Greetings my friends,
This is Mark Gladman,
Also known as Brother Frederick James,
Your friendly neighbourhood monk in docks.
Here we are,
The last episode of our series,
The Way Home.
10 episodes,
10 different passages of scripture.
And underneath all of them?
That one movement.
Returning.
The sun returns home.
The sheep is found,
The two disciples turn back from Emmaus and head back towards Jerusalem.
Paid is restored.
The shepherd leads,
Uzziah calls,
The thirsty to the water.
Jose reveals a love that refuses to let us go.
Zacchaeus discovered what it means to come home to himself.
The disciples discover Christ waiting for them beside the ordinary fire of a breakfast with fish.
And now,
In our final episode,
We arrive at the end of Scripture itself.
Revelation chapter 21 and what we'll see here is beautiful.
This final image of the Bible is not humans escaping the world,
It's God coming home.
God dwelling among us,
A new heaven,
A new earth,
A city,
A garden-like world,
And a voice saying,
See,
I'm making all things new.
And I think this is probably the most surprising thing about the way home.
We've spent 10 episodes imagining ourselves returning to God,
But the story of Scripture ends with God coming to us and God making a home among us today.
Be going to listen.
We're going to imagine,
And we're going to allow the whole journey to gather into one final hope,
Which could be summed up as,
Home is where God is making all things new.
So take a nice slow deep breath in.
And out.
Let yourself be fully present.
Allow yourself to come into this moment.
Let your body rest,
Your heart rest,
And be.
Let's pray.
God of the beginning and the end,
God who calls us home.
Bring us into the vision of your future.
When we're weary,
Give us hope.
When the world feels broken,
Remind us that brokenness is not the final word.
When we grieve what's been lost,
Teach us to trust your promise of renewal and to recognise that the home we ache for is the home you're already preparing for us.
Amen.
So,
Let's listen to these words from Revelation chapter 21 verses 1 to 5.
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth,
And the first heaven and the first earth had passed away,
And the sea was no more.
And I saw the holy city,
The new Jerusalem,
Coming down out of heaven from God,
Prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying,
See,
The home of God is among mortals.
He will dwell with them as their God.
They will be his peoples,
And God himself will be with them.
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.
And the one who was seated on the throne said,
See,
I am making all things new.
So the first thing John sees is something new.
A new heaven.
And a new earth.
Now this is important because it means that spiritual hope,
And in the Christian tradition at least,
It's not about abandoning creation.
It's about creation being renewed.
God doesn't throw the world away here.
God makes it new,
The world we inhabit.
Yes,
It's wounded right now,
But it's still beautiful.
It's still full of extraordinary goodness and at the same time full of extraordinary suffering.
There's beauty and violence,
Love and loss,
Birth and death,
Hope and despair.
Amongst the things that are broken,
There's still the beautiful.
And that's why here in Revelation,
It tells us this is not the end.
There's more.
God's not finished.
I am making all things new.
God isn't recorded here saying,
I'm making all new things.
Big difference.
The things that have been broken and wounded and the things we thought would be on repair.
Places where we've experienced loss,
Damaged relationships,
Parts of creation that have been exploited,
Where we as humans have failed.
God says,
I am making all things new.
And there's hope there.
And it's not an empty cheap home.
It doesn't pretend everything's okay.
It says there's something emerging from the brokenness.
It's the conviction that brokenness doesn't get the final word.
So take a moment right now,
Think of one thing in your life that feels broken to you.
It might be something within you,
Something between you and someone else,
Something in the world,
Something you might have carried for years.
Just hold it before God and hear the words,
I am making all things new.
It may not happen in the way you expect or on your timetable.
But sit with the idea that the final word on this thing is not broken,
But it is being made new.
And then there's that absolutely stunning line,
The home of God is among mortals.
How many times have you read Revelation 21 and completely missed that line,
Right?
The home of God is among mortals.
The dwelling place of God is here among us.
This is where the whole journey has been heading.
As think back,
The prodigal son comes home.
The shepherd brings the sheep home.
The disciples discover Jesus was already walking with them.
Peter finds himself beside the fire.
A shepherd walks with us through the valley.
Isaiah invites us to the waters.
Hosea tells us that God refuses to abandon us.
Zacchaeus welcomed Jesus into his house.
The disciples sat down with Jesus for breakfast.
