Best and Worst Days

 

God’s grace, peace and mercy be with you. … My sermon is entitled Best and Worst Days of My Life and is based on Revelation (22). Let us pray. Heavenly Father, the psalmist wrote, “I rejoiced when they said to me, ‘Let us go to the house of the Lord.’” Now that our feet are within your gates, we rejoice to hear your Word. As we listen, may your Spirit enlighten our minds and move our hearts to love deeply as Jesus loved. This we pray to you, Most Holy Trinity. Amen.

The best day of my life. If you search for the phrase “best day of my life,” you will find an unheard of and forgettable movie, book and country western song by George Strait. Primarily, you will hear a catchy tune by American Authors which received a lot of airplay in 2013, and which was later used in commercials by Lowe’s, Hyundai and Best Western Hotels. It was played for the Little League World Series, the Stanley Cup playoffs and by the Oklahoma City Thunder.

If you ask people what the best day of their life was, some will say their wedding day, the day their child or children were born, the day they got hired for their dream job, and so on. When I was serving at a church in Swissvale, I went to a funeral home to pray with a church member who lost her husband. I don’t remember many details other than his name was Domenic, retired, and for many years, was an usher at Forbes Field. The best day of his life was October 13, 1960, according to his widow. As he lay in the open casket, his widow had pinned to his suit lapel a large button with a picture of Dom running behind Bill Mazeroski before he crossed home plate. After Dom’s widow told me that that was the best day of his life, I wondered why it wasn’t his wedding day or the birth of his children or grandchildren. I also wondered about all those other answers other people offer.

We capture moments on the best days of our lives through pictures or videos. If those recording means were not available, we may have jotted a few words in a journal or diary. In our reading from Revelation today, John offers readers not only the best day, but the best moment. And it’s one that will never end. There will be no need for cameras or diaries to remember a good time that we once had.[1]

Revelation depicts what heaven will be like. Today’s reading paints a figurative picture. It describes the river of life-giving water, the tree of life, the throne of God, and the heavenly multitude who worship God day and night. The most important part to me is verse 4, “They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads.”

Since the fall, no human being had ever seen God face to face, for to do so meant death. We read in Exodus how God responded to Moses’ request to see his glory. God told him that no man could see his face and live.[2] However, God promised that his righteous people would one day see His face and be satisfied.[3] We hear that promise at the end of each Divine Service, The Lord bless you and keep you; The Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you; The Lord look upon you with favor and give you peace.[4] It is what all of Jesus’ disciples want through the words of Philip, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.”[5] Jesus promised in the Beatitudes, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.”[6] St. Paul was confident of this when he wrote to the Corinthians, “For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face.”[7] That promise is fulfilled in this passage from Revelation.

When we see God’s face, his name will be upon our foreheads. This was promised earlier in chapter three when Jesus said he would write on the conquering faithful disciple “the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God.”[8] It was repeated twice after that.[9]

When we were baptized, the pastor said, “Receive the sign of the holy cross upon your forehead and upon your heart to mark you as one redeemed by Christ the crucified.” That and the donning of the white robe or baptismal garment marked us as belonging to Christ. In that way, Christ took away sin and marked us with his perfect righteousness.[10] So, one day you, now redeemed and marked by Christ, will see God face to face. Guaranteed, that will be the best day of your life, for we Christians do not fear death and hold Christ’s promise of everlasting life.

One of the reasons that John offers such hope to Christians persecuted for living their faith is because in contrast to the Gospels which describe the life of Jesus on earth through his ascension, Revelation begins with that moment. It presents Christ as Lord of lords and King of kings, from the time of his ascension until he returns to judge earth and usher in a new creation.[11]

Christology, the study of Christ, is usually seen as low or high. Low Christology refers to the human side of Jesus, the state of humility. High Christology is the study of the exalted Christ. Revelation’s high Christology sees Jesus in several roles. As Son of Man, he will bring all things to an end when he comes in judgment. All creation will bow before him. As Lamb of God, all God’s people will be redeemed and made into a kingdom for our heavenly Father. Because the Lamb won the victory for God’s people over death, hell, Satan, Christ is honored. As the spokesman and the Word of God, he is mediator and witness of the message of Revelation.

