May 18, 2025 Fifth Sunday of Easter The text is Revelation 21:1-6.

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¹ 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. ² And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. ³ 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;
 ⁴ 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.”
  ⁵ And the one who was seated on the throne said, “See, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this, for these words are trustworthy and true.” ⁶ Then he said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give water as a gift from the spring of the water of life.”

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May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to You, El Adonai, my rock and my Redeemer.

Grace, mercy, and peace are yours from God the Father and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.  Amen.

In nearly twenty years of writing and delivering sermons, this is only the second time that I have chosen to preach on the Book of Revelation.  While I find the content of Revelation to be inspiring and worthy of discussion, the fact remains that it is the most misunderstood and widely misused of all the writings found in Scripture.  And for this reason, many preachers tend to avoid giving sermons on this often-misinterpreted chapter in our Bible.

But I have decided to take the risk and boldly forge ahead; but first I feel compelled to share with you my reasons for selecting this reading, rather than preaching on the gospel, which is normally the preferred basis for my sermons.  And, I have also elected to not preach on our First Reading this morning, which is from the Book of Acts.  Firstly, while John’s gospel recounts Jesus giving his disciples the “new commandment” to love on another at the Last Supper; well, this was the topic on Maundy Thursday, just a few weeks ago.  I thought it best to wait until Holy Week next year before we revisit this portion of Jesus’ Farewell Discourse.  And our First Reading in Acts centers on Peter’s visions of a bedsheet coming down from heaven, containing all manner of mammals, birds, and reptiles, along with the admonition to kill something and eat it.  And this, in addition to what I feel are the quite unnecessarily repetitive references to circumcision, rather leave me with the only option remaining; that is, Revelation.

What is it about this book of our bible that results in so much religious and cultural misinterpretation?  Well, first off, these writings of John of Patmos are a telling of the dreams or visions he has received from God.  The topics of these are wide-ranging and do not follow a strict linear timeline.  Even the meaning of the title of the book itself has come to be distorted.  “Revelation” is the English translation of the Greek word; apokalypsis”, and if this sounds familiar, it should.  The English word, apocalypse is taken from the Greek and it comes to us nearly directly, without modification.  This term simply means something previously hidden has been revealed; hence, “Revelation”.  The idea of apocalypse meaning a disaster or destructive catastrophe is a modern concept, and this too tends to add to the misunderstanding of the majority of what we find written in Revelation.  But the real concern regarding Revelation is that it has come to be interpreted in ways that it was not intended to be.  Many people have suggested that what appears in Revelation are prophetic predictions for what is to occur at some point in the future.  And since a great deal of what we read in this book of the bible describes supernatural incidents that can be quite disturbing, suggesting that they refer to literal events that will happen in the future can be rather harmful.  For the truth is that the writer of Revelation is describing what is happening in his own time, and his words are directed to the seven churches he mentions; he is instructing them to stand fast in their opposition to worship of the Roman Emperor.          

Nearly every chapter in Revelation deals with characters and events that are symbolic in nature and this symbolism would have been quite recognizable to those reading John’s words in the year 100-or so.  For instance, since the central theme of these writings concerns resistance to forced Emperor worship, whenever John speaks of a “beast”, he is referring to Nero, the Emperor in his time who was actively targeting early Christians for their faith.  In fact, we read in Revelation that “The Number of the Beast” is 666; this has often been misunderstood and misused by any number of modern-day cults.  Most ancient cultures practiced “gematria”, which assigns numerical values to letters of the alphabet.  The “666” simply spells “Nero”, and results from the letters in Greek in which John wrote when translating from the original Hebrew.  But this and other facts have not deterred a persistent harmful interpretation of what is written in Revelation.  Several doomsday cults have arisen, basing a good deal of their belief system on those incorrectly understood verses.  You may recall the tragedy that happened in Waco, Texas when David Koresh and the Branch Davidians clashed with the authorities.

Well, now that we’ve gotten out of the way, the uncomfortable history of how Revelation has been wrongly interpreted, this would seem a good time to take a look at the good news we find in this reading.  These writings were intended to declare to John’s readers that God’s will for the world will come to its ultimate conclusion.  The Kingdom of Heaven as promised by God has been initiated through the resurrection of Christ.  Jesus as the new Adam is the first indication that God is making “all things new”.  For John’s first-century readers, and for us, this is the mandate to acknowledge that, by his rising from the cross, our risen Savior has defeated all that would seek to cause the suffering of God’s people. 

Revelation’s verses are a source of encouragement for those faithful Christians who were experiencing the oppression, persecution, and feeling of powerlessness in the face of those who would seek to do them harm in their time.  And this remains true for us also; we ought to be comforted in the knowledge that God will bring about “a new heaven and a new earth”; and that “the first heaven and the first earth have passed away”.  Note that God’s new kingdom on earth is not a replacement for the current one, but that God intends for the world to experience a renewal, a change.  The world will look the same, but God’s people will experience life in a new way; the way God always intended.

Revelation isn’t telling us how to escape the suffering brought about by the so-called “first things”; which is the condition of the sinful, broken world which we currently inhabit.  But rather, John reaffirms the reality of the suffering in this world and encourages his readers, and us to faithfully live into that anguish and distress, and to emerge it through faith and trust, as we are enabled as followers of Jesus; believing in God’s promises.

These “new things” are represented by the living of God among God’s people.  In fact, the Greek used by John refers to the tent or tabernacle in which God lived with the people of Israel as they wandered for 40 years in the desert.  Revelation confirms that God dwells right in the middle of God’s people.  For Jesus has come among us and the way to the new holy city, the fulfillment of the supremacy of God’s reign is fully demonstrated through Christ’s resurrection. Although the wiping away of all tears, of the ceasing of mourning and pain, and the defeat of death may not yet be fully evident, but “all things have been made new”.  So, rather than succumb to some “end of the world” prediction based on a misunderstanding of Revelation, let us rejoice that the world as it is, has been made into a new creation.  One in which God dwells among God’s children.  A world where, in spite of all that plagues humankind, there is hope.  Jesus’ rising to live again on Easter is the only revelation we need.                     

Will you pray with me?  Good, and gracious, and Holy God, you have revealed yourself to us in the person of your Son.  Help us to live lives that reveal our faith and trust in you as our beginning and our end.  And we pray these things in the name of Jesus Christ, the One whose Easter rising reveals the coming of the new heaven and the new earth.  Amen.

God is Good, all the time.  All the time, God is Good.  Amen.