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Whenever you preach from the Book of Revelation you have to do so with a bit of fear and trembling. Not so much because of what it says, but because what you wind up saying will likely have you sounding like a nutbar. Seriously, if you ever take a look at the history of interpretation of this letter even folks the likes of John Calvin and Martin Luther fell off the deep end. So, permit me to take my plunge.
One thing you don’t do with the Book of Revelation is approach it as a road map to the endtimes and start looking for this little detail to happen and that little detail and from there make your prediction as to when the end will come. The Book of Revelation is a revelation, a making known, of the big picture of what God is doing in history right now in the wake of Jesus and it speaks more in generalities than particulars.
The passages that we read this morning and the images of the New Jerusalem coming to the new earth from the new heaven and the River of the Water of Life that flows forth from the throne of God and the Lamb, these are not so much literal things we can expect to see on some future day as they are rather images describing what is going on in God’s Creation in the wake of what God has done through and as Jesus Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit. Through the work of Jesus and the Holy Spirit the first things (the first heaven and the first earth) have gone and the new has come. The new “something” that these images portray is what God is doing in us, the church, the body and bride of Christ through the working of the Holy Spirit.
Before I get any more confusing let me just start working the text. Chapter 21 starts with John saying that something utterly new has come about and it encompasses all of Creation. He sees a new heaven and a new earth. Then he sees the New Jerusalem coming down from the new heaven to the new earth and note that it is not the other way around. The New Jerusalem is not ascending into heaven to escape earth. It comes from heaven to earth. “Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” The end of, the fulfillment of Christian faith is not a mystical, spiritual disembodied escape to heaven. It is embodied new life on a new earth that shines with the life of God.
Something else to note here is that the city is adorned as a bride. Quick thinking as we are, John wants us to get that the New Jerusalem is the Bride of Christ, the Church…us. But, as I’ve said many times before let’s be careful not to think of the New Jerusalem in terms of the institution we’ve come to know as the Church with its buildings and its clergy and its doctrines and its enmeshment with Western culture and political power. None of that, the New Jerusalem, the Church, is the people, the faithful followers of Jesus Christ indwelt by the Holy Spirit who is working in us changing us to be more and more in the image of Christ Jesus so that we can shine like him in the world.
The New Jerusalem is the people of God in relationship, in relationship with God and with one another in Christ. The New Jerusalem is in fact a new humanity made up of those who are adopted by God the Father to be his own people, to be his own children in Christ with whom God is now always present and comforting them. Because of God’s presence with and in his people death and its ill effects for these are no more. We know the comfort of God.
As I noted last week, verse five of chapter 21 is very important in the Book of Revelation. It is the only time God the Father speaks. At times throughout the Book there are great voices that come from the throne, but here John makes a point of saying that the One seated on the Throne is speaking. Therefore, what he says here is of utmost importance. He says “Behold, I am making all things new. Write it down for these words are trustworthy and true.” When your life is all messed up you’re finding it hard to believe, remember God is indeed present with you and is truly making things new in the sense that going through these things will deepen our relationship to God and make us more like Jesus.
God goes on to say this new reality is a done deal. All things in creation begin and end with him and what he’s doing now since Jesus is freely giving the Water of Life to the thirsty and making them his children. When Paul says in 2 Corinthians “Anyone who is in Christ is new creation”, this is what he means. God is freely giving his Spirit to people to strengthen and comfort us and quench our thirst with the Water of Life of Jesus Christ.
For the rest of chapter 21 an angel comes and shows John the New Jerusalem and there are a couple of things to note here. It is clothed in the glory and radiance of God. As we are the New Jerusalem, this means that the presence and beautiful obviousness of God just radiates from us, his people. The light of the love of God just shines from us. But we need be careful not to put it under a basket.
Here’s something else. There is no temple in the New Jerusalem, no building, no cinderblock and brick box for keeping God under wraps. The city is huge and the gates are never shut. Everyone, everyone is welcome in the New Jerusalem. The glorious things of the world will be brought into it. Kings who previously gathered for war (Ch. 19) will come into it to learn the ways of the reign of God. Nothing defiled can be brought into it. Liars with a shameless attitude won’t come into it. Only those who find life in the Lamb are there. This means that humility and honesty are key virtues in the New Jerusalem. When I’ve been in the midst of true life-giving Christian fellowship, humility and honesty were the markers of the people who brought healing to me.
This brings us to chapter 22 and the River of Living Water. This is the healing and reconciling mission/ministry of Jesus Christ that we embody. It shines like crystal in us in our relationships with each other and with others outside our fellowship and in our involvement in our families, and neighbourhoods and communities; through us God is working to heal this broken world as we each are a leave on the Tree of Life.
Similarly, verse 5 says we reign, but it does not say what we reign over entailing that the church should not try to “lord” Jesus over the world. We shouldn’t try to control politics or moral standards in the world. Rather, we share in Jesus’ reign, which is the reign of self-sacrificing love. We feed the hungry, clothe the naked, and visit the prisoner. We give super generously. We don’t look just after our own needs. Since God has filled us with the Water of Life we pour ourselves into the lives of others with humility and honesty.
That River of the Water of Life that flows from the Throne of God and the Lamb flows through each of our churches and through each of us. This river flows and the water doesn’t’ become stagnant. When the church gets more concerned about itself as an institution rather than its mission in Christ it has stagnant. Institutional churches get stagnant with buildings, and clergy, and “the way things are done around here”. We are stagnant when we are more concerned about judging what’s proper and acceptable to God rather than actually loving one another. When we do this, and we are stagnant and the River of the Water of Life ceases to flow through us.
That being said, in these days and times when most of the people in our surrounding communities are negatively disposed to anything “institutional” and especially the church in its institutional forms, we the people of God, we the New Jerusalem need to especially attune ourselves to the River of the Water of Life flowing through us. Coming out of this Pandemic so many people are all the more walking away from the institution of the church and even a simple belief in a God. There is a particular need for us who have tasted of this Water of Life to drink more deeply of it. We need to dive in and go with the flow of the Spirit carry us away from our comfortable ways of doing things and be able to say this is why I continue to be a follower of Jesus. We need to gather together and read and study the Bible together and pray together. We need to pay attention to being authentically Jesus-like in all our relationships. Jesus bears our burdens and so that means we are free to bear the burdens of others and walk along beside them in their weaknesses just like Jesus does with us.
The River of the Water of Life is flowing through us. The glory and light of God does shine through us. But present circumstances dictate that we set aside our institutional ways and let the River carry us out into the world. Each one of us is a leaf on the Tree of Life and God has made us his own not just for our own sakes but so that we can be for the healing of others. Many have asked where has God been throughout this Pandemic. Well, look around you at the people still sitting in this sanctuary. God has been with us. The River of the Water of life has been flowing through the love you have shown one another these past couple of years. People look for a mighty wave of God’s had to fix everything, Well, that mighty wave has come in the form of the way you have loved and supported each other and your family and neighbours throughout this pandemic with the love and faithfulness of God you have tasted throughout your lives. You are in the flow let the River widen. Amen.
