Saturday, May 8, 2010

Shall We Gather?

A week from today I’ll be on my way to Tennessee. I am attending my favorite Conference of the year, the Festival of Homiletics. Every year in May many of my favorite preachers gather for a conference, a festival of preaching and worship. From Monday through Friday I will listen to sermons and lectures and musicians all designed to help me do this thing I love to do called preaching. It is for inspiration and instruction, for connection and application. It is, as I said my favorite time of year. You should thank me for going. Otherwise, I would be even more boring than I am! Which might be hard for some to imagine, I realize.

This year the Festival is in Nashville, which means it is only a couple of hours from my folks. So, it only makes sense to go a couple of days early and spend some time with them. It means we have to shift Maddie’s birthday a little bit (for which she is being sort of gracious about - sort of) and to plug Pastor Kent in to preach for another Sunday. He also was gracious in accepting the additional burden. So, I get to check in on the folks in Paris before heading to Nashville for the Festival.

Nashville, yes that Nashville, the one you’ve been reading about in the papers. The Nashville that got over fourteen inches of rain in one twenty-four hour period. The Nashville around and through which flows the Cumberland River that crested at fifty one feet, some twelve feet above flood stage. That Nashville! Which is also the Nashville that is home to some of the denominational offices and the publishing house for the United Methodist Church.

The Festival organizers have been sending almost daily email updates, telling us that all is well with the sites we are going to use. They are even sending some suggestions as to how we might help. (Which we plan to do through out usual channels - which is why I included the statement about United Methodist connections there. As usual UMCOR is already at work - you can donate too, if you want. Call the church office or check out UMCOR online.)

But you can’t help but wonder if it is a good idea to go. Gathering at the river doesn’t seem like smart thing to do right now. I remember my dad telling me about the people who lived on the banks of the Mississippi River in his hometown of Memphis. They were frequently washed out by the rising waters, and yet time after time they returned there. It didn’t make much sense to him as a boy, and it doesn’t make much sense to me now.

Yet we seem drawn to the rivers, despite the danger. The river was a means of transportation and commerce, on the one hand. But it was also where the most fertile land was. In Egypt, the growing season was defined less by the weather, and more by the rhythms of the River Nile. When the waters receded, the farmers would swoop in and plant and grow and harvest, hopefully before the waters began to rise again.

Despite the danger the river was a source of life. So people are willing to put themselves at risk for the sustenance of that life. It is that passion, that desire, that longing for life in all it’s fulness that John the Evangelist taps into in the concluding chapters of Revelation. He sees the culmination, the destination of that striving. And, interestingly enough, the destination is a city with a river running through it.

Revelation 21:10, 22 - 22:5 And in the spirit he carried me away to a great, high mountain and showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God. ... I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb. 23 And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God is its light, and its lamp is the Lamb. 24 The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it. 25 Its gates will never be shut by day-- and there will be no night there. 26 People will bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations. 27 But nothing unclean will enter it, nor anyone who practices abomination or falsehood, but only those who are written in the Lamb's book of life. Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb 2 through the middle of the street of the city. On either side of the river is the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, producing its fruit each month; and the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. 3 Nothing accursed will be found there any more. But the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him; 4 they will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. 5 And there will be no more night; they need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever.

OK, the river is only a small part. In worship I plan to focus on a different image. There are just so many to choose from. One commentator suggests that the best thing the preacher could do would be to simply read the poetry of the passage and then invite folks to meditate on the imagery and then sit down. Oh, I wish I were brave enough for that.

Instead, let me gaze with you at the river for a moment. Verse ten is included in the reading to give us some perspective. Instead of watching the city being lowered down on top of us, we now stand with John on a mountain. Mountains in apocalyptic literature are places of wisdom and refuge. We have been brought to this mountain in order to gain some perspective.

What we see first is light. Light everywhere, but not from any usual source natural or human made. Instead, we can see, the light is from the Presence of God. And then we are surprised to note that we can see the Presence of God, we can see God face to face and not be destroyed. Amazing.

Then we note the river. The water of life, clear as crystal, meaning clean and pure and safe. The source of the river is the throne, that very Presence we noted earlier. And alongside the river is a tree, that is twelve trees. Wait, what? John describes it as “the tree of life” but that it has twelve kinds of fruit. Not your average tree, you might say. However you might picture it, the meaning is abundance, constant abundance. There is no dry period, no out of season. There is always something ripe and ready and sustaining.

It is, in short a perfect place to gather. Rivers in the bible are often barriers, things that have to be crossed to reach a destination. Until this one. The river is the destination. It is the source of life and health and wholeness. To gather at the river is to find your way to all that you need, and all that you are. But we gather with the saints, it is also a place of community and connection. We gather together, not just go by ourselves.

I’m going to visit my parents to check on them, true. But also to be checked on. To gather with those I love and be sustained and strengthened. Gathering, whether it is weekly at worship, or with colleagues for inspiration and instruction, or on special occasions with family, is like entering the kingdom, like coming home to where our Lord is and where we are most genuinely ourselves. Shall we gather?

Besides it is the best Mother’s Day I could come up with! Happy Mother’s Day, Mom! I love you.

Shalom,
Derek

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