Introduction
Today is All Saints
Day. Traditionally this is the day on which we remember all those saints who
have already entered into Heaven, as each of us also hopes to do at the end of
this life. “For all the saints” is the natural hymn to sing at this time of
year—one that always affects me deeply since we sang it at my mother’s funeral.
“O blest communion, fellowship divine,/ We feebly struggle, they in glory
shine;/ Yet all are one in Thee, for all are Thine./ Alleluia! Alleluia!”
Each of our
Scriptures this morning directs our thoughts towards Heaven, and invites us to
live today in light of Heaven’s glory. We walk together through the texts, and
then look for their implications today.
Isaiah 25:6-9. In this great passage from Isaiah 25 we see
the Messianic Banquet, where all wrongs are made right and all evil is
destroyed. Chapter 24 pictures the coming of the end. In the midst of people
worshipping God (24:14-16) Isaiah sees the coming doom, judgment in which no
one has any hope at all.
Hear the first three verses of Isaiah 24: “See, the Lord is
going to lay waste the earth and devastate it; he will ruin its face and
scatter its inhabitants—it will be the same for priest as for people, for the
master as for his servant, for the mistress as for her servant, for seller as
for buyer, for borrower as for lender, for debtor as for creditor. The earth
will be completely laid waste and totally plundered. The Lord has spoken this
word.” This withering scorching judgment brings in God’s reign, pictured in the
Great Banquet at which God’s people feast and death and disgrace are destroyed
forever.
The Marriage Supper of God pictured here became a basic
image in Jewish and Christian thinking. In Luke 14 Jesus eats at the table of a
prominent Pharisee. One of the people at the meal said, “Blessed is the one who
will eat at the feast in the kingdom of God.” In reply, Jesus tells the parable
of those who make excuses and are excluded from this feast, and those who come
in to take their place. The story serves to remind its hearers that all history
is consummated in joy in God’s presence, but not all people will take part in
that joy. In Revelation 19 (read at All Hallows Eve in the church’s year), John
pictures the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. Again, it is the feast at the end
symbolizing the joy and completeness of God’s victory over evil and God’s reign
over eternity.
So Isaiah gives us this picture of joy and victory, but only
after reminding us of the reality of evil and despair in this world. I think I
see what Isaiah wants us to hear: The reality of the Great Banquet gives
meaning to the present. God gives us the ability to live in the present in the
reality of God’s reign, in spite of the evil and terror around us.
Revelation 21:1-6a.
As the book of Revelation comes to an end, we see the destruction of evil in
chapter 20, bringing about the New Heaven and new Earth in chapter 21. Just as
Isaiah 24 pictures judgment and Isaiah 25 shows the joy that follows,
Revelation 19 pictures judgment, and Revelation 20 pictures the joy that
follows. The New Jerusalem shows us all wrongs made right and all evil
destroyed. As with the Messianic Banquet, we can live in the present in the
reality of the consummation of good at the end of all things.
Hear the text
again:
1Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and
the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer
any sea. 2 I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming
down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for
her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne
saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell
with them. They will be his people, and God himself
will be with them and be their God. 4 He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more
death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of
things has passed away.”
A question from verse 1: What is the sea that now
disappears? The Sea is the area in front of the throne—so in Revelation 4:6,
leading to the line in the hymn: “Casting down their golden crowns around the glassy
sea.” Here it is simply a bowl-like area before God’s throne. But the sea has
another meaning as well.
In Revelation 13:2 the beast comes out of the sea.
This image goes back to the beginning of creation, when everything was formless
and void, and the Spirit of God moved upon the face of “the deep”. The deep can
also be the sea—that primeval chaos out of which God brought all of creation in
order and peace.
In this second sense, the sea is a constant source
of danger and of the power of evil. Then we read verse 1: “There was no longer
any sea.” The source of evil and danger is itself done away with. Not only are
sin and sorrow overcome, but their source is gone, and in its place we see the
New Creation where God’s people live forever with God. So we come to the gospel reading.
John 11:32-44. We could observe many details from the story
in John 11, such as the way that Mary and Martha responded to their brother’s
death. They showed an almost unshakable faith that Jesus could have helped
their brother, but they do not seem to see that he still can. “If you had been
here, my brother would not have died.” But Jesus is here now, and Lazarus is
dead.
Jesus’ response to Lazarus’ death shows both his humanity
(“Jesus wept”) and his divinity (“Lazarus, come out!”). In this action showing
his intimate union with the Father, Jesus makes the final end of all things a
present reality. He raises Lazarus from death.
The miracle raises many questions. What kind of life did
Lazarus receive? Presumably it was simply his old physical life continued, so
that he had to die all over again. Dying once is hard enough; he had to do it
twice! Where was he during those four days? Was he with God, or in some kind of
limbo, or what? The text doesn’t answer such questions, and they are not the
point of the story.