Revelation’s high Christology is summarized in verse 13, where the three divine titles describing the eternal magnitude of our infinite God are applied to Jesus. Primarily, Jesus Christ is the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End of all creation, and the new creation. Secondly, he is the Alpha and Omega of all eternity. Finally, with the Father, Jesus of Nazareth, born of a woman, is glorified and honored as God incarnate. Through Him alone God creates and redeems the human race, judges us and has mercy upon us. For us, Revelation ends as the best moment for all of us because of Jesus Christ.

As I pondered that this past week, a second question came to me: What is the worst day of my life? I remember some of the worst days of my life. I saw the Cadillac hurtling towards me in an inevitable T-bone. I remember missing the last step of the staircase while touring a castle in July 2019 and tearing my rotator cuff as I attempted to break my fall. I recall the feelings when I walked into a meeting prepared to present an update on a golf outing and being told that my job was eliminated on Friday, May 13, 2016. I know exactly where I was when I heard that my father and brother had died, and exactly when my mother died.

Apart from the personal worst days of my life, I remember arriving home from school on November 22, 1963, wondering why my mother was crying while watching TV. I remember standing in the kitchen of the rectory at St. Irenaeus Church watching the news as the second plane hit the World Trade Center.

What do we do when we experience the worst day of our lives? I can tell you that on the afternoon of September 11, 2001, a member of the congregation called and asked if I would open the church so that people could come pray together. I remember a crowded church on September 16, 2001, a less crowded church the following Sunday, and by October, we were back to our normal attendance.

I mention this because to me it seems that on the worst days of our lives, we turn to God. After experiencing one of the worst moments life deals us, we seek divine intervention. As helpless creatures, we submit ourselves to our Almighty God, King of kings and Lord of lords, begging for help. Like King David, some of us make promises, deals and commitments to God if He comes through for us.

Eventually, however, most people – even steadfast Christians – return to their normal state. Maybe we don’t see the need honor the promises, deals and commitments we made. Maybe we don’t see the need to return to church and God each Sunday for whatever reason we render: work, family activities, travel, foul weather and so forth. Folks, if we find that we need God on the worst days of our lives, do we see that we need God on the best days of our lives and all those days in between?

So, why should I be here each Sunday? Ask yourself some questions. Is there anything happening here that does not happen in my recliner, sofa or bed where I can relax peacefully? Is something going on here that does not occur on the ball field or golf course, at the lake or the cabin? Can I learn something more important from Sunday morning TV programs, books, blogs or newspapers?

Friends, I understand how nice it is to sleep late on Sundays. I enjoy a cup of coffee while reading the paper on the back deck. I know the importance of showing up for work on Sunday morning. But given that our reading from Revelation describes what God has done, is doing, and will do for us, perhaps I can reflect deeper on the need to be in church on Sunday mornings.

To answer my questions about being here, I’ll say this. I believe that I need a Divine Authority in my life and that Jesus Christ is God Himself, my Maker, who has built His Church for us because we need it. What happens when people gather in their Church for Divine Worship does not occur anywhere else. In the Church we confess our sins to God with fellow sinful believers and receive God’s mercy as His people. In this church, I can hear God’s Word in the same manner as it was announced to His Church 2,000 years ago. From this altar I receive the true Body and Blood of the Risen Christ as a member of this body of believers. In this sacred space, we are blessed with the same words Abraham blessed God’s people, the same words that blessed Jesus Christ when he worshipped. What happens here on Sunday morning happens nowhere else, and I am blessed to be here on my worst day and on my best.

