Independence
Day Sermon, Hillcrest United
Today’s scripture lesson is about the promise of a New
Heaven and a New Earth. It’s about our future as Christian believers, and the promise
of eternal life with God. The reading about the New Heaven and the New Earth
(Rev. 21:1-8) is followed by John’s Vision of the New Jerusalem (Rev. 21:9-27)
in which a central feature is The River of Life (Rev. 22:1-7). The reading is
listed in one of the lectionaries, the Episcopal Book of Common Prayer, as one of the readings for Independence Day,
the Fourth of July.
That is not to say that the
But our focus for today is on the Book of Revelation’s
promise of a New Heaven and a New Earth. Although we may be blessed abundantly
in this country of ours, we still look forward to our future in God’s New
Heaven and New Earth.
John’s vision continues.
“Then,” he says, “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” (Rev. 21:1; cf. Isa.
65:17; 66:22; 2 Pet. 3:13). “All creation will be renewed,” says Bruce M.
Metzger, “freed from imperfections, and transformed by the glory of God (Rom.
8:19-21)” (NOAB, 2nd ed., 1994, on Rev. 21:1). “The sea,”
he adds, is “a symbol of turbulence and unrest” (ibid.). Jean-Pierre Ruiz
follows Metzger, but calls “the sea the primeval force of turbulence and
unrest,” with reference to “Gen. 1:2; Ps. 29:3, 10” (NOAB, 3rd
ed., augmented, 2007, on Rev. 21:1). David E. Aune
holds similar views. For “A new heaven and a new earth,” in addition to
the Isaiah references, he adds “Jubilees 1:29; 4:26; 1 Enoch
91:16”; “for Judaism,” he adds, “the renewal of creation constitutes the final
eschatological event” (HarperCollins Study Bible, rev. ed., 2006, on
Rev. 21:1). And I saw the holy city, the
new Jerusalem,” says John, “coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a
bride adorned for her husband” (v. 2; cf. 3:12; Isa. 61:10; Heb. 11:10, 16).
For “the holy city” as “
John
reports that he “heard a loud voice from the throne” (Rev. 21:3a). One might
think this was the voice of God himself, but the voice refers to God in the
third person:
“See, the home (skhnhv, sk‘n‘,
lit. ‘tent,’ ‘tabernacle’) of God is among mortals.
He will dwell with them;
they will be his peoples,
and God himself will be with them;” (Rev. 21:3b, NRSV)
For this verse, Metzger
refers to Ezekiel 37:27 (op. cit., on v. 3), “My dwelling place (NKAw4m9, mišk~n;
LXX kataskhvnwsiV, katask‘nÇsis)
shall be with them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people”
(Ezek. 37:27), which refers, of course to the restoration of
The
voice from the throne continues:
“he [i.e., God] will wipe
away 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.” (Rev. 21:4, NRSV)
For the statement that God
“will wipe away every tear from their eyes, compare 7:17; Isaiah 25:8; 35:10
(cf. Metzger, op. cit., on 21:4; if his ref. to Rev. 7:16 is about wiping away
tears, it should be to v. 17). According to Aune, “wipe
away every tear indicates the absence of sorrow in the new order (see Isa.
25:8)” (op. cit., on Rev. 7:17).
The
next voice–note the first person reference, “I am making”-- clearly is that of
God himself. “And the one who was seated on the throne said, See, I am making
all things new’ ” (Rev. 21:5a). Metzger refers to 1:8 (op. cit., on v. 5).
Aune refers to Isaiah 43:19 (op. cit., on v. 5), “I
am about to do a new thing; / now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?
