Leave the Curse Behind

sermon by Carrie Eikler
Revelation 21:10,22-27; 22:1-5
Easter 6

“Nothing accurse will be found there any more. But the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him; they will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads.” These were the scriptures that grabbed my attention this week from our reading in Revelation. I shouldn’t say “grabbed my attention”, I should say more like, tickled my memory. Something about it sounded so familiar. Why? And then I remembered that yes! There is similar imagery in a literary work by one of the most highly esteemed writers, someone who has inspired so many people, many of you here in fact…

“Now, the Star-Belly Sneetches/ Had bellies with stars./ The Plain-Belly Sneetches/Had none upon thars.”

Ring a bell? For those of you who can’t see this, I am reading from The Sneetches by Dr. Seuss. Not necessarily an apocalyptic masterpiece like the Book of Revelation, but certainly prophetic…

“Those stars weren’t so big. They were really so small/ You might think such a thing wouldn’t matter at all./ But, because they had stars, all the Star-Belly Sneetches/ Would brag, “We’re the best kind of Sneetch on the beaches.’/ With their snoots in the air, they would sniff and they’d snort/ ‘We’ll have nothing to do with the Plain-Belly sort!’/ And whenever they met some, when they were out walking,/ They’d hike right on past them without even talking.”

OK, as much as I would love to do a sermon by simply reading a Dr. Seuss story, I fear I would be accused of wriggling out of a sermon on the Book of Revelation. But in case you don’t know the story of the Sneetches, I’ll catch you up. After suffering through such repression as being ignored, not being invited to frankfurter roasts and years of systematic exclusion, the Plain bellied Sneetches (those without Stars) get duped by a “Fix it up Chappie” named McBean into paying 3 dollars to go into a “star-on” machine.

…and they come out with a beautiful new star on their belly! As you can imagine the original star-bellied Sneetches do not like this one bit because now they can’t tell who is who and who is really the best and who is really the worst. So this “Fix it up Chappie” introduces the star-off machine, through which the original star-bellied Sneetches happily prance through in order to be de-starred. Well you can imagine this becomes a whirlwind of in again out again, on again off again …

“Through the machines they raced round and about again,/Changing their stars every minute or two./ They kept paying money. The kept running through/ Until neither the plain nor the Star-Bellies knew/ Whether this one was that one…or that one was this one/Or which one was what one…or what one was who.”

Yes, this is a prophetic work in the true sense of the word. Prophecy--looking critically out our situations-our reality-and sparing no feelings describing the logical (or illogical) outcomes of our behavior. What we have in Revelation is also a book of prophecy, and given the dramatic, and even frightening imagery of this final book in the Bible, I bet that most of us are either fascinated with it, or ignore it. Many who are fascinated with it understand it to be a prediction laying out a scenario that will lead to the end times. Many who ignore it are either too frightened by it (given that scary scenario just mentioned), or they see it simply as irrelevant and grotesque. Let’s do a personal check in. What is your feeling about the book of Revelation?

To be sure, the Book of Revelation is the final word in the Bible. But the author of the Revelation, understood to be a man named John, was less interested in having contemporary people scramble to decode all the bizarre imagery and signs to try to say when the world would come to a cataclysmic end, but rather, was convicted into sharing an image about God’s ultimate goal. God’s response to oppression and empire.

Today’s scripture is like the ultimate of the ultimate. At the end of the book, we have gone through all the beasts and fires, to the cool river of Life. There’s the tree of life! There… are sweet fruit! There… are healing leaves. The cool water and the delicious fruit and the leaves draw us into this glorious place. But something entices us to stay: “Nothing accursed will be found there any more. But the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him; they will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads.”

We could say, this is the ultimate vision of God, for us. But it’s hard to believe isn’t it? That nothing accursed will be found there anymore? It’s especially hard to believe when we discover that John, the author and the early Christian community, likely saw this new earth, right here, on earth.[1] This isn’t in heaven far away, or a 2012 apocalypse where the earth is destroyed. Remember those words to the Lord’s Prayer: “on earth as it is in heaven”?

So maybe God’s vision is not just something that will happen in the sweet by and by, but something that will happen, right here, right where we are, in spite of our uncleanness, and our cursed frailties. But it’s still hard to believe. If nothing unclean will enter, then maybe it’s a done deal that most of us won’t get in. …

One of my favorite times with the boys is bath time. Since there are two of them now, it is easier to put them both in and let them entertain each other, while one of us sits close by and simply watches them. It is generally a very pleasant time. And then Alistair stands up and tries to do some gymnastic move in the water…and then Sebastian screams and resists washing his hair. And then they are both screaming and crawling out of the bath, and dumping water out of the tub and…and I find myself saying, “OK kids, we can do this the easy way, or we can do this the hard way. It’s up to you. Either way it’s going to be done.”

I read one helpful reflection this week on this cursedness in Revelation. It said, “The promise that nothing unclean will enter, in the end, is the promise that God will remove all uncleanness from us all.” [2] But maybe God is presenting us with an easy way, or a hard way. Maybe God is whispering to us, “before you get here, leave the curse behind.”

