Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come,
your will be done
on earth as in heaven…

Each time we pray the Lord’s Prayer we anticipate the Kingdom here as in heaven. There is running through our readings today a tread that says the Kingdom is already here. In the same breath however we see the Kingdom still to come.

“See, the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them; they will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them”
Rev 21:3

The book of Revelation is intended to reveal to those in suffering, those oppressed by persecution that God’s Kingdom has already begun to blossom. Even in the midst of horrific suffering John declares the presence of God. God pitches his tent in our midst.
Sadly the Book of Revelation has been used more frequently as tool to terrify people.

Here is what WENDELL W. FRERICHS and his colleagues have to say about the book of Revelations.

We are opposed to using the Apocalypse for scare-tactical purposes. Its basic message is one of comfort and assurance. Then people who have been assured of Christ’s power and love can be called to heroic faith. When they see the true character of the Lamb as contrasted with that of the dragon there is no choice between them. The empty promises of political and economic powers can be seen for what they are. Our seer lets us in on the inner workings of the demonic world as well as of the heavenly world. Without such help we just might get fooled, but no more. John’s scroll is very clear on this point. The Lamb who was slain is alive and victorious. The world’s empires and tyrants are on their way to oblivion.

The initial message for us to day is of comfort and assurance.

It is worth noting in the Gospel that for Jesus that comfort and assurance is there even at the very moment that Judas goes out to betray him setting up the events of his death. Jesus says, Now the Son of Man has been glorified, and God has been glorified in him.
Even in the midst of betrayal and the beginning of suffering Jesus sees the glory of God.

Let us go back to the Book of revelation for a moment.
Perhaps the difficult thing for us to grasp is that John wrote his book to those whose greatest persecution came from Rome, the whore of Babylon. If anything we are among the peoples that make up the great empire of today. We might distance ourselves from the USA at times. But from outside this powerful empire we are part of an oppressive super power. We can not claim the greatness of the English speaking world is due to faithfulness to God. It would be nice to be able to do that. But the western world has allowed other gods to become more dominant that the Christian God. Seeing the words “in God we trust” written on American dollars should cause us to ask which god do they trust in. But then we should remove our own plank before helping others with their spec.

Let us go back to the Comfort and assurance in both the Book of Revelation and the Gospel. The book of Revelation as the name suggests reveals the presence of God. It unveils the bride so that she may see more clearly the groom. That is what the word apocalypse means unveiling. What is revealed in this new creation is not unlike the image we have of creation from the beginning. In the beginning we have a image of Adam and Eve walking in the cool of the day chatting with God. All is well and all will be well. Here in the unveiling, the book of Revelation again we see no tears or suffering, death is vanquished. All is well and all will be well. It is no coincidence that the early Church fathers put these two images as bookends holding together the rest of the Scriptures. Here in this final image the one seated on the throne says, “see I am making all things new”, and “It is done”. What is revealed is that this new creation has already begun.

That might seem a bit confusing. Clearly creation is much the same as it has been for thousands of years. There are still plenty of tears shed; suffering and death are very real. The Christian Gospel contains a paradox. The beauty and richness, the peace and joy of the Kingdom of heaven is here right now, and yet it is still to come. In fact we sometimes experience such suffering and pain that we wonder if God’s kingdom will ever come. That is the Paradox. Right in the midst of that time of suffering God is present in all his glory. That is why Jesus can say, now is the son of man glorified.

There was a woman on the radio the other day. She has taken to asking older people if they have had a good life. As people look back on their lives they acknowledge that it has indeed been very good. But the goodness of their life did not come from floating on clouds. The richness and beauty of life could be seen in hindsight made up of the struggles, coming through pain, battling the odds and achieving many things in spite off the difficulties. She did not name that as being able to see the grace and glory of God but that is what people could see in hindsight.

Jesus invites us to embrace the glory and to live it. And the key to living in the glory of God is love. Having ushered Judas out Jesus says, now is the Son of Man glorified. The he goes on to say love one another. Our liturgy today has a sentence from another Johannine letter. God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them. 1 John 4.16b We use it at weddings because it is beautiful. But it is not about some kind of romantic love. John is pointing to the heart of God. God is love.

Brian Stroffregen sites O’Day (John, New Interpreters Bible
To love one another as Jesus loves us is to live a life thoroughly shaped by a love that knows no limits, by a love whose expression brings the believer closer into relationship with God, with Jesus, and with one another. It is to live a love that carries with it a whole new concept of the possibilities of community. [p. 734]

So to hold all of this together: We already enter into the new heaven, the new earth when we say yes to Jesus. Our lives become Kingdom lives. Yes we will continue to grieve, to suffer, we will die. But we grieve not as people with out hope. The sadness and pain are real but we see beyond them.
We see the glory of God beyond this suffering. We enter into God’s glory in Jesus Christ. Our lives become resurrection lives. They are now resurrection lives.
The thing that helps us to live and embrace this life of Glory is love. Jesus brings us into the kingdom of love. By loving one another we are both in the kingdom and agents for the full blossoming of the Kingdom.