This lesson was appointed a few weeks ago, but I based my message that Sunday on another passage, so today let's look this one from Revelation.  "Reality TV" - have you watched any of those programs?  Reality TV gives insight into the adage that "truth is stranger than fiction."  A segment of this thing called reality TV are the "makeover" shows, where houses or even people are completely changed by a crew that tears down the old and remakes it into something new.  Usually, the end result is something good, but not always as good as hoped for.

          In one kind of makeover shows people allow carpenters to come in and rip out walls, ceilings and floors and in just one week, this old house is made into something completely new and fresh.  Not to be outdone, other television shows make over an entire person.  I believe the weekly show's plot goes something like this:  someone, usually a woman, gives permission to have surgeons, cosmetologists and others alter her appearance, adding and subtracting bits and pieces, with nips and tucks here and there until she looks like a new person.

          This takes months, of course, but the show centers on the unveiling of the "new person," the enormous change, the "before and after".  And, of course, the whole show centers on how the audience reacts to the difference between the old person and the new.  And as with the house makeover, usually the end result is something good, but not always.  Sometimes the new body is too foreign for the family or friends to accept.

          Both these shows only fix the external - the old house frame or the old body is still there - it's just been altered.  It's an external makeover, not a complete one.  Today's Bible lesson tells us that's the kind of makeover we'll all one day have - "God's Complete Makeover" in the Kingdom of heaven.  Revelation 21:5 says it all- "He who was seated on the throne said, 'I am making everything new!'"

          That means more than a new body - a new heaven and a new earth.  The Bible tells us there will be a bodily resurrection, and the body we're raised with will be completely new.  People often want to know about the resurrection.  An old man asks, "Will I look old like I am now, or will I look like when I was in my prime?"  A boy asks, "Will I have red hair like now?  I don't like my red hair."  A small girl with birth defects asks if she will still have her disabilities.  Truth is I can't answer that completely, but I do know the Bible says we will be made new.

          Our best example of this is Jesus Himself.  He was beat up badly on Good Friday, but on Easter Sunday He came out of the grave with a new body.  His people could recognize Him, but gone were the bloody garments, gone the whip marks and the scratches from the crown of thorns.  People did, however, see the nailprints in His hands and the spearmark on his side.  And they were there to show it was really Him.  Jesus was alive and His healed scars proved it.

          I go to two nursing homes each week now, for a short song and prayer service.  The folks living at the Care Center or at Brookside have seen a lot of years.  Time has worn them down a lot and most are no longer physically attractive.  They are still the people God made them, but their bodies are wearing out.  We'll all get that way someday, God willing we live that long.  But you can see in their eyes that they are tired. And I'm sure they wonder about the resurrection of the body.

          Thanks be to God they will get His complete makeover!  One day they'll be given a new body, complete, sinless, holy and pure, good enough to live with God forever in heaven.  We say in the creeds, "I believe in ... the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting."  Those bodies will be all new.

          How do we know this?  Because God's Word tells us so.  Human reason has a hard time with the resurrection.  Reason has a hard time with God.  Reason says, "If I can't see it, I won't believe it."  Faith says, "I believe it without seeing it."  A lot of people doubt the Christian faith and some even make fun of it.  St. Paul, speaking to the Corinthians, said, "But someone may ask, how are the dead raised?  With what kind of body will they come?" (1 Corinthians 15:35)

          Evidently they, like us, wanted to know what we'll look like.  So Paul tells them, "When you sow [plant seed], you do not plant the plant that will be, but just a seed that one day grows into the plant...so it will be in the resurrection... our body will be buried in weakness, but will be raised in glory...it is buried a natural body, but will be raised a spiritual body." (1 Corinthians 15:37, 42-43)

          There's nothing wrong with wanting to know what we'll look like.  We value our appearance, as well we should.  God has given us a body and we should treasure it, not abusing or neglecting it, not treating it like a disposable carton or a thing of pleasure.  We are not recyclable - we will not be reincarnated.  This physical life on earth is the only one we'll have.  It will last us, God willing, a long time.  Psalm 90:10 tells us, "The length of our days is seventy years-- or eighty, if we have the strength; yet their span is but trouble and sorrow, for they quickly pass, and we fly away."  This is all the earthly life we will have, so we use our body wisely, we live our life in a godly way, for enjoyment - yes - but also for the good of others, in service to God and people.

          I had a funeral yesterday of a fine lady.  She was only 70.  Only 70!  With all our medical advancements, 70 has become a relatively short life.  We expect to live longer, and better.  Unfortunately these days we don't treat our bodies: either we idolize, make them objects of worship, or we mistreat them.  God wants us to us value them, but always know they're merely the tent we live in.  The "real you" or "real me" - our souls - lives inside our body for now.  We will live forever, either with the Lord or with Satan.  It all depends on who we put our faith in.

          The Good News today is that when we have faith in Jesus Christ, we will be made new!  "He who was seated on the throne said, 'I am making everything new!'"  That's God talking!  He will give us His complete makeover.  We just need to keep trusting the Lord, keep worshipping Him and keep praying to Him.

          Friday three of us spent the day landscaping the front of the Modular Building.  We shoveled, shaped, and raked ten tons of rock and five tons of dirt.  We moved dirt here, then moved it there, then moved it back again.  At one point Stan said, "We need to find some new dirt.  This stuff is worn out!"  Sometimes we feel like our bodies are worn out.  Praise God that one day we will get new ones!

          God's makeover begins at baptism.  We aren't the same person we were before.  God changes us from the inside out, from the brain to the face; from the heart to the body.  That change affects us all over, helping us do new things, better things, the good things of God.

          Consider, for example, the Golden Rule - "Do unto others, as you would have them do unto you." (Matthew 7:12)   The Confucian version of the Golden Rule says, "Do not do," meaning, leave other folks alone.  You build your wall around your life, and I'll build mine.  Each of us should retreat to our own private space so that we won't step on each other's toes.  Jesus, on the other hand, wants us to get involved in other people's lives.  He wants us to take the risk of loving others.  We experience this from the heroic efforts of our soldiers to the humble efforts of parenting the young.

          When you and I see a person lying in a ditch, Confucius tells you to pass him by, but Christ praises the Samaritan who actively involves himself in the needy person's life.  It's the difference between self-interest and self-sacrifice.  Leaving others alone is more comfortable, and entering into others' lives is risky.  Faith in Jesus gives us a new makover - new attitude, new hope, new faith, and eventually even a new body!  Earthly makeovers will get old again, but God's makeovers last forever.  Thanks be to God for His complete makeovers in Christ.  Amen

Copyright © 2004 by Pastor Bob Tasler.  All rights reserved.