Lancaster First United Methodist Church
November 1, 2009
Hebrews 7:23-28 & Mark 10:46-52
Rev. Robert McDowell

“The Breath-Taking View of God’s Future World”

Before we moved to Lancaster this past summer, our family took a day to get to know the area. And one of the things we did was to climb to the top of Mt. Pleasant. Little did we know what a steep climb it would be to make it to the top of Mt. Pleasant!

All the way up that hill, we kept wondering, “Are we ever going to make it to the top?” “Is all of this effort going to be worth it?”

As we got closer to the top of the hill, we could begin to see the metal railing along the edge of the cliff. Knowing that we were not that far from our destination, we began to pick up the pace and before too long, we were at the very top, looking at the breathtaking view of Lancaster and Fairfield County.

There’s something that attracts us to these picturesque views in which we can take in the vast landscape around us.

All Saints’ Sunday is a Sunday in the church year that is designed to elevate us to a level that will help us see the expansive and panoramic breathtaking view of that time in the future when this earth will be completely filled with the glory and splendor of God.

From our appointed scripture readings for this All Saints’ Sunday – the Book of Isaiah, the Gospel of John, and the Book of Revelation – I want to highlight four important reasons why God’s future world offers us a breath-taking view.

The first reason why this is such a breath-taking view is because the time is coming when sadness and death will be no more. The prophet Isaiah, in looking toward that time of God’s future world, tells us that it will be a time when death will be swallowed up forever.

In the Book of Revelation, John sees a vision which is almost identical to the vision that Isaiah has. He too says that death, mourning, crying, and pain will be no more.

When Jesus finally makes it to Bethany, Mary and Martha come to him because they are grief stricken over their brother, Lazarus who had died. And Jesus, turning to God in prayer, calls for Lazarus to come forth from the tomb.

And John is careful to point out that the dead man came out of the tomb with his hands and feet still bound with strips of burial cloth and his face wrapped in a cloth. Jesus tells them to unbind him and let him go. Jesus brought Lazarus back to life as a foretaste of that time in the future when death will finally be defeated once and for all.

A second reason why God’s future world is so breath-taking is because this will be a time when all of God’s people will be united with God forever. Our scripture from the Book of Revelation says that heaven and earth will come together as a bride and a groom come together, and God will dwell with his people for ever. That’s a promise that there will be a time when everyone who has placed their faith in Jesus Christ will be together again.

This past week, I visited with one of our church members whose wife passed away five years ago, and we spent a few moments thinking about what it will be like when we will be reunited with our loved ones. What an incredible time that will be.

The third reason why God’s future world is so breath-taking is because this will be a time that is filled with great joy. I see this from our Isaiah passage in which Isaiah says that when that future time comes, we will be glad and rejoice in God’s salvation.

And why wouldn’t we if death has been defeated and if we will be united with God forever in God’s future world? This is why we can also be filled with joy in the present moment, in the here and now, because our faith helps us to see that a day is coming when God will make all things new.

God’s future world offers us a breath-taking view because it will be a time when death and sadness will be no more, we will be united with God forever, and it will be a time of great joy and gladness.

And this leads me to the fourth reason why this view is breath-taking. God’s future world will be a place where there is plenty for all. In our Isaiah passage, he gives us this wonderful vision of a time when all peoples will enjoy a feast of rich food and God will destroy the shroud that is cast over all peoples.

Can you imagine a world in which all people have access to the basic necessities of life and where the world’s resources are distributed in such a way that people do not have to go hungry or wonder where they will find their next meal? That day will come, Isaiah says. And until then, we are the ones God is calling to make sure there is plenty for all.

With sweat dripping off my forehead and dirt all over my clothes, I stood at the top of a steep hill under a hot Guatemalan sun this past July. It was the third full day in which our fourteen member mission team had just completed a water project to help a small and impoverished community of about seventeen people to be able to have access to clean water without them needing to walk several miles every day to carry it back to their community.

On the first day of the project, our work site coordinator showed us our job. With our team standing at the bottom of a hill next to a small community consisting of tin shacks, he pointed across the grassy fields, and toward a rocky corn field that was on the slope of a hill, and then from there he pointed to a very steep part of the hill that led up to a new well.

And he said to us, “From where we stand, through these grassy fields, up the hill where the cornfield is on a slope, and then up that really steep part of the hill to the new water well is approximately 270 meters long. Our job is to dig a one and a half foot trench from here to the top of that hill, then lay water pipe in the trench, and then cover it back up with dirt so that this community can begin to have clean water.”

He then pointed to some pix axes and shovels nearby and said, “This is what we’re going to use to dig the water trench. Oh, and there’s also a couple of machetes we’re going to need to cut through the roots of some of those trees up the hill.” Most of the people in our mission team were in their mid to late fifties and one of our members was 80 years old. The sun was extremely hot and we were wondering how we were going to pull off this water project.

But guess what? Three days later, there we were, standing at the top of the hill, having just thrown the last shovel of dirt over top of the last few feet of water pipe. We were hot, sweaty, and barely able to keep our footing on the loose soil at the top of that hill.

It was a moment the fourteen of us will never forget. We stood there motionless as we looked down the hill at the 270 meter long trench and water pipe, now covered over with freshly shoveled dirt.

Around us in the distance with the sun piercing through the blue sky, we marveled at the beautiful volcanoes and the majestic mountains. To the other side, we could see one of the most beautiful and clear lakes in the world, Lake Atitlan.

And at the bottom of the hill, we could see the tiny tin and cinderblock dwellings of the people of Pachitulul, who because of the new water line would now have access to clean water in their community.

It was in that holy moment, that we got a little glimpse of the breath-taking view of God’s future world.

It’s a view that All Saints’ Sunday won’t let us forget.