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Larry R. Hayward
May 9, 2004
Fifth Sunday of Easter

A New Heaven and
A New Earth
Revelation 21:1-6

Jackson Lears is a historian of popular culture at Rutgers University. He has written a review of a book that traces the history of plastic surgery in America. Lears finds that a concern for self-improvement has been an important aspect of American history from our earliest days as a nation. He traces this concern through three distinct phases.

In Phase I — the colonial period — Lears maintains that the "[p]rotestants who shaped our…morality shared a deep distrust of surface effects. Beauty was…'only skin deep' and "true perfection was an inward state."
In Phase II — the nineteenth century — the desire for self-improvement "began to encompass flesh as well as spirit." The body became "a thing to be tinkered with, maintained, and improved." During this period, patent medicine advertisers urged Americans to worry as much about "the state of their bowels" as "the state of their souls" and to seek "physical" as well as "moral regeneration." It was during this period that we came to believe that a "pleasing physical appearance [is]…essential to success."[1]
In Phase III — today — as institutions such as family, church, and neighborhood weaken, "the body [is] left to take on heavier cultural burdens." Given the decline of places where we have traditionally received meaning, we often turn to plastic surgery and massage therapy, tanning salons and diet books, exercise clubs and yoga to try to craft some aspect of meaning for our lives.[2]
- The fact that a 1960s countercultural hero like Bob Dylan is now appearing in a Victoria's Secret[3] ad is evidence of Phase III.
- As a nation, we wake up to the sunny optimism of Katie Couric, but by the end of the day we go to bed to the jaded but funny cynicism of Leno and Letterman[4]. In many ways, we have become so cynical as to believe that the only thing we can really control is our bodies, so we put time and energy into making them as healthy, wealthy and wise as possible.

You may expect me as a preacher to condemn such concern with outward appearances. You may expect me to call for a return to an earlier concern for individual character and cultivation of the soul.

I plan to do neither today.

Even though, like most of us present, I am on the road to becoming "grayer and flabbier"[5] than ever, and even though I still harbor dreams of reversing nature's evolution through an occasional trip to the health club, I frankly appreciate the length to which many medical developments — including plastic surgery — enhance our lives and enable us to use the gifts God has given us to their fullest. I am not about to call for a single-minded emphasis on the soul.

What I do pose, as an alternative to cultivating the individual soul or the individual body, is an entirely different way of looking at things.

I want to place before us today a reminder — that comes from our Hebrew heritage and is affirmed in the grand and glorious conclusion to our Christian scriptures — that as individuals we are but a small part of a greater creation that God has brought and Christ has redeemed.
I want to place before us a reminder that the best way, in Christ, to view the purpose and meaning of life is
- Not simply through the development of individual character
- Not simply through the quest for personal salvation
- Not simply through the maximization of health, beauty, or youthfulness

But rather is to see ourselves as connected to the grand and glorious action of God, a God who is in the process of making all things new.[6]

II.

This action on the part of God shines fervently through the latter chapters of the Book of Revelation.

Based on what you have heard, you may think that the book of Revelation was written to depict the exact time and circumstances of the return of Christ. You may have been taught that it was written to encourage — or even to frighten us — into believing in Christ so that we will not be, in the words of a popular best-seller, "left behind."[7]

Neither I, nor the Presbyterian tradition in which we worship, teach that the purpose of Revelation is to predict the date, time, place, circumstances or manner of Christ's return.
Nor is Revelation written to frighten us into belief.
Rather, Revelation ends the Bible with a grand and glorious affirmation that God is in control of history. "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end." One scholar has described the theme of Revelation as "In the End, God…" [8]

What is important in Revelation for this sermon is the way it depicts that the meaning of individual life comes not from the individual heart, mind, or will. Rather, in Revelation, the meaning of individual life grows out of its connection to the grand and glorious action of God in heaven.

Listen how the primary speaker in Revelation — the seer John — connects the action of God in heaven with the significance of life on earth:

I [John] 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.

And I saw, the holy city, the new Jerusalem,
Coming down out of heaven from God,
Prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

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;
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…[9]

These words are fraught with images of individual meaning:

Wiping away every tear
Death disappearing
Mourning no more
Crying no more
Pain no more
The expectation of two people — deeply and passionately in love — waiting to share intimacy on their wedding night.

Yet these most personal depictions of life's purpose are tied to the much larger action of God, who creates a new heaven and a new earth and a holy city. The purpose and meaning of our individual lives originate not with our efforts to improve our appearance. They do not even come from our efforts to strengthen our souls. Rather, the purpose and meaning of life on earth are rooted in the grand and glorious action of God in heaven.

III.

I saw glimpses of this grand and glorious action of God in two distinct settings this week.

