Revelation 21: 1-6
"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. 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;*
4he 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."
The book of Revelation is a book that has generated lots of interpretations about the end of times. There are many fictional writings out there and if you’re up late you’ll see a variety of tele-evangelists telling the audience about how we’re in the end of days and that we need to prepare ourselves. They’ll tell us that certain world events are fulfilling the events laid out in Revelation.
Now I’m not here to knock anyone else’s beliefs, but I’m not so sure that we, Christians are really in a place to make the judgment call about the end times coming.
The book is attributed to John, but the author is really unknown. The most agreed upon theory as to who John is, by biblical scholars, is that he was a fellow early Christian in the time after Jesus’ death. Although there is a historical tradition in some Christian circles that this John is the disciple John, in reading the oldest preserved versions of the book, show a different literary style and references to world events that suggest that this is a different John. What we do know is that this John was writing from an area in what is now modern day Turkey. Christianity was still in it’s infancy but Roman persecution had subsided at the time. However, there were still pockets of persecution throughout the empire. John was probably living in an area where these new Christians were not the most welcomed and did suffer persecution. In an effort to try to support those in communities who faced such hardships, John sends a letter about a vision or a dream that he had. So what we see today in our bibles is one side of a letter dialogue that John was having with people who felt that they were going to suffer and maybe even die at the hands of others.
Revelation is a book full of powerful imagery that includes many metaphors: the new bridegroom being one of the most common throughout the book.
Today’s lectionary passage talks about a new heaven and a new earth. This passage demonstrates the contrasts that John makes through the book as well. We see the clear division between the new and the old. God will be ushering in new things. We even see that God will come down from heaven as the new descends to earth and all will be made new. God will bring heaven down so there is no longer this separating. Earth and heaven will be one and all will follow God’s law. There will be a new world order; persecution of all who suffer will end. What has turned wrong will be made right. To those whom John is writing to, this is a welcomed letter of comfort that they are not forgotten and that not all hope is lost. It is a letter to offer strength for those who have grown weary. Who here hasn’t felt weary at some point?
I currently work for Mosaic, an organization that supports adults with various levels of mental retardation, to live fulfilling and productive lives in their community. I spend at least 5 nights a week working in a home with three guys. I’m there to teach them life skills and to hopefully maybe move them into a more independent living situation. Although I care about my boys and would probably protect them like a mother bear if someone messed with any of them, there are definitely days were I can’t wait for it to bed time. It is very wearing teaching others to cook, clean, get them to their activities, make sure they do their personal hygiene and also get all of the required paperwork done in 8 hours. I sometimes call myself a soccer mom, without a team. There are days were it’s all I can do to get through the next five minutes; were I feel persecuted because a client is having a bad night or moment. There are definitely times were I could use a reminder from my supervisors that it will be okay and that the fight is not in vain.
It’s in difficult situations that it is sometimes the hardest to remember that we struggle with things because there is a greater good in the end. One of the things that I try to refrain from saying in difficult times is that we have to struggle now because there’s something better or there’s a reason for this. Although these are very true things that we know as Christians, when you’re in the thick of a situation, especially troubling ones, it’s not very comforting. It doesn’t feel like a complete enough answer to the question “why.” Just like the early Christians we still struggle with the question of why. Why us? Why me? Why now?
This week’s news has left many people asking why? Why did that oil rig catch fire and sink in the Gulf Coast? Why can’t they stop the oil spill? Why was there another mine collapse in Appalachia? Why was a police officer killed in the line of duty? It seems like even when our own lives are going pretty well, the rest of the world makes us wonder what’s going on. There doesn’t seem to be enough new creation sprouting up around us.
But as Christians we profess our belief in a God that has a long history of using the things of the world, as they are, to make something new happen. We can see throughout both Testaments that God would guide the people and even when they strayed away God still made things happen. Even through the persecution of Jesus Christ at the hand of the Roman government God used those events to start something that has spanned over 2,000 years and reached all over the world.
What we can learn is that God makes a dwelling with us, we are not alone in this world that sometimes seems strange and turbulent. We have a friend, a sojourner who goes with us in all we do and feels what we feel. We have a God who chooses to cry with us when we’re hurting. We profess a faith in a God who shares our joys and celebrations. We have a God who desires and longs for all things created to live in a new relationship with God.
Although our passage from Revelation may seem to be impeding doom of the creation to some, I would like to interpret the scripture as a passage of hope of better things to come. Hope that comes from knowing that God is on the journey of life with us. Hope that things will eventually get better, even though those words may not be so comforting in our moments of sorrow and pain. Hope is there. John has seen a vision that hope is with us and in things to come. What does our hope look like? Amen.
