Easter 7, Year C | Revelation 22:12-14, 16-17, 20-21
St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church
June 1, 2025
the Rev. Jonathan Hanneman
To watch the full service, please visit this page.
“The Spirit and the bride say, ‘Come.’
And let everyone who hears say, ‘Come.’
And let everyone who is thirsty come.”
– Revelation 22:17[1]
This past Thursday marked the celebration of Ascension, one of the Church’s major feasts. Seeing that most people aren’t particularly interested in showing up for a service on Thursdays, many churches move its observation to the following Sunday. However, this year there was a procedural question about whether or not Ascension has precedence over any Sunday in the Easter Season, so the Bishop asked that we go with the readings for the 7th Sunday of Easter this year.
That said, the Ascension is really important! I mean, it doesn’t make any sense at all from a modern perspective, what with Jesus supermanning off into the wild blue yonder, but to the ancient mind, this event is what tied up the entire Christ cycle and completed/proved the (re)unification of the Three Realms. Through Jesus’ incarnation, an innately Celestial being became native to the Earthly Realm, allowing them, at death, to become native to the Underworld. Once there, the Divine flooded the Grave with light, revealing the order underlying even Chaos’ domain. At the Resurrection, then, Jesus ripped off the Hell’s gates from the inside, essentially destroying the Underworld as a separate layer of existence and drawing Death from darkness into Life. The Ascension then disrupts the final barrier—the one dividing Heaven and Earth—completing this Cosmic renovation. Under this new, immediate reign of God, we humans become free to reject the false rule of Desolation and Fear and can seize this opportunity to live as the children of God and full citizens of the Heavens we truly are instead.
And just so we’re clear, despite how hard people may try to convince you, this isn’t an “already/not-yet” situation. This reality isn’t just relevant someday in an imagined future or only found in “another world;” it’s available to us right here and right now!
We need to recover this concept of how ancient people understood the universe to work. That isn’t to say we ought to accept it as fact or that we need to reject scientific advancements to live as people of God. It’s okay—essential, really—for us to keep exploring. Studying the arts and sciences is a gift. It’s good to enjoy the wonders humans continue to discover about Creation. Dreaming and questioning and learning and growing are part of what God made humans to be! Knowledge began expanding the moment the first person had their first thought, and it’s perfectly appropriate for our minds and comprehension to continue to expand with it.
That said, the Future (or Present, in our case) does everyone a disservice when we appropriate the Past and impose modern definitions and “factual” expectations to ancient words. Our refusal to think in terms of the ancient Cosmos prevents us from comprehending the truths underlying what our biological, intellectual, and spiritual ancestors were hoping to share with continuing generations.
It’s like we’ve been looking at with Revelation the past few weeks. Revelation may be prophecy—memorable imagery of patterns we humans continue to repeat throughout history and across cultures—but it isn’t prognostication. John never expected that we would use his words to fortune-tell or soothsay. The book does give us warnings about who we might become and reminders of how we ought to live, but its primary message is that God overcomes. God continues to overcome—even within the Church! Life rises from Death. Joy, diversity, and beauty birth themselves from desolation and destruction. Kindness, goodness, and love will continue to manifest despite the cruelties and oppressions of domination, uniformity, and Empire. A generous, loving, and creative God underlies, upholds, and empowers all that is, so all that is will continue to reflect that nature, no matter what might periodically get in the way. The change and growth may not be easy. And they certainly aren’t fast. But still, God overcomes.
We can recognize that God is moving, but how many of us consider our own, present need to move as well? Our text reads,
“The Spirit and the bride say, ‘Come.’
And let everyone who hears say, ‘Come.’
And let everyone who is thirsty come.”
“Come” is an action word and automatically implies motion. But the word we’re seeing as “come” also means “go.” Sometimes we translate it as “arrived” or “headed.” That makes a more basic interpretation “move.” Neither John nor God want us to just lock ourselves in one place for eternity or wait helplessly for supernatural deliverance or to waste energy trying to drag a dead past out of the fading sunset.
“The Breath and the Bride”—that is, Christ’s present, earthly Body—“say, ‘Move.’
And one listening says, ‘Move.’
And one thirsting—move!”[2]
Despite the way people still behave, Earth is not the center of the Universe. The United States isn’t the center of the universe.[3] Nor is the Church or you or me. That means we all need to keep moving, keep changing, and keep growing. We need to continue to orbit and further seek God. We have to learn to emulate God, to live as children of a Father we adore. God is Love-made-action. So let us become Love-in-action—not someday, but here and now. God is generous. So let us become generous—again, not someday, but here and now! God is kind, caring for “the righteous and…the unrighteous,”[4] so let us be kind—to whomever we encounter. And not just someday, but right here! And right now!
The Universe is remade! The ancient Realms are divided no more! To quote Revelation from a few weeks ago, “There is no more sea;”[5] nor does the Divine remain cloistered and remote! Jesus has ascended, yet we, his body, remain in this world. What will it take to get us to move again? When will we open our airways, fill our lungs with Life, and finally and truly take heed as
“The Breath and the Bride say, ‘Move.’
And one listening says, ‘Move.’
And one thirsting—move!”
[1] All Bible quotations are from the NRSVue unless otherwise noted.
[2] Revelation 22:17 | My translation
[3] Or the apex of social and political achievement
[4] Matthew 5:45
[5] See https://www.slouchingdog.com/sermons/year-c-may-18-2025-easter05