Imagine

May 26, 2019

Hope Lutheran Church

Rev. Mary Erickson

Rev. 21:10, 22-22:5; John 14:23-29

Imagine

Friends, may grace and peace be yours in abundance in the knowledge of God and Christ Jesus our Lord.

John Lennon wrote a song that has come to be one of the most recognized and acclaimed songs of the 20th century. “Imagine” was written in 1971. When he wrote it, the Vietnam War was raging on. Civil rights were still being sought for women and minorities. And in this swirl of unrest, John sang about the possibility of peace for humanity and the world. Imagine, he invites us, imagine a world without religion or nationalism or possessions to divide us! There’s no need for greed or hunger. The song stirs our hearts. It has a centering effect on us. It calls us to what should be, what can be.

Lennon begins his song, “Imagine there’s no heaven.” Ironically, the vision he invites us to see sounds pretty much like a heaven, a heaven on earth!

Nearly two thousand years earlier, another man named John also imagined. He imagined a vision of heaven. St. John wrote a book called Revelation.

John utilized a writing style from the Old Testament called apocalyptic literature. Apocalyptic literature was used during periods of tremendous distress and uncertainty. John found himself living through just such a time. The early Christian community was being persecuted under the reign of the Roman emperor Domitian. John himself had been exiled to the remote island of Patmos.

Apocalyptic literature utilized wildly figurative imagery and cryptic language. The times were surreal, and so it demanded surreal imagery. John wrote about Babylon and a Beast. What he really meant was Rome and the Emperor. But he was living in a time when talking about Rome and its Emperor could get you killed. So he wrote instead about Babylon and a Beast. But the Christian communities who read John’s Revelation knew exactly what John was really saying.

John goes into great detail to describe a cosmic tribulation. It includes dragons and plagues, bowls of wrath and horsemen. But after all is said and done, the seemingly endless reign of terror and evil come to an end. Every lasting enemy is defeated. And then he describes the new heaven and the new earth.

Our reading today from Revelation describes that new Jerusalem. John describes it as a four-square city. Like ancient cities, this new Jerusalem is surrounded by a wall. But the gates, he says, the gates remain open all day. They are never shut during the day. AND, he adds, there’s no night. It’s always day. That means the gates are perpetually open. The nations, all the nations, are free to enter into this new Jerusalem.

John invites us to imagine with him. He writes of a heaven where God will wipe away every tear. There will be no need for tears, for death and pain will no longer be a reality. All evil, you see, has been eliminated. All the injustice and deception and violence framing this world have vanished. And so their resulting suffering and pain and anguish are no longer present. Mourning has been replaced by dancing. It’s a brotherhood of man. And God dwells with us.

John imagines a reality with no night and no darkness. There’s only the brilliant light of God and God’s perfect peace. John also describes the River of Life. Its crystal-clear waters flow from the throne of God and course their way through the streets of the heavenly kingdom.

In ancient times, a channel did run down the streets of cities. But the waters flowing there were anything but crystal clear. The channel was intended for waste water – fetid and diseased and undrinkable.

But this water flows crystal clear. The source of this water is God. It’s a river of life and of justice. Life and justice flow from God. Justice rolls like a river and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream. They are clear and fresh. Like a mountain spring, they quench the thirst of those who yearn for healing and to be whole.

The tree of life has rooted itself right next to these crystal waters. It drinks of this righteous water flowing from the divine seat. And John says its leaves are “for the healing of the nations.” John lived in a time when the use of poultices was a common healing practice. The leaves and barks of various plants were known for their medicinal properties. This tree of life, John says, this tree that drinks from the clear waters of God’s righteousness, this tree provides leaves that can heal all the wounds of all the world’s nations.

John imagines a time when all the strife facing his brothers and sisters in faith will cease. He provides a vision of life abundant, where strife is no more, where the perfect peace of God spreads over and fills all things.