Grace and peace to you from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
I had the joy of going to Alaska one summer and found out that it is a very surprising place. The sun shines about 22 hours a day there which means, in effect, that thee is no real night.
Light energizes living things.
Light produces growth.
Even through the growing season in Alaska is relatively short, if you have light 24 hours a day; you are getting two days for one. Flowers and vegetables grow to enormous proportions. The prize winning cabbage at the Fairbanks State Fair weighed almost 80 pounds.
Today’s’ lesson from Revelation is filled with images of light. The sun and moon, you will note have disappeared from the continuous day of life in the New Jerusalem. St. John says pointedly that the glory of God is the city’s light and its lamp – its source of light is the Lamb – Jesus himself.
The energy source of the New Jerusalem, of heaven on earth, is Jesus. Note well too that we don’t have to go anywhere to find heaven, heaven finds us. Jerusalem descends in John’s vision. What does this mean?
The marvelous thing about the Christian faith compared to other world religions is that it embraces and sanctifies matter, the earth, the elements, the very human bodies that we are. Other religions try to escape from the body – to merge our spirits with God. The Christian faith goes in the other direction entirely. We don’t go up to God; God comes down to us. God loves creation. God is so enamored of bodies that the Divine One takes on a body too. Bodies are good. Creation is good. This truth and this spirit are evident from the very first chapter of the Bible. God creates something and the Bible says “It was good”. Creation is good. Bodies are good. We don’t go up to Heaven in this passage from Revelation, God in Jesus comes to us in the New Jerusalem “airbus”. Heaven sanctifies earth and actually merger with it, and we are bathed in “Lamblight”.
Notice also in this passage that there is no temple in the city. That at first seems perplexing, but remember this vision of St. John’s projects the future – it is “post” resurrection, after the resurrection of not only Jesus, but all creation. Heaven and earth are one. We think in terms of sacred space and non-sacred space (also known as “profane” space). We designate places Holy so that we can experience and worship the holy in them. But in the end times, when God, as St. Paul says, will be “all in all,” there will be no sacred and no profane space – all space will be sacred because God will reveal himself to us 24/7. In fact even the notice of 24/7 will fade as well because eternity will envelop time. Revelation says there will be no more death, no more crying, no more disease, and no more pain. What is being projected here is nothing less than a total transformation of all life to make it permanent – eternal in the Bible’s language. We won’t just worship on Sundays; our whole lives will be the worship and celebration of God and God’s goodness and love.
Notice too, that the gates of the city are never shut. Cities used to have walls around them to protect them from invading armies. Our modern image of the city has changed radically in recent times. We see the city as corrupt, a ghetto of derelict building failing into ruin, inhabited by the poorest of the poor infested with drug use, rats, and garbage, a place to run from and escape from. But historically this is not the only image of the city. A city is a place of excitement and joy; it is the paragon of communal places. Its high concentration of people makes diversity and human creativity possible. There are theaters there, orchestras and symphonies, museums, great libraries and places of learning, ballet companies, amphitheaters and great coliseums for sports. They only become ghettos when human sin runs rampant.
My Mom grew up in South Baltimore and her neighborhood was really like a close village. In the dog days of August when it was too hot to breathe in their own homes, everyone would bring blankets and pillows outside and sleep in the park. It was like a huge community pajama party. She always smiled and grinned when she remembered and described it.
That is the kind of holy city that St. John envisions in the New Jerusalem. Because it will be the city of perpetual light, because constant light energizes, activates and animates, the New Jerusalem will be like an amalgamation of New York, London, Paris, New Orleans, Las Vegas, Rome, and Disney World all rolled into one. Constant liveliness, constant joy. It will be so attractive that all the Kings of the earth will bring their glory into it.
What does that phrase mean? “Will bring their glory into it?”
Glory is a funny word isn’t it?
Glory is renown, fame, recognition that is the result of having done something noteworthy. It is great achievement and the notoriety these achievements bring. It is the pride too that such accomplishments engender. But notice that it is the great ones of the earth who will bring their glory to God in the New Jerusalem. Their glory will pale in comparison to God’s.
Finally, we come to the end of the passage about Heaven coming to earth to complete earth. There will be plenty to eat in the New Jerusalem – fruit trees that bear all kinds of fruit and do so continually. It is an image of endless productivity or incredible bounty. Luscious fruit to feed all God’s creatures and all the leaves of these amazing trees we will find healing.
What will we need to be healed from in heaven? Only the scars of the past – the wounds that the sin of others and our own sins have caused. It is a beautiful image. It is an image of creation fulfilled – no longer groaning as St. Paul said in Romans, but at peace – peace with itself, peace with others and peace with the creator.
In Jesus’ Name. Amen.
Who We Are