A New Heaven and Earth

(Rev 21:10, 22 - 22:5; Jn 14:23-29)

Easter 6, Sun, May 25, 2025, FBC Amherst, JG White

Last weekend, our grandchildren took us to the local movie theatre so we could enjoy together a film they’d both already seen. Twice. Minecraft. The four of us had the theatre all to ourselves, as we watched this exciting, comedic adventure, based on the video game of world building. Yes, like Lego, or wooden blocks of old, in Minecraft you can build homes and castles and all manner of things in your own corner of the world. There are resources, you can set goals, there are friends, and there are enemies in the world of Minecraft, from what we’ve seen. Create your own wonderful world.

Almost two thousand years ago, an elderly disciple of Jesus, named John, saw great visions of a new heaven and new earth, joined and united at last. Who was this man, John, exiled on an island called Patmos, in the Aegean Sea? No one can say for sure. Sometimes called St. John the Divine, or John the seer, I guess I side with scholars like Michael Gorman and N. T. Wright, who suggest he is not the same disciple John, son of Zebedee, who is behind the Gospel of John, or maybe the three short Letters of John in the New Testament. Though other Christian writers have assumed this visionary leader of the early church was that other John. 

We are now in the final pages of this great Revelation, this unveiling of things. Last Sunday we got to these pictures of the new heaven and the new earth. Even a new Holy City, Jerusalem, descends from above in today’s reading. We did not get into the description of this square, really cube, city. I can just picture it in Minecraft, now. Equal in length and width with walls of jasper, twelve gates - three on each side - made of single pearls, twelve foundations. On goes the measuring and the description here. I bet more than one Bible-reader has attempted to build this in Minecraft. 

This is all dream-language, of course. Imagery. Symbolism. Visions. I don’t know about you, but I am not actually expecting to see, someday, real pearly gates and streets of gold. One thing all this is telling us is that the heavens and the earth will be united - maybe reunited? - and all will be perfectly well and wonderful. This, this is God’s agenda. 

Actually, I find a few contrasts here. A few opposites that butt up against each other, and challenge our dreams of what God is up to. Revelation 21 and 22 bring together the contrasts, the paradoxes of these holy visions, seen by John. 

Heaven and Earth are brought together. Remember the ancient worldview: heaven or ‘the heavens’ is the sky we see in the day and the night, with stars and moon and sun. Up there where God and other beings dwell. For the Hebrews, in Bible days, heaven and earth met in special places and at special moments. They touched in the Tabernacle and in their Temple. Upon mountaintops. And then, then in the person of Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ. He who preached that the Kingdom of the heavens was near. 

So, we pray, Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. God and goodness are brought into life on earth. In Revelation 21, heaven and earth are ‘reunited, and it feels so good.’ 

Also here, the Holy City and a Garden like Eden are together. In the new Holy City is a river flowing, and a tremendous tree of life. It is Paradise, it is a City: it’s both at once. 

Creator and creation are together, again, at last. We see the start of this, the heart of this, in Jesus and His whole story. Creator comes into creation as one of us. 

The book of Revelation also challenges the reader with violence and nonviolence. The destruction of Evil and all its forces is described. There is blood up to the bridles of the horses! Yet Jesus, riding in on a horse, seems to be stained with His own blood, and His sword is not in His hand but in His mouth: His words are his weapon. And in spite of all that seems preparation for battle and a war, no war ever actually happens in these visions. When it is all said and done, these holy dreams tell us that only good and togetherness will survive; pain and isolation and wrong will be wrecked. 

I see a new heaven, I see a new earth… This is a big, intense Hope. And yet, the personal concerns and community concerns of our real lives usually are what’s on our minds every day. How to get along. How to deal with illness and death. How to make a go of things. How to cope with all sorts of bad news and pain. How ot heal, inside and out. How to live a bit of a good life, and have the same for those near and dear to us.

It is our own problems that concern us most. You have challenges; I have problems too, of course. Perhaps I don’t come across this way; I just happen to be a happy person. I hide the negative. This year, the past five months, I have had three main personal concerns, three main problems. One, about one of my relationships. Two, the health and well-being of two family members. Three, concerns about one of the main things I do. 

