I was tremendously impacted by a funeral I once had. The service was for the mother of a member of the church who was a great Christian woman. During the service, one of her former pastors stood to share his gratitude for the life of this woman. He was retired from ministry at the time, and he talked about losing his father and mother, his wife and several friends. Then he sort of looked up as though seeing something no one else could see and said, “I now have more family and friends in heaven than I do here on earth. Heaven is looking more like home all the time.” That thought has stuck with me for a long time.
In talking of the great people of faith, the author of Hebrews wrote, “All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth. People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. Instead, they were longing for a better country — a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them” (Hebrews 11:13-16).
The first thing we learn from the Scripture today is that: Heaven is a place of joy. Heaven is a place of joy because of our joyous God who is there. The Scripture clearly states that heaven will be a place where God will wipe away every tear and there will be no more crying. So often when we see scenes of heaven in the Bible there are great exclamations of joy and glorious singing. I think we often pass over the ecstasy of heaven. We see the holiness of heaven and the glory of God, but we miss the ecstatic joy. We understand that there will be no more pain and no more evil, but something in the back of our minds whispers that it might just be a little boring.
In another church I served, I was talking to a man who had become a close friend. He was a trial lawyer. We were talking about heaven and he really confounded me when he said he didn’t know if he liked the idea of there being no evil in heaven. Evil, after all, in his opinion, was what made life interesting. Without any evil at all he thought heaven might be a little boring. Maybe he was a little worried that he would be without a job too.
He reminded me of Mark Twain’s famous story of Miss Watson, a rather stodgy old fuddy-duddy. She began to tell Huck Finn about heaven, and Huck later mused: “She said. . . she was going to live so as to go to the good place. I made up my mind I shouldn’t try for it. But I never said so, because it would only make trouble and wouldn’t do no good. Now she had got a start, and she went on and told me all about the good place. She said all a body would have to do there was to go around all day long with a harp and sing, forever and ever. So I didn’t think much of it. But I never said so. I asked her if she reckoned Tom Sawyer would go there, and, she said, not by a considerable sight. I was glad about that, because I wanted him and me to be together.”
Where did we get this idea that heaven was about flying around through the clouds playing harps? To tell you the truth, if that is what heaven was all about I wouldn’t be interested either. I believe there will be meaningful and purposeful activity. I believe there will be indescribable joy. When Jesus was on earth he said that his purpose in coming was, “so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete” (John 15:11). If that was his desire and purpose on earth, how much more is it his purpose in heaven. He said that there was great joy in heaven when one sinner repents (Luke 15:7). There is great joy over the repentant sinner, because there is one more person who will share in the glories of heaven. Part of the joy of heaven for God and for us is that you will be there. The Psalmist talked of the joy and pleasures in heaven when he wrote: “You have made known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand” (Psalm 16:11).
The second thing I notice about this passage of Scripture is: Heaven is described as a city. What this means is that it will not be just you and Jesus. You will be part of a city. What this means is that you will not be living alone in your “mansion on a hilltop,” cocooning with your celestial CD’s and heavenly TiVo. You will be part of a community. The Scripture talked of new heavens and a new earth, for the old heavens and earth have passed away. And we are told of a new city coming down from heaven. I began to think about this passage, that I have read so many times before, and was struck by a new thought. A city is a city only because it is filled with people — otherwise it is only a ghost town. This is not just a walled compound with streets and gates. This is a group of people. The foundations are people. The gates are people. The city is described as a “bride beautifully dressed for her husband.” And who are these people? These are the redeemed, those who have been filling the city for thousands of years and waiting for their return to the new earth, to dwell there in their new bodies. The Bible says, “Now we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands” (2 Corinthians 5:1). Paul is using the word tent as a metaphor for our bodies. Jesus says to us, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?” (John 11:25-26). So we will have new bodies that will never die. Paul wrote to the Corinthians saying, “I declare to you, brothers, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed — in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed” (1 Corinthians 15:50-52). I get excited when I think about what it will mean to be changed.
So what is the purpose of these new bodies living in a new city? It means to live in deep, meaningful, wonderful, fulfilling relationships with other people. We will live in community with other believers and find them to be part of what makes heaven so wonderful. Gone will be the egotism, wounds, personality flaws and misunderstandings that make relationships so difficult here. We will see as we are seen and know as we are known. Paul said, “For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. . . . Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known” (1 Corinthians 13:9-12). The online dating services promise to help you find your “soul mate.” What if you had an entire community of soul mates — and not just people who were exactly like you, but people you loved who were wonderfully different from you? There will be people who lived a thousand years before you; people who used to speak another language; people of other races, nationalities and personalities — all reflecting the glory of God through their individual personalty, as well as their ethnic and cultural background.
Randy Alcorn, in his book simply titled Heaven, says, “Consider what it will be like to see the Masai of Kenya, the Dinka of Sudan, the Hmong, Athabaskans, Tibetans, Aucans, Icelanders, Macedonians, Moldovans, Moroccans, and Peruvians. Hundreds of nations, thousands of people groups, will gather to worship Christ. And many national and cultural distinctives, untouched by sin, will continue to the glory of God. Isaiah 60:11 gives us biblical basis to suppose that the best culture, history, art, music, and the languages of the old Earth will be redeemed, purified, and carried over to the New Earth.” I think that is beautiful and exciting. We got a glimpse of it last Sunday as Joanna read the Scripture to us in Mandarin, Gothogo Mukuria read the same Scripture in Swahili, and Rachel Hoffman read the Scripture in Spanish. What a thrill that was. How richly diverse and how interesting heaven will be. If you are racially prejudiced, or you don’t like people who are different from you, heaven is not the place for you, because God is bringing together a people from every economic, ethnic, racial and social background. The Bible says that Jesus has, “purchased people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation” (Revelation 5:9).