This is the last Sunday of Easter (given that next Sunday is Pentecost). If you have fully understood how much our Exalted Lord Jesus Christ means to you on the best and worst days of your life, then maybe, you are ready for your eternal reward. If not, I encourage you to return each Sunday until you do. This week, I ask you to contemplate what it means for you to see God’s face. As you do, may the peace of God that surpasses all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus the Risen Lord. Amen. Alleluia!

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[1] Daily Meditation for Revelation 22:1-7, The Word Among Us. November 29, 2014.

[2] Exodus 33:18ff.

[3] Psalm 17:15.

[4] Numbers 6:25-26.

[5] John 14:8.

[6] Matthew 5:8.

[7] 1^st Corinthians 13:12.

[8] Revelation 3:12.

[9] See also Revelation 7:3; 13:16.

[10] Rite of Holy Baptism.

[11] Louis A. Brighton, Revelation. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House (1999), p. 659.

Jesus Prays

 

When you pray, do you ask God for anything? If you do, what is it? When I was your age, I asked God for friends and to be funny. I asked God to help me in baseball and school. When I got to high school, I asked God to help me be popular, and later to be successful. So, nothing I asked for was really important.

Do you know what I ask God to give me today? I ask God to make me indifferent. That means that I want to be okay with whatever God gives me. As I have gotten older, I have learned that it’s better for me to accept God’s plan for me than for me to give God my plans.

Here is what I mean. I prayed for good health, but I got sick and got well many times. I have fallen more times than I can remember and was in a car wreck. I had teeth replaced and surgery on my shoulder. In the future, I will have to have my knee replaced.

Maybe your parents have gone through the same thing. They pray to be successful so that they can take care of you, but they may not make as much money as they want.

I say this because in our Gospel today (Jn 17), Jesus prays not for all the things we often pray for. He prays for his disciples. And do you know what? Jesus prays for you too. Jesus prays for you to be protected from sin, Satan and for you to be holy. So, the next time you pray, ask Jesus what He wants for you.

With that, let us pray. Heavenly Father, from whom all fatherhood in heaven and earth is named: Bless these and all children, and give their parents the spirit of wisdom and love, so that the homes in which they grow up may be to them an image of Your Kingdom, and the care of their parents a likeness of Your love. We pray in the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Letters

 

Do you like getting letters? Before email, texting and tweeting, people wrote letters when they had news to share with others. I wrote letters to friends when I was in college, and to family when I was studying in Poland. When I travel, I mail postcards. Writing and sending letters them are important tasks, and I hope one day you will write letters to your family members and friends.

Today, most of the mail we get is junk, but there are letters that were sent to us by someone very special. Someone who loves us dearly has sent love letters to us. Do you know who that Person is? It’s God. God sends us love letters.

Do you know where to find these letters? They are in a book called the Bible. I mention this because every Sunday we take our book and read a portion of all these love letters from God.

Since Easter, we have been reading the love letters from St. John to his friends and church family members. At times, John tells people about God. At other times, he tells people to love God and each other. He even warns people about the devil and evil people who lead them down the wrong path. He writes all these things because he loved his family members and friends almost as much as God loves them.

Do you know what else? God sends those love letters to you too. Maybe your parents or grandparents can read them to you. When you become an adult, you can read them to others and remind them of God’s love for all people.

With that, let us pray. Heavenly Father, from whom all fatherhood in heaven and earth is named: Bless these and all children, and give their parents the spirit of wisdom and love, so that the homes in which they grow up may be to them an image of Your Kingdom, and the care of their parents a likeness of Your love. We pray in the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Transformed Cities

 

God’s grace, peace and mercy be with you. … My sermon is based on Revelation (21:9-14, 21-27). Let us pray. Heavenly Father, the psalmist wrote, “I rejoiced when they said to me, ‘Let us go to the house of the Lord.’” Now that our feet are within your gates, we rejoice to hear your Word. As we listen, may your Spirit enlighten our minds and move our hearts to love deeply as Jesus loved. This we pray to you, Most Holy Trinity. Amen.

