Eastertide

May 9, 2019

Scripture Reading: Revelation 7:9-17

After this I looked, and there was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, robed in white, with palm branches in their hands. They cried out in a loud voice, saying,
‘Salvation belongs to our God who is seated on the throne, and to the Lamb!’
And all the angels stood around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, singing,
‘Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom
and thanksgiving and honor
and power and might
be to our God for ever and ever! Amen.’ –Revelation 7:9-12

I realized as I read the above scripture that I have developed a jaded opinion of public demonstrations of adulation. How do we discern idols in our world today? Are some of our cherished religious beliefs separating us from the God of love? Do we worship what we prefer rather than the Holy One? How do we discern the Holy?

As a child I, along with most of my peers, participated in an Easter pageant in my home town. Our introduction to acting came in raising palm leaves in the re-creation of the triumphal entry and calling out Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord*. In these my pre-abstraction days, I knew exactly who I worshipped and to whom I belong. I knew that Jesus loved me and all the other children of the world and that I was called to be a sunbeam for him. The world I grew into as I developed higher levels of understanding did not match the sacred naivete of my childhood. On TV, I saw young black youth being escorted to school by police while angry white people shouting hate toward them. A little later I experience my friends being drafted to fight in a war that made no sense. The ones who suffered scorn from that confusion were the soldiers not the decision makers. At some point greed and lust for power became the primary focus of American life not rule of the people by the people for the people. The God of Love was vanquished to the a back of the shelf.

I now understand better what Jesus meant when he said in Matthew 18:3, ‘Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.’  Jesus is describing the point in life when we understand faith’s naivete as pure wisdom transcending all the knowledge of all the ages of our lives.

Prayer: Lord, help us claim as pure wisdom faith’s naivete. Amen.

*Taken from Matthew 23:39 most likely as a quote from Psalm 118:26

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights are reserved.