Based
on Rev. 21:1-6
First delivered Nov. 4, 2018
Rev.
Dr. Kevin Orr
I have presided over a lot of
funerals in my 24 years of ministry. In probably every one of those funerals we
have prayed together Psalm 23. It is a psalm that names the reality of death
but also the promise of eternal life. “Yay, though I walk through the valley of
the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for Thou art with me, Thy rod and Thy
staff, they comfort me…Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of
my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord, forever.” This psalm gives
us a word of comfort, of promise, of hope, that for our dearly departed, the
final chapter of their life has not yet been written. They have gone ahead of
us, to dwell with God. And one day we will join them on the other side of the
veil.
Another scripture that I have used
almost as much is the passage we heard today. It is John’s vision of the New
Jerusalem coming down from heaven and resting on the earth, an event that
signals how God is making all things new, a new heaven and a new earth, where
weeping, sorrow, pain, even death itself, will be vanquished. It is a powerful
vision filled with hope and promise for us of our destiny, even the destiny of
the whole world. Let’s take some time this morning to look more closely at this
vision John received.
It begins with John saying he saw a
new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed
away. By saying he saw a new heaven and a new earth meant that he saw something
that was different, something that had not existed before. But it was not
completely new. There was continuity with what had been. The first heaven and
first earth had passed away, but there still existed a heaven and earth. They
were not replaced with something completely new. This is something to keep in
mind. In this vision, John is seeing continuity and change. There is still a
heaven and earth, but it is different, changed, transformed, new. It is sort of
like when a person receives a new name, which marks a transformation in their
life. Saul changed his name to Paul. Jesus changed Simon’s name to Peter. In
the Orthodox church tradition, at baptism you receive a baptismal name. When
people become monks or nuns they receive a new name. When someone is elected
pope he selects a new name. Among indigenous peoples, young people will go on a
vision quest as a rite of passage, in order to receive a new name. People who
transition from one gender to another will take a new name. I took on a new
name when I went through college, as I committed my life to being a pastor. My
friends started calling me “Kev the Rev.” We get new names as we go through
life: Tina Jones becomes Mrs. Tina Jones-Baldwin, then Dr. Tina Jones-Baldwin.
Her kids call her “mom.” One day she will be called Grandma, maybe even
Great-Grandma. You and I remain human our whole life. But we go through
changes. We experience transformations. We are not the same when we are old as
we were when we were young. Our names and titles change as we go through these
times of transformation. And that’s what John is talking about here. He was
allowed to see a transformed heaven and a transformed earth. Still heaven and
earth, but different, transformed, new.
Then he saw the holy city, New
Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God. In those days, the people
believed that the holy city of Jerusalem on earth mirrored the holy city of
Jerusalem in heaven. God’s throne was in the heavenly city but God’s footstool
was in the holy city on earth, in the Temple, the holy of holies, which was the
center of the earth. Remember, in those days, it was believed that the earth
was flat. Jerusalem occupied the center of the earth, so the people believed.
Of course, the holy city on earth had been destroyed more than once. And, in
fact, when John had this vision, the Temple in Jerusalem had not only been
destroyed, the city had been renamed, literally wiped off the map. As you can
imagine, it was a time of great crisis. How would God restore the holy city?
Well, John got his answer. The holy city in heaven would come down to earth.
This would be the new Jerusalem. It would not be rebuilt only to be destroyed
again. No, the heavenly city itself, where God’s throne was, where God lived, would come down to earth. There
would be no replacement Temple because God himself will dwell with them.
I cannot overstate how awesome this
vision is. What John saw was the removal of the veil between heaven and earth.
Right now, when we die, we have the hope that we will pass through the veil to
the other side, where we will join our loved ones in heaven. Or sometimes we
talk about crossing the chilly river Jordan to the other side. There is a
barrier between heaven and earth. We look forward to going to heaven but we
can’t see heaven. It is hidden from us. Just like we can’t see God. We know God
is present but we can’t see God. There is a veil, a barrier, a wall between
heaven and earth.
But John saw that barrier removed.
But it wasn’t God bringing earth up to heaven. No, heaven came down to earth.
John heard the voice from heaven saying, “See, the home of God is among
mortals. God will dwell with them. God will be with them. God will wipe every
tear from their eyes.” This is John’s vision. Instead of us going to God when
we die, God will remove the wall of division, and come down to us. And that is
the essence of what it means to have a new heaven and a new earth. Everything
will be new because heaven and earth will become one, with no division, no
wall, no barrier. In this vision, earth is not destroyed. It is transformed, it
is made holy and pure. It is literally heaven on earth.
What are the consequences of heaven
on earth? “Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more,
for the first things have passed away.” That is, the first things of a barrier
between heaven and earth. The first things in which for us to get to heaven, we
have to die first. If heaven is on earth, there is no need for death. The wall
is torn down. The gates are open wide. Death, and the grief that comes with it,
is vanquished. Death has no place in heaven. Even more, death, sorrow,
suffering, are all temporary states. They are not permanent. The only thing
that is permanent, eternal, everlasting, is life. Because God is the source of
life and God is everlasting. Death is temporary, life is everlasting. And this
truth will be fully manifest one day. That’s the vision that John has received.
