New Jerusalem

This week I was reading an article containing some reflections. It was about how life changes as we get older and notice different things around us. Some of the points went like this,

I’m not into working out at the gym. My philosophy is not no pain, no gain, but no pain, no pain !

Another said, I looked in the mirror and I’m in good shape – round is a shape !

And there was another, As you get older you have to stay in shape – my mother in law started walking 5 miles a day when she was 60. She’s 97 now and we’ve no idea where she is.

And then just one more, I’ve always wanted to be somebody, but I should really have been more specific !

As we go through life, our ambitions, our hopes and many of our thoughts change. This even includes our attitude towards bad things happening to us or to other people. As we get older we see more, we’ve had more experiences, and inevitably some of those experiences will not be good. Sometimes we can even become hardened to pain, but whether that is the case or not, one thing that surely never changes is our desire not to be hurt, physically or mentally.

In the reading from the Book of Revelation (21:1-14) we are given the wonderful vision of the new Jerusalem, a place where we live alongside God, and a place of no pain, no mourning, no suffering and no tears.

And this vision of newness is something to which we’re all surely attracted. Time and time again we’re reminded of how many things are available today, time and time again I suspect we’re tempted into chasing the latest gadgets or bits of technology, or even some new piece of kitchen or garden equipment.

But here we are faced with the new Jerusalem, a kingdom, not just of God’s making, but a kingdom perfected by his handiwork. And there in that new Jerusalem, we find it’s people likened to a bride, and that marital imagery characterizes the loving union between God and the people. It is clear that this is a time filled with joy. This is a time of unending happiness.

And this scene is just the culmination of the victory won by Jesus following his death and resurrection. The new age of fulfilment began at the point of his resurrection because when he came out of the tomb, he completely altered the powers of both heaven and earth.

At that point He invited his followers, not just to go out and preach the gospel, not just to sacrifice all they had sharing their possessions with other followers and with the poor all around them, not just risking their lives for the sake of the message, but he invited his followers to enter a new Jerusalem, a place where they would live with God in their midst. This awe-inspiring vision declares that everything has been transformed.

And so often we talk of this vision as something in the future, something to be achieved at a distant time, and there is an element of truth in this, because we will not achieve this great vision in our earthly lifetimes, but this vision is not restricted to the future. This morning we thought about heaven in the services, and we were reminded that heaven isn’t just something that awaits us when we die, but something we must strive to live out in our lives here and now, today.

John’s vision of the new heaven and the new earth in the Book of Revelation remains in the future only because we have failed to live it in our present... Jesus has risen from the dead, and now all things are new. “The old order has passed away.” We have entered the age of fulfillment. It is within our power, here and now, to fashion a world, a country, a community, a family, where there is genuine love for one another and sincere concern for the well-being of all.

Our societies don’t always promote such unselfishness. That is why people who do live this extraordinary love stand out from the crowd. They might be ridiculed for their manner of living, but they nonetheless show by it that they are God’s people and God does indeed dwell with them.

Going back some time now there was a slogan which I think came out of the Roman Catholic Church. It proudly proclaimed that ‘We are Easter people!’ Sadly the slogan never really got a huge following, but the challenge it implies continues to be true. We are Easter people. We have been raised with Jesus from the dead, and now no power on earth can really conquer us. Even the forces of chaos and evil, even the dark moments of our lives, have ultimately been completely destroyed, and so we are left with a question that has to be asked, With the victory of Christ assured, what is holding us, his loyal followers, back from transforming the world ? AMEN