Comments for Joey

Sunday, May 10, 1998
Joey Noble

"God's New World"

1 Samuel 1: 3 - 11a; Revelation 21: 1 - 6

Mother's Day, 1990. My youngest daughter, Faith, was a senior in high school, and looking forward to going away to college in a couple of months. She had agreed to do a dialogue sermon with me. I focused on how much I was going to miss her -- miss even the phone ringing, miss her friends dropping by, miss her smile and her stories. On the other hand? Faith focused on how eager she was to leave home and get involved in campus activities! She hoped she could use her experience at Blair to write some articles for the college newspaper. She had a lot of ideas, a lot of dreams.

I knew I had to let go. It was time to let her make her own mistakes, to find her own joys, to find her own place in the world. As she was making plans and beginning to distance herself from Silver Spring, I thought of one of my favorite Biblical stories -- the story about Hannah This story, found in First Samuel, describes Hannah as absolutely miserable, because the Lord had "closed her womb." Hannah "prayed to the Lord, and wept bitterly" In time, God granted her a son whom they named Samuel. Hannah was filled with such joy! Her song of praise is the Scripture lesson that Caroline just read. It is the model for Mary's song, the Magnificat, that Mary sang generations later, to praise God after she learned that she was pregnant. "My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior!,' Though filled with joy about the idea of motherhood, these women's experiences were not what they expected!

Hannah promised her child to the Lord. When Samuel was only a child, Hannah took him to the priest, Eli, for him to raise in the ways of the Scripture -- the law and the prophets. Hannah gave him to Eli's care, saying, "For as long as he lives, he is lent to the Lord." I have always wondered how Hannah was able to turn over her child to others to care for him. The Bible says, "His mother used to make for him a little robe and take it to him each year when she went up with her husband to offer the yearly sacrifice." I imagine that tears were sewn into every stitch of his yearly robes. Still, Hannah seems to have been able to trust her child to others' care.

So Faith went off to college, and I learned to let go -- or so I thought. But last week was another milestone for me as I walked her down the aisle, gave her a kiss, and joined her hand with the young man who would shortly become her husband. I moved to my seat beside David, and we joined hands while I sobbed. My tears were mostly tears of joy and pride. There was my little girl, all grown up. She looked beautiful and confident. But some of my tears were also born of anxiety. There were tears of concern. Who was this young man she was promising to share the rest of her life with? It was evident he loved her, and I was awed by a story that Faith had shared with us the day before the wedding about her beloved.

Several weeks earlier there had been a baptism of a child born to a Catholic Worker friend. The Catholic Worker concept had come into being earlier in the century by a remarkable woman named Dorothy Day. She had established "houses of hospitality" in major urban areas. The houses had different focuses. For example, the house in Washington, D.C. focuses on political issues. The house in Cleveland, where Faith and Chris met, has a ministry to the schizophrenic. Those who live in the house must be drug-free, and agree to take the medications they need, administered to them by the volunteers. There is minimal cost to living in the house. Food is provided by restaurants and grocery stores who have extra supplies. It is always a surprise to see what is delivered. Sometimes there are weighed down by donuts. Other times there are large quantities of broccoli and cauliflower. One of the restaurants keeps them supplied with fancy desserts -- cakes, pies, whatever they have leftover. Faith has learned to be very creative with her cooking -- something she never learned from her mom!

Several weeks ago those who lived in the Cleveland house were Invited to 3-month old Jacob's baptism. Jacob's mom had lived in the Cleveland house for several years as a volunteer. Now she was living in the apartment above the storefront that opened several evenings a week, and where people stopped by for coffee and conversation. She invited everyone to the baptism, and a social time afterwards at the Catholic Worker house' it was a wonderful celebration, but Chris noticed that Kevin was not present. Chris was surprised, because Kevin seemed very fond of Jacob when his mom brought him over to the house. When Chris asked Kevin why he hadn't attended, Kevin said he didn't have anything appropriate to wear. Chris decided right then that he needed to shop with Kevin before the wedding, so that Kevin would feel comfortable in the church. He asked Kevin to accompany him while he looked for his, wedding suit. They went shopping in a store where there was a "two suits for $100" rack. Kevin was very pleased with his suit, as was Chris!

Over and over, Faith has told stories about Chris that have won my heart. And I have thoroughly enjoyed the couple of times that he has visited us. I am so grateful that he and Faith found each other. He is a wonderful young man, and he and Faith are very much in love. I have to recognize that any hesitation I have is not with Chris. My problem is sharing Faith, accepting a new kind of letting go. Now she has another family, and she and Chris will want to spend time with them -- during their vacation times, at holidays. It's fine with me to have them bath come here, but it is hard to let them go to his home -- even though I'm very fond of his family! It is just hard to adjust, to let go, to accept this new reality.

The lectionary Scripture lesson this morning is about making all things new It helps me to move out of my small realm, and to see the incredible possibilities before me, before us ail. John writes about a time when there is

The Revelation to John was probably written during the reign of the Roman Emperor Domitian, and his persecution of Christians in the 90s of the first century. Domitian wanted to be worshiped as God. He tried to compel persons to express this by putting incense on the altar for use in emperor worship. The Revelation to John challenged this idolatry and served as a "call for the endurance and faith of the saints" He imagined a vision of God's new world for those who are faithful in the midst of persecution. John sought to answer the question, 'Who is in charge of history? It is not the Roman Emperor! Rather, it is God, ``the Alpha and the Omega" (the first and the last letters of the Greek alphabet), the beginning and the end To worship the emperor might result in short-term gain, but its ultimate result would be eternal loss. The final conqueror will not be the emperor, but God Almighty.

This kind of apocalyptic writing revealed hope for the future in the midst of tough times. John pointed to ``a new heaven and a new earth". Jerusalem was the center of this new hope. John wrote of "the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God" with the joyous marriage Image of a bridegroom decked with garlands, and a bride adorned with jewels (Isaiah 61: 10). This vision is not one of earth lifted up to heaven, but of heaven, God's dwelling, come down to transform earth and human life with the presence of God. "The home of God is among mortals,' (v. 3); human beings shall be God's people. In a setting of persecution and mourning and death, John envisioned that God "will wipe every tear from their eyes". Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more" The God who sits on the throne as the Alpha and the Omega and ruler of the world proclaims, "See! I AM MAKING ALL THINGS NEW." God has the power to bring change, both in our personal lives and in the world. It is hard for us to imagine that. It is hard for us to trust that But God is with us, making all things new -- with our hands, our feet, our determination. We need God; God needs us. Hear this poem that Caroline will read that describes God's new world.

To becoming new -- in our families -- with their good and their bad, but with particular gratitude for our mothers this day. To becoming new -- beyond our nuclear families to embrace those with schizophrenia and those with addictions and those with other physical and mental challenges. To becoming new -- in our church -- as we seek now to make the visions we have hammered out these past years with our aspiration statements, our facilities report, our youth report -- making these visions become reality To becoming new -- in the wider community where conflict and war continue in the Middle East after 50 years, and 50 years before that and 50 years before that. To becoming new, trusting not in the emperor or the stockmarket, but in the ,Alpha ;and the Omega, so that mourning and crying and pain will be no more. We are called to let go of the old so that the new can happen. My mother used to say that sometimes we have to close one door so that we can open another!

We are called this day to live the vision God has given us into reality. A new heaven and a new earth!

Let us pray. You are the Alpha and the Omega, O Lord. We give thanks for Your constant presence with us, showing us the way. May each of us find one thing we can do in the week ahead that enables us to live toward the vision of Your new world. With gratitude for Your Son You sent to show us the way, we pray in his name. Amen.

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