May 2, 2010 Acts 11, Rev. 21:1-6  See NIB notes)

As you know, I am stunned, with religious awe, that not only have we found DNA, the blueprint of all life, but also we have decoded it into what is called the human genome, the actual sequence of the codes. If you read the genetic code of an individual out loud, it would take a century. Most of that sequence is identical as human beings, the differences would take only the last seventeen minutes. It is the differences that seem to capture our attention. In our readings this morning we see the difference between a religious vision of a new future and what human beings do when faced with God's new activity.

 

This small section (see Peterson Rev. Thunder) relates to Isaiah with a new heaven and a new earth, in other words a new world. It is not Eden reborn but Eden transformed. Threats have evaporated. The sea is no more, as it is a symbol of death, uncertainty, and anxiety. Recall a beast emerges from it. Death is put to death. Water of life has a ring of Eden to it. Now baptism refreshes from within. The community is in the symbol of the city, where temple and ordinary life are brought together with no need for separation of the sacred and the secular.God's dwelling/tabernacle/tent/presence suffuses this holy city, this new Jerusalem. The new city is the anti-Babylon of 18. Recall that the city's roots are with Cain in Genesis.

The fearsome blasts from heaven are now blessings. It is an open city, not closed as Ezekiel's (40-8),and much, much larger to encompass the masses it imagines within it.   

 

Acts 11 is  story of how an open mind can be changed. Peter knew well the separation between Gentile and Jewish behaviors. This is a problem for the tight community of Acts 4, although it has shown strains in 5 and 6. Shouldn't the new members become Jews? Shouldn;t we be more discriminating aobut the kind of folks we are bringing in? When growth occurs, what problems does it bring? What current analogies can be drawn from this story? Take your pick: music style, clothing style, how to use the church kitchen.  The blessing of the spirit receives criticism. That can never happen in one of our churches, right? How many times I have heard churches looking for our kind of people.

  

Even if Peter is a leader, he is not exempt from being questioned and criticized. No infallibele future Pope is in evidence here in this new community.

This is Exhibit A for the Spirit moving where it will, outside  our structures and strictures. God is not bound by our current understandings of Scripture or doctrine. God is free to respond to new situations in new ways. The Creator of all things is not chained to the past.  Moltmann emphasizes "I make all things new" into a transforming not annihilating ethic in the Coming of God. God's creativity did not come to a screeching halt in the first chapters of Genesis. God's creativity, God's capacity for the new continues undiminished.

 

Revelation shows us the goal of God on the move toward a large view of human community. Its representation on earth includes the church. It is at its best when it reflects that large-hearted goal. It is at its worst when it takes small points and tries to freeze them into principles, unable to move. Instead, we stay alert to the promptings and movements of the Spirit.

The Spirit seems to love overturning our assumptions about the proper. The Spirit moves to open hearts and minds to the ever-new ways of God.