It's only fair, if I mention these, to  tell you at least what one of them is! OK. One of the main things I do: my work, actually, my job, my calling as Senior Minister of First Baptist. It is a challenge here - as it would be anywhere: Digby, Windsor, Port Greville. I do find it hard, these days, hard to be really hopeful, hard to be encouraged, hard to know what to do, what directions to take. I have never been a highly confident person, and I am no more confident in my work now than I was in my forties or in my thirties. And  our world is not what I was expecting it to be when I started as a 25 year old Minister in 1996.

And yet, God breaks through. The Kindom shines into life around me and you. The visions of a new heaven and earth ring true & call to me as the right direction, as where things are really headed. What God wills; what God instills in us. Jesus’ way.

I had a moment, about ten days ago. One of those ‘mountaintop experiences’ that come along, not even every year of life. I was at this four day seminar, in Tatamagouche, on the theme of Coming Home to the Earth: Embracing Kinship, Creation and Community. Our two guest speakers, from Maine and from Vermont, were inspiring us with possibilities as believers in this time of climate crisis. It's Wednesday: lecture three from Allan Ewing-Merrill. And I start to be overwhelmed. Yes, to be inspired. To become emotional. To sense hope rising up. Possibilities. Actions. Opportunities. The Spirit. Those of you who know me best, who work with me, know I wouldn’t say ‘crap’ if my mouth was full of it, not to mention, “Oh my God.” I never say that; I’m opposed to it. But as Allan’s talk went on, inside I was saying, ‘Oh my God, Oh my God, Oh my God!’

I was lifted up by more than what was being said. 

Allan asked: Who is God calling us to be in this moment?

The Church now: Who do we choose to be? (Margaret Wheatley)

Environmentalist Bill McGibbon was quoted: The climate crisis is an opportunity for which the Church was born.

There is a movement called the Wild Church movement, with people gathering simply in outdoor places to praise and pray and learn.

This is a time of creating ‘islands of sanity’ in our sphere of influence. The time for ‘saving the world’ is over.

We can think of our ministry as offering ‘refugia fail,’ spaces to survive and thrive, places of refuge in the midst of a confusing world.

Consider: it is magnificent to be alive in a moment that means so much! (Ayana E. Johnson & Katherine Wilkinson)

And, Allan quoted Gus Speth, an environmental lawyer, this quotation that our other guest speaker also mentioned. After fifty years in the environmental movement, Speth wrote:

I used to think the top environmental problems were biodiversity loss, ecosystems collapse and climate change. I thought that with 30 years of good science we could address those problems. But I was wrong. The top environmental problems are selfishness, greed and apathy… and to deal with those we need a spiritual and cultural transformation and we, (Lawyers) and scientists, don´t know how to do that. 

‘Amen,’ my heart was exclaiming. We, the people of God, the disciples of Jesus, are in the business of spiritual transformation, of cultural improvement. We have (or can have) a people development mission. 

The big picture touches the little picture of my own personal problems, and yours. And the things going on in your life touch the big picture all around us. When we are not healthy, we are part of our whole world being sick. And vice versa. When we find blessing, do some little bit of good, it touches the whole world.

This is the way our God has made it. This is why God has saved us. This is where God will take us. 

Don’t the images of Revelation speak to our hearts and our lives like they have through the centuries? God and goodness will win out, in the end! Healing will happen! Death will stop happening! Pain will dwindle and die out! No more tears! We even have the picture of no weather, I call it, no bad weather anymore! No more conflicts among the nations and peoples to worry about! And Bible images of all the animals getting along out there, like Zootopia! And complete reconciliation of all things and all people. 

If these are God’s goals that Jesus and the Spirit are working on - let’s get on board and stay on track with them. Yes! What can we do with our lives and what seems like the little, small things we can change?

What can we do with the Book of Revelation and its message?

Live the New Heaven and Earth in our lives now. Point ourselves in that direction. Perhaps, like Minecraft, we can do out little bit of putting building blocks together in our corner of the Kindom of God. Thanks be to God! It is magnificent to be alive in a moment that means so much.