11 22 2009 Ag

The Alpha and the Omega Sermon by Andrew Greenwood Providence-Fort Washington United Methodist Church Genesis 1:1-27; Revelation 1:4b-8 Christ the King Sunday – November 22, 2009 “The Alpha and the Omega.” According to today’s scripture from Revelation, God is “the Alpha and the Omega.” Now, I was never in a fraternity, and I haven’t studied Greek in any of my seminary courses, but I’ve learned over the years that “alpha” is the first letter of the Greek alphabet, and “omega” is the last. So God is the first and the last, the beginning and the end. God is the one who created all things, and God will be there when all creation passes away. But “the Alpha and the Omega,” the beginning and the end, means so much more than that. When the author of Revelation writes that God is “the Alpha and the Omega,” he is using a literary tool called “hendiadys.” Hendiadys is the joining together of two terms to express a single concept. God is not just the beginning and the end; God is the beginning, the end, and everything in between. To put it simply, God is eternal. God was there at the beginning of creation, and God will be there at the end. But God was also there to make a covenant with Abraham. God was there to lead the Israelites out of Egypt. God was there in Jesus Christ, God Incarnate; in his life, death, and resurrection. God was there when each and every one of us was born. And God is here today. God is past, present, and future. My question today, on Christ the King Sunday, is, “What do we know about the God of the past (the God who created the world, made the covenant with Abraham, and came to earth as Jesus Christ), and what does that tell us about the God of the present and future?” To discover the God of the past, I believe it is appropriate to start at the beginning. In today’s scripture lesson from Genesis, we learn that God created all things out of a formless void. The first thing this shows is that God is a creator who makes order out of chaos. God stepped into a black hole of emptiness, and saw fit to create a universe of order. The six days of creation show this order very clearly. There is a pattern in the six days, in which there are two sets of three days. Each of the first three days is paired up with one of the second three days. The first day is paired up with the fourth, the second with the fifth, and the third with the sixth. On the first day, God creates light, and on the fourth day, God creates the heavenly bodies to shine forth that light. On the second day, God creates the sky to separate the earthly waters from the heavenly waters, and on the 1

fifth day, God creates fish to swim in the earthly waters and birds to fly in the sky. On the third day, God gathers the seas together, to create land, and on the sixth day, God creates animals and people to live on the land. While the creation account teaches us that God creates order out of chaos, it also teaches us that God does not always accept the status quo. God had created a perfectly ordered pattern of six days. God could have left it at that, and nobody would know the difference. But God chose to rest. God chose to step back from the pattern that God had created, and admire the results. Thus, the Sabbath was born. God did not intend for the Sabbath to become part of the status quo. In Isaiah 58, the people were treating the fast day as a time of mourning, instead of helping the poor. Isaiah made it clear that this is not the fast God chooses. In Matthew 2, the Pharisees accused Jesus’ disciples of working on the Sabbath. Jesus responded by saying, “The Sabbath was made for humankind, and not humankind for the Sabbath.” God does not do things because they are the status quo. Rather, God turns the status quo on its head for the benefit of God’s children. The creation account also teaches us that God creates through God’s Word. I’m not talking about scripture, although that is a particular form of God’s Word. I’m saying that when God speaks, things happen. In today’s reading from Genesis, we heard two phrases over and over: “Then God said” and “It was so.” God speaks, and it is so. This is a testament to God’s amazing power. But God’s Word is more than just language. Some of us are familiar with John 1; some might not be. Let me share a few excerpts from this chapter. “In the beginning was the Word, and Word was with God, and the Word was God.” God’s Word is eternal, and it is a fully divine aspect of God. Later in the chapter, John writes, “And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth.” Of course, when John writes that “the Word became flesh,” he’s referring to Jesus Christ. We have seen Christ’s glory, “the glory as of a father’s only son,” in the life, death, and resurrection of Christ. But the book of Genesis tells us that Christ’s glory is also in creation. God created the universe through God’s Word, and we see that Word in a beautiful autumn day, a starlit night, and a newborn baby’s cry. Many, many books could be (and have been) written about the creation account, and what it says about God. But I think we have discussed three of the essential characteristics of the creator God. God is a God of order. God is not a God of the status quo. And, most importantly, God creates through God’s Word, which we believe became flesh in Jesus Christ, our king. We’ve come a long way since creation, even though it hasn’t always 2