(Isa. 43:19a, b). But the new thing in the Isaiah text is
“Then
he [God, that is, ‘the one who was seated on the throne’ (v. 5)] said to me,
‘It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end’ ”
(v. 6a; cf. 1:8; Isa. 44:6). Isaiah
says, “Thus says the LORD, the King of Israel, / and his Redeemer, the LORD of
hosts: / I am the first (NOwxr9, ri’šôn; LXX prw:toV, prÇtos) and I
am the last (NOrH3xa, ’ach arôn;
LXX meta; tau:ta, meta tauta, lit.,
‘after these things’); / besides me there is no god” (Isa. 44:6). At the
beginning of Revelation the “Lord God” identifies himself as “the Alpha and the
Omega” (Rev. 1:8). The statement here echoes the earlier statement, and so
encloses the book in brackets—God is in control, and though the battles with
the powers of darkness rage throughout the book, the outcome is sure. We should
not overlook the fact that Christ uses the same identity. “See, I am coming
soon; my reward is with me, to repay according to everyone’s work. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning
and the end” (Rev. 22:12-13). According to Metzger, “Christ applies
God’s title to himself (see 1:8n)” (op. cit., on Rev. 22:13). “Alpha and
Omega,” says Metzger, are “the first and last letters of the Greek
alphabet (like our ‘A to Z’); hence, the beginning and end of all things (Isa.
44:6)” (ibid., on 1:8).
God
promises, “Those who conquer will inherit these things, and I will be their God
and they will be my children” (Rev. 21:7).
To this, Metzger compares “the concluding words of each of the seven
letters in chs. 2 and 3” (ibid.,
on v. 7). With reference to God’s being
their God and they being his children, Aune says,
“The covenant relationship is often defined using the metaphor of adoption (see
2 Sam. 7:14; Pss. 2:7; 89:26-27; Jer. 3:19; Jubilees 1:24)” (op. cit.,
on v. 7). But these blessings on the righteous stand in sharp contrast to the
others. God concludes by saying, “But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the
polluted, the murderers, the fornicators, the sorcerers, the idolaters, and all
liars, their place will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which
is the second death” (v. 8). Rather than joining the latter group, we strive
and expect to be among “the thirsty,” to whom “I [God] will give water as a
gift from the spring of the water of life” (v. 6), and among “Those who
conquer” who “will inherit these things, and I will be their God and they will
be my children” (v. 7).
Some
people find the Book of Revelation difficult to understand, with strange
imagery of beasts and battles on a cosmic scale. There are seals which, when
opened bring famine and death, trumpets that bring death and destruction, bowls
of wrath that bring judgment on the dragon and the beast. Michael and his
angels defeat the dragon. It’s a kind of Star Wars story with the Dark Side
pictured in vivid imagery.
But there’s another side of the story in the Book of
Revelation. At the outset we are presented with Christ in all his glory.
“Then I turned,” says John,
To
see whose voice it was that spoke to me, and on turning I saw seven golden lampstands, and in the midst of the lampstands
I saw one like the Son of Man, clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash
across his chest. His head and his hair were white as white wool, white as
snow; his eyes were like a flame of fire, his feet were like burnished bronze,
refined as in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of many waters. In
his right hand he held seven stars, and from his mouth came a sharp, two-edged
sword, and his face was like the sun shining with full force. (Rev. 1:12-16)
As we continue in Revelation,
we come to the Heavenly Throne Room where God is worshiped (chap. 4), the
redeemed people—the 144,000, and the multitude from every nation—and the Mother
of the Messiah. She is in contrast to the Harlot Rome, threatened by the
dragon, but protected from him. Some time ago when I was reading and thinking
about this imagery and these battles, it occurred to me: In the Book of
Revelation, from start to finish, there is really never any doubt about the
final outcome. Christ overcomes all the forces of the Dark Side. At the
beginning, we are told, “ ‘I am the Alpha and the
Omega,’ says the Lord God, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty”
(Rev. 1:8). At the end of the book this “First and Last” title is applied to
Christ. “See, I am coming soon,” he says; my reward is with me, to repay
according to everyone’s work. I am the Alpha and the Omega,
the first and the last, the beginning and the end” (Rev. 22:12-13). And
Jesus follows with an invitation.
The
Spirit and the bride say, ‘Come.’
And
let everyone who hears say, ‘Come.’
And
let everyone who is thirsty come.
Let
anyone who wishes take the water of life as a gift. (Rev. 22:17)
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