All Saints Sunday
Revelation 21:1-6a
Imagine with me for a moment. You’re outside. It’s a cold but clear fall day. Early afternoon. You’re busy doing something. Maybe you’re doing some yard work or working on the car, but you’re busy… and maybe a little distracted. Distracted enough that you just barely notice that it’s getting chilly. You can’t feel the warmth of the sun on your skin, and it’s getting darker. Probably just a cloud passing in front of the sun. But by the time you notice the cold and dark enough to look up and see what’s the matter, the sun looks very different than it should. It looks as if some passing dragon had taken a bite out of it. And as you watch in anxiety and disbelief, the sun continues to wane, first to a crescent, then to a single gleaming spot, and then it’s gone. Nothing is left of the sun except an eerie crown around the black center, and you are left in utter darkness in the middle of the day.
Some of us, I’m sure, have actually experienced the phenomenon of a solar eclipse. When we lived in Hood River, I didn’t realize that there’s a big difference between 94% and 100% when it comes to solar eclipses. We could have traveled 15 or 20 miles to get the real thing. We did get the cold, and the very surreal dimness. But the near-complete darkening
Whether you’ve experienced a total eclipse or not, though, you may well still have experience the feeling I was describing. How often have we started out doing something, thinking everything is okay, not expecting any real problems or roadblocks when suddenly, before we seem to know what has happened, everything was thrown completely out of kilter and we are just hoping that we can survive the experience until it is over?
The holidays can often feel like that. These days, the Christmas season seems to start… oh, right after Labor Day. And back in September, when the first commercials and decorations pop up, Christmas seems a long way off. There is plenty of time to spare. And then it’s October, then November, then December, and suddenly it hits you that the decorations aren’t up, the gifts aren’t bought, the cards aren’t written, and the menu isn’t even made. And then you get hit with that cold you just can’t shake, and your nephew Bob calls to let you know that he and his five kids are planning on showing up for Christmas Dinner, and then someone calls you from the church asking you to read a passage of scripture or bake a plate of cookies. And before you know it, you’re wondering if you will even make it alive to Christmas morning.
School can be like that too. Some of us are students now, and most of us have experienced the academic life at one time or other. Do you remember at the start of every term things seemed so easy. We looked at the class schedules and thought, “This shouldn’t be too hard. Only three papers in this class, and two tests in this other class and this third class just has a big project. No problem. And do you remember the last week of the term, at 3 o’clock in the morning, with the taste of your preferred caffeinated beverage thick on your tongue. You can’t even begin to think about the three finals you have desperately to study for, or the presentation you have to give at noon tommor… I mean… that’s today, because that would distract you from the 15 page research paper that’s due in 5 hours. As you try desperately to keep your eyes open, your brain cannot even begin to comprehend a solution to your current situation that doesn’t involve some sort of grand escape. Your overwhelming workload is blocking any sense of hope that you might have. How did this ever happen?
And what happens when it gets even more serious? The loss of a job. A painful separation. A deep family conflict. The death of a loved one. The escalating actions of a reckless child. A serious illness. An act of terror. The horrors of war. You can’t think about the future. And the present is so dark. Right there, in the place and time that you are, you can’t understand the possibility of light. You look up in the sky of your heart, desperate for light, but you only see a strange and frightening halo around a dark hole where the sun should be. You might still be able to pray, but you’re beginning to wonder if it will ever make any difference.
The reading for today is from the 21st of 22 chapters in the Book of Revelation. If we were to describe this part of the book in literary terms, it would the falling action. The climax and conflict are already over. At this point in the story we should be able to just relax and enjoy the ending.
And this is what John the Revelator has to say: “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away.” What kind of good news is that? What kind of good news is the end of world? What kind of Christians would take a good look at the world outside their door and look forward to a day when it would all come to an end?
Here’s what we know about the Book of Revelation. It was written by a man named John, who was probably not any of the other famous Johns mentioned in the New Testament. He was writing toward the end of the first century to seven churches in the Roman province of Asia in what is now modern Turkey.
