May only truth be spoken, and truth received. Amen.
Many
awful things have happened in the book of Revelation since we last checked in
14 chapters ago! There have been visions of judgment, visions not of what must
be, but of what could be if the empire keeps on its current course. Violent
visions of self-interest bringing judgment on itself and imploding beneath its
own evil. Ultimately, evil brings judgment upon itself.
Then
we see a dragon, which is Satan, expelled from heaven not through violence, but
by the lamb's testimony, by the witness of the lamb’s power of love. That is
how evil is ultimately expelled, through the power of love. The dragon Satan comes
to earth and wreaks havoc and destruction through its two beasts in the world. The
first beast represents Rome (called "Babylon" by John) and the second
represents the religion of the Roman Empire and its cult of emperor worship. Again,
there is a vision of this empire collapsing under the weight of its own evil, for
there is no place for evil in God's vision for this world.
Unfortunately,
I’ve realized that I won’t be able to finish this exploration of Revelation as
I’m heading into two weeks of study leave. So, here’s a brief synopsis of the final
two chapters not only of the Book of Revelation, but of the entire bible. In
chapter 21 and chapter 22, we see the culminating vision of the perfect world,
of the world's final destiny: a vision of its "perfection" or "fulfillment."
The trauma and the violence and the chaos are all past. God has banished the
evil around us and the evil within us from this world forever. And so, there is
a "new heaven and a new earth," for the "old heaven and old
earth have made way for the new."
It's
this new heaven and new earth that is the focus of our reading this morning. Although,
what it says in Greek is literally a "fresh" heaven and earth, a
refreshed, renewed, or renovated heaven and earth. It is the same heaven and earth
but renovated or made like new. The old heaven and earth are not disposable. Indeed,
God made them so well in the beginning that they just need restoring. Like that
antique piece of furniture that was so well made originally it just needs to be
refinished in order to be made like new again.
New
can be scary and uncomfortable. Have you ever tried a new food? Or gone to a new
place? Or tried a new activity? Or had to meet new people? When we think back
to 2020, everything was new. None of us had every been locked away in our homes
before. I’m thinking most of us had never experienced a health crisis like we
did during the pandemic. We had to learn new ways to be together, to worship together,
new technology. We’re still learning new things! New things come into our lives
through birth, marriage, illness, death.
New
can be scary and uncomfortable, but also exciting and sometimes very needed. The
city of New Jerusalem is the final vision of Revelation. But new doesn’t mean
destroy and start over. God didn’t blow the earth up and start again. The book
of Revelation isn’t necessarily describing a world gone up in flames. The New
Revised Standard Version, the translation we typically use, describes the old
world as destroyed, “for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away”
(21:1). But the verb John uses here is not the word for death or dying. It is
the verb for departure or going away (apelthon). Heaven and earth
haven’t gone up in flames and they haven’t died. Heaven and earth have departed,
they’ve left town, they’ve skedaddled.
As
the old heaven and earth depart, a new heaven and earth come down from God.
This scene from Revelation images heaven coming down to earth. Despite popular
depictions of heaven, God comes to us. God chooses to join us. It isn’t the
other way around. All things flow from heaven to earth and not the other way
around. It is this heaven reality, once obscured, is now revealed. In other
words, there is an apocalypse!
All
this to say that God isn’t in the business of starting over. God is in the business
of restoration, of renewing our covenantal relationship. To renew something is
not to destroy it and replace it. It is to take what is there, and transform
it, heal it, and reconcile it to a pristine condition. Limiting our use of Revelation
to dealing with disaster, or death as we would in a funeral (as these verse are
a typical funeral reading), limits our vision of God dwelling among us here on
earth, in our present. The new heaven, the new Jerusalem, is simply the place that
God is; heaven is the place where God is and humans are fully invited to be
with God. And we don’t need to go up to heaven because God has brought heaven
down to us.
John
tells us that God is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. (21:6)
This means that the beginning is good and the end is good, because God is good.
But what about the middle? We all know that the middle isn’t always good. As John
reminds us, we are all too familiar with the reality of tears, pain, sadness,
darkness, suffering, and death. By bringing heaven down to earth, God has come
to mourn with us, cry with us, sit in pain with us.
God
loves the world. In fact, God so loved the world that God sent his only Son to
be with us, to dwell with us, to experience us to God’s fullest. God doesn’t desire
our destruction, or the destruction of the earth. God joins us in our pain and
suffering and expresses sympathy and concern for us. Just as we see God, God
sees us. God calls us to join God in the good work of redemption, the work of
radical care. We don’t have to burn it all down. We don’t have to escape to
some new world. God meets us right here on earth. God isn’t waiting for us to
join God in heaven. God is waiting for us to join God in the good work right
here on earth.
This
is the ultimate lesson we can learn from the Book of Revelation. It’s not about
how only a chosen few will survive the total destruction of the earth. It’s not
even about the destruction of the earth. It’s about the relationship that God
wants with us. It’s about God’s word speaking over a troubled creation banishing
evil, restoring hope, and making all things new, including the reconciliation
of heaven and earth through the light of God’s glory in Christ.
Amen.
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