“I see a new heaven. I see a new earth as the old one will pass away, where the fountain of life flows and without price goes to all people who abide in the land.”
These
evocative words by hymn-writer Carolyn McDade engage the
imagery of the final two chapters of the Book of Revelation. While the imagery
harkens to ancient conceptualizations of the earth, the waters, and a firmament,
its poetic beauty transcends the mechanics of how it all fits together and has continued
to bring hope to centuries of believers.
Few
books in the Bible are as polarizing as the Book of Revelation. For some, it has gained an outsized
importance, somehow becoming the most important book of all, a literal roadmap
of the end times and how we will be judged, with each symbol and event in
Revelation analyzed and aligned with current events to calculate the end of
time. For others, Revelation is easily
side-stepped and ignored because of its weirdness: too many images, too many
numbers, too much like a horror movie or a fever dream.
In between these two polar positions, is a place of
curiosity. Written by a Christian mystic
named John of Patmos to seven Churches in what we now call Türkiye, the book of
Revelation includes letters offering encouragement to individual Churches
facing harsh challenges, but this guidance is shrouded in the secrecy of
metaphor, for safety’s sake – what we might refer to in our day as “encryption”
to keep the information out of the wrong hands.
John of Patmos needs for these Churches, under heavy persecution, to
know that somebody out there knows what’s going on, that the everlasting God is
aware of and moved by their plight, and that the power of Christ’s resurrection
will eventually win the day.
After twenty chapters of rambling symbolism and
heightened anxiety, we arrive at today’s reading: a vision of a new heaven and
new earth. Things were so desperately
difficult for the early Christian Churches, that just tinkering with things as
they were would not do. Only a total
re-set of how we relate to one another and to God would suffice: a new heaven,
a new earth. And once John of Patmos named the evils of the day, in the
language of beasts and dragons and the destruction of Babylon, what is said in chapter
21 contains a series of relevant, hopeful, grounded surprises.
Starting at the end of today’s scripture and working
backwards: pleasant surprise number one
is what an earthy vision this is.
Verse six states, “To anyone who is thirsty I will
give the right to drink from the spring of the water of life without paying for
it.” Or, in the words of Carolyn McDade,
the new realm is a place “where the fountain of life flows and without price
goes to all people who abide in the land.”
This new world not disconnected and dreamy; it is a place of quenched
thirst, unbridled fairness, and dignity for all. A world where Shalom is the
rule. It’s a place where there is health,
wholeness, opportunity and life in abundance for all, not just for the sly,
the well-connected, the bombastic or the wealthy.
The language about water is so evocative, because water
is the foundation and essence of life.
Imagine with me a world where clean, drinkable water would be treated as
a right for all people rather than a saleable commodity. Imagine a world freed from drought and
starvation, a world where no child dies of malnutrition or cholera or
dysentery. At present, 36 first nations
communities in this land are under long-term boil water advisories; imagine
what it would be like if that were fixed. These words from the book of
Revelation inspire us not only to dream of a future world where all have
what they need – food, water, shelter, safety, love – but to embrace those
goals here and now. For what we have here is a statement of Divine intention: it
is God’s ultimate intention that there be no impediments for all people to
enjoy the gift of life.
Pleasant surprise number two, is the Eternal God’s desire for new beginnings.
The unsettling part of the language of “a new heaven
and a new earth” is that it seems to be saying that this earth isn’t
good enough anymore, not worth fixing so we need a new one. These words may
even be taken as permission to those who are destroying the earth to keep on
doing so, to extract every ounce of life out of this planet without worrying
about future generations because, well, God’s going to replace it with
something new.
But that is nonsense. Rather than hearing these words
as an invitation to earth’s replacement, humanity is invited to hear these
words as part of God’s gracious delight at new beginnings, second chances and
reconciliation. Throughout the Bible we see
the everlasting God’s desire for new beginnings and second chances, as we
encounter characters who had no right to be forgiven, people who by our
standards would be beyond redemption:
Moses killed a man in anger, David had Bathsheba’s soldier husband sent
to certain death at the front lines, Peter lied about his connection to Jesus no
fewer than three times – yet Moses led his people from slavery to freedom, Jesus
arose from the house of David, Peter was named as the rock, the foundation of
the burgeoning Church. If a by-the-book,
judgmental approach had been applied to these three individuals, none of them
would have had the opportunity to lead, but that’s not how God works.