Scripture is saying here now,
God makes home among us.
So maybe we've got the whole direction of travel wrong here.
Maybe we've imagined that the direction is,
I need to get to God,
But the story that we see in scripture.
.
.
Keeps revealing something else.
God comes to us.
God calls Abraham.
God leads Israel.
God speaks through the prophets.
God comes among us in Jesus.
God walks roads,
Sits at tables,
Stands by the ocean and cooks fish on a barbecue.
And then finally,
God makes home among us.
The movement of scripture.
Isn't humanity searching for God,
It's God drawing near.
To humanity.
So take that in.
Imagine God saying,
I want to dwell with you.
Dwell,
Abide,
Remain,
Stay,
Make a home.
Maybe that changes the way you think about life.
Your ordinary life,
It's not just a drop-in spot for God.
It's a place where God wants to dwell with you.
In your home,
And your body,
And your work,
And your relationships,
And your neighborhood,
And your world,
God comes home.
And then that beautiful,
Gentle image,
Tender image.
He will wipe every tear from their eyes.
Again,
God does the wiping.
The God who created the universe comes close enough to wipe tears from human faces.
And you know what?
Being close enough to wipe a tear like that,
It's intimacy.
There's intimacy.
God isn't watching us from a distance.
God comes close,
Touches,
Comforts,
And wipes away tears.
Maybe you have tears that you've never allowed yourself to cry.
And there's losses that you carry,
People you miss,
Dreams that never happened,
Things you regret you can't change.
The world carries so many tears.
And sometimes we become uncomfortable with them,
So uncomfortable that we just want to move quickly to hope and we skip the tears.
But Revelation is saying here,
Don't skip the tears.
They're there.
Let's acknowledge them.
But remember again,
They will not have the final word.
So just for a moment,
Allow one of the losses of your life to come to your mind.
Someone,
Something,
Maybe a season,
A dream,
A part of yourself.
Just hold it.
And imagine God coming close.
And wiping your tears.
You're not forgotten.
Your pain matters and there will come a day when mourning will no longer have the final word.
And then the evangelist writes this amazing claim,
Death will be no more.
It's interesting,
We often see death as the great enemy that runs through the human experience.
Everything we love just seems temporary,
Right?
People die,
Bodies age,
Relationships change.
Even places disappear,
Seasons end.
Even our happiest moments.
Carry the moment that they're not going to last forever.
And quite often we think about that even when we're in the midst of them.
But Revelation says there'll be no more death.
The story doesn't end with loss,
It ends with life.
And so think about the journey.
That we've walked over the last 10 episodes.
The prodigal son left home because he thought there was life somewhere else.
The sheep just wandered.
The disciples walked away intentionally.
Peter tried to return to his old life.
With fishing.
Zacchaeus climbed a tree to get above the crowd.
And now we discover the final destination.
A world made new,
A world in which God dwells with us,
Where death no longer separates.
Where tears are wiped away.
Where mourning is brought to an end and a world in which pain is no longer.
In authority.
Maybe home isn't a place that we can really truly fully imagine.
And that's why I think John.
.
.
In Revelation uses images,
He talks of a city,
A bride,
A garden,
A river,
A tree of life and light.
And as you sit with these,
At least for me,
I kept coming back to one thing,
And that is belonging.
Home is where we belong.
All of these images pointed to a place where we're safe and where we're known,
Where nothing that is essential can be lost.
And where God is present.
Let's return to the words of God in this passage.
See,
I'm making all things new.
See.
Right,
Look,
Pay attention,
Notice.
Throughout the series,
We've been learning to notice the Father on the horizon,
The shepherd searching,
Jesus on the road,
Charcoal fires,
Still waters,
The invitation to the thirsty,
The heart of God,
Jesus looking up at Zacchaeus,
A breakfast fire,
And now see,
Look,
God is making all things new.
And that seeing.
That's heart of the spiritual life,
Learning to notice the beginnings of that new creation.
Already around us.
And what's important too,
Is that this new creation begins now.
Revelation.
Isn't about some future off in the distance somewhere.
It changes the way we live now if God is making all things new.
Then we participate in that renewal.
This was at the heart of Jesus' message too.
Every act of reconciliation is a little sign of that new creation.
Every act of mercy,
Every time we feed someone,
Every time we protect creation,
Every time we forgive.
