Sermon; Easter 7C; Rev. 22:12-14, 16-17, 20-21

We are coming to the end of the Easter season.  The resurrected Christ who, according to Luke’s account in Acts, has spent 40 days with his disciples before ascending to the Father last Thursday, left us with his command to love others as he has loved us.  And on this last Sunday of Easter we are given passages from the end of Revelation and from the end of the Farewell Discourse.  Those two readings give us an image of Christus Victor and a spiritual unity between God the Father, God the Son, and us.  And on this last Sunday of Easter, I want to focus on Revelation.

Last week I said that Revelation, far from being an apocalyptic nightmare designed to terrorize people, is actually a book of hope and comfort.  We see that hope and comfort in today’s reading.  There’s hope in hearing that Jesus is the Alpha and Omega, the first and the last.  There’s hope that anyone who is thirsty is invited to come and drink.  There’s hope that all who wish to take the water of life will receive it as a gift.  There’s comfort that Jesus is the bright morning star and he is coming soon.

As Revelation closes out, we are given the hope, comfort, and promise that Christ wins.  This is the image of Christus Victor – that Christ has defeated sin and death, that he is united with the Father, that God will dwell with us and we with him in the holy city where we drink from the water of life and eat from the tree of life.  This season of Easter leads us there – to new life in the resurrection.

But even with the promise of new life, even with a hope in the resurrection, even with the comfort that all will be well and all manner of things shall be well, even with all of that, we are not given the luxury of sitting back and waiting for God to take care of everything.

Pay attention to this passage from Revelation again.

In this end vision, John sees the victors as having the right to the tree of life.  He hears the Spirit and the bride say, “Come.”  And he says, “Let everyone who hears say, ‘Come’.”

The victors are those who have washed their robes of sinful practices of all kinds in order to better follow Christ.  The Spirit who says, “Come,” is the Holy Spirit of God calling and leading people to the heavenly banquet of life, of which Holy Communion is but a foretaste.  The bride who says, “Come,” is the bride of Christ – the Church.  As the Holy Spirit beckons people to come, so does God’s holy Church beckon to people to come to the banquet, to come and experience the love of God, and to be fed with spiritual food.

And then John writes something interesting:  And let everyone who hears say, “Come.”

We have been washed in baptism.  We have heard the Holy Spirit’s call to come.  We have heard the bride, the holy Church of God, call to us to come and be fed with heavenly food and experience holy mysteries.  We are the one who have heard.  Which means we are the ones to say, “Come.”

On this Seventh Sunday of Easter, we are now officially in a post-Ascension world.  Last Thursday Christ ascended to the Father, and the disciples, and maybe us, were caught staring up to heaven by a couple of angels who reminded them there was work to be done.  We are not called to stare up to heaven – we are called to proclaim the good news.  We are called to help make disciples through invitation, example, and love.  We are called to do this because it is now our job since Christ ascended to the Father.

As Teresa of Avila said, “Christ has no body but yours; no hands, no feet but yours.  Yours are the eyes with which he looks compassion on this world.  Yours are the hands with which he blesses.”

We are the ones who hear the voice of the Spirit and the Church saying, “Come.”  Since we are the ones who hear, we must also be the ones who say, “Come and see what this God thing is all about.”  Because very rarely will people come because we have red doors or because they heard the bell.  People come, and people stay, because we have asked them to come and see.

Come and see the love of Jesus living in us.

Come and be filled with spiritual food.

Come and experience holy mysteries.

Come and learn to be disciples with us.

We are coming to the close of the Easter season, the season of resurrection and new life.  But just because the season is ending doesn’t mean that we have to stop living into its meaning.

Let us continually look for signs of resurrection.

Let us live in love as Christ loved us.

Let us live with the hope of new life.

Let us eat that holy food and drink from the waters of life.

And let us who hear the call of the Holy Spirit and the Church say to those we meet, “Come.”

Amen.