The Heavenly City!

      I gave 8am a choice.  One of the dangers of being sick was that I had lots of time to do sermon prep.  That means a lot of reading.  The danger for me, of course, is that I was not engaged with parishioners, so my sermons felt more academic than pastoral.  They chose John 5 and the questions of healing.  It sounded flat to my ears, so you are all going to get the end of Revelations today.  So, as everyone gathers and compares notes, there should be some big, noticeable differences between the two sermons!

     That being said, I do not often preach and teach on Revelation.  I have shared the story, but in case people have not heard it . . . A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away I was a seminarian pastoring a church.  I had launched a Bible study on Song of Songs, at the urging of some of spiritual matriarchs, that ended up drawing nearly double our ASA.  It turns out, at the turn of the millennium, that Christians of Roman, Presbyterian, Episcopal, and even “Bible Church” persuasion, wanted to know if God had anything to say about sex.  My classmates enjoyed the stories and the responses from those attending.  When J. I. Packer, yes, the Knowing God author and noted Anglican thinker, visited the seminary, he asked to meet for lunch.  Fortunately, I knew who he was and was not about to blow him off.  He had heard I was pastoring a church while in seminary and had a particularly blessed Bible study going, and I was a bit of an anathema.  I was at that seminary despite the fact that my bishop and the school disagreed passionately on matters of sexuality.  More confusing to people in the Anglican Communion, I was not expected to be released from serving in my diocese upon my graduation.  So, I was not unused to these kinds of lunches.

     In any event, Jim asked about me and my background, my family, my bishop, and my expectations for ministry.  Towards the end of our meal, in answer to his question about anything he could do for me, I asked if he had any advice for a soon-to-be new priest heading out into the mission field.  Jim’s advice was to never ever teach on Revelation.  Now, picture me, a smart alek young 30’s year old being told (I know, it’s hard to believe I was two decades younger) by perhaps our continent’s brightest Anglican luminary not to teach Revelation.  Naturally, I asked why.  Jim shared that he had tried it a couple times, and it resulted in a couple splits.  He also shared a similar story from another Anglican luminary.  If I wanted his advice, avoid Bible studies on Revelation.  Even Anglicans/Episcopalians get too tied up in interpretations; so tied up, in fact, that they walk away from each other.  Well, I promised then and there I would never do that Bible study.  Heck, it was probably several years into my ordained life before I even risked preaching on the book!

     But the warning stuck.  Part of the problem with reading and teaching Revelation is that it is prophesy.  It is a genre of literature with which most of us have no familiarity.  Those of us who do cursory readings or do not try to understand the literature and its contents, often become passionately wrapped up in how we interpret what we read.  Human beings being human beings, we love to believe we can figure out what God is teaching or revealing to us.  Often, those self-perceived future events become wrapped up in our Christian identity, and to err, we think, reflects poorly upon our faith.  I see some nods, but I see some confusion, too.

     Let me put it another way.  If I asked you to go read Dilbert this morning, how would you describe it to me?  Correct, a comic strip.  How do we interpret comic strips?  Great, you are all on a roll.  We laugh at them because the genre is generally intended to make us laugh.  Dilbert is fun because often his experiences in the business world make us laugh ironically, right?  OK.  Now pretend you are an archaeologist living around the year 4000 and you just discovered a collection of these strips.  How do you read them?  Most of us reading them would wonder how people around 2000 ever survived, if this was how we did business, right?  You and I know, because comic strips are a genre of literature, how to properly read Dilbert.  Somebody 2000 years distant and in a different culture, though, would have no idea.  They might mistake the comic strip for a “how to” book on doing business, even if it was made for dummies.  I am hoping the laughter means we understand better about our challenges.

     Part of what makes prophesy challenging for us is that we think we can figure out what will happen in the future with certainty.  In some respects, we can.  Do we know that one day God will return to earth with all the saints to recreate the cosmos?  Yes.  Do we know when?  No.  Do we know which specific sign in the earth is THE sign?  Again, no.  And to add to our challenge, prophesy can sometimes be fulfilled on multiple occasions. 

