Difference between revisions of "Sermon for May 5th, 2013"

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Isaiah 65:17-25

17 For I am about to create new heavens and a new earth; the former things shall not be remembered or come to mind. 18 But be glad and rejoice for ever in what I am creating; for I am about to create Jerusalem as a joy, and its people as a delight. 19 I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and delight in my people; no more shall the sound of weeping be heard in it, or the cry of distress. 20 No more shall there be in it an infant that lives but a few days, or an old person who does not live out a lifetime; for one who dies at a hundred years will be considered a youth, and one who falls short of a hundred will be considered accursed. 21 They shall build houses and inhabit them; they shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit. 22 They shall not build and another inhabit; they shall not plant and another eat; for like the days of a tree shall the days of my people be, and my chosen shall long enjoy the work of their hands. 23 They shall not labour in vain, or bear children for calamity; for they shall be offspring blessed by the Lord—and their descendants as well. 24 Before they call I will answer, while they are yet speaking I will hear. 25 The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, the lion shall eat straw like the ox; but the serpent—its food shall be dust! They shall not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain, says the Lord.

Revelation 21:1-6, 22-27, 22:1-5

1Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. 2And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 3And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘See, the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them; they will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them; 4 he will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more, for the first things have passed away.’ 5 And the one who was seated on the throne said, ‘See, I am making all things new.’ Also he said, ‘Write this, for these words are trustworthy and true.’ 6Then he said to me, ‘It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give water as a gift from the spring of the water of life.

22 I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb. 23And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God is its light, and its lamp is the Lamb. 24The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it. 25Its gates will never be shut by day—and there will be no night there. 26People will bring into it the glory and the honour of the nations. 27But nothing unclean will enter it, nor anyone who practises abomination or falsehood, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s book of life.

22Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb 2through the middle of the street of the city. On either side of the river is the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, producing its fruit each month; and the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. 3Nothing accursed will be found there any more. But the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him; 4they will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. 5And there will be no more night; they need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign for ever and ever.

A New Heaven and a New Earth

For someone who grew up in the middle of the El Paso desert, I have a strange fascination and love for the sea. On my bookshelf, you can find books about sailing, sailboats, and stories of sailors who circumnavigated the globe...some of them in tiny boats with not much between themselves and the sea. I love the idea of the sea.

And so, I tend to get a stuck in the very first verse of John's description of the New Heaven and New Earth in today's scripture passage: "Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more." Wait...what??? No sea??? That's not just bad news for me, but I guess Shamu and all your favorite residents of Sea World are kind of out of luck, too -- I'm guessing the river of life might feel a bit cramped for a 170 ton blue whale. Besides...any place that doesn't have dolphins couldn't possibly be heaven.

But that's not all...we read later that in the new heaven and new earth there will be no more night. Besides being extremely bad news for all nocturnal animals, no night and no sea...means no midnight walks on the beach by the light of the moon. No more wishing upon a shooting star. No more star-gazing. No more camp-fires, no more chasing fire-flies, and no more breathtaking fireworks (at least not any that you could see). I'm not so sure that John's new heaven and new earth are sounding that attractive anymore.

This is, of course, the danger of being overly-literal when reading the Book of Revelation. Some readers are perfectly willing to interpret all of the bad things--the monsters, the terrors, the apocalypse--as symbolic, but then when it comes to the good things--streets of gold, heavenly mansions--we want those things to be literally true down to the last detail. We also have a tendency (with the good and bad alike) to detach the Book of Revelation from the first century context in which it was written, and from the perspective of the individual who wrote it.

John tells us that he wrote the Book of Revelation while in exile on the Island of Patmos.