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.
We have lived in
our house for four years. After we found a builder (Troy Mihalinac) and designed
our layout, we filed permits and submitted plans. Giant trees were removed in
minutes. A bulldozer laid the way for a new driveway. Excavators removed clay
soil to build the foundation. 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 coats of paint, picked out flooring and furniture,
and now, after four years, we are still working on the landscaping. It’s been a
lot of work, but we enjoy sitting on our back deck in the summer and in front
of our fireplace in the winter. That’s when Cindy talks about building more
coops for chickens and turkeys or other projects.
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. 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 sat on his throne and 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 one hundred.[3] In the final chapter,
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 the human language we speak. God’s words surpass our earthly language and
existence; so, 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 into 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, his baptismal waters.
I opened this
sermon with a description of how our new house was built. The entire process
was exciting. In May 2021, we moved into our new home. Now, here is the sad
part. We built our new home about fifty 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. But we need to keep in mind that along with God’s
free gift of grace offered to every person on earth, our loving God judges all.
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. As Martin Luther often told people, we must cling to our
Crucified Christ, and bear in mind the words of our 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]
Folks, 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 made
plans with attorneys and funeral directors to take care of our estate and our
bodies. We know who is getting what and where we will be buried. Most importantly,
daily we entrust our souls to our Father’s judgmental mercy, and the rest of
our days to building God’s Kingdom.
Have you entrusted your soul to our Father’s
mercy? Have you entrusted your days to building the Kingdom of God? Are you
more concerned about these things or getting your own pound of someone else’s
flesh and your own little fiefdom?
Friends, we hope
in Christ’s promise that in His Father’s House 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 with us now, and
that brings more joy to me than any new house, car, tractor or puppy. God is
with us in Word and Sacrament, and God has kept that promise for more than
2,000 years. God’s promise should suffice more than any new teaching, way or
movement. With that gracious promise, I can live anywhere and under any
circumstances because I know that my Redeemer lives.
Brothers and
sisters, we are not self-righteous, and we live righteously only because of God’s
mercy. With every breath we take, we live with God who is an ever-present
reality and not simply a future promise. And this Gospel – this Good News – that
God dwells with us is what we must share with others. Take 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!
[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.