Sermon for Suites by the Lake – June 27, 2009 – The Hope of Heaven
Romans 1: 20 For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities--his eternal power and divine nature--have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made…”
Psalm 24:1 The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it; for he founded it upon the seas and established it upon the waters.
Psalm 91: 19:1 The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge. There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard.
1 John 4:16 And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him.
The world is drenched with God. How do you feel about that statement? For most of us, it’s a matter of perspective. We might only rarely feel that way. We may have a more cynical view based on our experience. Some of the pain we’ve lived through and the pain we’ve seen around us has impacted our ability to see life as it is.
But I contend that the world is drenched with God. I say that because I see that. I see that because, like many of you, I choose to look at life through eyes of faith. And of course our choices have a huge impact on our lives.
The good thing is that it’s NEVER too late to change our minds, it’s never too late to open new doors. As long as we have breath we have the capacity to embrace new things, new ways of living and new ways of seeing life.
Elizabeth Barrett Browning was one of the most prominent poets of the Victorian era. She was the wife of poet Robert Browning. She wrote this:
Earth is crammed with heaven,
And every common bush afire with God.
But only he who sees takes off his shoes;
The rest sit around and pluck blackberries.
The world, drenched with God. Earth crammed with heaven. The earth and everything in it is God’s. The heavens declare the glory of God. God IS love.
If this is the case, and I believe with all my heart that it is…if this is the case then what does this suggest for each of us about our lives and our eternities?
Life is rich, richer than we realize. It is rich with the richness of God who is love. The world is full of lush green trees and beautiful flowers. Beautiful natural art to be found in valleys and mountains.
Fantastic and fascinating creatures roam the earth and the seas. Love blossoms each spring. All of these are gifts to us from the hand of a loving and caring Creator who knows each of us intimately.
He knows you because He created you in your mother’s womb.
I’m going to ask ______________ to read from Psalm 139:13-18:
“For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them! Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand”.
You are known and loved by God, who made you and knows you and loves you and WANTS you to be with Him forever. God’s love is real, and it is tangible when our hearts are open. That’s why Jesus said it is so important to be, in many ways, like children. Children are open-minded, open-hearted and open-handed.
Earth is crammed with heaven. The world, drenched with God. Will we open our eyes to see it?
God’s love is real, right here and right now. My own life changed forever when I first opened my mind to the possibility that there might be a love in this universe so great and grand and majestic. Something in me came alive when I heard that God Himself knows me and cares about me.
Something happened when I heard that God’s love is so huge and profound that He sent His only Son to earth to reveal what God is really like to humanity, to teach us and to heal us and then, in one final act of unsurpassable love, God’s Son went to the cross so that you and I could forever know and live in a love relationship with the God of Creation.
Of course this is controversial. Of course people struggle with what that all means. If we could figure it out easily, it most likely wouldn’t be God. It would be some human fantasy.
God’s love is real here today. We’re all right now in a small chapel in the Suites by the Lake. We are all struggling in some area of life. Some are struggling with physical pain.
Some are struggling with emotions. Some are struggling with their faith. But we share a vital thing in common…we are not alone. We are NOT alone. God is here, and His presence and His love becomes meaningful to us personally if and when we choose to open our eyes and our hearts to Him.
God is here, to ease our discomfort, to help us with our emotions…to help us weep when we need to weep and laugh when we need to laugh.
And God is here to bring our bodies the ongoing healing they need. You know, we need constant repair.
A friend of mine in her 40’s who hadn’t had her own doctor for a number of years just found a new doctor, who told her on at her first appointment that she “needed a tune-up”.
We need constant repair, and we will need it until the day when our bodies stop working and our eyes close for the last time.
And, much to the surprise of some and to the delight of a great many others, we will find ourselves on the other side of the valley of suffering and death, fully conscious, fully alive, fully ourselves, free of things that slow us down and things that dim our view.
And we will see God as He is. 1 Corinthians 13:12 says: “Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known”.
I found a poem written by a remarkably clear-thinking poet who chose to not leave his or her name. It’s a poem about heaven. It’s a poem about the pathway that leads to God:
Light after darkness, gain after loss;
Strength after weakness, crown after cross;
Sweet after bitter, hope after fears;
Home after wandering, praise after tears;
Sheaves after sowing, sun after rain;
Sight after mystery, peace after pain;
Joy after sorrow, calm after blast;
Rest after weariness, sweet rest at last;
Near after distant, gleam after gloom;
Love after loneliness, life after tomb;
After long agony, rapture of bliss;
Right was the pathway, leading to this.
C. S. Lewis said this: “If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world”.
When you look at the world around you what do you see? I hope that you see a world drenched with God, a world crammed with heaven. I hope you see a world, an earth and everything in it, that is the Lord’s.
I hope that you see and believe that God’s love is real here and now. And God’s love is real forever.
I encourage you to trust in His love. To live with confidence in the mercy and loving kindness of a good God. I encourage you to place your trust or renew your trust in our Saviour, Jesus Christ, who loves you so much that He went to cross to die for your sins, and who now lives and reigns with God and Father and God the Holy Spirit, One God, forever and ever.
Let’s pray. God, You are good. Your love keeps us and woes us and opens our hearts and lives to faith. May we each place our faith in Jesus Christ Your Son, who died so that we might live with You forever. Touch us and bless us and open us up to Your powerful and transforming love. For it is Jesus’ name that we pray. Amen.