been the right way. But what is the right way? Where are we supposed to be going? According to today’s lesson from Revelation, Christ “made us to be a kingdom, priests serving his God and Father.” Christ is our king, and God is our Father. So how does the creation account tell us serve Christ the King and God the Father? First, it tells us that God desires order. As United Methodists, we think we know a little bit about order. When I talk to my mother, who is a Congregationalist, about administrative councils, charge conferences, district superintendents, and bishops, her eyes glaze over. If any denomination has this order thing down, we do, right? Maybe. But just because we have the most bureaucracy of any kid on the block, doesn’t mean we have the kind of order that God likes. What is more important than what kind of system we have is how we use that system. A friend of mine is a member of a United Methodist Church that wants to build a new church building. Well…some of the members want to build a new building. These members have enough power in the congregation, and enough support from the district superintendent and pastor, that the congregation will build a new building. However, they seem to be going about it for all the wrong reasons. Those who support a new building believe that it will revive the congregation and bring new members in. But there is nothing wrong with the current facility, and it is in a perfect location to bring in new members. When this congregation builds their new building, it will not achieve the expected results. While order is important to God, it cannot bring the change that God wants to see in the world. Only a change of the heart can do that. This is when it is important to remember that God is not a God of the status quo. The status quo loves the illusion of change, but does not embrace change of the heart. My friend’s church believes that they can bring about change of the heart by changing outward circumstances. But a new building does not change dry worship, and neither does new music or a new preacher. Without a change of the heart, any other change is meaningless. With a change of the heart, new doors are opened that we never knew existed. I saw the effects of a change of the heart firsthand yesterday. Pastor Stephen, Alice, Shirley Gillespie, Shirley’s friend Edith and I participated in the Help the Homeless Walkathon on the Mall yesterday morning. When I got on the Metro in Tenleytown, it was fairly empty. By the time I switched trains at Metro Center, the train was crowded. When I got to the Smithsonian stop, where the walk started, the line to get out of the station extended all the way to the train. I have never been so happy to be part of such a big crowd. This was a crowd of thousands of people that had experienced a change of the heart. These were people that had left their 3

houses before 7 AM to walk three miles to raise money and awareness for people they had never met. The status quo cannot do that. Only a change of the heart can. Whether we know it or not, only one thing can bring this change of heart about: Jesus Christ, God’s Word incarnate. Christ’s gospel message is one of repentance and forgiveness, and it was through this message that the whole universe was created. We need to repent and ask God’s forgiveness for the way that we treat God’s creation. As we read in Genesis, God called all of creation “good” before humans were ever created. Whether it means turning the heat down, carpooling to work, or using energy-efficient appliances, we need to treat God’s creation with respect. Because we were all created through Christ, our king, we also need to treat all people with respect. While driving through the city the other day, I honked my horn at a pedestrian for crossing against the light. The man made a very rude hand gesture at me, even though I clearly had the right of way. Respect, for all people, in all areas of society, is eroding. One of the big news stories of the past few weeks has been President Obama bowing when he met the emperor of Japan. Obama’s critics say that it is inappropriate for the president to bow to anyone, but it is well known that bowing is a traditional greeting and sign of respect in Japan. Besides misunderstanding Japanese culture, Obama’s critics show a lack of respect for respect. They seem to believe that showing a cultural sign of respect to an emperor is the same as waving a white flag for all the world to see. We are all created through God’s Word, and all people deserve respect, whether they are an emperor, a president, or an average Joe. The writer of Revelation assures us that Christ will come with the clouds, and every eye will see him. That will be a glorious day! But we must not forget that the original readers of Revelation thought that Christ would come within their lifetimes. And there are many today who believe that Christ will come within their lifetimes. But Christ did not come within the lifetimes of those early Christians, and we don’t know if he will come within ours. What we do know is that God is the Alpha and the Omega. God is eternal, and God’s character is eternal. God desired order in the beginning, and God desires order today. God did not settle for the status quo in the beginning, and God does not settle for the status quo today. God created all of the world with dignity and respect, and that dignity and respect remains today. And when Christ comes with the clouds, order and respect will be restored, just the way God made them! Amen.

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