peace be with you
friends we're continuing our reading of
the book of revelation the church gives
us throughout the easter season these
marvelous passages uh last week we
started with chapter 21 there are 22
chapters in the book so we're right
toward the very end and in many ways i
think the passage for today
is the climax of the entire biblical
revelation
you know keep in mind the bible didn't
just fall out of the sky the bible was
assembled by the church over many
centuries so the the canonical text we
call them were chosen out of many other
texts and then they were arranged in a
particular order by the church to
express
important truths the fact that they put
this book at the end well it's very
important
you're a poet you know you're a novelist
you're a historian i mean the last
chapter or the last verse of a poem
that's exceptionally important it's the
it's the where the arc of the story was
going it's the trajectory of the whole
narrative and so
we need to pay very careful attention to
this last
section of the book of revelation
i spoke last week about the new heavens
and the new earth god is not about the
business of simply destroying this world
and taking us up to some other place no
god wants the renewal of his creation
it involves therefore a sweeping away of
of what's what's
dysfunctional and problematic that's all
of the the anger of god and the wrath of
god being poured out and all of the
judgment and all that business it's not
god just being a rage-a-holic it's god
setting his creation right but then his
business is to make
a new heavens and a new earth and he
involves us
in in that work he gives us that
privilege okay well after the discussion
of the new heavens and the new earth
we find the detailed description
of the heavenly jerusalem
coming down out of heaven and coming to
earth
now
cities
cities the bible is it's fair to say
ambiguous about cities so on the one
hand kane the primal murderer
is described as the founder of cities
well and there's a lot wrong with cities
when human beings come together in great
numbers and we see it just look at the
news today
when human beings come together in great
numbers well trouble follows because you
get all these sinners packed together
that cain
a primal sinner
is identified as the father the founder
of cities that tells you a lot
look at the negative city that sodom and
gomorrha for example the bible
rails against
look in the new testament
during the temptation
when the devil displays before the eyes
of jesus all the
cities of the world
in their splendor and says all these i
will give to you if you but bow down and
worship me what's the implication
they all belong to him that's one of the
most devastating assessments of cities
and
civilization right civis in latin just
means city so civilization means a kind
of a citified culture
that's one of the great judgments
against civilization anywhere in the
literature of the world
they all belong to the devil
now i say the bible's ambiguous because
on the other hand
bible loves cities
especially
jerusalem the city of the lord
david's city
the city of the great king more to it
the city in which is situated the temple
where god is properly praised
the city where
the community of those who rightly
praise god is assembled
the holy city
a community
rightly and beautifully ordered the
bible's very interested in that go back
to you know the founding of jerusalem
or the establishment of it by david the
placing of the ark of the covenant in it
the building of the temple within it
think of the
heart break when
the holy city is is burned and destroyed
during the babylonian captivity think of
the
the joy when during the time of ezra
nehemiah the city is rebuilt its walls
reestablished
the city
god's dwelling place where the beautiful
community is meant to assemble
so there's the biblical witness
seeing the good and seeing the bad
how wonderful now at the very end of the
bible
as revelation i mean revelation in the
grandsons the whole history of salvation
is coming to its climax
what does the visionary
see but a city now not not just that
jerusalem in in situated in the hills of
palestine
but now the heavenly jerusalem
that means
the rightly ordered human community new
heavens and new earth yes indeed
creation nature has been restored
but with the heavenly jerusalem we see
the restoration of the human
project and the human community we're
meant to see in it an image of what god
intends for all of us so let's take a
look now at some of the symbols because
they really are extraordinary
he took me in spirit to a great high
mountain and showed me the holy city
jerusalem coming down out of heaven from
god now please everybody notice
something this is not an image of god
rapturing us and taking us up somewhere
else
no rather it's god's city coming down
this is the
marriage of heaven and earth that's the
biblical image not let's get out of this
earth as quickly as we can and go
somewhere else but rather
the coming together
of divinity
and creation just as we saw in jesus
he's the hypostatic union we say the
personal union of a divine nature and
human nature the
marriage
of heaven and earth that's what the
bible's interested in and how wonderful
by the way
listen now just from a little bit
earlier in chapter 21
i saw the holy city
a new jerusalem
coming down out of heaven from god
prepared as a bride
adorned for her husband
now we're talking that's biblical
language what does god want to do he
wants to marry heaven and earth
how often christ is described as a
bridegroom we the church his bride