     Who is the anti-Christ in Revelation?  Great.  The one who opposes Jesus.  Y’all sound like you did a Confirmation class.  Who is the anti-Christ, though?  Ok, I heard Satan.  Any other guesses?  Good, I hear a Hitler or three.  Any other guesses?  Putin?  I guess that remains to be seen, right?  Now, in one sense, you are all right.  My guess is that some of you had other names come to mind, but you were afraid of being wrong.  In truth, anyone who opposes the Gospel or God or however we want to phrase it, is an anti-Christ.  But, the original anti-Christ in Revelation was Emperor Nero.  I will not bore you to death with too many Nero stories, but he seemed to enjoy using Christians in his empire as scapegoats.  There’s a plague killing too many of us?  Kill the Christians.  We are in danger of entering a recession?  Kill the Christians and take their wealth.  It’s too dark at night to walk the streets safely?  Burn some Christians as human torches.  As I said, there are lots of tales.

     John, of course, had to write this book and share what had been revealed to him by Lord Christ.  How does one hope to accomplish that, though, knowing someone like Nero is on the throne?  If John writes “Nero is the anti-Christ,” what happens to John?  Exactly, he gets killed.  If someone is found to have the book in their possession, how do you think Nero would respond?  That’s right, they would be killed.  That means John had to write the book and protect his readers and hearers.  So, John writes in numerology.  You and I might think it a secret code because we do not know it, but readers and hears at the time would understand 666 means Nero.  But the use of 666 gives everyone plausible deniability, right?  If authorities asked you in ancient Rome who 666 was, you could say you don’t know.  You are looking for the sign on their forehead.  In that culture in that time, it would not sound as crazy as it does to our 21^st Century ears.  They might think you were crazy, too, but you would clearly not be disparaging the emperor or be a threat to his rule.

     Now, in this case, Nero is anti-Christ, but so is everyone who actively opposes God’s plan of salvation.  We simply do not know which anti-Christ will be the last one.  Thanks to God’s revelation, we know that some day in the future, there will be some kind of end to those who oppose God’s will.  We think of it in terms of a great battle between good and evil, God and Satan, but does anything in your reading of Scripture ever give you any doubt about the outcome?  And if there is no doubt about the outcome, is it really a battle, in the way we understand battles?  Put a bit differently, how hard does Jesus struggle to cast out the demons in the Gospels?  Do the demons really seem to think they can stand against Him?

     See the problem clearer now?  And we have only been talking about anti-Christ.

     Part of why I decided to preach and teach on Revelation today is to answer some of the questions that have been coming at me since the real possibility of WW3 broke out in Ukraine.  A number of Adventers, based on the study of history, have an educated fear that this conflict could lead to WW3 and nuclear destruction.  It seems far more possible than it did a year ago, right?  Plus, some of them wonder about the signs of the time.  We have the heavens doing crazy things.  Eclipses, comets, meteor showers, and who knows what else.  Nature seems to be going nuts with fires, volcanoes, floods, tornadoes, and crazy snowstorms like Denver this weekend.  The economy seems to be out of control with inflation soaring and people wondering aloud whether we live to work or work to live.  Oh, and let’s not forget, we are in the midst of a pandemic.  People rightly wonder.  Is this the end?

     It could be, but it is not necessarily the end.  Every time one of those signs happens in the world, you and I are supposed to be reminded that they could be THE sign and be impassioned to share the Gospel of Christ with those we know and love.

     The other reason I decided to preach and teach the passage, though, is to answer the question about our lives in the kingdom of God.  You know the ones.  Father, are the streets paved with gold?  Father, do I get my young body back?  Father, do we sit in church all eternity?  I see the nods.  Our passage today talks about the eschaton, that time when God comes to dwell among His people for eternity.  I want us to notice what is said and what is not said by John.  My guess is that you will learn there are far fewer specifics than you ever thought.

     First of all, the description of the Heavenly City is a polemic.  Earlier, in chapter 18, John was given a vision of Babylon, which we know is really Rome.  Were John to describe Rome in those terms, the emperor would not be the only person mad at him and unwilling to listen to Christians about God and Christ.  Think of how well our public figures are treated when they day to criticize a policy, kneel during an anthem, or any other protest, despite the very fact that we all claim to believe we have a right to criticize and live differently.  Babylon, of course, is concerned with pretty much anything but God: wealth, sex, partying, power, and you name it.  Babylon is described as a dog eat dog society, where the rich prey on the weak and might makes right.  It seems overwhelming back in chapter 18.  But here, the Heavenly City descends and is 1200 stadia on all four sides.  Since we think in terms of miles, let’s call it 1500 miles on each side.  Better still, let’s call it 2 ¼ million square miles. 

