Sunday, April 3
Scripture: Revelation 21:1-4

Then 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.  And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”

A NEW HEAVEN & EARTH

In Principio (in the beginning) is a provocative work of art. It is art made of gestures. I do not profess to know all that was in the artists’ minds, but I am struck by the fact that a gesture is an idea made flesh. In a gesture, the mind flows out into expression in the material world. In some sense, it is a tiny human echo of God’s creative acts which give material expression to that which is in God’s mind. In Principio is also provocative in that the viewer enters into the artwork. The images of the viewers themselves appear in the field of gestures they are viewing. They become a part of the art they are viewing—they are part viewer, part art, and part artist. This is a work that is becoming something more every moment, with every viewer. It is a living creation, not a static creation. It is a creation that is going somewhere. This has made me think more deeply of the nature of divine creation and human participation in that creation.

The Bible is bookended by acts of creation. The universe that was without form and void, is first filled in Genesis 1 and is finally filled in Revelation 21. God is not done with his creation until he redeems and restores all that was in the first filling, bringing it forward into the final state.

Too often we view the eternal state as something that has lost and forgotten its initial state. We imagine angels floating on clouds, or an endless beatific vision of Jesus. When we do this, we sell God short. Such visions reduce the consummation of all things to the destruction of all things. The redemption and resurrection of all things becomes the replacement of all things. More specifically, the replacement of all material things with all spiritual things.

But this annihilation and replacement vision of the created order is more Gnostic than biblical. It is as if the created order is bad, and until it is replaced by “spiritual things” the final battle over evil is not really won. But this simply is not faithful to either Genesis 1 or Revelation 21. In Genesis 1 we relentlessly hear that all things are created good and very good. The material objects that fill the formless void are not illusions, nor are they perversions or temptations or idols. They are good things from the hand of God. And again, in Revelation 21 this goodness is confirmed as the new heavens and the new earth are described in very material terms—with images of cities, and gates and streets and gardens and trees and rivers. In very explicit terms, one sees a validation of the created order. The forming and filling once done in creation now finds final fulfillment.

And indeed, this same story is recapitulated in the Easter narrative that has shaped our Lenten meditations. Though the story begins at Christmas—God made flesh—the spiritual finding material form, from there it proceeds in an Easter-ward direction. The Word that once spoke a world into being now enters that world. Creator steps into creation. But being found in human form, the Word takes on the form of a servant and becomes obedient unto death, even death on a cross. In the Easter story, the body of Christ suffers the violence of death, but then the violence of death suffers the resurrection of the body of Christ. Not just the spirit of Christ, but the body of Christ. Not just the appearance of a body, but a new creation body. A body so strong

that death simply cannot hold it. A body so real that it leaves the tomb empty; it uses up and fulfills the old creation body and transforms it into the new. The old creation is not abolished but fulfilled in the act of resurrection. And this act is a foretaste and first fruits of all that will one day come to pass.

So let me invite you to conclude these Lenten meditations by looking at the world around you in a new way. Look at it as a world with a future and a hope. A world that is going somewhere. Take some time today to study and meditate on all that is around you and see the countless places where this world glimmers with the light of the next—a world within a world waiting to be born. Praise God for a resurrection that does not stop with Jesus’ body, but only begins. It will not stop until that same power has made all things new, death has lost its sting, and every tear is wiped dry. Even so, Lord, come quickly!

PRAYER

Lord of the Universe,
In the beginning of time you created all things and at the end of time you will create again, making all things new. In the meantime you have reconciled all things in heaven and earth to yourself, through Jesus Christ, your beloved Son. We long for the day to come when we will see Christ face to face and fully enter into your kingdom. For you are the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God. To you be all honor and glory, dominion and power, both now and forever.
Amen.

Rick Langer, Director, Office for the Integration of Faith and Learning