Our Churches Sermon for April 15, 2007
Deacon Deborah Rucki Drake



The Diocese of Newark is sectioned by districts and our church is in district 7. The Rev. Paul Walker and I are the Co-Conveners or leaders for the meetings of district 7. District 7 includes 11 churches; St. Paul’s North Arlington, St. Thomas’ Lyndhurst, Trinity Kearny, St.Peter’s Clifton, St. Martin’s Maywood, Grace Rutherford,
Grace Nutley, St. Paul’s & Resurrection Wood-Ridge, St. John the Divine Hasbrouck Heights, St. John’s Passaic and Christ Belleville.
These 11 churches meet once a month and we rotate the meetings among our church locations so that we have the chance to meet in each church and get to know each church and the church properties. The clergy and at least two district representatives from each church should be present for every meeting.
In the reading from Revelation this morning we hear there are 7 churches in the Roman province of Asia being addressed by the prophet John There was internal struggle occurring within the churches of Asia Minor. There were accusations that some of the Christian teachers were false prophets and that some were worshipping false gods.
There were different interpretations of rules and which groups a true Christian could associate themselves with. Today we know that our Anglican communion is going through internal struggles with Christians interpreting our rules in different ways and people having different opinions on whether we should ordain openly gay persons in non-celibate relationships and whether we should bless same gender marriages.
Within the 11 churches in our district 7 we also have differences. Some of us are more “high church’ some are more “low church” some are somewhere in between. Some have services in Spanish; we use different styles of music and vestments. Our worship spaces are different and we use variations of styles of worship for our services. We have some differences but we come together at least once a month during our district meetings to share our experiences and to have comradeship with one another. During our last meeting we discussed why we come together and whether the meetings are worthwhile. The representatives of the 11 churches loudly proclaimed they want to meet, despite our differences we have more in common than we have different and we want to be part of the same group. This was invigorating and joyful for us all to hear and it affirmed our community of district 7.
The prophet John seemed to know we would experience our differences in interpretations of rules, differences in our styles of worship but John reminds us through the Book of Revelation through his visions which he is shown in heaven; that no matter our internal differences we all believe that Jesus is the beginning and end of all things.
It is no mistake that this reading from Revelation comes immediately after Easter for
throughout Revelation we are reminded that Jesus has triumphed over death.
Revelation centers its confidence in Christ. We, as the hearers, are transported into heavenly places where the victory of Jesus is proclaimed and the John the prophet shows that Christ is Lord over the kings of the earth.
The prophet John is telling us to be encouraged and stand fast when confronted by times of suffering and struggle. We can be inspired by Revelation’s visions of heavenly victory with our Christ.
During the time when John is writing the Roman Empire is ruling and Christians are being persecuted because of their refusal to worship the emperor for this would be worshipping a false god. The Christians experienced pressure from the demands of business associates or social relationships.
Today we, as Christians, experience many of the same pressures of the early Christians, we may not be forced to worship our president but our society does put a lot of false gods before us. A false god is anything which takes us away from worshipping our God.
Our society stresses the importance of “making it big” in the business arena and we are spending many of our waking hours at the workplace to keep up with our peers.
Our social relationships may be keeping us away from our church community or causing us to cross boundaries which we, as Christians, have set for ourselves. We all have found ourselves in a social setting when an ethnic or off color joke is told
and we have to decide upon our reaction. We have heard the comments about “those” people and we need to decide upon our reaction.
We have much in common with the early Christians and we are in a time when our churches are struggling. Revelation was written to encourage and inspire Christians to endure and remain faithful during times of tribulation, both through the internal and the external battles.
Through the writing of Revelation John offers us a vision of hope. It is a hope rooted in
the reality of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Our churches have a common vision, a vision in the midst of our struggles and our pain. Our vision is of the resurrected Jesus Christ. I have printed works of art from various artists depicting our resurrected Christ. I invite you to take a look and realize how artists have conveyed their belief in the resurrection. The stained glass Risen Christ is from Sacred Heart Church in Jersey City where I attended church during my eight years of grammar school. This Risen Christ was always there for me, present, whether I was focusing on it or not.
Through Revelation John offers our churches a hope rooted in the reality of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Revelation tells us no matter what our differences the risen Christ in on the Throne.
Amen.