31^st July 2014

Rev Dr Max Champion at St John's UCA Mt Waverley Sunday 29 June 2014

Lessons - Isaiah 11:1-9; Revelation 21:1-8; 22:12,13; Matthew 10:40-42.

'We believe that ... He will come again in glory to judge the living
and the dead, and his kingdom will have no end. ... (and) we look
for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come.'
(Nicene Creed)

The final affirmations of the Nicene Creed faithfully express Isaiah's
hope for and John's vision of a 'new heaven and a new earth' where
affliction, sin and death will end, war and persecution will cease, evil
will be judged, goodness and joy will flourish and God will be glorified
forever.

When we come to the last part of the Creed and the climax of the biblical
story, we must not forget what has gone before. Scripture affirms the good
purposes for which God has created all things. The people of Israel are
called to bear witness before the nations of God's steadfast love for all.
Remarkably, hope emerges from the darkest circumstances. Christ, crucified-
and-risen, embodies the triumphant, suffering love of God and we are set
free from fear, dread and despair.

The same pattern is found in the Creed. What we believe in and hope for is
grounded in the triune love of the One God: the loving Father and Creator
of heaven and earth, the truly human Son who was incarnate, crucified,
raised and ascended for us and our salvation, and the Holy Spirit, the
Lord, the giver of life who opens our eyes to the wonder of grace and
encourages the 'one holy catholic and apostolic Church' to be true to her
calling.

What we affirm and look for in the Creed, is consistent with the grand
story of God's creative and redemptive purposes for heaven and earth, as
revealed in Israel, embodied in Jesus, and declared by the Church. In and
through these events we glimpse the glorious future that God intends for
humanity and the whole creation.

Nowadays, we are not too sure what to make of this future! The early
Christians looked forward to a glorious future when evil would be judged,
wrongs righted and death conquered and they would enjoy God forever. (E.g.
Philippians 1:19ff; 1 Thessalonians 4:17; 2 Timothy 1:12: Revelation
22:12ff.) It would be a time of freedom and celebration, not a time of
misery and dread. (E.g. Romans 8:12-17; 1 John 4:18.) For them, 'fear of
the Lord' meant being overawed by and deeply grateful for God's goodness
and mercy. (E.g. Psalm 116:10; Proverbs 9:10.) They eagerly looked forward
to the judgment of the Day of the Lord - 'the day of the Lord Jesus' as it
says in the Basis of Union.

Gradually, however, this sense of holy awe turned to 'fear of eternal
punishment'. The text condemning bad people to 'the lake that burns with
fire and sulphur' (Revelation 21:8) played a part, as did Michelangelo's
the Last Judgment, with a fist-shaking God, and the widespread Medieval
belief that God chose who would be saved by grace and who would not.

I suspect that most people today simply do not believe in Divine Judgment -
good or ill. We dread death because it obliterates us, not because we
either fear or embrace God's judgment on us.

It is not that we do not believe in judging other people! We do it all the
time - not in the light of God's goodness and mercy for them and us, but
according to our standards. We also set ourselves up as judges of God,
complaining bitterly about the unfairness of life. What we fear most is
not God's future judgment, which many now regard as a barbaric and inhuman
relic of primitive religion, but the judgment of other people who condemn
us as we condemn them in this life.

We must rid ourselves of these natural but harmful beliefs if we are to
understand what Scripture says about the Last Judgment. The one who 'comes
in glory to judge the living and the dead' is none other than the One who
was judged in our place. Jesus Christ, the only Son of the Father, who was
judged by the powers of the two kingdoms - the State and Church - to be
unworthy of life, is crucified in place of those who have wronged others
and God. In Christ, God's judgment on all of us is displayed. Despite our
ceaseless judging of others and blindness to our own faults, God judges us
mercifully.

