Jonah 4.9-11; Revelation 21.1-8
We end our End Times Series today …
I’ve tried to make it clear to you that the End belongs to God. Period!
He’s got the whole world in his hands.
And good are the hands of God!
And good is God’s creation … a big universe ...ancient and wondrous … full of mystery and glory.
Billions of years old … billions of years to come … which is why Christian liturgies use the expression, world without end!
Dinosaurs ruled the earth for a 165 million years, and disappeared 60 million years ago … hominids, our early ancestors, appeared 3.5 million years ago … homo sapiens, our specific ancestors, appeared only 250,000 years ago …
We’re the new kids on the block … newcomers to God’s mighty creation … and we share 99% of our DNA with the chimps.
My wife knows this for certain - she’s always telling me, “Quit acting like a monkey!”
The universe is big.
The universe had a life all of its own before we showed up.
And long after we’re gone, the universe will continue to grow and expand … new life forms will emerge … many of those forms will be here only for awhile, and then go the way of the dinosaurs.
Things come; things go … it’s the way of life … God made it that way … yet God loves all life … you and me, and all creatures, great and small.
God makes that clear to Jonah!
I care for that great city of Nineveh … it may be your enemy; you may hate them, but I love what I made, and I want to redeem everything, make everything new … including animals … they, too, belong to me … the birds of the air, the fish of the sea, and everything that crawls upon the face of the earth.
Jonah, what’s your problem?
Jonah’s problem?
Small thinking … Jonah lives in tiny world driven by friend and foe … Jonah hated Nineveh, and hated even more that God loved Nineveh - enough to send Jonah there - to proclaim the Word of the LORD, in the hope of repentance and new life.
Jonah wanted blood and death for Nineveh … when Nineveh repented, Jonah was furious, so furious he wanted to die.
What’s your problem Jonah? Jonah couldn’t think big!
Christians need big thinking … big enough to encompass the whole wide world … Christians can’t afford little thinking … and the world can’t afford it either.
In the Book of Revelation, little thinkers have no place in the kingdom of God!
You would think … of all the people on the face of the earth, Christians should be big thinkers …
But sometimes Christians think small.
Folks fascinated by “end times” are small thinkers … they live in a small world, defined by the moment - calculations, hopes and fears; close their eyes to the big picture; refuse to see the glory of God … try to figure things out, pry into the secret things of God … then pretend to understand the deep mysteries of God … tell the world they have it all figured out … in the words of Revelation 21.8 - they are liars, idolators, they cast spells on their audience - they are small thinkers!
Creationists ignore science and preach an earth only 7000 years old - small thinkers.
Christians who believe that rape is God’s will, that a woman’s body has a mechanism to shut down when it’s “legitimate rape” - small thinkers.
Pat Robertson complains about atheists stealing Christmas - Robertson is a small thinker; if anyone has stolen Christmas, it’s corporate America and Wall Street … the American hymn of greed: buy, buy, and buy some more.
Robertson says, “I missed God’s message about the recent election” … he’s missed a lot of messages … he’s a small thinker.
But enough of that …
Big-minded Christians look at the starry sky above, the wonders of Grand Canyon, and enjoy the immensity of it all.
We’re not afraid of being small … it’s okay to be small be … a tiny creature on the face of the earth, in a solar system tucked away in a far corner of the Milky Way … small as we are, we don’t have to be small thinkers.
The world is marvelous; we can see it, we can live in it, we can love it … we can love one another, we can love the creator who made us all.
But now a pastoral question - what about loved ones … what about those who have died?
Paul’s Letters to the Thessalonians make it clear - our loved ones are safe with Christ … they wait with Christ for the final trumpet, that great gettin’ up morning … body and soul reunited … flesh and spirit once again conjoined … the world made new … a new heaven and a new earth.
When will this happen, we ask?
It is not ours to know, and who cares when it will happen? What counts - it will happen! It’s happening right now, because God is at work in all things, in all things for good, redeeming God’s creation and making all things new. Can you not see it? Isaiah asks.
This earth is God’s beloved creation … God is saving all of it … all of its creatures, great and small … every tree, every rock, every drop of water … because it’s all good … God has no intention of throwing it away.
And neither should we!
If ever there is a reason for ecological responsibility, this is it - this is God’s world, God’s beloved world … and, yes, we can tap its resources, but do so with wisdom and care and restraint.
In the delta region of Nigeria, the Amazon forest of Brazil, the mountains of West Virginia, the spoilage is enormous … land ruined, water polluted, wildlife destroyed … whole areas uninhabitable - is this pleasing to God, when human beings trash the world God created? If a thief broke into our home and vandalized it, what would we think?
I think of the Good Samaritan story - a man beaten by robbers and left to die by the side of the road? Might we think of this as a parable of the earth today? Beaten bloody by robbers, who take what they want, and leave the earth dying by the side of the road? And who’s the Good Samaritan? ... but the one who looks with mercy on the earth, sees its wounds, goes to its aid, makes provisions for its care and healing. Sad to say - in the parable, it’s the religious ones who turn the blind eye to the beaten man.
Are Christians guilty of turning a blind eye when it comes to God’s good earth?
Christians can never turn a blind eye to any company, or any government, that despoils God’s good earth in order to make a profit for shareholders who live far away from the suffering, suffering created by the drive for wealth.
Christians have to think big … because God is big!
The Scottish National Museum, in partnership with museums in Malawi and Zambia, is celebrating the bicentenary birthday of explorer and medical missionary, David Livingstone, born March 19, 1813, near Glasgow, Scotland.
British explorers mostly served colonial interests, and missionaries often did the same thing - but not so David Livingstone.
Lovemore Mazibuko, director of museums of Malawi, said Livingstone was still venerated in southern Africa for his work as a missionary, doctor and educator, and above all for his bitter opposition to the slave trade prevalent at the time and his vision for legitimate trade and commerce for the region.
Mazibuko said: Livingstone brought an end to the slave trade and in that sense he is regarded as a liberator...he changed people's perception on the way people related to one another irrespective of tribe, irrespective of their colour, irrespective of their social status."
Livingston died May 1, 1873 - his heart was buried in his beloved Africa; his body, in Westminster Abby.
Livingstone’s remembered because he was a big thinker … saw the big picture … served a big Christ.
In our own Presbyterian ranks, I think of men like William Sloan Coffee and Robert McAfee Brown … women like Margaret Towner, the first woman ordained in the Presbyterian Church, 1954.
All of them, big thinkers - that’s why they shaped the church so powerfully in their time, and for years to come.
They beckon us onward … the cloud of witnesses surround us … whispering to us, Finish our work … get busy … get to it … think big … finish our work.
Dear Christian Friends, let’s finish their work, and finish it well … big in our thoughts and sensibilities … big in our prayers and big in our faith … let us think far and beyond the boundaries of our lives and our church - think outside the box … daring and adventuresome like David Livingstone, William Sloan Coffin, Margaret Towner.
Big enough to bless the world!
Big enough to serve the Risen Christ!
Amen and Amen!
