When called on to officiate at a funeral, I almost always use these words somewhere in the service as a witness to the resurrection. I find these words of John's vision to be among the most comforting ones in the Bible, especially when hard pressed by a present reality of death, mourning, tears, or pain. It gives me great hope to hear that there will come a time when death will be no more, that in God’s long-range plan for creation, suffering and sorrow will cease to be, replaced, we are told, by God’s shalom, by God’s peace.

     Of course, my head is rationally insistent that such a time has not yet arrived - we do still experience those hard realities. Yet my heart hears with unabashed joy that the first things have passed away. I don't think it's the death of Jesus that so captures the human heart; death is a common-place thing. It's his resurrection from the grave which is so compelling. I wish I could understand it, but try as I might, I can't - my head is in total agreement with the poet Swinbourne: “Dead men rise never”. And yet my heart is convinced that Jesus did. In the silence of that tomb, in the darkest hours before dawn, the first things passed away, and God began to create the world anew. It's probably the best news I have ever heard.