[Sorry, no audio today. It helps to put a card in the mic! Of course, the video is available in FB and YouTube.]
Sermon – A Sight for Sore Eyes
Acts 11:1-18; Revelation 21:1-6
Farmville Presbyterian Church
5/18/25
There are things that I have seen that have changed my life. When I was on a hike on the Appalachian Trail in college, we emerged into a dip to the trail up in the mountains. It was a big depression where clouds had filled the space with thick fog through which we could barely see the boulders and ancient trees. It was unlike anything I had ever seen before, unlike any place I had ever been. Suddenly, it was like being transferred to another world, and my spirit felt the presence of God like I had never before. It was like I could touch God in that moment.
Just a couple of years later, I was present at a Promise Keepers rally in the then Washington Redskin’s stadium. Promises Keepers is an organization meant to support men’s spirituality and virtue. I was there with my father and something like 50,000 other men singing hymns of praise to God. Again, that was unlike anything I had ever seen, and again, I felt related to God and God’s children in a new way in that moment.
The vision of our first child (and honestly, all three) was another moment when I knew change in a tangible way then and there. I mentioned not too long ago in a sermon how that moment turned my idea of grace on its head. In fact, a door was opened in that moment, and I realized God’s love in a burst of new life.
I have no doubt you have seen things that changed your life, also. Today, we are considering a special kind of transformational seeing – divine visions. It is seeing beyond sight. I had maybe one vision experience when I had a fever as a child. Maybe it was hallucinating, but it was somewhat scary. Also, when I was a child, I had an experience where I may have heard a divine voice – no sight but sound. The Apostle Peter, however, was able to receive the whole package.
You heard Peter try to explain his vision that forever changed his life and the life of the church, for that matter. The other church leaders back home in Jerusalem are very upset with Peter. I mentioned last week that Peter was about to do something that would rock the early church. Today, we see the outrage following. Peter was summoned to the home of a Roman centurion and ended up baptizing the centurion’s entire household. None of them became Jews, but Peter marked them as part of the faith and the family of God because of a big vision he had three times. That vision was such a fantastic change that God had to give it to Peter thrice. From then on, everyone mattered as a follower or Jesus and a child of God, part of God’s family, Jew or Gentile (that is a non-Jew). As gentiles, these new believers were not “clean” in the Jewish sense, and Peter ate with them. That was crossing a line for which he had to answer. His answer was the vision.
Throughout the Bible, we have God-given visions meant to guide the people. Some are miraculous happenings like the burning bush with Moses. Others are more like today’s vision such as dreams of Jacob or Joseph. The idea is that God was communicating to God’s people in that day. The Scriptural witness is clear that the Spirit of God shared important truths with the people in amazing and fantastic and dramatic ways. Of course, they did not have Bibles like we do today. God’s Word came from the prophets or angels themselves. There were leaders who were tasked with communicating God’s heart, but without Bibles, God’s messages were isolated.
Even with Bibles and churches and preachers and all kinds of social media, we might feel strangely cut off today. Honestly, we are far more connected than ever before in the history of humanity, but we may not have the same communication line with the Holy Spirit. Frankly, God does not seem to really offer visions like in the biblical witness. And honestly, I cannot help but be a bit cynical or suspicious of those who might say they have experienced such a thing just for that very reason. There are plenty of folk out there in the world who want 15 minutes of fame, and there are others who are suffering some kind of mental brokenness that might lead them to believe something that never happened. But to believe that it cannot happen does not seem to give God much credit. Even though reports come without any proof or even firsthand experience, that does not mean it cannot happen. What’s important is what someone’s testimony does for the people of God and God’s Kingdom. Does the message advance the love of God in Jesus Christ? Or does it celebrate individuals and personal glory? Does a vision make us better people and more faithful, or does it contribute nothing positive?
The entire Book of Revelation is one big vision, a dream-like vision from the Apostle John. He admits that in the beginning, but what he sees is amazing and miraculous and scary and beautiful. Honestly, plenty of people stay away from Revelation for this very reason. It can be tricky to know what to do with it. It might be tempting to brush it off because it does not seem as relevant to today. In truth, even in the early church, they struggled to fit it into the list of official Christian writings, but I am grateful they did, if for no other reason than the last couple of chapters. We are reading one of them this week and next week, and this is a vision we should also cherish.
This passage gives us a beautiful picture of what is to come. The God of our creation will never leave us. In fact, the end is for God to come make a home with us. In the Exodus, God did something similar with the ark of the covenant and the tabernacle when God in a way travelled with the people through the wilderness, but it was a physical presence that was less obvious and required a special tent (tabernacle), walled off from the people. Here in Revelation, God’s presence will flood the land. A dramatic change – a new heaven and new earth – will usher in a new relationship in which we will be married to God. That love will heal and comfort. More about that vision next week. For now, we need to see that God is showing us a future not in some faraway place or on some cloud or out in space or in another dimension. God’s love will be fully embraced, fully recognized right here, and we will know a healing like nothing we can even imagine because we cannot really imagine a life without suffering. The picture of God’s love in the Bible begins with a wedding and ends with a wedding. Life is meant to be lived in loving relationship, and that goes double for God. That is our future and our hope.
Can that change your life, though? Can you receive a glimpse of God’s goodness or faithfulness or love that can change your life? We certainly need every help we can get today.
I heard an interesting story this week about someone in Farmville who I am going to call Ruby. This just happened. She suffered a catastrophic health crisis and was in intensive care. In fact, her care was so challenged that the hospital brought her children in to say their final farewells. There was no prospect of her regaining consciousness, again. What they could not see in the room, however, was the vision that Ruby had. She was visited by her deceased husband and father and Jesus himself. Jesus was the only one who spoke, but he told her that her time was not done and that there was more for her. Then, she woke up to the amazement of everyone and came home shortly thereafter. Her conclusion is “If I was not a believer before, I am now.” You can imagine that she is a changed person. I can believe that she received that vision.
And I can be envious that I have never had quite that experience, but I also have to recognize what she had to go through to get there. I don’t think I want to have to travel that far to come back, but I have been changed in my thinking about God’s visions for us. I do think it happens more often that I know when God wants us to see something and know something and do something. God needs us to be a changed people and will not miss the opportunity to let us know. It is up to us to retain willing spirits – willing to see and willing to be renewed. That is not easy because it means that we will be different, but I love the idea of being drawn closer to the heart of God. I hope you do, too. With eyes and hearts open, let us give God the glory. Amen.