May 19 2019 Thousands of Tears Wiped Away

May 19 2019 Psalm 148 * Revelation 21.1-6 "Thousands of Tears Wiped Away" Pastor Jacqueline Hines

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In our continuing conversation of John’s revelation in the book of Revelation, [slide # 1 John…writing] he talks about a new heaven and a new earth. Experiencing something new means more to most of us these days than it did 20 years ago. 911 was a radically new experience for our world. Mass shootings perpetrated by foreign terrorists is new. American teens gunning down fellow students and young adults speeding through a crowd with a car is a new experience. Three million immigrants fleeing for their lives into this country is new. Floods and fires have emerged with record devastation destroying crops and homes. Greed and ignorance have filled the air with cancer-causing agents and our oceans and waterways are overwhelmed by islands of plastic and debris. [slide # 2  island of plastic]  

Growing up in Connecticut, our family regularly enjoyed playing in a beautiful park in walking distance from where my paternal grandparents lived. The lake was ever so clean and the trees were tall and stately with paths filled with adventure and there was no thought at all for our safety. One year I returned to find that the lake had not been cared for by the city. It was full of trash. An old bicycle tire was sticking out on top. It was sickening. A few years later, however, I expected things would still be the same. But, they weren’t. The lake was all cleaned up and beautiful again. Something new had happened and things had changed for the better.

So much in this world has made a turn for the worse. We long for a something new and good to happen. Many are weeping. You better believe that God is weeping, too. [slide # 3  eye of God] At the same time God has a plan for new things to happen. It is a new plan. Scripture tells us “Eyes have not seen, and ears have not heard the things that God has prepared for those who love him.” [slide #  4   …God has prepared…]

There are constant efforts in this world to defeat hunger and homelessness and some of them have already shown good results. All is not lost. Meda Maron is a social worker for Project Outreach that provides for those in need living in Spring City and Royersford. and Bethel is grateful to have provided many volunteers that help with Project Outreach. Meda reports that this is a season where there are 20% fewer people coming to the pantries for food. Meda believes the decrease in the requests for food is because more people now have jobs in the community. When I spoke to her this week she had just received a pressing call from an employer looking for someone to do landscaping.

On a global level, the United Nations [slide # 5  United Nations] has made the world a better place as the 193 countries in the world work toward 8 goals. Those goals are to:

Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger....Achieve universal primary education....Promote gender equality and empower women....Reduce child mortality. ...Improve maternal health. ...Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases. ...Ensure environmental sustainability. ...Develop a global partnership for development.

This global work is critical if we are going to create and maintain peace and development as a civilized society.

Global work sees and hears and responds to the many around the world who are weeping, weeping because of war and catastrophe and tragedy. Many around the world are weeping like the families of the 12 opioid deaths at OJR high school a couple years ago, or the hungry and homeless who’ve spent time under that bridge in Pottstown, or those who work for less than $15 an hour and die by suicide, or those incarcerated in an Alabama prison with the highest rate of suicide in the country. Some are weeping silent tears, but they are still weeping. God weeps with them. We have shed many a tear for them and with them, too.

Still, God has a plan. We are the answer to somebody’s prayer. We are a part of God’s plan. God’s plan is to wipe those tears away that John talks about in verse 4 saying [slide # 6 wipe every tear…] ‘he will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more, for the first things have passed away.’

God is always in the business of turning our weeping into joy. Instead of the sting of salty tears, God gives us what John says in verse 6 ‘water as a gift from the springs of the water of life.’ [slide # 7  gift of water]

When I was teaching children, I learned a very important lesson. That is - God speaks personally to all of us, no matter where we have come from and where we are going, no matter how old we are, or old we ain’t, what we have or do not possess. God speaks to everyone.

After substitute lessons were over, I asked the children to share their dreams since I wanted to test my skills as a dream interpreter haven attended the Karl Jung dream institute in Switzerland. It was so very obvious that God was speaking through dreams. One young man in a special needs class was a remarkable artist. He told of a dream he repeatedly had - a dream of climbing a beautiful grassy hill and just before reaching the top, he heard a voice telling him to “draw, draw.” I asked many questions and was surprised to learn that he did not go to church, he had no sense of whom the voice belonged, and did not think of his God-given gift as special. I have had so many of that type of conversation with young and old alike that I am led me to believe that God speaks to everyone.

God is speaking to me and to you. The question is what do we hear? Are we listening? What are WE saying to God? What are we doing?

[slide # 8  pic of Matthew West] Forty-two year old singer Matthew West wrote a song entitled “Do Something”. [slide # 9 do something…] We ought to at least pray and do the good we can while we can until we know differently. [slide # 10  do what you know…]

West’s song is a conversation with God about the terrible things happening in this world. He writes:

I woke up this morning
Saw a world full of trouble now, thought
How’d we ever get so far down, and
How’s it ever gonna turn around
So I turned my eyes to Heaven
I thought, “God, why don’t You do something?”
Well, I just couldn’t bear the thought of
People living in poverty
Children sold into slavery
The thought disgusted me
So, I shook my fist at Heaven
Said, “God, why don’t You do something?”
He said, “I did, yeah, I created you” (now listen)

If not us, then who
If not me and you
Right now, it’s time for us to do something, yeah
If not now, then when
Will we see an end
To all this pain
Oh, it’s not enough to do nothing
It’s time for us to do something

It’s a new world with situations that we would never have believed could happen in just a few short years. Still, John the revelator’s word makes us know that something new is on the horizon.

  

If nothing else, we are called to pray and see all people as God’s people. Even our faithful prayers will yield a harvest for the soul in need. Prayer will stir up spiritual gifts and unique gifts that can be used to bless the masses. Our prayers may even move a few mountains. Near and far, thousands of tears will be wiped away as we do God’s will partnering with God to create something good on earth that makes heaven rejoice.

No matter how much good we can accomplish or what we have to offer a certain cause, we do well to have a little talk with Jesus and listen for the direction that the Holy Spirit is leading us to fulfill God’s will. [slide # 11  …do what God tells us…] Amen. [slide # 12  faith requires action]