     You and I live in a civilized world, but even we cannot begin to imagine the scope.  Anyone want to guess at our largest city in the US?  Good guess.  NYC.  Want to guess at its size?  Yes, NYC proper.  The incorporated suburbs do not count.  1 million.  Nice guess.  Try about 4700 square miles.  In terms of a square, each side of NYC would be 68 miles long.  Whoa, is right.  This city that John is shown is huge.  For funsies, I looked up to see if any cities came close.  It turns out in Greenland there are a couple cities which are around 200,000 square miles.  Nobody lives there because it’s, well, Greenland.  But even those cities are dwarfed by the Heavenly City!  Nashville, for those of us wondering, is just above 500 square miles, or 23 miles per side.  First time in a while anyone from Nashville felt dwarfed, huh?

     The city is walled, but has no Temple.  Those of us who pass by church after church after church on our way to Advent probably find it remarkable.  Should not the Heavenly City have THE TEMPLE?  John reminds us it does not.  The Lord God and the Lamb are the Temple.  And God is giving off so much glory that there is no need for a sun or moon.  Darkness is completely dispelled by the very presence of God and Christ.

     Like all good ANE cities, the Heavenly City is protected by walls.  But John tells us that the gates are always open.  What does that teach us about security?  There is no threat to those who dwell with God.  Intellectually, it makes sense.  But do we internalize it?  If our destiny is to dwell with God and Christ in their presence, is there anything to fear.  Any thing?  Cities in the ANE had to fear rival cities and even barbarian tribes.  Within a couple centuries of this vision, anybody who is anybody will sack Rome when they are in the neighborhood with an army.  Think “Kilroy was here,” but in antiquity.  When chiefs and kings got together, it was expected that one had sacked Rome just because.  Even though Rome was a shell of its former glory, one simply sacked it to prove one’s right to rule and strength and prowess.

     I watched a couple shows on the cable channels about Armageddon.  It was an entirely secular perspective.  They “examined” the various Christian traditions about Armageddon and shared Christianity’s understanding of the end times.  Naturally, they focused a lot on the battle between God and Satan.  One of the “experts” claimed that we would be fighting the legions of Satan, which meant we were at risk.  It is not clear that everyone who fights for God will get to share in paradise afterwards, was her claim.  Really?  Were we to fight, we would wear the armor He gives us and the sword He gives us (sound familiar).  Would there really be a chance we could lose?  Of course not.  Does this City seem like it is in any way vulnerable?  No!  To drive that point home more, what are the nations and kings doing in this vision?  They are bringing their glory into it.

     Notice, though, nothing unclean or false or any abomination can even enter.  What allows one to pass through the gates?  To use our language from a couple weeks ago, those who know the voice of the Shepherd.  Only those who claim Christ as Lord and Savior can even enter this enormous city!  We have lots of political fights about protecting our borders; yet, God keeps those who rejected His Saving grace in Christ Jesus out?  With no closed gates?  I mean, each side is 1500 miles.  Should there not be tons of border guards?

     John is not finished.  After describing the size and glory, he tells us the angel showed him the river of the water of life.  Again, you should hear a bit of a polemic.  Bodies of water in the world were usually viewed to be the domiciles of chaos or capricious gods.  Rivers flood.  Storms swamp boats.  Big storms, like hurricanes, were terrifying in Antiquity, appearing with little warn and no real indication of severity.  God, of course, subdues chaos.  He broods over the chaos in Genesis.  He restricts the possibility of another Great Flood.  When the other gods are panicked by the Great Flood, He is under absolutely zero threat to His existence.  Finally, He promises the water of life to His people.  We cannot understand the hope associated with this promise.  We live in a world where water is at our command in our taps and in plastic bottles in our stores.  Those of us living out west are beginning to get a glimpse of what life was like in Antiquity.  Clean sources of water were few and far between.  Tribes fought over good wells.  Rome had to build the aqueducts to water its people.  But here, in the Holy City, the water of life, dependable water, flows directly down the middle of the street.

