Embracing Creation: A New Start - Revelation 21:1-7, 22:1-7
As I was reflecting on “new starts” in
connection with our concluding sermon in the Embracing Creation series, the thing that kept coming to mind was a
video game. I have always like playing
video games. What do video games have to
do with “a new start”? It is the feature
than you can use when things don’t go as well as you want: “the start over
button.” If you are not scoring enough
points, you miss a goal, you “lose a life,” or you’re just unhappy with your
progress, most often you just pause the game then tap the “start over,”
“restart,” or “try again” feature, and in many games you start completely over
as if you had never started the game.
Yes, in games like Angry Birds, it may cost you some coinage or crystals
to start again, and your power-ups aren’t replaced, but you still have the
option of stopping when you see things going wrong, and starting over—messing
up does not mean you’ve blown your only chance and it is “gave over.” There are other games, however, that you
cannot pause or stop and start again, win or lose you have to play it to the
end. However, even when you lose, you
are given the option of “play again,” giving us the opportunity to declare the
loss irrelevant and begin anew.
Thankfully, though, a new start does not operate that way when it comes
to God and creation.
Two weeks ago we began our series on Embracing
Creation. We began by acknowledging,
first, that the creation in which we live is not something that we should
constantly be striving or wishing to escape from, like it is some awful,
terrible place to be. God spoke Creation
into being and called it good and very good.
When humanity fell into sin, creation fell with it—leaving us with
disease, disasters, and death. However,
God did not condemn creation at that point…His efforts from that point forward
have been about restoring creation to the state in which He intended. Through the incarnation, God taking on our
flesh, God declared that this flesh and bone body is not something we should
disregard, but to understand it as a precious gift worth redeeming. We heard the words from the Gospel of John
that reminded us that God’s saving works in the word were not focused solely
upon humanity, but because God so loved the world.
Last week we considered what God’s
love of creation and desire to save it meant for to us. We reflected in Paul’s letter to the Romans
that “creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of
God….” The reason that creation waits
for our longing is that in our sin, we use up God’s creation for our own
self-interested wants, using and abusing it.
When God’s children are redeemed and revealed, all of God’s creation
will realize that redemption, as we move from acing for ourselves and truly act
as stewards, those who tend to and care for, all God has provided.
Last week’s reading also propels us
into this week’s reading: “We know that the whole creation has been groaning in
labor pains until now…”. This speaks to
us very clearly that we are not supposed to be longing to get out of this
world, but residing here, get excited about being a part of what God is
preparing to do. If God were on the
verge of destroying his creation, would creation be in labor pains? No, creation is in labor pains because God is
getting ready to have creation give birth to something new—a new creation,
revealed in Revelation as the New Heaven and New Earth that John was given a
glimpse of in his vision.
“Wait a minute, Preacher! What do you mean that God’s not going to
destroy this world? Isn’t that what we
read? Doesn’t the Bible say that God
since God promised to never flood creation again that this time He is going to
burn it up with fire?”
Well, yes and no. The passage that folks reference to suggest
that God is going to burn up this world (and I’ve heard and read many that
suggest a nuclear war breaking out will be how God brings this about) is 2nd
Peter 3:8-13:
But do not ignore this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one
day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like one day. 9 The
Lord is not slow about his promise, as some think of slowness, but is patient
with you, not wanting any to perish, but all to come to repentance. 10 But
the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away
with a loud noise, and the elements will be dissolved with fire, and the earth
and everything that is done on it will be disclosed. 11 Since all
these things are to be dissolved in this way, what sort of persons ought you to
be in leading lives of holiness and godliness, 12 waiting for and
hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set
ablaze and dissolved, and the elements will melt with fire? 13 But,
in accordance with his promise, we wait for new heavens and a new earth, where
righteousness is at home.
We do read in 2nd Peter
that God is planning on bringing His new heaven and new earth into being
through fire, however I would suggest to you, as considering the role of fire
through the Scriptures, that this fire that God will bring to bear is not a
destroying fire, but a refining, purifying fire.
Zechariah relates this through his prophecy
when he says:
“Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, against the man who is my
associate,” says the Lord of hosts. Strike the shepherd, that the sheep may be
scattered; I will turn my hand against the little ones. 8 In
the whole land, says the Lord, two-thirds shall be cut off and perish, and
one-third shall be left alive. 9 And
I will put this third into the fire, refine them as one refines silver, and
test them as gold is tested. They will
call on my name, and I will answer them. I will say, “They are my people”; and
they will say, “The Lord is our God.”[i]
And as God’s presence is often seen in
a fiery presence, Malachi continues this theme:
But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when
he appears? For he is like a refiner’s fire and like fullers’ soap; 3 he
will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the
descendants of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, until they present
offerings to the Lord in righteousness. 4 Then the offering of
Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to the Lord as in the days of old and as
in former years.[ii]
So the fire that God pours out upon
creation is one that will not destroy creation, but refine it. Just as a
gold/silversmith places the gold/silver within a fire not to burn up or destroy
it, but to purify it by burning away all the impurities, God’s refining fire will
burn up all that is not holy, all that is contrary to God’s will, as that heat
is experienced, like a refiner’s fire, all that is not of God will be dissolved
away. God is not planning to destroy
this world on which we live, but He is planning to inhabit it and in His Holy
Presence, all that is wrong, will be wiped away. What we see in Revelation is God’s
restoration of His Creation…a garden, a city, with The Tree of Life in the
center, where God resides with His people, walking with them daily, conversing
with them, just as He did in the beginning, the New Heaven and New Earth will
be the restoration of the original.
So what does this mean for us, my
friends? It means that we should not
stand around here waiting for that day when Christ will return to whisk us all
away somewhere else, but to long for that day that Paul describes:
For the Lord himself, with a cry of command, with the archangel’s
call and with the sound of God’s trumpet, will descend from heaven, and the
dead in Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are alive, who are
left, will be caught up in the clouds together with them to meet the Lord in
the air; and so we will be with the Lord forever. 18 Therefore
encourage one another with these words. [iii]
We long for that day when Christ
returns to establish His rule forever, when we get called to meet up with Him
in the sky to remain with Him forever…and where will remain with him…not in
some far off place far up there somewhere, but in the New Heaven, the New
Earth, that John saw descending as God’s Kingdom is fully established in His
renewed creation. We are called to live
lives of hope. Not a hope that Jesus is
going to sweep in and take us away from all of this, but a hope founded in
God’s Word, that “the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them as their God; 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….”
Our hope lies in that as we wait, we are stewarding and caring for God’s creation,
living lives that work to reveal the Kingdom of God in the world in which we
live, agents of God’s renewing efforts, knowing that the day is coming when God
is going to act and restore all His Creation, just as we sing:
Glory be to the Father, and to the
Son, and to the Holy Ghost…
As it was in the beginning, it is now
and ever shall be…
world without out end…
Amen…Amen.
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