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Revelation 21
PART 1
It has been a few years
since Calvin and Hobbes disappeared from the comic page, but I still save some
of the strips. Maybe some day I will make them into a kind of theology of Calvin
and Hobbes. One of the early Calvin and Hobbes strips shows Calvin talking to
his pet tiger Hobbes and saying, "Hobbes, what do you think happens to us
when we die?" Hobbes says, "I think we play saxophone for an all-girl
cabaret in New Orleans." Calvin responds, "So you believe in
heaven?" Hobbes shrugs and says, "Call it what you like."
I don't know how you would describe heaven, but one of the problems I have discovered is that for many people the traditional picture of heaven--floating on clouds playing harps--isn't all that appealing. They would rather be in New Orleans.
In her book Heaven: Your Real Home, Joni Eareckson Tada describes her first reaction to the vision of heaven we read this morning from Revelation 21.
I picked it up with the first verse: "Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth..."
"Okay, I'll buy that. This old planet is in bad need of repair."
"...for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away..."
Wait a minute, you mean everything about this earth will disappear and pass away? But there are lots of things I like. Chili dogs with cheese. The NBA playoffs. Bridal Veil Falls at Yosemite National Park.
"...and there was no longer any sea."
What! No sea? But I love the ocean. The waves, the wind, the smell of salt in the air. What about splashing in the breakers? What about digging my toes in the sand? To me, heaven has to have oceans in it.
...
I'm struck that heaven is often described in terms of "no this" and "no that." No more sea. No more night. No more time. No more moon or sun. And what about food, marriage, sex, art, and great books? ... That's not all. I was also struck that the positive descriptions about what heaven is seem clumsy and ungraceful. Rainbow thrones? Streets of gold? Pearly gates? A glittering city 1,400 miles in length and as wide and high as it is long with walls 200 feet thick and made of jasper. It more closely resembled Minnesota's monolithic Mall of America. I was embarrassed to admit it, but even the descriptions about everlasting peace and eternal felicity seemed boring.
Naturally you have to realize, as I have said repeatedly throughout this series on Revelation, that Revelation was written to some poor, struggling, outcast Christians facing death for refusing to worship the Roman emperor. To them a city of peace and security with streets of gold sounded pretty good. I imagine it would also sound pretty good right now to some ethnic Albanians, or homeless Hondurans. It is only the rich and secure who complain that this vision of heaven is tacky.
The real point of the passage, however, is that even the things we most like or yearn for in this world are faint echoes of something greater that God wants for us.
When the Gonzaga Bulldogs played Florida in the "Sweet Sixteen" of the NCAA basketball tournament, I was backstage at Ferris High School with about 300 other parents getting ready for the Thursday night show of Ham on Regal. We were watching the game on a monitor in the band room. Even though it was only a half hour before show time, the directors had given up trying to make any announcements or warm-up our singing voices. We were glued to the TV. And when Casey Calvary (there's a theological name!) made that winning tip-in with four seconds left the room erupted with cheers. Two days later, of course, we realized that it is only a basketball game. If you lose it is not the end of the world. But if that much excitement and cheering can be generated by a basketball game, imagine the kind of rejoicing that will happen when captured U. S. servicemen in Yugoslavia are welcomed home by their families. Better yet, imagine the kind of cheering in heaven that will take place when Albanian refugees can return safely to their homes in Kosovo and be welcomed by their Serbian neighbors.
That is what Revelation is talking about here. Did you notice what it said about the heavenly city in verses 24-26? It said,
The nations will walk by its light (meaning the light of God), and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it. Its gates will never be shut by day--and there will be no night there. People will bring into it the glory and honor of the nations.
Up to this point Revelation has been filled with wars and destructive battles between God and various kings and nations of the earth. But now, at the end, they are brought together. Instead of racism, ethnic cleansing, and no fly zones, everyone is free to mix and enjoy all the best things about each other's culture: the food, the music, the art, the sights, the dances and traditions. That's what Revelation means by the glory and honor of the nations. All the best things we have to offer each other are brought together and enjoyed.
Now add to this picture some other things. All those people with cancer or other diseases for whom we have been praying are miraculously healed. Even the ones who have died are healed! Mourning, crying, and pain will be no more. Relationships are also healed. Estranged people are brought back together.
Now obviously for this to happen, some things have to disappear. Verse 27 says of the new Jerusalem, "But nothing unclean will enter it, nor anyone who practices abomination or falsehood." This does not mean that if you have sinned, lied, or mistreated others, you are excluded. It means that when you come, you cannot bring with you the sins, lies, and mistreatment. These things have to go.
In another Calvin and Hobbes comic strip Calvin says to Hobbes, "If heaven is good, and if I like to be bad, how am I supposed to be happy there?" Hobbes says, "How will you get to heaven if you like to be bad?" Calvin replies, "Let's say I didn't do what I wanted to do. Suppose I led a blameless life! Suppose I denied my true dark nature!" Hobbes scratches his head and says, "I'm not sure I have that much imagination." Then Calvin exclaims, "Maybe heaven is a place where you're allowed to be bad."
Not according to Revelation. In the kingdom of God pride will have to go; but what you will get in exchange is acceptance, which is what pride yearns for in a misdirected way. In the kingdom of God lust will have to go; but what you will get in exchange is love, which is what lust yearns for in a misdirected way. In the kingdom of God greed will have to go; but what you will get in exchange is fulfillment, which is what greed yearns for in a misdirected way. In the kingdom of God the desire to dominate and control others will have to go; but what you will get in return is community, which is what we all secretly yearn for in a misdirected way.
Later in her book Joni Eareckson Tada comes to a new understanding of what Revelation means when it describes a new heaven and a new earth. She writes,
Remember how I soured on all the "no this" and "no that" descriptions in heaven? No food, no marriage, no moon, no need for good books? Faith reminds us that every negative is only the reverse side of a fulfilling. A fulfilling of all that God intended our humanity to be. True, we may enjoy a good charcoal broiled steak or a night of romance with our husband or wife under a full moon, but faith tells us these things are inklings of better tastes and enraptured delights yet to come. They won't be negated, no; rather, the whisper of what they are on earth will find complete fulfillment in heaven.
Heaven is not the end of life but the beginning, and what you get here when you worship God, when you receive this sacrament, when you serve one another in love is a taste of what it will be like.
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