The point is clear enough. Jesus let his followers see for a
brief moment something of the glory that Isaiah describes in chapter 25 and
John the Revelator describes in chapter 21. John and Isaiah point to the end
and say: See what God has prepared for us? Jesus brings that wonderful vision
into the immediate moment and tells us, “It starts now!” To put it another way,
we live in the present with the reality of God’s reign, through God incarnate
in Jesus, who brings God’s reign into our daily lives.
The Text in our Present Experience
Take one item from
the year’s news. ISIS has taken territory in Iraq and Syria, bringing hundreds
of thousands of people under its control. The result for women in
ISIS-controlled territory is bad, and the fate of men forced to join in the
fight is no better. Last Christmas I got
into a discussion with a close friend about how to respond to the threat that
ISIS poses. He was clear in his response. We must use military force to stop
them as soon as possible. They are beheading innocent people. We must stop
them! My heart feels the agony with my friend. Here is great evil abroad in our
world, and we have to deal with it. The trouble is that we end up using the
methods of those we oppose, determined to defeat them quickly. As we fight them, we become like them.
This pattern is not
reserved only for great international events, but is played out in almost every
relationship we have in our daily lives. When someone attacks us, we find
ourselves fighting back with attitudes and actions that do not fit the way that
Jesus has taught us to live. I have experienced those conflicts from the
inside, and I have felt the stab of pain that comes when a brother or sister
proclaims that you have attacked them—and now they will defend themselves.
The hurt that Mary
and Martha felt when their brother died (and that Jesus shared with them) is
the same hurt that we experience so often in this world. Like Mary and Martha,
we may know that all such things will be healed in Heaven, but we hurt now, and
we need help now.
Into that hurt
Jesus comes with this glimpse of and experience of the New Earth and the New
Heaven. We receive a glimpse of Heaven, and we receive also the strength to
live today in the light and reality of Heaven.
Aim for Heaven
This is the reason that I have used this title: Aim for Heaven, and earth will be thrown in.
These words come from the musical, “For Heaven’s Sake”, but let me give you the
words as C.S. Lewis wrote them in Mere Christianity.
If you read history you will find that the Christians who did most for
the present world were just those who thought most of the next… It is since
Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have
become so ineffective in this. Aim at Heaven and you will get earth ‘thrown
in’: aim at earth and you will get neither (p. 134).
Some people accuse Christians
of being “so heavenly-minded that we are no earthly good.” We are told that
Christianity is the opiate of the people (Marx’s idea: that religion calms
people down so that they do not fight against the injustices of this world,
allowing capitalist governments to continue to rule unjustly). We are told that
talk about Heaven is bad because it teaches people to accept bad things here
because we will receive our reward in heaven—the idea of “pie in the sky by and
by”.
Lewis responded to
these charges by pointing out that our ultimate goal in life actually tells
what we will live for now. If we aim at earth, trying to fix things that are
wrong using whatever means come to hand, we lose both Heaven and earth. But
Jesus gives us new life, with the possibility of living by the light of the
resurrection. Paul calls this kind of life, “walking in the resurrection” or “walking
in newness of life” (Romans 6:4). We die to self, and we live to Christ.
When I was in
college, I spent one summer working for a tree trimming and lawn care company.
At first I helped with the trees, pulling away the branches that had been cut
out of the tree. Then they sent me up the tree for the first time, and I cut
out my first branch. I cut out the wrong one, a major branch instead of the
small one growing out of it! They transferred me to mowing lawns, so I spent
most of the summer mowing lawns—at the height of the season, starting at 7 am
and going until dark. Long days, up to six days a week.
I learned a lot
about mowing lawns. One of the first and most important lessons was to make the
lawn look neat. I was taught to mow in straight lines, horizontally one week
and vertically the next week. Straight lines are harder to do than you might
think. You watch the line between the cut and uncut grass, but when you look
back, you find that you have wondered off the straight and narrow. Your lines
start to look a little bit like the morning after the night before.
So they taught me a
trick that ensures straight lines. Any farmer who has plowed a field knows the
trick. Although you have to watch the ground just in front of you, your goal is
in the distance. You look at some object beyond the end of the lien you are
about to mow, and walk steadily towards it. If you remain focussed on that goal
in the distance, you will walk in a straight line. If you focus on the
obstacles near at hand, you will go astray.
That’s the idea.
Keep your eyes fixed on the banquet at the end. Remember the new life God has
given us, which already flows inside your veins. Live that new life. Even
though the people around you press you to respond with the anger and attacks
that fit the turmoil around us, you keep watching Jesus and walking towards
him. And as Lewis says, you will make more of a difference than you can guess.
Aim for heaven and earth will be thrown in,
Aim out beyond the now and near;
Aim for forever, and there will come a day
When you find forever is here.
…
If you would save your life,
Then you must choose
To give away your life,
For what you lose—
Out at the end of time is what you win.
Oh aim for heaven, aim for heaven, aim for heaven,
And earth will be
thrown in.
Grace Bible Church
1 November 2015: All Saints Day
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