Atlanta, Berlin, Beirut, Chicago, Warsaw, San Francisco, Lisbon, Nagasaki. What is one thing these cities all have in common? They were all destroyed and rebuilt. If you have visited them, you may be aware of their common history. They have been destroyed by earthquakes, fires or bombings. Warsaw is the most interesting city that was rebuilt because after 85% of it was destroyed by the dark, black and red world of the Nazi occupation, Warsaw’s residents reconstructed their city from cityscape paintings by Venetian painter Bernardo Bellotto.

Bellotto was the court painter to the King of Poland beginning in 1768, and created beautiful and accurate paintings of Warsaw’s buildings and squares. Almost 200 years later, those paintings were used to help transform the historic city center from wreckage and rubble into a UNESCO World Heritage Site.[1]

Reconstruction began in 1950, and much of the Old Town was finished by 1955. The rest continued through the 1980’s. When I visited Warsaw in 1983, you would not know that the city was leveled over a span of six years beginning in 1939.

Residents working on the reconstruction were asphyxiated by clouds of dust. Someone calculated that they inhaled the equivalent of four bricks each year. “One must love one’s city in order to rebuild it at the cost of one’s own breathing. It is perhaps for this reason that, from the battlefield of rubble and ruins, Warsaw became once more the old Warsaw, eternal Warsaw.”[2]

I mention this because our reading from Revelation today continues to describe the holy city Jerusalem. As you recall from last Sunday’s reading, John “saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God.”[3] In today’s passage, John returns to what the angel showed him: “the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, having the glory of God, its radiance like a most rare jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal.”[4] As beautiful as those reconstructed cities I mentioned earlier are, this renewed and transformed city is even more beautiful.

Yet, amidst all the splendor of this holy city, something is missing from the new Jerusalem. There is no temple. Like Ezekiel, John’s source for this vision, Revelation portrays the new Jerusalem as a holy city. Yet, his understanding of God led him to a different vision. There is no temple because the city as a whole is holy. God is directly present to all throughout the city and not just in designated areas.[5]

Beneath the imagery of pillars, gates, walls and foundations is John’s conviction that God’s final dwelling place is in and with his people. The new Jerusalem is a community of believers, a body of believers such as we find in Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians, “Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple.”[6]

The new city does not abolish human activities to build a decent earthly civilization, but fulfills them. Remember in verse five that we do not read that God is making all new things, but making all things new. This is not a return to Eden, but an affirmation of this world and its value that pictures eternal salvation as salvation of the world and of history itself.[7] Salvation does not offer escape from the tragedy of historical existence, but that all things that are human are taken up and transformed. The new holy city redeems and makes worthwhile every effort in our lives to have a decent city and just and fulfilling lives.

The new Jerusalem is no tiny village, but a vast city 1,500 miles long, wide and high. That’s the distance from here to Denver. The best comparison is that the holy city is almost the size of Australia. Now try to imagine Australia thousands of times larger because the city is also 1,500 miles high. The massive size of this new city indicates how holy it is. Not only is the city holy, but because God dwells there, it tells us how holy our God is.

Such holiness means that God demands of his people more than compliance with a list of pious acts. God demands a different, distinctive life oriented to his will for them, rather than “being conformed to this world.”[8] God demands his people to be holy. So, in the end, the church is the community of holy people or saints, and the saints in this world always struggle with the profane.

As I mentioned last week, the reading stopped at verse seven. Today, it begins with verse nine. I do not know the reason why verse eight is omitted by whoever edited the lectionary, but I can tell you why John included it.

First of all, we all know that residents or citizens live in a particular city, town, village or township. For simplicity, we’ll call it a city. Citizens must live within the rules and laws of the city. These rules and laws govern our property: government approves and issues permits for buildings, driveways, home businesses and such. Government also establishes laws for behavior on my property: how many animals I can keep; how many cars on cement blocks can be in my front yard; how loud I can play music; how early or late I can mow my lawn.

