The Makeover with Love.

It has been hard not to get caught up in the hype and false information coming out of the political party old and new machines as they try and buy our vote. It makes one have to choose what we would see as the least dishonest of them all Let me tell you that it is not easy and I find requires the Wisdom of Solomon. Sadly we have been bombarded with policies that fail to encourage us to live as Jesus lived, to love as our God would have us love.

For a number of parties we are encouraged to be greedy and compassionless so that a few can have power and secular wealth.  One would hope that this Election here in Australia would strike a new direction that would see God in the other, see God in those who are homeless, hunger, suffering and affected by war. See God in all and bring a willingness to share what we have equitably. One would hope that a pattern of life would be advocated that helps make all things new for all creation.

In one of the readings set in the Three Year Lectionary for this week is a passage from Revelations 21 about making all things new. This is a familiar and beloved passage, frequently read at funerals, as a comfort and hope of the day when death—and its sting—will be no more. For me as for many passages of scripture taken from Revelations I confess, these words are a stretch. Sometimes they help, other times they fall flat in the face of an immediate reality that is so personal, so painful, and so consuming that the promise of death’s end seems at best cold consolation. It seems impossible.

Perhaps you remember a loved one’s funeral when the reality of death was right in front of you, and the promise of resurrection a vague mystery in some far off, quite possibly imaginary, place. Perhaps you look at the world and see the vast gap between the pain and injustice we live with, and this crazy vision that someday in some alternate reality the ruler of time will proclaim that “mourning and crying and pain will be no more.” Perhaps after our Election in Australia, some might be in mourning because those they supported lost the election or didn’t get the power they wanted. Maybe just maybe we have another opportunity to think and act on inclusiveness rather than trumpet exclusiveness.  

I don’t know if this is true. I do know that I hope it is true. What good is God if God’s dream cannot be unbelievably bigger than mine? How sad to go through life with only the hope of things getting a little better? I might settle for 10 percent less suffering, but God’s dream is far bigger, beginning to end. God called this seer John out of his ordinary reality and into a vision of a new heaven and a new earth—that’s exactly what the text says — because the first heaven and first earth need more than a makeover. Please note: this vision is not disconnected from our reality. It’s consistent with our proclamation that God does indeed dwell with us, and it does not pretend that all is well.

God does not wave a magic wand and make tears disappear. Instead God will wipe away the tears that come from a torn world. And, God knows, we need to be consoled and healed to enter this new world. This dream is not for the satisfied. In a real sense it is for those who are thirsty for the water of new life.

As we reflect on this let us draw also on the Gospel scripture from John 13. Jesus told his disciples, “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another.” At first glance, this commandment does not seem “new.” Moses told the people of God that they are to love God with all their heart and all their mind and all their strength. Jesus had already added neighbour and self to this Divine directive. What made it new this time?

Perhaps it was Jesus addition, “as I have loved you.” To love as Jesus loves takes the commandment to a whole other level. It is a love that sees others just as they are and accepts them without reservation: even those we don’t agree with or who despise us or betray us or intend us harm. As Jesus’ actions were expressions of love, it means a depth of compassion that is so profound that the soul is restless until it has seen the sick healed, the hungry fed, and the imprisoned set free. Jesus’ complete submission to God’s will empowered him to be available for the works God accomplished through him.

Living the love of which Jesus spoke requires deep and sometimes painful letting go of self-will, self-desire, and self-interest. It means moving through our racism and sexism and homophobia. It means not fighting and struggling with God anymore about the people and places and things we cannot change. So this commandment is new, because it meant the disciples not only needed to know it—they had to live it. Maybe this love brings out the new world that Revelations talks about. Maybe this is what we as humans thirst for.

So that challenges us to ask of ourselves the question of how we are to love one another as Jesus has loved us.  By deepening our relationship with God so we recognise God in ourselves and as a result, in every other person, situation, and circumstance. Reflect on that and see how it changes what we do personally.