Rochester, MN UCC - "Our Common Goal" - Revelation 21:1-6

There is a line in the preamble to the United Church of Christ’s Constitution that reads, “[The UCC] affirms the responsibility of the Church in each generation to make this faith its own in reality of worship, in honesty of thought and expression, and in purity of heart before God.” I love this line for two reasons. First, it testifies to the need for every generation to make the Christian faith their own. Secondly, it makes clear that there is a coherent and continuing content to Christianity; there is a faith that each generation must make their own. This dynamic of continuity and change is characteristic of Christian life- we are engaged in the practice of proclaiming to our present world the ancient truth of the gospel.

Last Sunday we welcomed new members into the life of our congregation through an affirmation of their baptism. This Sunday we celebrate 6 young people as they choose to confirm the same vows taken for them during their baptism. Welcoming these people into full membership in our congregation will change our community. Though we all share the same faith, these newer members will still face the responsibility and the call to make that faith their own. They have their own perspective, their own unique experiences, and their own insight into the gospel. Being in communion together will change both them and us.

Amidst the reality of change in the Christian life it is always worth remembering the content of our faith and its continuity. Our text from Revelation this week beautifully describes the eschaton, or end times. “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more... 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."” The fullness of the kingdom of God is described here- the full reality of God’s presence with us, an end to all sorrow, suffering, and death. The kingdom is not only something that we see at the end of all time, it is the end towards which we are working, and hoping, and striving in the midst of time. How the new generation will seek out and anticipate the coming of God’s kingdom will necessarily be different than how we have done it in the past. Yet the goal, the end, always remains the same- the end of sorrow, suffering, pain and death; the fullness of God’s kingdom come. May God help us all to strive for this goal in the manner in which each of us have been called.

Pastor Andrew Greenhaw