Keeping the Faith

Proverbs tells us that without a vision, people will perish. When you have a vision of the future, you can go through all kinds of trials and tribulations. The vision gives us hope and courage to change the status quo for the sake of a better future. Our world today is suffering for lack of vision. We need vision as individuals, we need vision for our community and nation, and we need a vision for the whole world.

President Obama knows this. He has a vision of universal health care which caught enough people's imagination that Congress actually passed a health care bill. There is still a long way to go before the vision is realized, but just having that vision has kept people on board and working at it.

As followers of Jesus Christ, we have been given a vision. It is based on the life and teachings of Jesus. The gospel vision is always going to be greater than the vision of any political party. One of the traps people of faith can fall into is to identify the gospel vision too closely with the vision of a particular group or ideology. But God's dream for the world always goes beyond anything human beings come up with. We can make provisional alliances with individuals and groups when they seem to be realizing part of God's dream for the world, but we always have to maintain a critical perspective based on the gospel. That is what it means to be in the world but not of it.

The readings from John and from Revelation both address vision, in different ways. In the gospel, Jesus tells his disciples that whoever loves him will keep his word. Then he restates it negatively: "whoever does not love me, does not keep my words…" What does it mean to "keep" Jesus' word/s? The Greek word that is translated "keep" means to care for, to tend. Southerners use "keep" like that, as in "my mother keeps my children after school." The organization Riverkeepers is using the word in the same sense-those who care for or tend, the Hudson River. So Jesus is asking us to take care of the gospel message that he came to bring us-the message of hope and salvation for the whole world. "I came not to condemn the world, but to save it." "I am the light of the world." "The light shines in the darkness and the darkness did not overcome it."

Jesus is asking us to keep the faith, to tend the vision. What we have to offer the world as people of faith is the gospel vision of what the world could be. The reading from Revelation offers us a striking picture of that future that is worth reflecting on in some detail.

The text speaks of a new Jerusalem coming down from heaven. On the one hand, we are being given a tour of heaven-life after death. On the other hand, we are being shown heaven on earth, so we will have the courage to hope that the present can be different.

One of the first things we notice is that there is no temple in this new Jerusalem. No temple is necessary because God and the Lamb are the temple. God's unmediated presence is available to all people. Clearly, the little things that churches and denominations argue about aren't that important. The church won't be Baptist, Catholic, Seventh Day Adventist or even Episcopalian. Rituals, sacrifices, doctrine, dogma won't matter-only God matters. And all have access to God in this vision.

Another thing we notice is that there is no need for lights in the city because God is the light, and God's light is always shining. There is no more night. Jesus' promise to us that the darkness will not overcome the light will be fulfilled. The evil in the world will not have the final say--violence, cruelty, greed and domination will be overcome by the light of God's love.

The third thing we notice about this vision is that the kings, nations and peoples of the world are there. The last time the kings and the nations are mentioned in the book of Revelation, they were assembled against the Lord. They were engaged in idolatrous worship and in economic and military oppression.

So, this image of heaven or heaven on earth includes people previously considered enemies. The gates are open-people are streaming in from all over.

Inside the city, the river of the water of life flows from the throne of God. On either side of the river is the tree of life with its 12 kinds of fruit and its leaves for healing the nations. In other words, everything that is needed for life and wholeness is freely available to everyone. There is no more famine, injustice, exploitation, want or hunger. Creation is restored to its original perfection and purity, and human society is restored to peace and health.

Finally, the climax of the vision-all will see God's face and all will have his name on their foreheads.

This is a vision worth holding onto-and worth tending. It's not just pie in the sky when we die. As we look around the world, and see the mess that we are in, this vision is our hope for the future and our guide for action in the present. And because we can imagine it, we can also work for it and hold it up for others. As followers of Christ, this is what we have to offer the world.

In the year 2001, UN member nations adopted the Millennium Development Goals, with the purpose of eliminating poverty by 2015. There are 8 goals:

Goals

o 2.1 Goal 1: Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger

o 2.2 Goal 2: Achieve universal primary education

o 2.3 Goal 3: Promote gender equality and empower women

o 2.4 Goal 4: Reduce child mortality

o 2.5 Goal 5: Improve maternal health

o 2.6 Goal 6: Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases

o 2.7 Goal 7: Ensure environmental sustainability

o 2.8 Goal 8: Develop a global partnership for development

The Episcopal Church adopted these goals as part of our gospel vision for the world-it is one of those provisional alliances that I mentioned earlier. At the conference I attended the week before last, I had the opportunity to hear a man named Josh Ruxin speak about the status of the Millennium Development goals. He teaches public health at Columbia but lives and works in Rwanda. He believes that the goals are achievable-he points to evidence that the world has become a wealthier and healthier place in the last 100 years. A number of countries and regions have made substantial progress on the Millennium Development goals, most notably China and India. Sub-saharan Africa where he lives is still the poorest region in the world, and in fact it has gotten worse in the last 20 years because of AIDS, malaria, TB, civil war and corruption. The government of Rwanda sought Josh out to help them move forward with the goals. So he has organized a town about the size of Kingston as a demonstration project. In five years, the town has been transformed. They now have clean water, they have health care, schools, roads. They have a lot more jobs because they started up a tourism company and they are now starting a dairy farm so that kids can have clean fresh milk.

He believes that in spite of all the obstacles in this poorest region of the world, it is still possible to eliminate poverty. He has a vision for the world, and that vision gives him hope in the future, and courage and a guide for action in the present.

I also had the chance to hear Pete Seeger sing this week at a conference for diocesan priests. He sang a song called "Don't say it can't be done." The chorus is-"Don't say it can't be done/the battle's just begun. Take it from Dr. King/you too can learn to sing/so, drop the gun!"

As people of faith, we are called to tend to the vision, hold it up for the world to see, and keep the faith that it can be done.