the heavenly jerusalem coming out of
heaven adorned like a bride for her
bridegroom
this is the marriage of divinity and of
creation that's what it's all about now
listen
as it's further described
it gleamed with the splendor of god
that beautiful splendor glory
light
what's sin but it's a kind of darkness
right it's a it's a blocking of the
divine light think of the
of the pane of glass with all the
splotches and stains on it prevents the
light from shining
when that's been burned away that's been
cleaned now we
gleam with the splendor of god we become
bearers of his light
its radiance was like that of a precious
stone
like jasper clear as crystal
everybody the heavenly jerusalem
is beautiful
now i've spoken
many times before to you about beauty
and it's coming right out of the heart
of the catholic tradition but its roots
are right back here in the bible
god is truth yes indeed god is goodness
yes indeed but god is
beauty
and earthly beauty is a
symbolic anticipation
it's a sacramental
hint
of what god is like
and so the rightly ordered community
gathered around the right praise of the
lamb standing as though slain
becomes a place of
beauty
thomas aquinas said the beautiful occurs
at the intersection of
integritas
wholeness
consonancia
harmony
and claritas
radiance
integritas it's about one thing
so here's a city not at odds with itself
not everyone moving in some some
different direction but everyone
joined together in a common purpose
but consonancia that means harmony
working together in our variety but for
the same great purpose
and that coming together makes us
radiant
we become splendid with the very
splendor of god
do you see now why
churches are meant to be evocative of
this heavenly jerusalem
in the middle ages
when they built those great gothic
cathedrals that i love so much and you
look up at the stained glass
what's it look like
go especially to shark cathedral south
of paris and you'll see it
they look for all the world like
jewels on a kind of
black velvet background you look up at
the great rose windows and it's like
they put these beautiful gems and
diamonds
and precious stones on a black
background
this is not accidental
what the builders of those cathedrals
had in mind was precisely this
description of the heavenly jerusalem
it's walls studded with these precious
jewels
it's a sign of the beauty and the
integrity and the consonancia and the
radiance
of the heavenly jerusalem
let's continue
it had a massive high wall with 12 gates
where 12 angels were stationed
and on which the names were inscribed of
the 12 tribes of israel
uh walls we tend not to like walls but
see the bible
light walls
remember ezra nehemiah that period they
rebuilt the walls of jerusalem now why
because jerusalem needs to have an
identity
the knocking down of all walls just
means that we all kind of blend together
there's nothing distinctive about our
city they knew that the
rightly ordered community has its own
integrity and its own identity that's
what's symbolized by the walls not so
much keeping people out but rather
maintaining the integrity of
the community look if we want to be the
beautiful community we can't allow
hatred and violence and cruelty and
selfishness and all of that to come in
and if we do it in the name of
inclusivity well then we're undermining
ourselves of course as the earthly
jerusalem had walls so the heavenly
jerusalem has walls they're the walls
that that guarantee its integrity
what else do we hear and i'll close with
this there's so many rich symbols in
this description but i'll close with
this one listen
i saw no temple in the city
for its temple is the lord god almighty
and the lamb
what was the reason people came to the
earthly jerusalem well they came there
because of the temple i mean yes it was
the political capital of the nation and
yes there was a it was a
economic and cultural
hub and all that but the main reason
they came
was to worship in the temple
it was the holy place where heaven and
earth met
so why in god's name
is there no temple in the heavenly
jerusalem
is it become secularized
no go the other way
there's no temple because there's no
need for a temple
because the whole city
has become a temple what do i mean i
mean a place of right praise
so think of a city now
sports and finance and business and
politics and entertainment and the arts
and and human community and and
nightlife and think of all that goes on
in a city all of its all of its variety
but now now think of all of that
turned toward the worship of the true
god
all of that surrendered to his purposes
what will you find
you'll find that the whole city
has become
a temple
ah what began way back at the beginning
of the book of genesis when god brings
the whole world into being and he wants
it to be
this place of right praise he wants it
to be the beautiful community but then
sin and death interrupt but god keeps
keeps moving and god keeps acting and so
finally through his own son he goes all
the way to the bottom of the tohu va
bohu of dysfunction
and he sets things right he then cleans
out clears out the debris of the old
world and builds a new world yes even
with our cooperation and then finally it
comes to its fulfillment in
this city that comes down through god's
grace from heaven
and is the beautiful
integrated
place of right praise
where the whole place has become a
temple
there's the ark of the story everybody
that's where the bible wants to bring us
from creation
all the way to this magnificent
fulfillment
of the heavenly jerusalem
and god bless you
[Applause]
[Music]
you