sermon excerpts: Living with Infinity

... Well, here we are at the turning of the church year, flipping to a new set of lectionary readings. This is the new year’s eve of the church calendar. This particular Sunday pays tribute to the kingship of Christ, and serves as reminder of the certainty and surety of Christ’s return, that things will be put right and the kingdom of earth will become as in heaven.

John certainly sets the mood for his letter with these verses. In sharing what was his dream, his revelation from God, this particular book of the Bible has fuelled religious fervour for centuries. Yet, I’m a little hesitant to put too much stock into one person’s dream.

I do believe that one day, all will be revealed and the truth will become apparent. Until that happens, it’s pretty much a case of “your guess is as good as mine”. I got into quite a heated debate earlier this week on this point; whether God can truly be known or if our human interpretations are the best that we can manage.

One of the things we did agree on was Revelation 1: 4-8 of how God’s love is everywhere without limit, alpha and omega, beginning, end and all places inbetween. Of primary emphasis in this text is the bigness of God. One of my mentors in Kingston introduced me to a phrase commonly used to describe God: infinite and unknowable.

We are finite; we have limits. We can only do so much, experience so much, understand so much, before we have to stop. God has no such boundaries and so we are incapable of truly knowing God. We catch glimpses, we have hints, but have to accept that is the best we can do.

We have a beginning and end. I began at [insert time and date of birth]. I will end at some point in time that hopefully, will be far into the future. That will be my small part in the great human adventure. Although, that is not entirely true. I began before my birthday, in utero for 9 months, but even before then. The orchestration of events and people that brought my parents together, and their parents before them, stretches into the distant past of Japan.

And after my death, I cannot brag, but I do know that through my children, and in some of the things I’ve said and done in Mitchell, at Queen’s University, in St. John’s, Newfoundland, at Lambton Centre, at Five Oaks, here in Ravenswood or Arkona, will echo somehow to those yet unborn. I encourage each person here to think of themselves as a pebble dropping into water and imagine what ripples might move out and beyond. There is a connection to the infinite in each of us, a reminder that we are part of a broader picture, a wider world, a rich history and a complicated future.
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We are overwhelmed by infinity. Whether it’s all the problems in the world, AIDS, cancer, world debt, terrorism, nuclear arms, or whether we’re overwhelmed by the thought that an infinite and unknowable God loves and cares for us and wants the best for us, it can paralyze us. Maybe we wait and see how things turn out. Or see what someone else is doing.

The trap we often fall into when we think of the end of time is that it is something restricted to the future, that until the end comes, it is not our concern. But there is a very present and urgent quality to John’s letter that the revelation was a message for people to pay attention and take action in the present (which is our past, if you’re keeping score).

The point being: don’t wait. What would the world be like if we lived as if God’s kingdom of abundance, justice and mercy was already upon us? It’s the beginning of the end. Or is it the end of the beginning? Whatever it is, it is now and it is time.