Every Tear Wiped Away
David Orendorff · Revelation 21:1-4; 22:1-5 · October 22, 2006
I have some bad news I have avoided telling you over the last few weeks. John’s vision of good news for the faithful is bad news for those who desert or betray God. "The dance of trusting God" promises salvation for some and fire and brimstone for others. This is the dark side of this revelation. John writes:
But as for the cowardly, (says the one who sat upon the throne) the faithless, the polluted, as for murders, fornicators, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their lot shall be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death. 1Revelation 21:8
Let me be clear, this is not a threat from John or God. This is not a "do what I say or God will get you" thing. John is stating the spiritual facts, saying, "When you touch a hot stove you will be burned." Spiritually speaking, folks who are devoted to a god other than the one God are laying their hands on a very hot stove. And folks who seek something to found their community on something other than shalom are going to get a very bad burn. Simply stated John says, “Trust the God of shalom, the God of the lamb, or burn!”
This promise of consequences is often seen as “be Christian or burn.” But that is not what John is saying. He is saying that those who base their lives and community on anything but the God of healing salvation, base their lives on anything other than the kind of servant love that willingly and in innocence suffers for others, will experience a suffering of the soul that will seem like a second death.
This pronouncement has been counter to human intuition since before Jesus. In our hunger for true salvation, for the salve that will heal us and the world, we are invited to worship and trust idols. Money with the security it falsely promises comes to mind. What we hope to buy and protect with wealth is shalom, but the facts are that wealthy people are more depressed than the moderately poor. Money is only good to a point and as a tool of basic needs. We have a bunch of money but money can’t buy us love.
There are other idols. A bombardment of commercials asks us to trust that consumption of things brings salvation. For the fun of it, when you are watching television, focus on the salvation language of healing, of peace, of joy and you will find that commercials are a modern day beast pretending to be the lamb.
We are also strongly encouraged in an idolatry of individualism. In the northwest we are constantly and subtly invited to think of ourselves as our own saviors, as the ones who can best bring shalom to our lives and the lives of others. Though we are certainly made in the image of God, we know that when the hard times come, and they will, we are not our savior.
When we give our hopes and allegiance for salvation to things, ourselves, our work, our bank account or relationships we have left worship of God and moved into idolatry. And this movement will not build the city of Jerusalem for it is not founded on shalom, but on false gods who will burn us and the world.
But to those who sing praises to God no matter what plague comes and who in their devotion marry the lamb, a new heaven and new earth come. I think the theme song for John’s vision might be the song “Lord of the Dance.” You remember how we sing the chorus, "Dance then wherever you may be." No matter what wound life has given us, even a fatal wound, God is the Lord of the Dance and the dance goes on, and on, for us, for our children and for their children. And like the lamb, the dance is Jesus’ sacrifice in God’s love of us, “They whipped and they stripped and the hung me high, but I am the dance that shall never die.”
After 20 chapters of plagues, disease, war, slaughter, disaster, John sees the whole of creation dancing:
Then I 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, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband; and I heard a great voice from the throne saying, "Behold, the dwelling of God is with men. He will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself will be with them; He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be nor more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain any more, for the former things have passed away.2Revelation 21:1-4
Isn’t this vision an expression of our deepest desire for shalom? Oh, to be free of crying and pain, to have our tears wiped away and to have death removed from us.
And John writes:
Then he showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month; and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. There shall no more be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and his servants shall worship him; they shall see his face, and his name shall be on their foreheads. And night shall be no more; they need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they shall reign for ever and ever.3Revelation 22:1-5
A long time ago I had the privilege of being pastor for Lyle and Phyllis. Lyle loved to sing and when a complication of surgery for liver cancer cost him his voice, he worked it back so he could once again sing to God. But the liver cancer eventually won the battle. On a Tuesday in 1995 Lyle was in a coma and the doctors told Phyllis that he had perhaps two hours to live. Five hours later Lyle opened his eyes and looking at his gathered family said, "What are you looking so sad about, where I've been its beautiful. Everybody is happy and laughing. The flowers are beautiful beyond what you can imagine. What's to eat?" He ate a hearty meal, moved around the room, visited, laughed, reminisced, and was profound. For three more days Lyle was full of life. He told his family he didn't want to come back to this life but he came to them as a gift. He told them stories of heaven and its glory, of unimaginable love and profound peace. He knew, because he had been there. Then Lyle went to sleep, to awake in a new heaven and confident of a new earth.
The next year Phyllis battled her own cancer. Because of her and Lyle's experience she is brilliant and wise. When I ask her if it was OK to talk about Lyle and her in a sermon, she said, "Thank you for honoring us. Phyllis is the fulfillment of John's Revelation; when the battle is over, the Lamb wins, and love is all that remains.
Suffering in this life is too often and too horrible. John doesn't pretend otherwise. In his vision there is no easy or quick fix. Salvation takes time and patience. But though, in dream language, it takes thousands of years, for the holy city and the river of life to come, this new heaven and new earth lasts forever and waits for us to come forever.
Do a simple experiment with me. For the next thirty seconds, not even a minute, let go of any uncertainties you might have about this "hokey religion," to quote Hans Solo. Let "the Force" take full control of you. You can always control back later.
Close your eyes and breathe slowly and deeply with me. As you inhale imagine you are taking in God's forever and unconditional love and say to yourself, "I breathe in the love of God." And now exhale with me the fear you hold; not the fear of after worship, or the fear of a dreaded tomorrow, just the fear of this moment, this now. And say as you breathe out say, "I breathe out now's fear." Then breathe in; "I breathe in God's love." Breathe out; "I breathe out now's fear." Do this seven times.
Now who is the first person to come to your mind, living or dead, it doesn’t matter? Whose name or image comes to your mind right now? For the next 10 seconds hold that person, whoever it is, in your heart. Think about whom they are to you and who you are to them. What gives that person shalom? Let your imagination guide you in listening to the person who has come to you.
What most of you now feel is peace, shalom. And it came to you not because you were praying for it, but because you were thinking precisely not about yourselves. First you had devoted these few seconds to God, and secondly you founded your prayer upon shalom. And in this devoted and shalom state of mind you perhaps even gained an insight into what the Holy Spirit might have you do. This is simple experiment leads many to a momentary experience of the John’s new heaven and new earth. What John says is that such love rules, now and forever and that salvation is no further from us than relaxing into God and caring for another.
I sum up what John’s Revelation. John sees in the future a new heaven and earth for those devoted to God, working within a shalom founded community and married to the suffering innocence of the Lamb. In the new heaven and new earth, it matters not whether we live, or whether we die, for God "wipes away every tear from our eyes and there shall be neither mourning nor crying nor pain any more, for the former things have passed away."
Shalom and Amen.