Musings About Sunday, April 1

It's Palm Sunday and I'm preaching on a passage from the Book of Revelation - 21:1-6! (No, I'm not a lectionary preacher, at least not right now.) How to tie the two together - or, is it even necessary to tie the two together. It's probably not necessary (I mean, we're going to have Palm Sunday hymns for the first half of the service, so the content will be there) but I think I'll tie it together anyway.

This follows last Sunday's message on Isaiah's beautiful prohecy in ch.65. That reflected as well on the peacefulness of the future promised by God. This week, I want to move the topic more directly toward reconciliation with God, because that's going to be my main Good Friday theme - the cross as reconciliation.

First, I changed the working title. It was originally "The Greatest Promise." I was going to reflect on the fact that in Jersualem, the people were drawn to the promise that Jesus seemed to hold out to them, and then look at the promise in Revelation 21 of a creation and a people completely at one with their God. But I've changed my thinking a bit. The new title (with apologies to Charles Dickens) is "Great Expectations." I'm going to reflect on (1) our expectations of Jesus and then (2) how our expectations can be so easily disappointed (thus, the Palm Sunday connection - Palm Sunday led to Good Friday because Jesus didn't do or accomplish what people expected of him) because they're often based narrowly on our own needs or wants, and then (3) how the Revelation passage points us ahead to what our real expectation should be - perfect peace and reconciliation with God.

So a fairly typical three point sermon structurally at least.

The most significant image for me is that in the vision God is present with his people - no need for a temple where the people would meet God; God is simply there; we are simply with God. No barriers; no separation. That's the vision, but surely it's more than just a future hope. It must be pointing us in some way to a present reality as well. We have all sorts of barriers between us and God - most of our own making. How do we deal with them? How do we gain intimacy with God? Can we?

We're having Communion. Do I need a Communion tie-in? What should it be? (Does the New Covenant represented by the Cup bring us into a state of union with God now, so that while we may have to await it in all its fullness, we can still experience it now?)