The Fifth Sunday of Easter | 5.19.2025 | Andrew F. Weisner | Revelation 21:1-7 |

Acts 11:1-18
Psalm 150

Revelation 21:1-7
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. ²And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. ³And 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; ⁴he 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.” ⁵And the one who was seated on the throne said, “See, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this, for these words are trustworthy and true.” ⁶Then he said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give water as a gift from the spring of the water of life. ⁷ The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God and he will be my son.

John 16:12-22
¹² “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. ¹³ When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. ¹⁴ He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. ¹⁵ All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you. ¹⁶ “A little while, and you will see me no longer; and again a little while, and you will see me.” ¹⁷ So some of his disciples said to one another, “What is this that he says to us, ‘A little while, and you will not see me, and again a little while, and you will see me’; and, ‘because I am going to the Father’?” ¹⁸ So they were saying, “What does he mean by ‘a little while’? We do not know what he is talking about.” ¹⁹ Jesus knew that they wanted to ask him, so he said to them, “Is this what you are asking yourselves, what I meant by saying, ‘A little while and you will not see me, and again a little while and you will see me’? ²⁰ Truly, truly, I say to you, you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice. You will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn into joy. ²¹ When a woman is giving birth, she has sorrow because her hour has come, but when she has delivered the baby, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a human being has been born into the world. ²² So also you have sorrow now, but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you.

Homily

       Many of us, as we get older, can’t see as well as we once did. I have worn glasses for many years, and for most of those years, I wore the same prescription. A few years ago I went to the eye doctor for a check-up and as I left, he said, „As you go out the door, make an appointment to come back next year. You don’t need new glasses right now, but you’ll certainly need them next year. I’ll see you in about 12 months.“

       Folks, do you guess Mary Magdalene couldn’t see well in that famous story from St. John’s gospel, chapter 20, when she went to the garden where Jesus was buried, saw that the tomb was empty, and then, Jesus shows up to greet her, but she didn’t recognize him? She mistook him to be – who? Do you remember? She mistook him to be the gardener! And, while crying, she said to him, “Sir, if you have taken [my Lord] away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.”

       Wonder why Mary Magdalene didn’t recognize that it was Jesus standing there talking to her?” We may offer speculations. Here are a few… 1) Well, after all, she was in a GARDEN! It makes sense that there would be a gardener there! A second possible explanation: She was crying; her eyes were full of tears, so she couldn’t see clearly. Ok, that may be; but rarely, if ever, have I seen someone with eyes that full of tears. But this third explanation could be more likely: Mary was there expecting to see Jesus dead. In her heart and mind, she was not prepared to see him alive; she could not recognize him.

       Here is why I think the third explanation more likely. Even now, these many generations and hundreds of years later, after centuries of the Church’s proclamation of the resurrection, unfortunately, many Christians, and even many congregations, go about their lives and their daily, weekly affairs, their worship and their ministries, like Mary in the garden, not really realizing “he is alive!,” not really expecting to see the Lord „show up,“  and thus are unable to see the Risen Lord Jesus and his works around them.

Indeed, it is not easy to live our busy lives, to carry-on our daily routines, to engage in all our activities and affairs, remembering, believing, proceeding with our lives, thinking, “He lives! The Risen, death-conquering Lord, is here among us! Oh! Wonder what he’s going to do next?” But indeed, he is alive, and moving among us; and we, like Mary, sometimes do not recognize him – or, as Jesus emphasizes in St. John’s gospel, do not recognize his works: we sometimes don’t recognize what are his works among us!

       But the message of his presence is before us in some way every Sunday. For example, again, from the apostle John – who wrote of Mary Magdalene in the garden – we have today from our second reading from the book of Revelation, chapter 21, verse 3: “Behold!, the home of God is among mortals! He will dwell with them as their God; they will be his people, and God himself will be with them!”

       Some of you have heard the story of the man in the town where the flood waters were moving into town and all the villagers were told to evacuate. The man decided to stay in his house, not leaving, saying he would trust God to take care of him. When the flood waters came, a rescue boat came by and asked the man to get in. “Oh no!,” said the man, “I’m staying here; God promised to take care of me.” The flood waters rose and another boat came by, extending the same invitation, and again, the man refused to leave, saying, “Oh no! God promised to take care of me!” The waters continued to rise and the man was sitting on his roof!, and a helicopter came by. “Get in, Mister, you’re going to drown!,” and the man refused; “Oh no! God’s going take care of me!” So, the man drowned! And he went to heaven, and stood before the Lord, and he questioned the Lord: “Why didn’t you, as the flood waters got so bad, take care of me?” To which the Lord replied: “I sent you two boats and a helicopter; what more did you want me to do!?!”

       Have you ever been sick … and got well? Has your car ever been broken down … and somebody came to help you? Students: Have you ever dropped all your books and papers, and somebody came along and helped you pick them up? Have you ever been sad, and crying, and a friendly hand touched you kindly on the shoulder, and offered a kind word to help? Have you ever felt overwhelmed by a tragedy (or maybe, tragedy after tragedy!), and people came to your aid, encouraged and supported you, and maybe even offered you food and sustenance? “Behold: God lives among mortals; he makes his home among human beings; they will be his people, and God himself will be with them.”

       Have you ever heard about people living far-far away, in a distant land, and they are in school, training for important work; and lo and behold, suddenly a flash-flood develops, and much of their school is washed away; and then people from far-far away hear about it — people who have never met these folks that got  flooded out! — and they send them resources to help build back their school? Have you ever heard of such? Why would any folks do something like that? “Behold! God lives among human beings…God himself will be with them.”

       Have you ever heard of — can you imagine? — complete strangers that you nor anybody among your family or friends know, and their house catches on fire and there’s nothing left. And then a Christian congregation hears of it, and within a week, packs two 14-foot trailers with furniture and clothes and utensils and nearly everything a family would need in a home, and delivers it all to them. What in the world would possess a crowd of people to do such?  “Behold: God lives among human beings,“ touching their hearts  to give of themselves to help others.

       Jesus, who was crucified, who died, was raised from the tomb; he now lives. He is alive among us, today and all our days, touching and changing hearts, and anything that is good, He is the one who is doing it among us. He shows up, sometimes unexpectedly, not clearly seen or known. And those who have lived before us have claimed that he even shows up veiled — in water, or bread and wine.    Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.

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Pastor Andrew F. Weisner, Ph.D.
pastorweisner@gmail.com
Pastor, New Covenant Lutheran Church
Morganton, North Carolina, USA
Faculty, North American Lutheran Seminary, Ambridge, PA, USA