I'm not sure how many of you read the meditation on the bulletin cover for this last Sunday.  It is titled "Visions of Rapture" and offers, I think, a good "Lutheran perspective" on the reading from Revelation (21:1-6) about the "new heaven and new earth."  I will share it with you as a Lutheran "educational venture" in response to more evangelical "last days" theologies which are so popular today.

 

 

“However, our reading from Revelation today gives us a different picture.  We see the vision of a holy city, the New Jerusalem, coming down to earth.  This is not a flight from earth, like the bumper sticker theology, but a God who comes to make a home with us.  Revelation gives us this wonderful image of rapture:  God 'tents' with humankind, and with all of creation, living among us to wipe away tears and make our lives new.

 

“In the midst of our fears, Revelation offers the good news that God transforms our lives with hope.  In  the midst of voices that call for destruction, we hear that God has put an end to death and brings healing.  In the midst of loneliness and isolation, when we struggle to find meaning, we hear the promise that God pours out the water of life for the thirsty and parched.  Our God chooses to nurture and bless the earth and all that God has made.

 

“In Jesus, fully human, fully of the earth's flesh and blood, God has become enraptured with humanity and will not abandon us.  Don't look for the rapture in a distant, exclusive heaven.  Look for the rapture in the Incarnate One, risen from the dead, renewing the entire universe to be God's home."

 

Incredible, freeing, life changing "Good News."  Wouldn't you agree??

 

Peace,

 

Pastor Carol