Whenever I read
this passage from Revelation about the New Jerusalem coming from Heaven to
Earth I immediately think of an old Carter family tune called “Fifty Miles of
Elbow Room”. If you will tolerate me,
I’ll sing it for you so that you can leave here and say that at church this
morning you were not entertained, but rather worship-tained. So:
Twelve-hundred miles, it's length and
breadth that four-square city
stands.
It's gem-set walls of jasper shine, not made by human hands.
One-hundred miles, it's gates are wide;
abundant entrance there;
With fifty miles of elbow room on either side to spare.
Oh, the gates swing wide on the other
side, just beyond the sunset
sea.
There'll be room to spare as we enter
there; there'll be room for
you, room for me.
Oh, the gates are wide on the other side
where the fairest flowers bloom;
On the right hand and on the left hand,
fifty miles of elbow room.
Sometimes I'm cramped and I'm crowded
here and I long for elbow
room.
I long to reach for altitude
where the fairest flowers bloom.
It won't be long before I pass
into that city fair
With fifty miles of elbow room
on either side to spare.
Oh, the gates swing wide on the other
side, just beyond the sunset
sea.
There'll be room to spare as we enter
there; there'll be room for
you, room for me.
Oh, the gates are wide on the other side
where the fairest flowers bloom;
On the right hand
and on the left hand, fifty
miles of elbow room.
I cherish that
song, but like so many in that Gospel genre it emphasizes our going to Heaven
when we die to the extent that we have nearly lost any idea of the foundational
Biblical belief that the movement of salvation is from Heaven to Earth. Jesus taught us to pray, “Our Father, who art
in Heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy
Kingdom come, Thy will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven.” He did not teach us to pray, “God get us out
of this sin-ridden mess so that our souls can spend eternity in a spiritual
place called heaven.”
The Christian
belief about what happens when we die is not the hub of the wheel of Christian faith. How to go to Heaven when we die
rather than to Hell is not the Gospel message we find in the Bible. What we find with respect to what happens to
us is that if we die before Jesus returns, we will be with him in some place
called Paradise in a state that is somehow disembodied. At a time known only to the Father, Jesus
will return, Creation will be made new, and we will be bodily resurrected to
live in it. God created his Creation and
called it very good. He has and is
saving it in and through Jesus Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit.
John’s vision here
of a New Creation, of a new Heaven and a new Earth where Heaven and Earth are
open to one another rather than Heaven being veiled to Earth; and of the New
Jerusalem coming from Heaven to Earth for me, when I first caught that glimpse, was a game changer about what the Christian faith is ultimately about. The Christian Faith is a down to Earth faith
not a get me out of here escapist faith.
This Creation and what we do in it does and always will matter.
The New Jerusalem
in this vision is a symbol. It means
something. Jerusalem in the Old
Testament is the city, the place on Earth where God chose to dwell, to dwell in
his Temple. The Temple in Jerusalem was
the one place on Earth where the overlapping of Heaven and Earth
was most transparent. Jesus became the
Temple, the place on Earth where God lived and this extends to us through the
Holy Spirit bonding us to him. We, the
Body and Bride of Christ, are now the place on Earth where God lives and the
overlapping of Heaven and Earth is most transparent.
Therefore, in our
passage today what we are to understand the New Jerusalem to be is us, the Christian
church as it is in heaven and which is coming to be on earth. The New Jerusalem is what we are at heart as
the church, the Body of Christ, the Bride of Christ. It is humanity, humans, you and me in
community and the Trinity in whom “we live and move and have our being” is in
our midst.
The New Jerusalem is Holy Spirit-filled human community. It is human community in which the image of the loving communion of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is growing like fruit on the branches of the Tree of Life. Because the Holy Spirit is with and in us we are living in the presence of the communion of the Trinity and thriving on it.
The New Jerusalem is Holy Spirit-filled human community. It is human community in which the image of the loving communion of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is growing like fruit on the branches of the Tree of Life. Because the Holy Spirit is with and in us we are living in the presence of the communion of the Trinity and thriving on it.
In the world of the
early church Christians had to gather in secret at night. They were not safe in the cities in which
they lived. Yet, when they gathered for
worship the light of the glory of God was with them and in the New Jerusalem
they were safe. Darkness was no more. In the early church they had to meet behind
closed doors, but in the New Jerusalem the gates are always open. The Holy Spirit-filled worship behind those
closed doors then, as it is today for us, is the New Jerusalem breaking through
from heaven coming in to earth. When we
gather for worship the breaking through of the New Jerusalem is what’s going
on. We do not have an escape to Heaven
faith. We have a heaven down to Earth
faith.
The Christian faith
is a down to earth faith. We tend to
stress living the faithful life now so that we can go to Heaven when we
die. But that is not the image that John
is giving us with the New Jerusalem. The
New Jerusalem follows a “from heaven down to earth” trajectory. The loving, worship-filled community in
Christ created here by the Holy Spirit’s work in and among us is what the New
Jerusalem symbolized in John’s vision. Our
efforts to love one another as Jesus has commanded us are the fruit and the
leaves on the Tree of Life that is for the healing of the nations. The New Jerusalem is here. It is coming.
And it will come to its fruition on the day when all things are made
new.
I feel as if I’m
blubbering a bit here in trying to describe this metaphor of the New
Jerusalem. So maybe I should just
finish. The New Jerusalem shows us what
the church at heart is and ought to be and what humanity will one day
become. The church is humanity indwelt
by God and thus is and ought to be a community that is safe and secure for all
peoples, a community whose doors and gates do not exclude people. A river of life flows forth from the
church. The Tree of Life grows
here. The Trinity has called us, chosen
us, and by the blood of Christ redeemed us to be a kingdom of priests set about
on the work of healing the nations through prayer and the proclamation of
forgiveness, and challenging people to forgive and to risk being wastefully
compassionate. As a church on earth if
we are faithful about our task we will be persecuted. On the other hand, if we compromise with the
idolatries inherent in our culture we will only be ineffective in the work we’ve
been called to and there will be no light of the glory of God shining on
earth. Amen.
