The Glimpse

About seventeen years ago my wife and I saw a PBS special by Rick Steves.

He was in a part of Italy called the Cinque Terre.

From the first time we saw that special we wanted to go there.

But we didn’t, because of life.

 Kids, jobs, and what not all got in the way.

But we would talk about it from time to time.

Other people who went there would tell us about it.

This past summer because of our generous congregation we got to go.

We added on to our trip to Germany a couple of day in the Cinque Terre.

To get there we took a train from La Spezia into the Cinque Terre.

We went through a tunnel, and when we came out we saw the clear blue water, the cliffs descending into the water.

I looked over at my wife and she had tears running down her face.

And then we went into another tunnel before getting off at our stop.

It was a moment, a glimpse of something we had dreamed of for a long time.

It didn’t disappoint.

In fact, it was better than we imagined in our minds.

This is what I think about heaven.

It is something we dream of and imagine to be wonderful and glorious.

And every now and then we get a glimpse of it here and now.

Every now and then we see love and kindness so spectacular that we weep with joy.

Our reading from Revelation shows us what it is like.

It shows us the wonder and beauty of heaven, the worshiping of God.

New song of praise we sing to God.

This is what the book of Revelation does; it pulls back the curtain to show us what is really behind everything.

It does this with beautiful, brilliant, and strong language.

Last Sunday I went to a really fancy dinner at a Castle.

It was my mother in laws birthday.

While we were waiting for dinner we were exploring the castle.

I spilled wine on a doily.

I tried to get it out with cold water.

It didn’t work.

So I turned myself in to the people who worked at the castle.

Turns out it was no big deal, but wine is hard to get out of a doily.

If wine is hard to get out of a white doily.

How hard is blood to get out of a white robe?

But we are told this morning that people who are worshiping God around the throne are wearing white robes that have been washed in the blood of the lamb.

I am not great at doing laundry, but again I know enough to know that blood is not easy to get out of white robes.

I know that you wash the whites separate from the brand new red towel you bought at target.

Why this saying?

Why is John telling us that blood is used to wash robes?

The problem with all saints Sunday is that we tend to make out the people we remember to be better than they were.

I know that when I think of my father or Grandmother I think of only all the good times, the good things.

But maybe that is not such a bad thing.

Maybe that is how we should remember loved ones, remembering that they showed us a glimpse of heaven.

Because remembering the other stuff is too painful, or not helpful.

Or maybe we just like to give each other the benefit of the doubt.

Or maybe we realize that none of us is so good, and we would want others to remember our good side instead of our bad.

We would not want to be remembered for the worse thing we have done, but the best.

And maybe that is what the experience of death does for us.

Maybe we are washed through the blood.

And we come out the other side clean.

But something more significant is going on in Revelation.

It is a letter to a real community that is really suffering through the oppression of the Roman Empire.

It is a community that sees how the empire uses force to say that there is peace.

In the Roman Empire people were crucified for not pledging allegiance to the Empire.

It was a political message that you better get on board, or else.

It was through blood that the Romans thought you made people good citizens.

Jesus turned that on its head.

It wasn’t blood that made us good citizens.

It is blood that makes us holy.

It is not violence, but non violence and love that make us into God’s people.

It is the sacrifice of Jesus that makes us righteous.

That makes us worthy.

For a long time we thought that being a good person makes you a holy person.

But it is really only one thing and that is Jesus blood.

I would say that every life is filled with difficulty in some way.

That we all struggle here on this earth to figure out what it means to live a blessed life.

Jesus told us that it was found in living.

It is found in the mourning, in thirsting, in hunger, in poverty of spirit.

In those things we pass through to the other side and find something more significant.

And that is why death is so shattering for us.

It often clarifies what is really important.

It helps us to see better the people in our lives.

We see that they were flawed, but through that they struggled to do good.

I often think how much I misunderstood my father.

I didn’t understand how much he struggled with his own father.

I didn’t understand how much he wanted to be loved.

And how much he wanted to be a good father, and let me know that he loved me.

It wasn’t always easy for us.

But the thing is that when I remember him it is only with the finest thoughts.

When I speak of him it is only in glowing terms.

Because I understand better what he went through.

I understand better why he reacted to things the way he did.

At his funeral I gave his eulogy, and I talked about how much he loved me and all the people in his life.

I didn’t talk about the struggle.

It was as if the stains of his life had been taken away.

I believe it was because of Jesus that I was able to see the best part of him.

I know it was because of Jesus that he struggled to love me and others.

That idea that Jesus died to show us a better way to live, a gentler way, gives us a better vision of what we can be.

At the heart of Revelation is this truth, that through all of the hard ships of life.

Through everything that we face there is a God at the heart of the universe that is bigger than those hardships.

There is a God bigger than our sins, or the sins of others.

At the center of all things is a glory better than we can imagine.

At the center of all things is a God who is constantly trying to put things back together.

God is trying to wipe away every tear, and have no more hunger.

That is the vision that we sometimes glimpse in the best parts of us.

The Good News is that you and I are invited to participate in that action.

We get to be the saints of God here and now.

We get to be there for each other.

We get to stand up for others.

We get to give others a glimpse of what it might look like.

The Blood of Jesus gets out stains.

The one who was slain is worthy, has shown us a better way.

Let us remember that we all struggle, but that Jesus works out the stains.

Jesus makes us righteous and holy.

Jesus gives us a better vision, a less violent vision, a gentler vision.

And when we put our lives in the blood we come out clean.

Amen