Jesus said to his disciples, “I have said these things to you while I am still with you. But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you.”
The wind of the Holy Spirit blew through our Parish House and covered Port Royal last Tuesday during our Vestry retreat.
This is what happened. Barbara Anne Fisher, who was our retreat leader, spent the morning helping us visualize who we are as a parish by using the symbol of a tree. We started out with a bare tree with roots.
We named the roots of our tree here at St Peter’s. Our roots are a sense of community, our love for one another, and our grounding in scripture.
The trunk of the tree is made up of sacrificial love, the love that we have for one another that reflects God’s love for us.
And then we named the branches of this tree—all of the things we do that come from the roots and branch out from the trunk—and these things are worship, mission and outreach, spiritual formation, hospitality, and pastoral care.
Then we created the canopy—we wrote down on leaves all of the things we do in each of these areas.
You can see this tree in the parish house at coffee hour today. Take a look. You’ll be amazed at what mighty things this little church accomplishes.
But then came the most important part of the retreat, and that’s when the Holy Spirit showed up, while we were spending some time in prayer, wondering about what dream God might have in store for us.
What does God want to bring into reality here and now in this place, through us?
In my dream, I saw children springing up out of the ground between the parish house and the river, coming to life, leaping and running and laughing and playing. One of us saw a full church every Sunday, others saw young families and children—we all felt it—an incredible sense of new life and growth, taking place right here in this old church, right here in this old and what seems to be a dying town.
Sometimes I get discouraged. Think about it. Port Royal exists in a little strip of Caroline County bordered by the Rapphannock River on one side, and Fort A.P. Hill on the other. Many factors will continue to work together to keep this area fairly rural.
Really, what potential for growth does this little Episcopal Church have, sitting as we do right in the midst of this decaying colonial village? How can we keep our doors open beyond the lifetime of this current, and whether we like it or not, aging congregation?
Sometimes my heart feels troubled by these questions. And yet, Jesus said to the disciples, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.”
So on Tuesday, during the Vestry retreat, as we prayed about our future, the Holy Spirit filled my troubled heart with God’s peace, and also with a rush of excitement
I’m convinced that God loves us and makes a home here with us right in this town of Port Royal. God will not abandon this town to slowly fall into ruins and to become only a name of what once was on the maps of the future.
God is here to stay—just like Jesus said.
And what is God’s vision for this place?
Let’s turn to the reading from Revelation that we’ve just heard today.
The writer of Revelation also has a vision—a vision of a heavenly city come down to earth, and these images would have been familiar to the people who first heard the book of Revelation read aloud in one sitting to them.
And like the visions we all had on Tuesday, John’s vision is full of hope.
The Book of Revelation is full of hope. It’s about God’s reign of justice, mercy and peace finally becoming a reality, not in some far distant place, but right here on earth, this earth.
The Garden of Eden in Genesis becomes New Jerusalem in Revelation— and the Bible ends with the image of a city because cities are places of community, where all sorts of people live together in peace and harmony.
People think I’m crazy when I say that Revelation is one of my favorite books of the Bible, but I have to tell you that it is—because this book gives me the desire to see beyond reality and imagine what can be when God’s love gets realized in our lives and in our communities.
In fact, we talked about this very thing with prisoners at the jail on Thursday night—the fact that, even in jail, people with a vision can create the beginnings of this new Jerusalem come down to earth, right where they are—even in the Peumansend Creek Regional Jail.
And as we found out on Tuesday at the Vestry retreat, we at St Peter’s are people with a vision—a vision that even Port Royal can reflect this new Jerusalem come down to earth—and we, here at St Peter’s, can be the beginning of that, because each one of us there at the Vestry retreat could name the gifts that we would be able to bring to making our vision a reality—and every one of us here in this congregation has gifts to offer.
So let’s take some of the attributes of the heavenly city named in today’s reading, and see how this scripture can guide us as we consider how St Peter’s and Port Royal can be a reflection of God’s heavenly city, come down to earth.
John tells us that he sees no temple in the city, for the temple is the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb. God is at the center—a building in which God dwells is no longer necessary, because the presence of God and the lamb radiate throughout the city.
Now I’m not suggesting that we do away with our building—far from it! But this passage is a reminder that God’s presence spreads over this entire town, and when we go outside our walls, we make God’s presence more visible to others.
In our retreat, we said that we can become a church without walls—a church that would hold Bible studies at the firehouse and welcome the entire community to come join in for fellowship and scripture study. We could hold worship services in a tent on the town green in addition to our worship services here. We already know how to do this—the Easter sunrise service is a great example of this idea of a church without walls where everyone is welcome.
The other thing that captivates me about this New Jerusalem is the fact that it is clearly an urban space with its gates always open and people from every nation dwelling together in harmony.
In addition, the city in Revelation also has a great deal of green space that is central to its layout, full of healing elements from our natural world—a river of life full of God’s love, flowing from the very heart of God, lined with trees with leaves for the healing of the nations—nature’s life giving green space running through the middle of this urban center.
We all live in this watershed of God’s love. As this parish and as the town of Port Royal, we are blessed to be able to offer our proximity to the river to others. The Ruritans and the Longs do this so beautifully when we gather for the sunrise service.
How can we increase the natural beauty of this town, and make that beauty more accessible to others? In New Jerusalem, the trees that line the river are the “tree of life,” full of fruit, satisfying the hunger of all in need. Imagine 301 lined not with rundown buildings, but with beautiful trees.
And imagine community gardens-where all work together to produce vegetables and fruit available to all.
Most importantly, these trees in New Jerusalem provide healing. Barbara Rossing, a New Testament scholar who specializes in the book of Revelation, points out that John uses the word “therapeia” to describe the trees’ fruits—therapeutic medicine for the healing of the world. She says that “Revelation’s medicinal leaves offer a vision of a political economy that heals us all and heals our world.”
This town is blessed by its location in God’s beautiful creation—and remember, in Revelation, as Rossing points out, God’s healing comes from this very creation—specifically, from a tree—the tree of life.
It’s no accident that we spent time on Tuesday thinking about who we are as this church and what God is calling us to do using the symbol and image of a tree—starting out with nothing but a bare tree with roots, and ending with a tree with a canopy full of the healing leaves of all of the things we already do as this church.
But still, we’re challenged—how can we face into the political and economic challenges this community faces and come up with answers that are healing for all who live in this town and in the surrounding area?
Now, I’d like for all of us to do what the Vestry did last Tuesday, to close our eyes, and to take a minute to pray over and to dream about the vision that God has for St Peter’s and for Port Royal—what dream does God have for this place that we can help bring into reality?
(Time for prayer)
Can you feel it? The wind of the spirit God sweeping through this place?
Can you hear it? The rushing, cleansing waters of the river of life flowing past? The rustling of the wind in the healing leaves of the tree of life?
Can you see it all around us?
I can see it!
The holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God.
Amen