LIVING INTO THE RESURRECTION 5
Revelation 21:10, 22-22:5; John 14:23-29
6th Sunday of Easter, May 22, 2022
Pastor Ritva H Williams
Good morning and welcome to the final episode of Living into the Resurrection, my Eastertide sermon series featuring readings from Revelation. We have now reached the final chapters, not only of Revelation, but of the Bible. Here we are shown the the end-goal and climax of God’s story. It is not at all what many of us have been led to expect. The Bible does not end with the end of the world. The book of Revelation does not call us to a heaven out there somewhere, requiring an exodus, or a rapturing from this planet.
As we heard in last Sunday’s episode the holy city — the new Jerusalem — is descending out of heaven now. God’s home is among mortals now. God is with us now, wiping away our tears, comforting us in the midst of death, grief, and pain. The “first things” that cause suffering are passing away together with the first heaven and the first earth. God is busy making all things new. It’s kind of like how Jesus’ story didn’t end when he was crucified, dead, buried. The climax of Jesus’ story is that God raised Jesus to new life. The Risen Christ is Jesus and yet so much more than Jesus. The Risen Christ is not limited to a specific geographic region of the world. The Risen Christ is not confined to a specific time in world history. The Risen Christ is not only able and willing to be at home with all people in all places at all times, but intends, seeks, and determines to be so.
In today’s reading an angel carries John the seer to a high mountain and shows him the holy city of Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God. Notice the repetition of last week’s main theme. The holy city — God’s home — is coming down out of heaven now. Things that we all thought were separated turn out not to be. God’s home is no longer up there in heaven but here on earth with us. The holy city coming down of heaven makes me think of rearranging furniture, renovating the house, re-organizing and re-purposing all the rooms, to make room for a new baby or for gramma to move in.
Eugene Petersen famously describes Christ’s birth as “the word became flesh and blood and moved into the neighborhood.” Here John the seer is trying to tell us that the result of Christ’s resurrection is that God has moved in to our home permanently, and is changing it radically.
John describes an amazing urban landscape where heaven and earth occupy the same space and time. There is no separate temple — no structure or building that is holier than any other place. The holiness of God and the Lamb permeate the entire city and its inhabitants, providing all the light needed. The nations and the kings of the earth will walk by this divine light. They will bring their glory and honor into the new Jerusalem. Its gates are never closed. There are no security systems, no bars on the windows, no locked doors, no alarms. Anyone can come and go as they wish, no one will feel insecure, and all are welcome. Or are they?
Verse 27 says that nothing unclean, nor anyone who practices hateful or deceitful things will enter the city. Only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life will be able to enter.
Let’s look at the case of the nations and the kings of the earth Two chapters earlier these same nations and kings were drawn up in battle array against God and the Lamb. Yet here they are entering the city. How did their names get into the Lamb’s book of life?
As Professor Brian Petersen writes the reference to the Lamb’s book of life reminds us that entry is by God’s grace alone. God’s grace empowers those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book walk by the light of the Lamb. The promise that nothing unclean will enter, in the end is the promise that God will remove uncleanness, hatred and deceit that is in all of us. (“Commentary on Revelation 21:10, 22-22:5, 2010, workingpreacher.org)
So, the answer is yes, anyone and everyone is welcome to enter God’s home on earth. A more difficult question to answer is: will everyone want to enter?
In his book Love Wins, Rob Bell asks us to “Imagine being a racist in heaven-on-earth, sitting down at the great feast and realizing that you’re sitting next to them. Those people. The ones you’ve despised for years.” (p. 50). How will the racist respond, when it becomes clear that racism has no place in God’s home? Will they be able and willing to let go of their racism, to allow it to pass away so their heart and mind can be made new? Bell imagines the process of transformation as "freeing us from tears and pain and harm and disgrace and disease” (p 48), even as it burns away “our sins and habits and bigotry and pride and petty jealousies” (p. 50). It is the only way we will be able to handle heaven-on-earth.
Reality check and good news all rolled together. God loves each and everyone us just as we are, but God has absolutely no intention of leaving us just as we are!
Even in the holy city the transformation remains in process. We discover that in the center of God’s city is a lovely green space through which runs a river filled with the water of life. Fresh clean water for all people. Growing on both sides of the river is the tree of life, producing fresh fruit — a different kind each month — to nourish God’s people. The leaves of the tree provide therapeia — therapy and healing for the nations. The vision reminds us that our lives, our flourishing, our therapy and our healing are rooted in creation itself.
Revelation ends with a vision of a world of abundance for all people — a world where the gates are always open in welcome, where there is fresh water and food for all, where all find healing and therapy. In her book, The Rapture Exposed, Barbara Rossing writes:
God’s beloved city in Revelation 21-22 is not primarily a vision for after we die, or for when Jesus returns. It is rather a vision that can transform the way we live out God’s reign in the world today. It is a vision of healing leaves that God wants to lay on every broken heart, on every war-torn landscape. It is a vision of Lamb power in the world. And we are part of that vision (p. 164).