To be sure, we each likely feel cursed in someway. We each carry our baggage, our brokenness. But it seems to me there is a particular curse addressed here that is a shared curse, one that we all share to some extent. And I think it is the curse of the Star-bellied kind…

…that kind of curse that thrives on our distinguishing who the real Christians are, who God’s true chosen are. Sometimes it feels like we’re running like crazy on the beaches—like the Sneetches-- wondering: are they evangelical Christians? Progressive Christians? Welcoming Christians? Lazy Christians? Christians who will shove peace and justice down my throat or Christians who will ask me if I believe Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior? Are they not even Christians? Do they have stars? Do they not have stars? Do they have the “right” name of God written on their forehead?

Instead of the tranquility of the river of life, with its banks of delicious fruit, we’re more like Sneetches, running around on the beaches wondering “Whether this one was that one…or that one was this one/Or which one was what one…or what one was who”

In an interview I heard this week, Archbishop Desmond Tutu was reflecting on his experience early on in his resistance to apartheid in South Africa, where Black South Africans were physically, and politically separated and repressed by White South Africans.

I pictured him eating the dried mango the interviewer brough him as a gift, getting lost in his infectious laugh as he shared. He said “I…used to say if these white people had intended keeping us under they shouldn't have given us the Bible. Because, whoa, I mean, it's almost as if it is written specifically just for your situation. I mean, the many parts of it that were so germane, so utterly to the point for us …it was like dynamite.”

When he was asked to recall one of those early discoveries that the Bible was like dynamite, he continued: “[W]hen you discover that apartheid sought to mislead people into believing that what gave value to human beings was a biological [determinite, that is,] skin color or ethnicity, and [then] you saw how the scriptures say…because we are created in the image of God,…each one of us is a God-carrier. No matter what our circumstances may be, no matter how awful, no matter how deprived you could be, it doesn't take away from you this intrinsic worth.

He would tell those men and women he worked with, who suffered abuse and questioning, "When they ask who are you, you say, 'Me? I'm a God-carrier. I'm God's partner. I'm created in the image of God.'" And you could see those dear old ladies as they walked out of church on that occasion as if they were on cloud nine. [T]hey walked with their backs slightly straighter.[3]

As we shed the curse at the door of God’s vision, we are all with God. Can it really be that there is no barrier between the people and God? Can we really fathom there will be no barrier between each other? There is no heaven or earth, it is one. There is no God beyond or God within, God is one. There is no you, or me, or them, or those with stars or none upon thars, but one. All of us, God-carriers?

Are you legal or illegal? I am a God-carrier. Are you gay or straight? I am a God-carrier. Have you been abused or have you done harm to others? In my brokenness, I am still a God-carrier. Do you weep or shout for joy? I am a God-carrier.

And where do all these God-carriers finally meet God, face to face, with all their curses wiped clean and their barriers torn down? It’s not a self sufficient farm where we each have our own plot of land and take care of only ourselves, stockpiling goods and weapons for that time when things turn really bad. It’s not a pristene suburb where the neighbors all take exquisite care of the lawns, and homes. It’s not even a return to a Garden of Eden, and some blissful paradise.

Isn’t it interesting, that God’s vision, this ultimate of ultimates, the place through which this refreshing river flows, and God-carriers meet—isn’t it interesting that it is envisioned in a city? “Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life…flowing from the Throne of God…through the middle of the street of the city.” (22:1-2). The New Jerusalem. A dirty, crowded city, the bastion of all sort of people, and problems…and promises.

Are we willing to leave the curse behind, as we move toward this vision? And is leaving behind the curse, the easy way or the hard way? I’d venture to think that if we take this challenge to free ourselves from the curse of believing we know who should and shouldn’t be in Christ’s family, it will be a long hard process. We’ll be challenged in what we deeply believe about morality, justice, righteousness and faith.

But it seems to me, as I look at the world around me, holding onto that curse devestates us without even knowing it.

"Then, when every last cent/ Of their money was spent, The Fix-it-Up Chappie packed up/And he went./ And he laughed as he drove in his car up the beach, “They never will learn. No. You can’t teach a Sneetch!”

But McBean was quite wrong. I’m quite happy to say/ That the Sneetches got really quite smart on that day,/The day they decided that Sneetches are Sneetches/ And no kind of Sneetch is the best on the beaches./ That day, all the Sneetches forgot about stars/ And whether they had one, or not, upon thars.

How about you? How does the curse hold you from entering fully into this vision with God?

“Nothing accursed will be found there any more. But the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, ad his servants will worship him; they will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads.”

Leave the curse behind. Find liberation in joining others in the glorious city God is birthing.





[1] Rowland, Christopher. “Revelation” Global Bible Commentary, 2004.
[2] Brian Peterson. http://www.workingpreacher.org/

[3] “Desmond Tutu’s God of Surprises” Speaking of Faith by American Public Media http://speakingoffaith.publicradio.org/