And for us, it is a vision filled with hope.
Of course, John’s vision was
prefigured in a person. Jesus is the very incarnation of John’s vision. In
Jesus, God came down to earth and dwelled with us. Jesus wept, suffered, was
full of sorrow, and died. He experienced these things that we must all
experience. But then Jesus rose from the dead, defeating the power of death,
demonstrating that death is temporary, life is everlasting. But then Jesus had
to go back up to heaven. He ascended in a cloud and his disciples could see him
no more. The barrier between heaven and earth remained. We know Jesus. We know
Jesus lives in our hearts. But we can’t see Jesus face to face. We can’t
physically embrace Jesus and look into his eyes. Not yet. One day we will when
we pass through the veil. Yet, the day will come, when what was ushered in by
Jesus will become fully manifest, when the veil is torn in two, and God comes
down to dwell on earth. All things made new.
This vision that John has received
of what will happen in the future is a vision that fills us with wonder. It is
a hopeful vision. Rather than the earth being destroyed, this vision promises
that the earth will be transformed. The Paradise of Eden will come back. Except
it won’t be a garden, it will be a city. It is a vision that insists that death
and sorrow and pain are not a permanent reality. The only thing that is
permanent is life. This gives us hope. This gives us the strength to push
through our times of suffering. As Paul once said, these momentary sufferings
are nothing in comparison to knowing Jesus Christ our savior and his resurrection.
This is a life-giving vision for us. It provides comfort as we grieve the loss
of those we love and as we contemplate our own death.
But I want to give a warning. There
is a temptation, as the old phrase goes, to be so heavenly minded that you are
no earthly good. There is a temptation, if we dwell on this vision, to slip
into pie-in-the-sky, things will be better by and by thinking. There is a
temptation to look on the mess of this world, the brokenness, the violence, the
ugliness, the evil run rampant in our world, and to close ourselves in with our
vision of God coming down and making everything new. So we need to just do our
best, love Jesus, and wait for our turn to experience that camp meeting
standard, “Some glad morning when this life is over, I’ll fly away, to that
home on God’s celestial shore, I’ll fly away. When I die, hallelujah, by and
by, I’ll fly away.” I love that song! It lifts our spirits and helps us cope
with the reality of death.
But what about this world? Are we
supposed to just shrug our shoulders when we look at how messed up this world
is and say to ourselves, “It’s God’s problem. God’s going to have to fix this
mess. I know where I’m going when I die. Good luck for everyone else.” Here’s
the problem with pie-in-the-sky thinking. The first commandment God gave us was
to be stewards of the earth. But we also know the two greatest commandments,
which are to love God and to love our neighbor as our self. And who is our
neighbor? Jesus taught us that everyone is our neighbor. Jesus made it
personal. He said that when you feed the hungry, clothe the naked, visit those
who are sick or in prison, whatever you do for the least of these, the
marginalized, the discarded, the overlooked, you are doing it to Jesus. Far
from pie-in-the-sky, we’ll get to heaven by and by thinking, we are called to
deep compassion and care for this earth and for every creature, human and
non-human on it. It is a dereliction of our responsibility to have an “I’ll Fly
Away” mindset when we have work to do right now. Paul said that as ambassadors
of Jesus we all have received the ministry of reconciliation. In a time when
the political divides have not been this stark since the 1960s, our ministry of
reconciliation, to bridge differences, to find common ground, to heal the
wounds…if we don’t do this work, who will?
But it’s not just that we have this
responsibility. I want to remind you that, although it is possible for God to
act unilaterally, the truth is that God gets God’s work done through people.
When we do good, it is God working through us. We are the hands and feet of
Christ. God is always at work, seeking to bring about healing, good,
restoration, renewal, through us.
When we fail, and we often do fail, to allow God to work through us, we
frustrate God’s work. I say all this to ask a question: is it possible that the
vision John received, of God coming down to earth, removing the barrier between
heaven and earth, will that vision only become manifest through our
co-operation with God? What if God’s plan to make all things new will get
worked out through us and those who will come after us?
I wonder if the destiny of humanity
is to be used by God to usher in God’s reign on earth. I wonder if our common
task as human beings is to resist the forces of death and destruction and evil
and instead to make every effort to foster life, redemption, transformation.
Not just our own transformation but the transformation of others, of
communities, of our state, our nation, our world. I wonder if God’s desire is
to remove all barriers between God and the world, to merge heaven and earth,
and all God needs is people who will yield to the Spirit of God and be the
instruments by which God yokes heaven and earth together. What God needs are
saints. What God needs is for each of us, who have received the Spirit, to be
who we are, the saints of God.
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