We may gladly 'look to' God's future judgment because the One who judges
all of us is on our side! Although we do not embody the goodness and mercy
of Jesus (which is God's will for all) and spend our lives relentlessly
judging others and God by our standards, we can 'look forward to' a future
filled with the blessings of Divine Grace.

The reality of who we are and the hope that awaits us was well expressed
by Karl Barth shortly before his death:

'I only know that my dying, too, is part of my life. ... And then -
this is the destination, the limit and the goal for all of us - I shall
not longer 'be', but I shall be made manifest before the judgment seat
of Christ, in and with my whole 'being', with all the real good and the
real evil that I have thought, said and done, with all the bitterness
that I have suffered and all the beauty that I have enjoyed. There I
shall be able to stand as the failure that I doubtless was in all
things, but ... by virtue of his promise, as a 'peccator justus'
[justified sinner]. And as that I shall be able to stand. Then ... in
the light of grace, all that is now dark will become very clear' (in E
Busch, p499).

The magnificent future that awaits those whose lives have been grasped by
God's grace is set in the context of hope for a 'new heaven and a new
earth'. We tend to think of the 'life of the world to come' exclusively in
relation to what awaits individuals and our immediate family. Scripture
and the Creed, however, speak of a radically different kind of community.
Hope for ourselves and our loved ones is placed in a much wider, social,
political and cosmic context. Because Jesus Christ has come among us, we
'look for' a 'world' and a 'kingdom' that will be so 'endlessly' full of
'life' that even the dead will rejoice!

Unlike other kingdoms which come and go, God's future Kingdom will be
marked by the righteousness, peace and joy (Romans 14:17) already
displayed in Christ. This means that nations, too, will be judged by
whether they allowed the Gospel to flourish, wrong-doing to be corrected
and human dignity to be enhanced. Leaders and people of every nation are
ultimately responsible to God for their policies and decisions.

Unlike other kingdoms, too, the future Kingdom of God 'will have no end'
(Nicene Creed). This does not mean - as is often thought - that
'everlasting life' (Apostles' Creed) will be a time of endless boredom -
one damn thing after another throughout 'eternity'. In the New Testament,
'eternal life' is the unique quality of life that is experienced in
relationship with Christ in 'this world' and in the 'life of the world to
come'. (E.g. Luke 10:25; John 3:16, 12:50, 17:2; 1 John 5:13.) This is
expressed in our final hymn (Together in Song 385) 'Now is eternal life,
if risen with Christ we stand'. Eternal life is, then, our time filled
with the infinite goodness of God's time!

Beyond this we must not go. Otherwise, Christ-centred faith and hope in
the 'judgment' that awaits us in 'life of the world to come' will be
replaced by fanciful speculation. The Nicene Creed is deliberately brief.
It gives a thumb-nail sketch of the personal-and-communal reality that is
to be joyfully anticipated.

Nor does the Nicene Creed speculate on the future of those who deny or
resist the truth of the Gospel. That is as it should be. It is not up to
us to judge the eternal fate of others. At the same time, Scripture is
clear that, while it is God's will that all will share in the coming
Kingdom, those who persist in doing evil will exclude themselves from this
glorious future (E.g. Matthew 25:31-46; 1 Corinthians 3:13ff; Revelation
22:15).

The Creed calls us, as members of the 'one holy catholic and apostolic
Church', to be a community of faith and hope. It calls us to glorify God
in worship and service and be prepared to stand against political and
religious 'kingdoms' that set themselves up as judges of what is 'right'
and dishonour God's goodness and mercy. Therefore, as we await the new
heaven and new earth in Christ, let us resolve to worship God and serve
our generation in righteousness, truth and love.

So may we join our praises with those who have gone before and those who
will come after us in the acclamation that ends the Creed, saying 'Amen'
to God's grand purpose for humanity and the whole creation.

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Rev Dr Max Champion is the minister of St John's Uniting Church,
Mt Waverley, Victoria, Australia. Dr Champion is a member of the Council
of the Assembly of Confessing Congregations within the UCA.