Likewise, for the citizens of the holy city, there are rules and laws. It’s not anything goes. There have always been rules and laws for believers, for God’s people. We find commandments in the Old Testament, and lists of vices in the New Testament.

John’s vice list (verse 8) is no different than those we find in Paul’s Letters or Peter’s First Letter.[9] For that matter, the things that defile a person are also found in Jesus’ teaching.[10] In Revelation, John is not merely handing on a traditional list. He appropriately nuances it to fit his situation. Beginning with cowards and ending with liars is not a general statement, but has in mind the failures of Christians under the pressure of persecution. Cowards lacked courage before the Roman courts, and liars lacked truthfulness in making the declaration of their Christian faith regardless of consequences. To John, these and the other sins of verse 8, were associated with participation in the emperor cult and pressures of the pagan society.

John does not say that anyone who has been guilty of these failings is prohibited from participation in the Holy City, only that no one will bring these sinful practices with him or her into the Holy City. The list serves to characterize life in the city of God, not a limit on who will be there.[11]

As Christians, our lives are grounded in the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. It’s not only a phrase which opens and closes our Divine Service, but also the way we live. Faith tells us that our lives must find fulfillment in the immediate and eternal intuition of God. To know God in the mind and in the heart means that we – as individuals and as a community – find our fulfillment in God’s presence, and that is reflected in our behavior, speech, attitude, and thoughts.

The trouble with modernism and to a greater degree, postmodernism, is that we have gotten away from the fundamental truths that once formed our lives as individuals and as society. As Christians today, it is as difficult to remain faithful to our beliefs and fit into this world as it was for Christians in Revelation’s seven churches. Maybe, like John’s early Christians, life would be easier if we just fit in to a pagan society, a consumer society, a postmodern society or whatever you want to call it.

If we fashion God in our image and likeness, there is no relationship with the true God. With no relationship to worry about, sin poses no threat. This kind of “god” is exactly what C.S. Lewis meant when he described pantheism. “The Pantheist’s God does nothing, demands nothing. He is there if you wish for Him, like a book on a shelf. He will not pursue you. There is no danger that at any time heaven and earth should flee away at His glance.”[12]

History bears out this example year after year, century after century. Societies as a whole need correction and warning: casting God aside only turns humanity in on itself. The farther the world gets from God, the worse its problems become. Just as humanity cannot figure itself out without God, it cannot solve its problems without Him, either. We need the fullness of prophecy to assist us.[13]

My friends, if we want not only an appreciation of John’s prophecy for Christians of the second century, but an appropriation of that prophecy for our lives today, we need something to assist us in accusing ourselves honestly. We need this kind of prophecy more than knowledge of the future.

As Lutherans we learned in our Small Catechism that there are three purposes of the Law. It helps us to control our outbursts of sin and maintains order in the world. It accuses us and shows us our sin. It teaches us what we should do and not do to lead a God-pleasing life. We refer to these uses as curb, mirror and guide. But the power to live according to the Law comes from the Gospel.[14]

Without repentance, the Christian life is impossible. If God becomes only a book on a shelf, repentance is a non-factor. We need to take to heart that in good times or in bad, in persecution or in flourishing, Christ is the answer. The only modern prophecies worth listening to are those that follow the pattern of the biblical prophets: return to the Lord, do not do what is evil, avoid false gods, and be faithful to the new covenant. The core of even the direst prophecy is a call to return to the divine life. And there is always hope precisely because God is the source of hope.

Any prophecy or prophet calling Christians to look to the world for answers – to embrace abortion, approve homosexual marriage, encourage transgenderism – speaks for the ‘god on the shelf.’  Christians should not look exactly like the world. If we do, something is wrong.

So much of getting on in life has to do with to whom we listen. Listen to Our Lord, the Scriptures, and speakers who are true disciples. Life will never be easy and no true prophet would preach the easy way. That is why we look to the saints in the Scriptures who chose not the easy way, but God’s way. That is why we look to the martyrs of the early and current Church, who continue to choose God’s way. That is why we come here each Sunday – to confess our sins to God before other sinners, to receive God’s love, God’s mercy, God’s grace poured forth into our hearts through Word, Sacrament and one another.