On Wednesday afternoon, when people gathered in this holy space to bear witness to the resurrection and to remember the life of Bill Behrens, every nook and cranny of this Sanctuary was filled. It was filled with people whose lives Bill had touched:

Teenagers and their parents
College students
Men and women in the middle years of life
Retired persons who a few days earlier had no idea they would attend the funeral of someone several decades their junior.

The worship service had terrific organ music, a beautiful trombone quartet, and five hymns of our faith.

From where I sat I could hear the voices of the congregation fill the ceiling space, bounce from rafter to rafter, bring life and hope to that great cavern above us.
In the days since the service, nearly every place I go I have encountered people who comment on how powerful the singing was. It was! (It helped, of course, that of the 610 people present, 605 were musicians!)

At one point, during the third hymn,

What wondrous love is this,
O my soul, O my soul,
What wondrous love is this,
O my soul![10]

I could almost see the music washing down from above on the entire congregation.

It was as if someone had opened a hole in the heavenly firmament and instead of rain had come down music:

What wondrous love is this,
O my soul, O my soul.
It was as if someone had opened a door into God's domain and the new heaven and the new earth and the new Jerusalem were coming down as a bride adorned for her husband.

The glory and grandeur of God's new heaven and new earth we witnessed during the service led all of us privileged to be present to remember and recommit to what is most important about our lives on earth:

The people beside whom we awaken each morning
Our parents
Our children
Our closest friends
Our faith
Our church
Our community
Our work
Our study
Our music
Our cultivation of the most significant gifts God has given us.

This glimpse of the grandeur and glory of the new heaven and the new earth led us to focus on what is good and beautiful and joyful and significant and meaningful in this earthly life.

A second setting in which I experienced the grandeur and glory of God this week is a poem I have shared with you in Adult Education.

After Bill's service and reception, I went into my office, turned off my computer, made final hospital visits for the day, drove home, reached for this poem from a shelf, and crawled into bed. The poem is entitled "The Summer Day." It is written by Mary Oliver.

Who made the world?
Who made the swan, and the black bear?
Who made the grasshopper?
This grasshopper, I mean—
the one who has flung herself out of the grass,
the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,
who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down—
who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.
Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.
Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.
I don't know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,
which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn't everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?[11]

Mary Oliver's poem moves from awe at earth to a call to recommit to what is important in individual life.
The book of Revelation moves from awe at God's new heaven and new earth to a call to recommit to what is important in individual — and even communal — life.

My friends,
Every Sunday during worship in this holy Sanctuary
An opening occurs in the heavenly firmament.
Some Sundays
The opening is about a millimeter in diameter
And we can barely see through it.
Other Sundays the opening is wide and gaping.

The opening occurs
Whether 600 are present, or 60;
It occurs whether the music is transcendent or ordinary;
Whether the sermon stays with you all week
Or whether, by the time you get to the parking lot,
Neither you nor the minister can remember what was said.
Still, each Sunday,
The opening occurs,
And a portion of God's new heaven and new earth
Comes down and washes over us.

Even though the glimpse we catch is dim and muted,
We glimpse God's grand and glorious action,
God's new heaven and new earth.
As we glimpse,
We hear a voice,
Calling:
"What is it you plan to do
With your one wild and precious life?

Amen.

1 I believe that the current best-selling book The Purpose Driven Life, exemplified Phase I, with a little of Phase II thrown in. See Rick Warren, The Purpose Driven Life (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing Company, 2002). go back
2 Jackson Lears, "Medicine and the Pursuit of Happiness in America: The Resurrection of the Body," The New Republic 4/26/04. go back
3 "Latest Victoria's Secret Model: Bob Dylan," CNN News, 4/6/04. See at http://www.cnn.com/2004/SHOWBIZ/Music/04/06/dylan.lingerie.ap/ go back
4 Lee Siegel, "On Television: Rise and Shine," The New Republic 11/10/03. go back
5 Lears, "Resurrection." go back
6 Isaiah 65:17 and 66:22. go back
7 Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins have published a wildly popular series of twelve books, called The Left Behind Series, that through fiction seeks to encourage, and in some ways frighten, people into believing in Christ, so that they will not be "left behind" when Christ returns. The books are available through Tyndale Publishing Company. The website is http://www.leftbehind.com/. go back
8 M. Eugene Boring, Revelation (Louisville: John Knox Press, 1989), 215. go back
9 Revelation 21:1-4. go back
10 "What Wondrous Love Is This," The Presbyterian Hymnal: Hymns, Psalms, and Spiritual Songs (Louisville: Westminster/John Knox Press, 1990), #85. go back
11 Mary Oliver, "The Summer Day," in Douglas Goetsch, "Generating Poems," handout for the Summer Writing Festival, University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa, July 13-18, 2003. go back

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First Presbyterian Church of Cedar Rapids
310 Fifth Street SE Cedar Rapids, IA 52401
Phone: 319-364-6148
E-mail: church@fpccr.org