Sermon – Solar Souls
Psalm 67; Revelation 21:10, 22-22:5
Farmville Presbyterian Church
5/25/25
Have you ever felt the hand of God? There are so many other things gripping us in these days that it might be difficult to know a better touch. We are easily worried and overwhelmed. Even if you are an ardent support of our President, I doubt you would say this is the most tranquil and calm time in our nation’s history. Things are happening every day; significant things are happening every day. Things are happening that will impact our lives for some time to come. That can make it harder to stop and feel the hand of God.
Last week I shared some of the experiences in my life that stood out as God-moments. Those were profound and powerful times that I knew God’s presence in the company of others, but I am not sure I would have said I could feel the hand of God. I know that my life has been directed by God’s hand. The day that I realized it was time to go to seminary and to become a minister is one of the most memorable days of my life, but I do not feel like I could have said that I actually felt God’s hand upon me.
This is something that might happen when you are very close to someone else – when they can reach out and touch in compassion. Last week we heard in the beginning of Revelation 21 how God would wipe away our tears. That is a close, intimate thing to do. You cannot wipe away tears from across the world, let alone across the room. Even across a table is a stretch. You must be next to someone, in their personal space, to share in that compassion. This morning was one of those moments. As my family was waiting in the emergency room for the medical determination (the talk was how to transport our daughter to Chippenham – by ambulance or med-flight), I was able to sit next to her and hold her hand and touch her leg. It strikes me just how profound it is to be able to sit with someone else like that. To be that close is the kind of love we might want and should expect from a parent – a father or mother. And there is plenty of father and mother language in the Bible for God, but it might be harder to get from some other passages to the kind of closeness that Revelation 21 and 22 invites.
There are pointers, however, to the way that we should really regard God our Heavenly Father. Jesus, in teaching us how to pray, invites us to pray with something like “Dad” and uses a form of that name that is more familiar than the formal “Father.” This makes sense to me. If I want to have a conversation with my parents, it is “mom and dad” more than “mother and father.” If the latter are your special “close words” for parents, then that is great and fine. I am just drawing a point about how our language signifies our relationships with others. When I talk to my dear wife, I am less inclined to call her wife or spouse and more apt to use her name. Other ways we communicate are perhaps less intended. “Yes, dear” might not mean what she thinks it means. I am not as thrilled about her to-do list as my agreement might signal. Jesus is using a word that draws us closer to God in the Lord’s Prayer, however, than we might think of in a formal prayer. It is an invitation to talk to someone closely. Psalm 67, on the other hand, is a lovely and useful song to God, but it does not feel like an embrace as much as a call to worship. Revelation 21 and 22 should feel like an embrace.
In fact, I deeply wish you could know the comfort that these passages are hoping to share. After all the chaos of the previous chapters: bowls and wrath, scrolls and torments, terrible monsters veiled as political commentary, and warnings to churches not living up to their call, we finally have where all of this vision is going. God will be with us in the kind of beautiful love that reflects a marriage. Our Heavenly Father will wipe our eyes, and tears and sadness will be no more. And today, we will not even need a sun or moon anymore. There will be so much divine glory right here with us that we will not even need a temple or church. The land will overflow with brightness and radiance. Everyone will come to respect that radiance, and our love will contribute to it. Yes, that is where I was going with the title “Solar Souls.” We will be a part of God’s glory through the end. This is not what MIGHT happen; this is what MUST happen. John’s vision is very clear that God has a specific goal for our history. This is the same John tradition that gives us a Jesus who is one with the Father, and we are one with him. Closeness, connectedness, and sharing in life and blessing are huge to this biblical tradition.
In other words, God touches us in good, healing, comforting, reassuring ways. This is exactly what Buck McKay told me Friday as I was sitting at the hospital with him. Just the day before, he had had a significant part of his foot amputated. His life will forever be changed, and it was no small surgery. He was hurting despite the pain medications which did not surprise me considering the nerve damage that would have occurred, but you would not have known it looking at him. He had a big smile on his face as we talked, and he asked me whether I believed God touches us. After his surgery, he said he literally felt a hand on his leg. No one was there, but the touch was tangible. He felt a sensation that was holding him in the kind of confidence he needed in this new stage of his life. He felt strength and comfort with that touch. He felt the hand of someone who would never leave him nor forsake him. He felt the kind of touch that would be willing to wipe your tears, hold your hands, and embrace you in your struggle. That is how we know we are loved.
Whether you have physically felt that kind of hand or not, you have known the hand of God in the kindness of others. We would not be here today if not for the love of others. Someone has expressed God’s hand to you in your life. Someone has given you that kindness and compassion. Every day we need it more and more, too.
Maybe that is why John tells us that all of history is moving to this love. The distance we might feel between God and others will be lost in love. Any time we are able to know that goodness now is just a glimpse of what is to come. Let me underline that: even the best of what we can share now is just a foretaste of what is to come. We will shine with what God’s glory is supposed to be. We will be whole in God’s presence. While we wait for that day, it is the perfect time to practice for what’s coming. Where it is safe and healing to be close, be closer. Where it is safe and healing to know an embrace, a gentle touch, and a compassionate hand, give those things. Nothing in this life says we must love. Nothing in this life says we must be together. Nothing in this life says good and love triumph. Nothing says those things but God. This is why we can look forward to the day when every knee shall bow and every tongue proclaim the glory of God. On that day, friends, we will shine together. Amen.
God the glory. Amen.