My friends, I need you here as much as you want me here. I need you to witness for me how you are living your life as a Christian in the world so that I can better live my life. You help me to help you. And with God’s grace and guidance in this world, may we be redeemed to live as saints in the holy city Jerusalem that our Triune God prepares for us. Ponder that for the week, and as you do, may the peace of God that surpasses all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus the Risen Lord. Amen. Alleluia!

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[1] Daryl Mersom, How postwar Warsaw was rebuilt using 18th century paintings, The Guardian, April 22, 2016.

[2] Ibid.

[3] Revelation 21:2.

[4] Revelation 21:10-11.

[5] M. Eugene Boring, Revelation. Louisville: John Knox Press (1989), p. 218.

[6] 1 Corinthians 3:16-17.

[7] Boring, p. 220

[8] Boring, p. 222. See Romans 12:1-2; 2 Corinthians 6:16-18.

[9] Boring p. 217.

[10] Mark 7:21-23; Matthew 15:18-20.

[11] Boring, pp. 271f.

[12] C.S. Lewis, Miracles, p. 149.

[13] John Kubasak, “The Need for Prophecy,” The Catholic Stand, May 8, 2022.

[14] Question 77.

Hide & Seek

 

Do you like to play Hide and Seek? We played that many times when I was your age. I still play it with my grandchildren. When they were at my house over Christmas, they played it a lot. If you’ve been to our house, you know that there are a lot of places to hide.

I mention Hide and Seek because in our Gospel today (John 16:12-22), Jesus says to his friends, “A little while, and you will see me no longer; and again a little while, and you will see me.” It sounds like Jesus is playing Hide and Seek with them.

We know Jesus isn’t playing a game. He’s talking about what is going to happen to himself. He is telling his friends what will happen to him on Good Friday – that he will be beaten, nailed to a cross and die. It’s not a game, but a very serious matter. So serious, that Jesus tells them that this will make them all cry.

After telling them this, Jesus says that their sadness will turn to joy. Has that ever happened to you? One minute, you are so sad that you are crying, and the next minute, you are smiling? I see that in people when I take Maggie, my Golden Retriever, to the store with me. Serious, sad faces spot Maggie, and their faces light up with joy and delight. They exclaim, “What a beautiful puppy! Can I pet her?”

You can do that too because you have the Holy Spirit in you. God lets you change people’s sadness into joy, like Jesus did on Easter Sunday when he rose from the dead. Sad faces become joyful when they meet the Risen Lord.

 With that, let us pray. Heavenly Father, from whom all fatherhood in heaven and earth is named: Bless these and all children, and give their parents the spirit of wisdom and love, so that the homes in which they grow up may be to them an image of Your Kingdom, and the care of their parents a likeness of Your love. We pray in the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Revelation 21

 

God’s grace, peace and mercy be with you. … My sermon is based on Revelation 21. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, the psalmist wrote, “I rejoiced when they said to me, ‘Let us go to the house of the Lord.’” Now that our feet are within your gates, we rejoice to hear your Word. As we listen, may your Spirit enlighten our minds and move our hearts to love deeply as Jesus loved. This we pray to you, Most Holy Trinity. Amen.

By now, everyone knows that we had a new house built on our property in Potter Township. I was amazed at the process. After finding a builder and designing our own layout, we filed permits and submitted plans. Giant trees were removed in minutes. A bulldozer laid the way for a new drive way. Excavators removed clay soil eight feet beneath the surface. Contractors poured concrete walls and floors. Amish carpenters walked on the edges of 2x6’s twenty feet in the air as they assembled the framing. Others installed the heating, electrical and plumbing systems. Cindy and I applied all the finish coats of paint, picked out flooring and furniture, and now, after one year, we are starting to landscape. It’s been a lot of work and we enjoy sitting on our back deck in the summer and in front of our fireplace in the winter.

