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Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God, our Father and from our Lord

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and Savior Jesus Christ.

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Amen.

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Dear friends

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several years ago as I was a newlywed to my bride Celina.

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We were invited to a wedding the wedding of her cousin. Now because I

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was new to the family, the family didn't ask for me to stand up in her

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cousin's wedding party as one of his groomsmen.

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They also didn't really know me well enough yet to

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me to perform the wedding, but they had heard me sing in church

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before, so they also didn't invite me to be the soloist.

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No, they gave me an important job.

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To watch my three-year-old nephew.

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We were sitting in the back of the sanctuary and we were doing, okay.

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I had a bag of Cheerios and I had a few board books and I was kind of

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new to this, this kid thing.

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We had no kids of our own yet, but we were doing okay, the ceremony

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was beautiful and I was keeping him occupied.

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And then the soloist really did start in the vows were over and the

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soloist starts to sing and I don't remember much about the song except

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for this one phrase that repeated over and over in the song.

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If only you could see what I see.

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It was beautiful the bride and groom standing there.

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My bride in all of her beauty.

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The family standing up there and I was going to get the uncle of the Year

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award.

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My nephew though was getting a little bored.

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So I put him on my lap.

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He wanted to stand and see so I stood him up on my knees and as he's

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watching and he's listening to this song.

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I was amazed at how how attentive he was.

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If only you could see what I see, as the song came to its close.

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The beautiful silence descended upon the congregation mother's dabbing

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tears of joy out of their eyes.

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A hush fell.

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And that's when my nephew shouted out.

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But what do you see?

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They saw his uncle as they all looked, back at my nephew, with a beet

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red face.

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My uncle of the Year award was quickly, flowing away.

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What do you see?

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My nephew asked that question almost 20 years ago, and I remember it

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like it was yesterday.

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It's a question that has just rung in my mind.

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And today, I'd like to ask you that question.

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What do you see?

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And I invite I'm going to invite you to ask that question along with

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me.

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You see like like the child in Augustin's.

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Confessions that cries out.

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Take up and read take up and read and for Augustin

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this is a sign that he should take up and read the apostles epistle.

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So today my little nephews.

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What do you see?

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Drives us deeper into the Apostle

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John's Revelation.

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I'm going to invite you to ask along with me.

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What do you see?

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As we read the apostles revelation.

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But all too often my hunch

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is that in life

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we go from day to day, not asking the scriptures, not asking the

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Apostle.

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What do you see, but instead, we turn to others.

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Maybe students on this final day of the semester are wondering and

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maybe even asking their professors.

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What do you see my grade to be?

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How are things going to turn out for me

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this semester?

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Do you see me as a pastor or a Deaconess someday?

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Maybe it's going to the doctor's office

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and asking the doctor, how does things look?

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What do my blood results look like?

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What is the pathology report?

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What does it look like?

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Maybe it's to a financial advisor or to the financial office.

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How do things look?

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Will

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I have enough adopt a student money to cover

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all of my expenses?

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Will I have enough money in my retirement account someday to retire?

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See asking these kinds of everyday questions to experts.

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What do you see, how is it going for me? In some ways

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they're, they're good questions.

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They're questions that are important.

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They're questions that maybe help us to be a good steward of the gifts

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that God has given to us.

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But if you're anything like me.

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My hunch is that there's not a lot of faith

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in those questions.

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Deeply part of the human experience is wondering what the future looks

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like.

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And when it's out of control out of our control, well, we'll do

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anything.

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We'll ask anyone.

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What do you see?

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How does it look for me?

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But today, I'd like to turn our attention to the Apostle John because

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he helps us to see. All throughout John's apocalypse

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there is this refrain then I saw.

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John's entire apocalypse is written to uncover.

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Its written to reveal to help us to see reality.

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But when we turn to him as an expert eye witness and John was an

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expert, eye witness.

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Well, John peels back, all kinds of things.

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The last thing he does is give us rose colored glasses of faith to see

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everything in a new light.

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He shows us four horsemen riding in war, famine, death.

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We see our sin before us as we read, John's apocalypse.

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And we see the Beast, the dragon coming up out of the sea to devour.

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We see the souls under the throne saying,

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How long O Lord?

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How long?

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Not exactly things that we want to look at, but things that we must

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see.

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But John paints another picture.

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A beautiful picture today in our reading, then I saw a new Heaven and

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a new Earth coming down.

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John sees the holy city.

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The New Jerusalem coming down out of Heaven.

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John sees our lord Jesus.

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John was the one who was the eyewitness.

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He had watched Jesus

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go all the way to the Cross there with Jesus

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Mother Mary.

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He watched the soldiers, crucify our Lord

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Jesus.

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And John watched as Jesus appeared in the upper room, to the

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disciples.

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Showed them his hands and his feet.

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John watched his Thomas, put his neck, his fingers in the nail holes.

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John saw the resurrected Christ in all of his victory. And there on

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Patmos island as John look deeply into the the prophet Isaiah who had

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prophesied long ago that someday a new Heaven and a new Earth would

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come.

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John finally, saw it.

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That it was Jesus, who said I make all things new. That

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it was Jesus

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who said the lamb would be at the center of the throne surrounded by

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his people.

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It was John, that saw that Jesus would always be with his people that

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they would be his people and he would be their God.

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John spoke these words a new Heaven and a new Earth coming down.

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And no longer a sea because things that came up out of the sea

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like Satan and death were no more.

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And John saw Jesus

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wiping the tears out of his people's eyes.

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So that they could look

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and see Jesus face-to-face.

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Dear brothers and sisters on this final day of the semester.

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So much busyness going on. Friends heading off to all parts of the

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world.

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And many grieving because a dearly loved member of our St.

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Louis Community

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John Schmidtke

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will tomorrow be laid to rest far too early far too sudden a mentor to

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so many of our students in their resident field, education or in

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pastoral leadership class.

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As we lay him to rest, as we have laid so many to rest.

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Someday, we will see the new Heaven and new earth and the New

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Jerusalem coming down out of Heaven to be forever with the lamb.

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That's the picture that John paints for us. Pilgrims

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who with the Saints under the throne cry out.

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How long O Lord,

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how long John gives us a vision.

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He lets us see.

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And one day soon

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the tears will be wiped from our eyes and we will see Jesus forever in

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his name.

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Amen.