What's So New About New Creation!?

Rev. Tommy A. Thompson

Fifth Sunday in Easter

Acts 11:1-18; Revelation 21:1-6; John 13:31-35

2 May 2010

Alleluia! Christ is risen!

These are the words with which we continue to greet one another. With joy we look into one another’s eyes and say, “Alleluia! Christ is risen.” Not, “Alleluia! Christ died and is now reincarnate...” not “Alleluia! Christ died and went to heaven....” No, our greeting for the entirety of the great fifty days of Easter is “Alleluia! Christ is risen!”

This greeting means something! It means that Jesus, who was dead, is now alive. It means that the Jesus whose physical body was dead was revived and that he lived again in his physical body in this creation... What It does not mean is that Jesus somehow went floating into some mysterious eternity; that’s greek philosophy, not Christian faith!

The fact that we say it so much during the most celebratory time of the year should give us the hint that we consider the resurrection of Jesus Christ to be more important than anything else. Everything else happened for the purpose of resurrection, which is the most pivotal and climactic event in universal history and the fulfillment of all true hope.

The resurrection of Jesus is the beginning of the new creation that knows no end. Note the bible’s use of language: the beginning of new “creation...” God affirmed his creation in the beginning when he called it not only good but “very good.” The resurrection is God’s bold affirmation that what he said in the beginning is true now...he has not given up on His creation...no, instead he has redeemed it!

The material creation that was corrupted by human sin is now redeemed. For the one who became one with creation has won victory over the corruption of sin! As one ancient hymn exclaims, “Adam has been summoned back and the curse has been neutralized; Eve has been liberated; death has been put to death and we have been brought to life!”

God did not abandon his project and begin some new project called live/die/then go to an immaterial and spiritual heaven. That is far from the truth of the Gospel. The truth of the Gospel is that Jesus became what we are and lived our life in every way that we live except two things. Unlike Adam, Eve and every person that has lived after them, Sin could not get its grasp upon him who was victorious over temptation and death could not hold Him down!?

But what is it about Jesus that caused him to be victorious over temptation, sin, and death when no other human being has ever been able to accomplish this? What is so new about this new creation inaugurated by the risen Jesus who is the firstborn, the prototype, of the new creation!?

We do not need to read the Gospel for very long before it is revealed to us that Jesus is not only fully human but also truly God. We do not need to read the Gospel for very long before it is revealed to us that God is love. They mystery of our Lord and our God is that He shares perfect union with the Father in the Holy Spirit, the bond of love. The most exact statement a person can say about the God revealed in Christian Scripture is that God is love. This love has been revealed to us in the self-giving/self-sacrificial life of Jesus, the Son of God, the second person of the Trinity whose love became incarnate for the sake of our salvation.

What is so new about new creation? What is so new about the “age to come,” that has come to fruition in Jesus Christ? Love! Love that has conquered sin and death and has opened a new age for God’s creation. An age that is no longer held in check by the law but an age that has been freed from every list of dos and don’ts...and age where the Spirit of God dwells in human hearts, freeing them from the curse of sin, reviving their physical bodies to live where Jesus is: enjoying perfect union with His Father in the Holy Spirit!

Earlier we claimed the resurrection is the most “pivotal” event to ever occur in universal history. When something is named “pivotal,” it means that it is not the end but the beginning of a new direction...it is that gigantic step in the right direction. And this was God’s intention...With the resurrection of Jesus Christ, the world did not immediately reach its fulfillment...The resurrection is the pivotal event in human history: it is that crucial event that is the beginning of a new direction...a movement from sin to holiness, from ill-being to well-being...from the age that is passing away to the age to come.

Remember, the resurrection is God’s bold “yes!” to his creation of which he was originally very pleased. It is God’s “yes!” to human beings created in His image and likeness, who are called to be a royal priesthood, sharing in God’s reign on earth. So it makes sense that God would invite us human beings, marred and scarred by sin, into a journey of healing so that they might once again join with Him in His grand project of love.

What am I getting at here? Yes, you guessed it...salvation history continues in the church’s faithfulness in participating in God’s project of new creation which is synonymous with God’s grand project of love. For love is what is so new about the new creation!

It makes sense that Jesus prepares us for his ascension with these words, doesn’t it:

“Now the Son of Man has been glorified, and God has been glorified in him. If God has been glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself and will glorify him at once. Little children, I am with you only a little longer. you will look for me; and as i said to the jews so now i say to you. ‘Where I am going, you cannot come.’ I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

These words prepare the church for Jesus’ ascension to the right hand of the Father, where he passes beyond the veil into the heavenly realm. There is a reason that we cannot yet enter the veil or see through it...or be exactly where Jesus is going...God has a purpose for us in this age that is passing away...God invites us, instead of leaving the world and going to the heavenly realm, to take heaven into the world, making new creation reality everywhere these two realms clash, until the ultimate clashing takes place as revealed in Revelation 21, when the new Jerusalem comes down from heaven like a bride adorned for her husband!

How do we accept God’s invitation? How do we take heaven into the decaying world? By obeying the new commandment that sums up and fulfills all others: love! Love, not as we would imagine love but love as has been revealed in Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection! Love is what is new about the new creation. Love is what sin could not grasp...what death could not hold...love is what leaped up from the grave and opened the new creation once and for all! Love is where it’s at!

Peter learned something about this love...about heaven and earth clashing...as revelation literally came down from heaven much like the new jerusalem comes down from heaven and taught Peter to abandon the lists of dos and don’ts that cause distinctions and to live and let love unify diversity in God’s creation. And that day it was proclaimed that “God has given even to the Gentiles the repentance that leads to life!”

How might God be calling us, calling you, to take heaven into the earth? How might God use us, use you, to cause a holy collision that brings forth the repentance that leads to life?!

Today, on the fifth Sunday in Easter, the risen One has made another appearance to us, calling forth obedience to the one command of the new creation: to go into the world loving the other as Christ has loved us! I pray that God will continue to break our hearts...to heal our hearts so that we who were once part of the hostility of sin’s curse might become those who make known the risen savior in the time between His ascension and re-appearing!

The new creation has been inaugurated, like Jesus reveals in Revelation, it will come to fruition...but for now it depends on us, the church, to take the future into the present where holy collisions lead to newness of life, where the age to come becomes visible even in the age that is passing away!

Jesus said, “Little children, i am with you only a little longer. You will look for me; and as I said to the Jews so now I say to you, ‘where I am going, you cannot come.’ I give you a new commandment: that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this, everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

Alleluia! Christ is risen! Amen.