I open my sermon with this personal experience because our reading from Revelation opens with John seeing a new heaven, a new earth, and a new Jerusalem. You may be wondering why we need a new heaven, earth and Jerusalem. Maybe you think that our world is wonderful. Anyone who has been to Hawaii or Alaska raves about the beauty. If you have material possessions, good health, wisdom, family and friends, you may say that life is good. On the other hand, for many people, life ain’t so great.

Let’s first go back to chapter 20. There, as God on his throne held the last judgment, earth and heaven (sky) fled from his face and no place was found for them.[1] This suggests that the present heaven and earth created by God is not a fit home for his resurrected and righteous saints. This follows from the prophecy of Isaiah, “Behold, I create new heavens and a new earth, and the former things shall not be remembered or come into mind.”[2] Isaiah goes on to tell how God’s people will build houses, plant vineyards in peace, and how the wolf and the lamb eat together. Young men will die at the age of 100.[3] In chapter 66, Isaiah reiterated his prophecy, “For as the new heavens and the new earth that I make shall remain before me, says the Lord, so shall your offspring and your name remain.”[4]

 

This may tax the limits of our imagination, but we need to keep in mind that God communicates to us in human language. So, such truths surpass our earthly language and existence. These descriptions should not be seen as literal restrictions on life in the new era, but seen as pointing far beyond our present limitations on human life. Isaiah’s prophecies echoed by Paul, Peter and John point toward eternal life, but eternal life has already begun for Christians on this earth and extend forever in the new heaven and new earth.

To the Corinthians, St. Paul wrote, “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”[5] And to the Ephesians, God “raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.”[6] Peter echoed this in his Second Letter (3:15). And during his earthly ministry Christ asserted that “heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.”[7]

John does not describe this new heaven and earth, but immediately draws our attention to the holy city, the new Jerusalem. This is not a restored historic city, but a new one from God. Earlier in his letter (to Philadelphia), John wrote, “the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down from my God out of heaven.”[8] Paul also wrote to the Galatians, “the Jerusalem above is free, who she is our mother.”[9]Hebrews too references this city where God dwells with his people.[10]

In this city God dwells with his bride, his people, the Church. The voice reminds us that God has bound himself to his people in an incarnational and sacramental way – in Christ, who is the new temple, and in divine worship, when God comes to his people through his Word and Sacraments.[11]

God’s dwelling place, also known as the tabernacle, is associated with His glorious and gracious presence with his people in the new heaven and earth. Exodus 26 tells us that the tabernacle erected by Moses was the visible location of God’s covenantal presence with his people. The tabernacle and the subsequent temple were structures that enabled God to dwell among sinful people. They were also part of the sacrificial worship that provided atonement for sin. In this new dwelling place, God’s actual and personal presence among his people is a permanent reality. As verse 22 tells us, John sees no temple in the city; all that remains is the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb.[12]

The benefits of God dwelling among us are listed in verse 4. Death, mourning, crying and pain are gone like yesterday. As the Psalmist prophesied, “Those who sow in tears shall reap with shouts of joy! He who goes out weeping, bearing the seed for sowing, shall come home with shouts of joy…”[13] In last Sunday’s reading, we heard that the “Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”[14] When we truly repent, tears flow openly as we face death. Here, death has been conquered. God’s promise to ransom us from death is accomplished. What was corrupted by sin resulted in death. Here, death and all corruption in the first creation is replaced by eternal life and incorruptibility,[15] and John describes God’s people after the resurrection in the state of eternal life in the new heaven and earth.[16] When we read that God is making all things new, it refers to the new heaven and earth of verse one, but it was promised long before this.[17]

The One speaking from the throne is the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. We know those to be the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet, but they refer to all creation and all life. Alpha and Omega should be seen within the context of the new heaven and the new earth.