Things weren’t very good for Christians under Roman rule. They were always operating under the threat of persecution. Only twenty-five years before John’s Revelation, Christians had suffered greatly at the most brutal hands of the Emperor Nero, a man who, among other things, was known to have Christians brought to his private gardens and set on fire as human lampposts for evening illumination.
John himself, had been imprisoned on a Mediterranean island. As he writes in chapter one, “I, John, your brother and companion in the suffering and kingdom and patient endurance that are ours in Jesus, was on the island of Patmos because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus.” And as he sat alone in his cell, he must have wondered, “Where in the world is this Jesus?” The church had been patiently enduring for quite some time now, and Jesus was long overdue to return.
There was a growing sense of restlessness over the promised return, and in the mean time, Christians were increasingly divided over what it really meant to be a Christian. The church was beginning to break violently apart over all kinds of theological issues.
At times it must have seemed entirely hopeless, that Jesus would never return, that it was all some kind of cruel joke. Just look at the world. The light of God has been extinguished while we weren’t looking. There is nothing left shining in the sky.
And then John received a revelation. It was as if God said, “John, I understand that you’re feeling hopeless. Let me tell you a story. You see, there will be a time. And it will be a bad time for the world. The earth will be filled with all sorts of sin and evil. There will be a dragon, and a beast, and legions of dark angels controlling the world. But in the end, I will destroy the evil once and for all time. And even if you cannot see the potential for good, remember what it is that I have in store. I am making all things new.”
“And in that day there will be a new heaven… and a new earth. For the old things will pass away. There will be no sea… that scary and unpredictable source of chaos will be no more. And the holy city, not the frail human place that you know, but the New Jerusalem will descend from heaven to earth. I’ll be there in it. And I’m preparing it for you in the same way that a bride prepares for her triumphal entry into the hall of marriage.
“Don’t worry, John, I am going to make my home on earth with you… with my people. And I will wipe every tear from your eyes. Death will be no more. Mourning, crying, pain, they will all be no more. For the first things have passed away. I am making everything new. I am the beginning and I am the end. And John, if from where you are… in the middle… you can’t see me working… If the pain and tribulation of your own life and of your own age are blocking you from recognizing the rays of my love shining down… well then just remember what great things I have in store for you in the end, when there is nothing left to shadow you from my love.”
We can live in that same hope for the future. When our lives are so busy, and distressed, and when we are aching and broken and beaten, we can hold on to the vision given to John. We can remember that in the end, God will be victorious, God will make God’s home with us, God will make all things new. Yes, in those times that we cannot muster any hope for our own world, we can still have hope for a world yet to come.
But as you’re standing there in the shadow of your current pain and suffering, eclipsed from the ever-present love of God, hoping only for the distant tomorrow because of the bleakness of today, don’t be surprised if God changes your plans. Our God is not a God who created the world a long time ago and is leaving it alone until that final salvation. Our God is a God who acts in the here and now. And when we find ourselves in times of darkness, when we are blocked from seeing the light of God, that does not mean that God’s love is not shining all around us.
Sometimes we have to spend a long time in the dark before we can begin to understand the true nature of the light. Don’t forget that the Israelites had to stay in bondage for 400 years before their prayers for freedom could be realized. Don’t forget that Jonah had to spend three nights in the belly of a fish before you could recognize his call to ministry. And don’t forget that Jesus had to stand trial, be rejected by his friends, suffer, die, and lie in the cold, dark grave… before he could turn around and defeat sin and death.
So when you’re standing there, looking up at the sky of your heart, and the sun seems to be blocked by some foreign object, and as that ominous dark circle grows and seems to take up half the sky, you might just find as you take a closer look at that dark spot, that it’s not getting bigger at all, but it’s getting closer… you might just find that that dark spot that blocked out the sun is really the underside of the holy city, descending from heaven, full and brilliant with God’s grace and love, and specially prepared just for you, right where you stand here on earth.
Our God is making All Things New. Amen.