When we listen,
When we refuse hatred,
When we choose compassion,
Every time we create beauty and make space for another person to belong,
We become signs of the home that God is creating.
And I think this is core of the whole series.
We've been learning what it means to come home.
But there's another vocation here,
And that's to become a home for others.
The Father becomes home for the Son.
The Shepherd creates safety for the sheep.
Jesus becomes home for the disciples.
Peter's restoration makes him capable of feeding others,
Zacchaeus opens his house,
Jesus feeds his friends,
And God promises to make God's home among us.
The question now is just,
Who needs somewhere to belong?
And their response to that is another question.
And that is,
Can my life become a place where that person experiences that belonging?
So.
.
.
10 episodes.
The prodigal son.
Like a lost sheep.
Emmaus.
Peter's restoration.
Psalm 23.
Isaiah 55 How's I?
The case.
Breakfast by the sea.
And now the new heaven and the new earth of Revelation 21.
What have they been telling us?
Well,
You can wander and you can get lost and you can fail.
You can become thirsty and distracted.
You become someone that you don't recognize yourself.
You can be exhausted.
You can lose your way.
But despite all of these things,
You are not beyond home,
Because God keeps coming.
Towards you and the great surprise there.
Is that home was then never as far away as we thought it might be.
The Father was waiting.
The shepherd was searching.
Jesus was walking beside the disciples and standing on the shore.
And the waters were already there.
And God's compassion was already moving.
And Jesus was already looking up.
And breakfast was already prepared.
And the city is already coming down.
And again and again,
Scripture says grace gets there first.
First.
So,
For the final meditation of this series,
I want you to imagine the whole journey,
Beginning with the road.
You've been walking a long time,
You've wandered,
You've become tired,
You've carried things no longer needed and now you see something up ahead.
Light.
You keep walking,
You hear water,
You hear voices,
You smell bread.
There's a fire and a table and people and you realise that you're home.
Your home.
Because this is the place where you're welcomed and you look up and God is there and God says,
See.
And you look around and everything is being made new,
And tears are gone,
And fear is gone,
And separation is gone,
And all the effort that we put out to do things that we really don't need to do is gone,
And we're not wandering anymore.
Why?
Because we belong.
You.
Aww.
Home.
Now one last thing to remember.
Coming home isn't a once-in-all event.
We're going to wander again,
Get distracted again,
Forget again,
Lose our way again.
There'll be days when the road feels long,
But now you know something.
You know the direction.
You know the voice,
You know the shepherd,
You know the fire.
You know,
The table.
And you know the invitation,
Come.
So,
When you wonder.
.
.
Come.
When you fail,
Come.
When you're thirsty,
Come.
When you're exhausted.
When you're grieving,
Come.
When you don't know what to do.
Just come.
When you've forgotten who you are.
And when you're ready.
To begin again.
God of the way,
God of the home,
God of the beginning and the end,
Thank you for walking with us.
Thank you for finding us when we're lost,
For waiting when we wander.
For restoring us when we fail,
For feeding us when we're hungry.
For leading us when we can't see.
For meeting us in the ordinary places,
For promising that the story doesn't end with brokenness.
You are making all things new.
So make us new.
Make our homes places of welcome,
Our relationships places of mercy.
Make our communities places of belonging.
Make our lives signs of your coming kingdom.
And when we forget the way,
Remind us that we're not travelling towards a God who's far away,
Because you're already here,
You're already coming towards us,
And you're already making your home among us.
And one day,
All things will be home.
And may grace,
Peace and love hold us.
Now and forever.
Amen.
Thanks so much for walking the way home over the last 10 episodes.
Maybe there's one sentence from the 10 episodes that you might carry with you.
Maybe it's come home or do you love me?
Maybe the Lord is my shepherd or come to the waters.
How can I give you up?
Come and have breakfast,
Or maybe today's C,
I'm making all things new.
Whatever words have stayed with you,
Let them be prayers.
The journey is deeper into the presence of God.
And at the end of it all,
We discover something that we've been learning this whole time.
The way is a relationship.
It's a person.
It's the God who keeps calling,
Keeps searching,
Keeps waiting,
Keeps walking,
Keeps feeding,
Keeps loving,
And finally says,
See,
I'm making all things new.
And then,
Come home.
Grace and peace friends.
Bye for now.