When he says, “To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment,” he echoes Isaiah, who prophesied, “Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price,”[18] Jesus spoke these words twice in John’s Gospel. So, here the words serve as a reminder to heed Jesus’ gracious invitation to drink freely of his living waters.

I opened this sermon with a description of how our new house was built. The entire process was exciting. Finally, in May 2021, we moved into our new home. Now, here’s the sad part. We built our new home about 50 yards behind the house where I grew up. My dad and others built an 800 square foot brick house with a detached garage in 1955. At first, my parents and older brother lived in the basement. Originally, the house had well water, a cistern, a coal furnace and propane for cooking. Over the years, dad attached the garage to the house and added a third bedroom over the garage.

As a family we enjoyed many memorable moments in that house. Birthday parties and family reunions, homework at the kitchen table and basketball on the driveway. There were sad moments as well. Both of my parents and my younger brother all died there.

Watching our builder demolish our old house was like watching my mother die. There was no joy in the inevitable ending. I mention that because, although our reading does not include it, verse eight reminds us that the cowardly, faithless, detestable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars will be consigned to a fate worse than the death of a family member or destruction of an old familiar home. That is not something I want; nor is it something I want for others. It is, however, part of the message, and the Word of God.

God’s plan is not a motto for Planet Fitness. There is no Judgement Free Zone. God’s plan includes a judgment, and in any judgment, there are the forgiven and the unforgiven. If we did not have the new house, watching the destruction of the old house would leave me hopeless, but we had a plan, and that plan included not only the destruction of the old house, but the building of a new house.

There are many nonfiction books we can read about the end of America, the fall of Western Civilization, the destruction of the planet and so on. There are plenty of apocalyptic books to entertain our minds, and sometimes lead us astray. As faithful and hopeful Christians, we, like John the Apostle, must remain focused on God’s Kingdom. Bear in mind the words of the Exalted Christ, “Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.”[19]

Friends, our new home is a beautiful home. We have everything we need to live there for the rest of our lives, but it is not our final home. Cindy and I know that. We’re making plans with attorneys and funeral directors to take care of our estate and our bodies. We know who’s getting what and where we’ll be buried.

More importantly, we entrust our souls to the judgmental mercy of God. We hope in Christ’s promise that there is a room for us.[20] For now, God dwells among us. John wrote, “The dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.”[21] He is here with us now, and that brings more joy to us than any new house, truck, tractor, puppy or hip.[22] God is with us in Word and Sacrament, and God has kept that promise for more than 2,000 years. That in itself should suffice more than any new teaching, way or movement. With that gracious promise, I can live anywhere and under any circumstances for I know that my redeemer lives.

My friends, we do not consider ourselves self-righteous. We live righteously only because of God’s mercy. The Gospel we need to share with others are the words John heard from God in today’s reading. Take some time today to ponder those words, and do not be afraid to share them with someone who needs to hear them. When you do, may the peace of God that surpasses all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus the Risen Lord. Amen. Alleluia!

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[1] Revelation 20:11.

[2] Isaiah 65:17.

[3] Brighton, 591.

[4] Isaiah 66:22.

[5] 2 Corinthians 5:17.

[6] Ephesians 2:6.

[7] Matthew 24:35.

[8] Revelation 3:12.

[9] Galatians 4:26 – Berean Study Bible.

[10] Hebrews 12:22.

[11] Louis A. Brighton, Revelation. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House (1999), pp. 596f.

[12] Brighton, pp. 597f.

[13] Psalm 126:5-6.

[14] Revelation 7:17.

[15] See Hosea 13:14; Psalm 49:14-15; 1 Corinthians 15:20-57.

[16] Brighton, p. 599.

[17] See Isaiah 65:17; 66:22.

[18] Isaiah 55:1. See John 4:10-14; 7:37.

[19] Matthew 6:33-34.

[20] John 14:2.

[21] Revelation 21:3.

[22] For those of you who don’t know it, Cindy is recovering from hip replacement surgery.