Doug and DeDe Denbow, members of our congregation have had the privilege of providing a home for a foreign exchange student. Daichi boarded a plan to return to his home in Japan last week. Doug sent me an email that said, “He has never grabbed me with both arms and drawn me to himself as he did in that moment. His pressing chest actually popped one of the lenses in my reading glasses, folded on my chest. DeDe has done a wonderful job of collecting materials for him to share with his mother who, as you two know, wants to learn about Jesus. . . . Then this morning en route to the airport, he said, ‘I told my mother on the phone last night that I see that Christians have relationships better than any we see in Japan.’ To this his mother replied, ‘I want to be in relationships with loving people like you met.’ Daichi told her that he would find a church for them somewhere in their city.” That is what it is all about. What excites me is that the Christians he was speaking about were you. Heaven is a city.
The third thing I see in this passage is that: Heaven takes seriously the difficulties we are facing now. The Lord said, “To him who is thirsty I will give to drink without cost from the spring of the water of life. He who overcomes will inherit all this, and I will be his God and he will be my son” (Revelation 21:6-7). The Lord understands that in this present world there is a thirst for something new, a world where our longings are met and fulfilled. He understands that sometimes there are things we will face and have to overcome. This whole passage was written to give us hope, because the Lord knew we would need hope. In a world that can be difficult and unsatisfying, we need to know that there is another world coming where all our needs and deep longings will be met in ways that cannot be explained because they cannot be comprehended now.
One of the great joys in life is being a grandparent. What a thrill to see infants grow to be toddlers, toddlers grow to be children, children grow to be adolescents and adolescents grow to be adults. In the beginning you watch them struggle to recognize their colors, learn their numbers and the letters of the alphabet. Then you watch them sound out words and begin to read. You see them play the scale on a piano.
They may be learning to read, but if you could try to tell them, at that stage, what it will be like to read a novel by Dostoevski, it would be impossible for them to understand. They may know their numbers, but if you try to tell them about algebraic equations, calculus and quantum physics, you would be met with blank stares. You could talk to them about a Beethoven concerto, but they are having trouble playing out of the beginners lesson book. In the same way, God could tell us what it will be like in heaven, but it would be impossible for us to understand much beyond the basic concepts of having our tears wiped away, and mourning and death being eliminated from that world. Even the most exalted passages of Scripture are but the beginner’s book of lessons on heaven. For the Bible says, “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him” (1 Corinthians 2:9).
If it was not for the hope of heaven, life would be very difficult at times. However, we do not use the hope of heaven as a means to escape the difficulties of life. No, this hope is the means of facing the realities of life. Heaven is a part of the reality of life, and even though it is largely in the future, it is beginning right here and now. It is the hope of what God has for me tomorrow that enables me to face today. I really don’t know what those people do who believe that life is an accident and there is no meaning to life or our personal existence. How do you live like that, especially when it is not true? What would it be like to believe that there is not a loving God living at the center of the universe and no purpose to the things we face? What if instead of a smile at the heart of all things, there was a frown, or worse, there was only a blank stare. What would you do if you just believed that you died, rotted and that was it? Life would be very dark and joyless.
But when you know that this is your Father’s world, that he created it all with a grand purpose in mind; when you believe you are loved by the Creator of the universe and life has meaning; when you understand that God is in control and that he is bringing the world to a wonderful conclusion, then you face life with joy and optimism. Life has meaning, purpose and direction. Your life began in God’s love and will end in his love.
Lee Elcov says, “We focus on heaven not as a respite from real life, but to gain strength for real life.” We focus on heaven because we need to remember that this is not heaven here and now, and was never intended to be. We don’t expect what life cannot give. We don’t demand something from this world which it is incapable of giving. We know that day is coming, but it is not now. So we do not lose heart.
Philip Yancey, in his book Reaching for the Invisible God, tells the story of Commander Richard Byrd who once spent six months in a metal hut at the South Pole. In the Antarctic winter, the sun made no appearance during four of the six months he was there. Yancey quotes from Byrd’s journal about the experience: “I find that I crave light as a thirsting man craves water. . . . A funereal gloom hangs in the twilight sky. This is the period between life and death. This is the way the world will look to the last man when it dies.” In the journal he tells what it was like as he anticipated the return of the sun. It was only three weeks before the sun was due to shine again, when Byrd wrote in his journal: “I tried to imagine what it would be like, but the conception was too vast for me to grasp.” The day the sun made its appearance was overwhelming to Byrd.
Like Spring sunshine at the end of a long, hard winter, heaven will break like the dawn of a new day — a day of joy and celebration that we cannot at the present time begin to grasp. Jill Carattini writes: “In John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress, Christian and the Interpreter along their journey come across a man with a muck rake in his hand. Steadily raking filth from the floor, the man ‘could look no way but downwards’ and so, could not see the celestial crown being offered him from above.” Like that man, we can look down at the muck, or we can look up. This is the gift that God is offering, but we have to look up to see what is being offered. We have to open our eyes to the God who seeks to embrace us and take us to his eternal reward.
Rodney J. Buchanan
June 11, 2006
Mulberry St. UMC
Mount Vernon, OH
www.MulberryUMC.org
Rod.Buchanan@MulberryUMC.org
