic.

The secret of understanding Facebook is to not pay too much attention.  If you pay too much attention, it’s just like reading the newspapers.  You get overwhelmed by day to day details.

The funny thing is, occasionally, someone posts a commentary on Facebook, on the newsfeed, a commentary on the facts which reminds me of the kind of analysis we get in comic strips.  One friend recently did exactly that: made an entry on Facebook which had the flavor of analysis.

I hope this won’t bore you too much, but the post read like this (quote): “In case you don’t feel like scrolling through your news feed today”— the news feed is a list of what all your friends are posting— “In case you don’t feel like scrolling through your news feed today let me sum it up, tell you what people are saying: homophobia is bad; congress is inept; we should ban all guns; the Game of Thrones is awesome; so is Dr. Who; Twilight— those books with a vampire theme?— not so much.”

“Marriage equality is good; God does not exist; congress is messing with the middle class and the poor.  You should believe in yourself; God does exist; friendship matters more than money; chase your dreams; puppies are adorable; kittens are cute; George Taiki (or any one of several other ‘B’ list celebrities) posted something funny.”

“There are also those silly and totally false postings,” the soliloquy continued.  “These claim that Bill Cosby or Robin Williams or Warren Buffett or Abraham Lincoln or John Boehner or Barack Obama or Queen Elizabeth or George Washington never said the silly thing I am about to attribute to them but I am posting it any way.”

“I am going to say they did say what I know is not true because it confirms to my preconceived notion of what I think they should have said.  And I am positing it because it also says something about where I am at and how silly I am and how prejudiced I am.”  (Slight pause.)  And that was that end of commentary— long but interesting.

And, the way I see it, just like the comic strips, that stream of consciousness post on Facebook insists there is a larger picture in everyday life.  And despite or perhaps because of its length, it is a commentary on so called facts.  So let’s be real: a constant stream of hard news— a constant stream of so called hard facts, is not easy to take.

Sometimes you have to shut off the TV news and tune in to reruns of The Big Bang Theory or Friends or go very retro and try to find episodes of Happy Days or I Love Lucy just to give your brain some relief.  To be blunt I, personally, sometimes find a string of facts either consoles me or upsets me.

Why?  A stream of facts makes things feel chaotic.  A stream facts does not help me with analysis, does not help me understand context.  (Slight pause.)

And these words are from the work known as Revelation: “‘I am the Alpha and the Omega,’” says our God “‘who is and who was and who is to come, the Sovereign.’”  (Slight pause.)

I think a lot of people believe the times through which we are living are tumultuous, chaotic.  In fact, you can see that by what people post on Facebook.  And I can understand where people are coming from.

After all, we were attacked on 9/11— that’s chaos; we fought 2 wars simultaneously— that’s chaos; we have now seen the worst economic times since the 1930s— that’s chaos.

However: if you believe it’s bad now, imagine the chaos experienced while the Civil War was in progress.  Or think about this: in the course of a lifetime many people lived through one World War, a Great Depression and a Second World War— that’s chaos.

To make that concept of chaos a little more personal here’s a story about my family.  In early in 1929 my grandparents, my father’s parents, owned some railroad stock and sold it off at the beginning of that year to make a down payment on a house.

That October the market crashed.  My grandfather worked for the City of New York, so during the Depression he often worked six days a week but was paid only for three or four days.  However, he had a job, some money, a house, because he had sold off that stock— the family survived.  But the Depression did not just feel like chaos.  It was chaos.

So, how did people get through those times?  (Slight pause.)  By taking life one day at a time— day by day by day and by looking at the big picture.  They constantly asked themselves not what does today mean but what does my life mean, how do I live my life over a broad span of time?  (Slight pause.)

I invite you to look at the cover of today’s bulletin.  And let me wait a second while you do that.  (Slight pause.)  Those are pictures of the large Alpha and Omega we put up in the front of the nave at Christmas.

I remember being blown away when I saw that for the first time seventeen years ago.  My reaction was: “Wow!  This congregation gets it.  The celebration at Christmastide is not simply a celebration of the birth of a child, not even simply about the birth of Jesus.”

“This is a celebration which has greater implications.  And this congregation gets it that at Christmastide we celebrate the in-breaking of God.”  (Slight pause.)

When the reading from Revelation was introduced it was stated that the basic themes found in the work are in the first sentences.  And, indeed, they are.

I would suggest that the entire meaning of Revelation is not a prophecy of the end times.  It has nothing to do with the Apocalypse. To say Revelation is about the Apocalypse is to say Revelation offers a message about chaos.

However, that God is the Alpha and the Omega conveys the thought that God transcends time, that God was before time existed and that God will be after time exists, and that God encompasses all time.  Revelation says God brings order— God brings order— in opposition to chaos.

So, the work known as Revelation is not simply about a particular moment in time, not even about a moment which might come— a moment we loosely label as the Apocalypse.  Revelation is about grappling with God, the eternal.  (Slight pause.)

Don’t misunderstand me: that God encompasses all time is not an easy concept. But this is a more simple way to put it: to say God is the Alpha and the Omega says we need to be calm amidst the chaos of life.

We need to understand that God is with us always.  In short, we need to grapple with the thought that God loves us always and that God loves us beyond time.  Amen.

04/07/2013
United Church of Christ First Congregational, Norwich, New York

ENDPIECE: It is the practice of the Pastor to speak after the Closing Hymn, but before the Congregational Response and Benediction.  This is an précis of what was said: “The First words in Genesis say this (quote): ‘At the beginning of God’s creating of the heaven and the earth— when the earth was unformed and void, wild and waste, filled with chaos and emptiness, as night reigned over the surface of the deep, a wind from God, the rushing Spirit of God swept over the face of the waters.” [1]  God brings order to chaos.  If we do not understand that the last book in the sequence of how the books are laid out in Scripture, Revelation, is placed there to be a bookend, to be a commentary when it says God is the Alpha and the Omega, and that this says nothing about the end times, the apocalypse, then we do not understand Scripture.’”

BENEDICTION: Go out in the compassion and love God provides.  Praise the deeds of God by the way you live.  And may the steadfast love of God and the peace of Christ, which surpasses understanding, keep our minds and hearts in the companionship and will of the Holy Spirit, this day and forever more.  Amen.

[1]  Genesis 1:1-3 (ILV).