Whenever the old and destructive needs to end and the
new and constructive needs to begin, God is the change-agent in the midst of
it. We are called to trust the God of
grace, and at the same time we are invited to put our hand to the plough. Our
willingness to be the change that God intends will be a key for The United
Church of Canada as we turn 100. Can we
commit to new ways of being, relative to communities of people who have
typically been badly treated by the Church?
Will our commitments as a denomination and as congregations, to
reconciliation with Indigenous peoples, with the queer community, and with
other populations whose oppression we have been complicit in, be heartfelt or
performative? Will we continue to be
vocal and visible advocates for God’s children facing oppression in other
lands? As a progressive Christian presence in this nation, will we be willing
to receive with joy the gifts of new Canadians to our communities and our
Churches, being energized by the Canada of 2025 and 2035 and 2055 rather than
lamenting the way things once were?
While a new heaven and a new earth is portrayed by the
book of Revelation as a future culmination of history, the reality is that God brings
renewal over and over and over again in our lives and the life of the world,
even now. Partnering with God is not
something that has to wait; it is a way of being we can enter into, any time.
Which brings us to our third point, and that is the direction
of God’s activity in all of this. This
is a story of God engaging with the world, not humanity exiting this world to
be with God.
Nazarene pastor Danny Quarstrom has
these eloquent words for us:
“As we’re coming to the
culmination of the book of Revelation we see that it’s not about us being
pulled away from this earth, it’s about God drawing close to this earth!
… In verse 3 we hear [that] God ‘will dwell’ or ‘tabernacle’ with them… this is
the same description as John 1:14, ‘the Word became flesh and lived
among us…’
“The Revelation of Jesus given
to John of Patmos isn’t about the faithful avoiding difficulty or being
raptured out of tribulation but is about God making God’s… dwelling place,
in the heart of this earth. God will wipe away every tear. This is the new
thing God is doing.”
The newness comes to us at
God’s heartfelt initiative; God does not wait, dispassionately, at a
distance. God is in us, we are in God, and God is love;
and in that assertion we realize that in our loving – whether the tender love
of compassion, or the brave love of advocacy – God is known. Not just in heaven, not just in future, but
here, and now, with these people and in the midst of this world. Or to put it another way that you may have
heard, “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”
In today’s reading, we
experience a God who is as close to us as our next breath, as present to us as
our highest hopes. The God you
experience when enjoying the beauty of the orchards and vineyards and the God
you engage in prayer when you are worried about the world around you, is the
same God. The God whose vision of
equality you yearn for is the same loving presence that has been your companion
since birth, your source and destination, your Alpha and Omega. The God whose creative energy infuses the
space between us, is the same God whose reconciling grace can energize our
efforts to heal the environmental mess that thoughtless human greed has
created. There is most definitely work
to do in our lives and in the life of the world, AND there is a Divine partner
who loves us desperately, who meets us on the path and joins in our best
efforts.
“I see a new heaven. I see a new earth as the old one
will pass away, Where the fountain of life flows and without price goes to all
people who abide in the land.” In our hopes, in our plans, in our lives, may
this be so. Amen.
References cited:
Copeland, Adam J. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rev-adam-j-copeland/revelation-21-1-6-earth-day-god-and-the-apocalypse_b_3148811.html
Government
of Canada, “Ending long-term drinking water advisories”. https://www.sac-isc.gc.ca/eng/1506514143353/1533317130660
McDade, Carolyn.
“I See a new heaven”, #713 in Voices
United, 1979.
Quanstrom, Danny. http://www.aplainaccount.org/#!Revelation-2116/bhul0/5714d7650cf2331db0f8217a
© Rev Greg Wooley, Osoyoos-Oliver United Church
Pastoral Charge, 2025.
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