I don't do this often, but now & then I run
across comments online about the week's text that express my own thoughts as well or better than I ever could. What follows is from Dr. William Long's
online essay, only slightly modified.
Cheers,
TM
"Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first
heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. 2 And I
saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God,
prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from
the throne saying,
‘See, the home of God is among mortals.
He will dwell with
them;
they will be his peoples,
and God himself will be with them;
4 he will
wipe every tear from their eyes.
Death will be no more;
mourning and crying and
pain will be no more,
for the first things have passed away.’
5 And the one who was seated on the throne said, ‘See, I am
making all things new.’ Also he said, ‘Write this, for these words are
trustworthy and true.’ 6 Then he said to me, ‘It is done! I am the Alpha and
the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give water as a
gift from the spring of the water of life."
I. Introduction--Seeing New Realities
The immense imaginative scope of the Book of Revelation
reaches its culmination in this passage. A new heaven and earth is not
simply proclaimed but seen. Promises of a new and better
life are not just made but implemented. The end, which we so
often long to see, is now visible. Yet the daily
reality for most of us, and for those who are still haunted by the terrible
tragedies of Newtown CT, or the recent Boston Marathon bombing, is that, in the
words of the hymn, "we feebly struggle, they (the saints) in glory
shine." Our reality is one where pain, half-truths or outright lies,
disappointment, failed relationships, weak and infirm bodies, and unexpected
tragedies seem to dominate.
Indeed, before we hastily reach the new heaven and new earth
in this passage, the Book of Revelation presented what we sometimes suspect to
be the truth: things get worse before they get better. We
"skipped" over so much of the graphic disaster of the Book of
Revelation that, in some ways, we are "unworthy" or
"unready" to receive such glorious good news as presented in Rev. 21.
We have missed the two witnesses and the whore of Babylon, the beast who writes
his number on foreheads, and the angels who pour forth the bowls of the wrath
of God on the earth. The scene in Rev. 8-18 makes the ecological disaster of
Prince William Sound in Alaska or the continual devastation of the Amazonian
rain forest look like child's destruction.
Maybe the compilers of the Revised Common Lectionary were
confused or afraid of the intervening passages in Revelation; possibly they had
to "finish" it by the time we arrived at Pentecost. In any case,
we here rush ahead to the good news before we have descended fully into the
imaginative pit of the bad news.
Nevertheless, for all of us, the language of Rev. 21 is an
encouragement to realize the powerful force of unseen realities in shaping our
lives. Can we permit ourselves to "see" the unseen, to
conceive of the good news of a new heaven and earth, to long for a time of
healing when the tears are finally wiped away from our eyes? We are not
really ready or worthy to receive Rev. 21 until we have been buffeted by life's
pains and have ourselves gaped into the yawning maw of hell.
But for those for whom such have been the realities of life,
Rev. 21 speaks with uncommon force. It does so primarily by opening our eyes
to new realities "out there." In fact, Rev. 21 reminds me of
another biblical passage--II Kings 6. In that text Elisha the prophet is
surrounded in a city by the King of Aram's men. They are furious at him because
he seems to know the military strategy of Aram against Israel as if he had been
in the king's bedchamber. One of Elisha's men wakens in the morning and, in
fear, points out to Elisha that they are surrounded by the King of Aram's men.
They are in deep trouble. Calmly, Elisha prays to God:
"O Lord, please open his eyes that he may see" (II
Kings 6:17).
The result is immediate: "So the Lord opened the eyes
of the servant, and he saw; the mountain was full of horses and chariots of
fire (hence the name of the movie!) all around Elisha (II K. 6:17). In other
words, the hidden and saving realities are already there; we just need
eyes to see. Do you have eyes to see these new realities today?
II. Wiping Away the Tears
In earlier expositions of Revelation, I have pointed to the
sevenfold amen or sevenfold affirmation of divine strength in some of the
hymns. For example, 7:12 gives a sevenfold ascription of blessing and praise to
God. What isn't clear in those passage only becomes clear in Rev. 21 and 22,
and that is that there is also a sevenfold series of things that are done
away with by God at the end. Let's list them: the sea (21:1); death,
grief, crying, pain (21:4); and all that is under God's curse and night (22:3,
5). If there is the "perfect number" of blessings ascribed to God,
there will also be the "perfect number" of things that pass away.
Just as in the first creation God said that it was "good," so in the
re-creation we see that it is not only good, but that it will be perfect. Two
"watery" subpoints need mention: the sea and the tears.
Why does John mention in majestic language, "and the
sea was no more" (v. 1)? Primarily because in antiquity, and especially in
the consciousness of Israel, the sea was not simply dangerous but also a sort
of enemy. Unpredictability reigned on the sea. Fear of depredation,
high water, crashing rocks, strange sea creatures, unexpected shipwrecks and
drowning filled the heart with anxiety. Indeed, you can't really understand
ancient Greek mythology without reckoning with their respect for/fear of the
sea. We, with our cruise lines and big vessels, tend to think of the sea as
a plaything; not so for the ancients. Yet even in our day we are fascinated by
stories of the sea's power. One of the most powerful scenes to me from the
movie Titanic is near the end, just before the ship sinks, where the
priest is reciting prayers to God and quoting Scripture. He quotes from this
very passage, and the combination of grief and hope when he intones the words,
"and the sea was no more," is arresting.
But another kind of water--our tears--will also be
transformed. God will wipe away every tear from our eyes. This was
already mentioned earlier in the book (7:17), and is worth noting here. Can we
imagine a world without tears? Can we imagine our lives without tears? I
confess when I studied this text again, my own tears began to flow! Death,
pain, crying, and mourning will pass away? The symphony of anguish, which each
day composes a new tune more painful than Mahler could ever have imagined,
abolished? This is the truest good news to those who have seen the most
devastation. But the majestic language continues.
III. God at the End
All this happens because of God. Finally, God will make the
divine dwelling place among us. The theme of God's dwelling with humans (21:3)
is one that stretches back to the early days of Israel, to the Wilderness
Wanderings. The cloud and pillar of fire was a sign of God's presence. The
motile Ark of the Covenant symbolized God's dwelling with the people. The
Jerusalem Temple was the seemingly "permanent" illustration of this
reality. Finally, in the Gospel of John, we are told, in language very
similar to that used here, that God "tabernacled" or
"dwelt" among us in Christ (John 1:14). The Holy Spirit, to be
celebrated in a few weeks at the Pentecost festival, is the sign of continued
divine presence. But Rev. 21 will take it one step further. God, the Creator,
will now dwell with mortals. God will be fully with us. And that presence will
wipe away all tears.
Once this is said, John finishes with the majestic words of
v. 6: "It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the
end..." There will finally be established the truth which has been peeking
out at us since the dawn of human history--that God, indeed, stands before, in,
and after the creation of the worlds. Pain certainly has the upper hand
today, but it shall not always be so. This does not make us flag in our zeal to
attack the pain today; indeed, it renews our strength in the midst of the
fight. We now know the end, and we can have courage to re-enter the
maelstrom. Let that be your charge and courage today.
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