Listen to the audio of today’s Reflection:
https://soundcloud.com/hapearce/reflection-for-november-25
Revelation 21:1-4, 22-27; 22:3-5
A New Heaven and a New Earth
21:1Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,” for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. 2I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. 3And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. 4‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”
22I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. 23The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp. 24The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their splendor into it. 25On no day will its gates ever be shut, for there will be no night there. 26The glory and honor of the nations will be brought into it. 27Nothing impure will ever enter it.
22:3No longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him. 4They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. 5There will be no more night. They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light. And they will reign for ever and ever.
The lectionary has now finished its series of readings from the Revelation of John, the last book of the Bible. But before we go on to the next series of epistle readings, which will come from the First Letter of Peter, it seemed to me that we should take one day’s Reflection to think back to what we said earlier about the Revelation, and about our understanding what it represents for our life of faith.
This passage comes from the final two chapters of the Revelation, and it sort of represents a wrap-up of the themes of the book in general. This passage, which is a series of three excerpts from the last two chapters, is actually included in our Book of Common Worship as one of the readings for funerals. It seems obvious that it’s intended as a reading communicating hope and consolation for people struggling with grief and loss.
As you might remember, we said when we began these readings from the Revelation that the overall theme of the book is that God sees the sufferings of his people in the midst of a world of persecution and turmoil, and that God promises his ultimate victory over the forces of evil, and promises that the followers of Jesus will share in that great victory at the end of time.
Our passage for today describes the fulfillment of the heavenly Kingdom at that time of ultimate victory. It promises that the followers of Jesus will share the Kingdom of peace and safety, when all of the things that cause us suffering in this world have been banished into history.
You might notice that some of the things that are excluded from that heavenly Kingdom seem odd to us. For instance, the passage says that with the fulfillment of the Kingdom, there will no longer be any sea. That might seem strange to us, as people who enjoy a vacation at the shore. But to the people of the ancient Israelite world, the sea was a realm of chaos, swept on the surface by storms and full of strange and frightening creatures. When God’s Kingdom is brought to fulfillment, John seems to be saying, all such things will be gone.
It’s also interesting that the passage promises that those who are residents of that heavenly Kingdom will live in a realm of eternal light. That’s a metaphor that the apostle John uses frequently in his teachings. You might remember that the earliest writing from John in the New Testament — in the gospel that bears his name — begins with an introduction that describes Jesus as the light coming into a darkened world. When all things are brought to fulfillment, the darkness that hides evil will likewise be banished.
You might also notice John promises that in the heavenly Kingdom, there will be no temple. That might seem a little surprising to us, because we view the temple as the House of God, a place of worship and communion. But to the ancient church, many of those members had originally been Jews, the temple had a slightly different connotation. To many of them, it represented the meeting point of God and humankind — where God and humanity came together. They understood that Jesus was the new temple — that in him, humanity and divinity came together in a way never seen before. So when the Kingdom was fulfilled, in a sense it would be “all temple.”
Some Christians in our time are very uncomfortable with the idea of judgment as an aspect of the faith. That’s largely because some parts of the church have used the concept of judgment as a weapon of fear against those who disagreed with them socially or theologically. But in the minds of some leading theological thinkers — like the British theologian Tom Wright — God’s judgment is an important step in the fulfillment of this Kingdom. That’s because at the fulfillment of the Kingdom, God will judge all of the hostile and violent earthly forces that have caused pain and suffering among his Son’s disciples. That judgment will be directed at the forces of evil, not so much at individual believers who might have committed infractions of God’s law.
At its conclusion, the Revelation’s character as a manifesto of hope becomes more and more apparent. Its theme as a document of promise and comfort to suffering believers probably helps to explain why the Revelation is the source of more Christian liturgy, of more prayers and songs, than any other part of the Bible — even the Psalms. That probably also explains why this passage is chosen to express a message of hope and consolation to mourners at the time of a funeral.
The Revelation is a bit of a struggle to hack through, and many of its details and symbols are simply beyond the comprehension of those of us who live twenty centuries after its creation. And anyone who claims to be able to fully explain it is almost certainly wrong. But its value as a book of God’s promises is just too important to ignore.
Let’s pray. Lord, we thank you for the faithfulness of your servant John in recording the visions you inspired in his heart and mind by the power of your Holy Spirit. We thank you also for the great promises you have made, that at the end of all things you will triumph over all that can destroy or harm, all the forces of suffering and death, and that those of us who follow your Son will share in that great victory. Amen.
Grace and peace,
Henry
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