     But wait, there’s more!  On either side of this crystal clear water of life is the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit.  Twelve, of course, should remind us of Jacob’s sons, the tribes of Israel.  But how does a single tree grow on both sides of a stream or river?  How does a tree produce twelve different kinds of fruit?  I mean, trees only produce whatever kind of fruit or nut they are meant to, right?  And what are the twelve fruits?  Apples?  Peaches?  Pomegranates? 

     John points us also to the leaves of this tree.  In the ANE leaves of plants and herbs were known to have healing properties.  Many of us are in healthcare, and so we know this to be true even in modernity.  How many of us rub aloe on burns?  But the leaves of the Tree of Life!  Can you imagine the healing properties of those leaves?  John tells us they healed the nations.  What kind of wounds do the nations have?  Perhaps the better question is what kind of wounds do the nations not have?  But those wounds are healed in God’s Holy City.

     John ends this passage with an even more magnificent promise.  He asserts that God’s servants will see His face.  We do not live in a culture where we cannot make eye contact with a cultural superior.  If a Vanderbilt walked into our church, we would be able to look him or her in the eye and speak to them, perhaps shaking their hands by way of introduction.  But think of how people greet the Queen of England, and she is a sweet grandma of a lady – by the standards of Antiquity.  In Antiquity, in many cultures, one had to pay close attention to how one addressed those more powerful.  One wrong move, one wrong gesture, and one’s life could be over.

     God, of course, was far more dangerous, but for different reasons.  We can only understand this in anthropomorphic terms, but God destroys sin autonomically by His very presence.  In the way that you and I breathe or blink or our hearts beat, He destroys sin just by being in its presence.  When the Old Testament saints ask to see His face, how does He respond?  When Israel sins during the Exodus, He removes Himself from the camp.  The Temple priests would only hold the doors and veil of the Temple and Holy of Holies open on the Day of Atonement for a brief time why?  God destroys sin.  We know this.  When angels appear and radiate His glory, how do human beings respond?  But here is John, in an anticipatory of our Burial Rite, promising us that we will see God’s face.  We will be able to peer through the blinding glory and look at His face.  Better still, we will dwell with Him forever!  Can you imagine?

     Back to our original discussion about my avoidance.  What specifics are mentioned?  Does John dwell at all on individual details?  Those of us who have immersed ourselves in Christian fiction like the Left Behind series: what specific details are mentioned?  I see the comprehension.  Not very much.  We are promised healing and fruit and the presence of God, in an enormous even by our standards city.  But the details are not fleshed out.  I know I drive some of you nuts from time to time.  I simply do not spend enough time, from some perspectives, thinking about our future bodies, salivating at the foods to be served at the Wedding Feast, wondering about the Wine from the Cup of Joy from which Jesus will finally drink, and who knows what other detail you want to know.  I hope, I pray, there is a wisdom in that though.  I could assume that God will give us men an Adonis-like body and you ladies a Helen-of-Troy beauty.  I could assume that Jesus will be drinking and serving a great Dom Perignon.  I could probably convince us that the food will be out of this world.  But still I will fall short.  We are reminded over and over again that God does far more than we can ask or imagine.  How often have we lived that truth ourselves?  How often have we had a plan only to discover that God had a better way?  Do we really think we can comprehend or anticipate what wonders He has in stall for us in the world to come, those who claimed Him as Lord and Savior of their lives, and bore little crosses trusting in His goodness and His power to redeem?

     In the end, Revelation is clear.  The future for those who claim the Lamb as their Savior is secure.  The community of believers will be enormous.  All of us will be healed.  And we will be provided those things we need to glorify Him for eternity.  To be known, intimately, to be loved; to be secure—the great worries of humanity are promised solved in the Heavenly City.  And that, my friends, are longings of every human heart we encounter.  That, my friends, is the ultimate reward for all who claim Him as Lord and Savior.  What will we look like?  How will the food taste?  What will we be doing?  Who cares?!  We will be untied forever with the One who created us, redeemed us, and made us His own.  And that same loving Father who has done so much for us already will be the One in charge of eternity!  How could we ever be disappointed?

 

In Christ’s Peace,

Brian†