A VISION OF GOD'S NEW CREATION

5th Sunday of Easter

            A careful reading of the New Testament book of Revelation will tell you that you're not reading any ordinary kind of book.  The language in it is different, different from other books in the Bible.  This book contains the writings of a seer who reports all sorts of visions.  The present text under consideration is a case in point.  It is a description of a vision.  So what is this, prophecy?  I don't know if that's what I'd call it.  Promise, then?  That seems closer.  A vision of what God is and will be doing, perhaps?  Yes, I think that's it.  Our text contains a vision of what God is and will be doing.  It is a life-giving vision.

            Well, the seer of Revelation portrays nothing less than a whole new creation.  Not just a reconstruction of the old creation, like remodeling an old house.  In the seer's vision, God is making all things new.  Starting from scratch.  A new creation out of nothing.  You close your eyes and try to see this vision, but it's fuzzy, as when you aim a camera on an object as yet out of focus.  The seer's words keep the vision just a little blurry, for it is difficult to describe what the new creation will be like; it will be too wonderful.  The seer is reduced to saying what the new creation will not be like, and what it will not include.  Gone will be grief, and any reason for it.  There will be no death, no pain.  All of the conditions that are now present that cause death, pain, and sorrow will all be gone, for the old creation will be replaced by the new.  I find these words comforting, because from time to time I receive very painful news.  Years ago, there was a young woman named Denise who volunteered in the church office as my secretary.  She and her family have been very close friends, parishioners of the church I served in Indiana.  This was one of those friendships that lasted beyond the time I was their pastor.  One day, Denise’s family contacted me with the news that a drunk driver struck Denise’s car.  Her condition was serious.  Denise was in the hospital in a coma.  Sometime later, more sad news came.  Denise’s mother called to tell me that she had died.  Here was a beautiful thirty-four-old mother, dedicated to church work.  She was dead, but as her mother sadly pointed out, the drunk driver who hit her lives and will be with those he loves in the future that Denise will never have.  It's so unfair!  What can you say to good friends in such pain?  What can you tell yourself about God’s love when such tragic news comes?  Revelation 21 would be a good place to start.  What a comfort it is to have a vision of a day when, in God's new creation, there will be no more death, no more pain, no more drunk drivers, no more loss, no more grief.  We can add more to the list of conditions that we can expect will be absent in God's new creation:  No more broken relationships.  No more hurt from angry words.  No more betrayals from your spouse or from a close friend.  No more cancer.  No more chemotherapy.  There will be no more separation from God.  Instead God and God's people will dwell together.  Imagine!  God will be no distant mystery.  We will be God's people in a more intimate way than we are now, like once distant friends now living in the same neighborhood, like people who only knew each other through chat rooms on the Internet now becoming close friends.  Isn't that what the seer sees?  It is!  God will make all things new.  God will reign for all eternity.  And God will make his home with people.

            Wait!  How do we know the truth of this vision?  Why should we allow this vision shape our lives?  How can we trust its veracity?  Answer:  Because God said so.  God said, ". . . these words are trustworthy and true."  God spoke loud and clear that day God raised up his Son from the dead.  The cross was the victor that day, but not on the third day.  That frenzied crowd, so disappointed in the Christ who was willing to suffer and die, that crowd was the victor that day; but not on the third day.  They wanted a conqueror, not this thorn-crowned Messiah!  The religious leaders were the victors that day; but not on the third day.  They wanted to eliminate one they thought was a blasphemer and troublemaker.  The civil authorities were the victors that day; but not on the third day.  They wanted to eliminate any rival king.  No authority higher than Caesar!  A conspiracy of self-interest and blindness nailed the Son of God to a cross.  That was his finish, they thought.  But God raised up this Jesus on the third day, and proved he was God's Son.  If you want to look at where God began to make all things new, see the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  Human beings who have believed in this Jesus have been transformed into new creatures from that time the present day.  How do we know the truth of the vision in our scripture reading?  God said so.  God said so at Easter.  God is making all things new.

            If that's so, then signs of God's transforming, life-giving power should be visible in the world.  Unless nothing has happened in between the Christ event and the present day, then we should be able to point somewhere and say, "There!  There is a sign of God making all things new."  We should be able to, and we can.  Dr. Jesse Truvillion, an older African-American Presbyterian pastor, told the following story at a Men's Conference at Mo-Ranch, a story then passed on to me.  This is a story about when Jesse was a young Presbyterian pastor called to a new church.  It was their custom to celebrate communion on the first Sunday of each month.  On the afternoons they took communion to the shut-ins.  The elders introduced him to a little old lady named Sarah who was in bed.  Sarah looked up with big eyes at him and said, "They didn't tell me he was a [black] man."  She didn’t actually say “black man.”  She used the “n” word.  Of course, the “n” word is not uttered today, and for good reason.  So, as you can imagine, there was a long uncomfortable pause in which the elders tried to fill the chasm, which her statement had created.  Then the woman spoke again.  "I need a big hug and a kiss," she said.  Jesse gave her a big hug and a kiss.  They truly celebrated communion together even though she had a little difficulty swallowing.  Sarah told Jesse she needed communion every day.  Jesse complied.  One day he came to her home only to be told that Sarah was in the hospital.  He went there and found her in the ICU.  Although the nurses were nervous about the wisdom of her taking communion in her severely weakened state, she demanded that Jesse serve her communion.  He placed the thin wafer on her tongue, which virtually dissolved there.  She was, however, unable to get the cup to her lips because of her trembling hands.  As Jesse wondered whether he should hold the cup for her, she said, "I need you to drink the cup for me."  He had never been asked to do that before, but he did it, pondering all the symbolic significance of the two of them from such different backgrounds sharing the very same communion meal in this intimate way.  When he finished with the cup and his musings he looked down on Sarah only to discover that she had died.  This unlikely relationship between this woman and her black pastor—isn’t this God in Christ making all things new?  It is.  You can see God's transforming, life-giving power in the world.

            Now do you see the importance of the seer's vision?  It’s not a vision for our comfort, though it surely gives comfort.  It is a vision given as a compass for human activity, that we may work in partnership with God’s plans.  It's a vision for the courage to live in cooperation with God making all things new.  The seer's report of this vision was first communicated as a word of encouragement to a church under persecution.  Now the same vision encourages us to live in a broken world working for its wholeness, cooperating with God who makes all things new.   Look.  See.  It's the 1960s, and you're in a large, formal church somewhere.  You look around the sanctuary and you see that it is packed full.  No seats are left.  Now you see a young man with long hair step passed the white-gloved ushers and walk all the way to the front of the church.  Since there are no seats left, the young man with the long hair simply sits down on the floor between the front row and the pulpit.  Right on the floor!  An older man, an elder of the church, begins to walk up to the front, right in the same path as that young man.  Now you look around at the people.  You imagine their thoughts.  "Now this brash individual is going to get what is coming to him."  You turn your eyes to the old church elder.  Finally he reaches the place where the young, longhaired man has planted himself on the floor.  As he steps to the side of the young man, the elder squats down and sits on the floor next to him.  Isn't this act of acceptance, cooperating with God who in Christ is making all things new?  Yes, it is!  And that can be you.  It can be me.