"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. 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;*
4he 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."
The book of Revelation is a book that has generated lots of interpretations about the end of times. There are many fictional writings out there and if you’re up late you’ll see a variety of tele-evangelists telling the audience about how we’re in the end of days and that we need to prepare ourselves. They’ll tell us that certain world events are fulfilling the events laid out in Revelation.
Now I’m not here to knock anyone else’s beliefs, but I’m not so sure that we, Christians are really in a place to make the judgment call about the end times coming.
The book is attributed to John, but the author is really unknown. The most agreed upon theory as to who John is, by biblical scholars, is that he was a fellow early Christian in the time after Jesus’ death. Although there is a historical tradition in some Christian circles that this John is the disciple John, in reading the oldest preserved versions of the book, show a different literary style and references to world events that suggest that this is a different John. What we do know is that this John was writing from an area in what is now modern day Turkey. Christianity was still in it’s infancy but Roman persecution had subsided at the time. However, there were still pockets of persecution throughout the empire. John was probably living in an area where these new Christians were not the most welcomed and did suffer persecution. In an effort to try to support those in communities who faced such hardships, John sends a letter about a vision or a dream that he had. So what we see today in our bibles is one side of a letter dialogue that John was having with people who felt that they were going to suffer and maybe even die at the hands of others.
Revelation is a book full of powerful imagery that includes many metaphors: the new bridegroom being one of the most common throughout the book.
Today’s lectionary passage talks about a new heaven and a new earth. This passage demonstrates the contrasts that John makes through the book as well. We see the clear division between the new and the old. God will be ushering in new things. We even see that God will come down from heaven as the new descends to earth and all will be made new. God will bring heaven down so there is no longer this separating. Earth and heaven will be one and all will follow God’s law. There will be a new world order; persecution of all who suffer will end. What has turned wrong will be made right. To those whom John is writing to, this is a welcomed letter of comfort that they are not forgotten and that not all hope is lost. It is a letter to offer strength for those who have grown weary. Who here hasn’t felt weary at some point?
I currently work for Mosaic, an organization that supports adults with various levels of mental retardation, to live fulfilling and productive lives in their community. I spend at least 5 nights a week working in a home with three guys. I’m there to teach them life skills and to hopefully maybe move them into a more independent living situation. Although I care about my boys and would probably protect them like a mother bear if someone messed with any of them, there are definitely days were I can’t wait for it to bed time. It is very wearing teaching others to cook, clean, get them to their activities, make sure they do their personal hygiene and also get all of the required paperwork done in 8 hours. I sometimes call myself a soccer mom, without a team. There are days were it’s all I can do to get through the next five minutes; were I feel persecuted because a client is having a bad night or moment. There are definitely times were I could use a reminder from my supervisors that it will be okay and that the fight is not in vain.
It’s in difficult situations that it is sometimes the hardest to remember that we struggle with things because there is a greater good in the end. One of the things that I try to refrain from saying in difficult times is that we have to struggle now because there’s something better or there’s a reason for this. Although these are very true things that we know as Christians, when you’re in the thick of a situation, especially troubling ones, it’s not very comforting. It doesn’t feel like a complete enough answer to the question “why.” Just like the early Christians we still struggle with the question of why. Why us? Why me? Why now?
This week’s news has left many people asking why? Why did that oil rig catch fire and sink in the Gulf Coast? Why can’t they stop the oil spill? Why was there another mine collapse in Appalachia? Why was a police officer killed in the line of duty? It seems like even when our own lives are going pretty well, the rest of the world makes us wonder what’s going on. There doesn’t seem to be enough new creation sprouting up around us.
But as Christians we profess our belief in a God that has a long history of using the things of the world, as they are, to make something new happen. We can see throughout both Testaments that God would guide the people and even when they strayed away God still made things happen. Even through the persecution of Jesus Christ at the hand of the Roman government God used those events to start something that has spanned over 2,000 years and reached all over the world.
What we can learn is that God makes a dwelling with us, we are not alone in this world that sometimes seems strange and turbulent. We have a friend, a sojourner who goes with us in all we do and feels what we feel. We have a God who chooses to cry with us when we’re hurting. We profess a faith in a God who shares our joys and celebrations. We have a God who desires and longs for all things created to live in a new relationship with God.
Although our passage from Revelation may seem to be impeding doom of the creation to some, I would like to interpret the scripture as a passage of hope of better things to come. Hope that comes from knowing that God is on the journey of life with us. Hope that things will eventually get better, even though those words may not be so comforting in our moments of sorrow and pain. Hope is there. John has seen a vision that hope is with us and in things to come. What does our hope look like? Amen.
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