TRYING
TO MAKE HEAVEN MY HOME
May 13, 2001
TEXT: Revelation:21:1-6
A middle-aged woman made her way
into an apartment building and up to the twelfth floor. As
she arrived, she rang the doorbell impatiently. The door opened
mysteriously, and she was welcomed by the smell of incense
and smoke. She entered and was greeted by a young girl in a
veil and dressed in flowing silky gowns who announced her presence
by sounding of a huge gong. With that the young girl asked, Do
you wish to see the all-knowing, all-powerful, wonderful one, Maharishi Narru?
Yeah, the woman said, Tell Sheldon his mother is here!
Happy Mother's Day. The right kind of mother can make life like
a little bit of Heaven on Earth--and sometimes Hell. John the Divine,
in his celestial vision, 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. He heard the voice of God saying, See,
the home of God is among mortals. God will dwell with them; they will be Gods
people, and God will be with them and 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.
Theres an old story thats been kicking around in clergy sermon files
for years. A fire and brimstone preacher asks his congregation,
How many of you here want to go to heaven? They all
put their hands up. That is, everyone but a ten-year-old boy. The
preacher looks at him and says Dont you want to go
to heaven when you get old and die? Well, yes sir,
says the boy, but I thought you were trying to round up a
group to go now.
Well, like the old spiritual says, Everybody talkin
bout heaven aint going there. Just where is heaven?
And if John is talking about a new heaven, then what about the
old one? Whats wrong with heaven as it exists now, if it
is our idea of a state of perfection?
People who have gotten so used to looking at the negative side
of life cannot see the potential for greatness. There are those
who have become so crisis-oriented that their sensitivities to
the human condition are dulled. I have talked with social workers
who suffer from compassion fatigue. They see so much of lifes
darker side that they desperately need a new perspective or they become immune
to the tales of tragedy and despair. We are not always able to change the situations
in which we find ourselves, but we can always change how we will react to those
situations.
We will always find what we are looking for. If we expect life
to be tragic, it will be. If we regard people as spiteful, greedy,
and unloving, they will be. If we do not believe in God, God will
not exist for us. How much do we shape our own realities and build
the worlds we live in? If only we could see the world as God intends
for it to be; to share in Gods vision of the new heaven
and the new earth.
I remembered the scene from Thornton Wilders play, Our Town,
where Emily, who has died in childbirth, is given the opportunity
to go back to a particular day in her past. She chooses her twelfth
birthday. Thinking of the life she has lived and of her failure
to appreciate its significance, she exclaims:
It goes so fast. We don't have time to look at one another I didn't realize.
So all that was going on and we never noticed One more look. Good-by. Good-by,
world. Good-by, Grover's Corners Mama and Papa. Good-by to clocks ticking. .
. and Mama's sunflowers. And food and coffee. And new ironed dresses and hot-baths.
. . and sleeping and waking up. Oh, earth, you're too wonderful for anybody to
realize you. Do any human beings ever realize life while they live it? Every,
every minute.
The answer is, Of course not So much of life is lost
in the living of it. I wouldn't be surprised if the Last Judgment
is the judgment we are forced to make on ourselves as we review
our lives: the lost opportunities, the people we ignored, the causes
we neglected to support, the words spoken in haste or in anger,
the persons we offended or failed to forgive, the friend or relative
with whom we remain unreconciled, the Christ whose presence we kept from our
lives. Must we wait until we have passed into the next world to realize the opportunities
we have in this one?
The Bible tries to teach us that heaven is a present reality as well as a future
hope, but we seem too intent on preparing for the next life that we miss the
meaning and purpose of this one, much like the American tourist in Paris who
spends all his time reading the tour book and travel brochures about Rome, the
next stop on the itinerary. Preparing for the future is important, but not when
it prevents us from living in the present.
St. John promises a new heaven. Where is heaven? In his story,
The Fugitive, the Indian writer, Tagore, tells of the father who
returns home from the funeral of his wife. His boy of seven stood
at the window, his eyes wide open and a golden amulet hanging from
his neck; a boy with thoughts too difficult for his age. His father
took him in his arms and the boy asked, Where is mother?
In heaven, answered his father, pointing to the sky.
The boy raised his eyes to the sky and long gazed in silence. His
bewildered mind sent abroad into the night the question, Where
is heaven? No answer came, and the stars seemed liked the
burning tears of that ignorant darkness.
We live in a world of time and space, and therefore we tend to think of heaven
in terms of location. In the realm of the spirit, there is no time, no space.
The spiritual world exists in the midst of the physical world; it's a different
kind of reality.
To the thief on the cross, Jesus promised, Today you will be with me in
Paradise. But creatures who dwell in time do not know what today means
to the dwellers of heaven. We can take comfort from the vision of John. But what
does it mean to speak of streets that are paved with gold in a world in which
things exist in a spiritual rather than a physical state? We cannot measure the
New Jerusalem with an earthly yardstick. All we can do is trust in the God who
offers us his presence in all possible worlds. Jesus speaks of heaven as a relationship
with God. We experience heaven now when God's spirit is apparent to us. We experience
hell when we deprive ourselves of God's presence.
The New Jerusalem is the church, and the message that the church
bears to the world is that God is with us. Instead of trying to
make heaven our home, we should try to make our homes more like
heaven. The purpose of living is to enjoy the presence of God.
We are not to seek the rewards of Paradise or avoid the torments
of hell, but simply to know and love God. The home of God is among mortals.
He will dwell with them as their God; they will be his peoples, and God himself
will be with them.
An unknown seventh century mystic summarized it in this short prayer:
O my Lord God, the stars are shining and the eyes of men are closed, and kings
have shut their eyes, and every lover is alone with his beloved, and here I am
alone with Thee. O my Lord God, if I worship Thee for fear of hell, burn me in
hell. And if I worship Thee in hope of Paradise, exclude me from Paradise, but
if I worship Thee for Thine own sake, then withhold not from me Thine eternal
beauty.
Eternal life is to know God and when we know God, the former things are not so
important after all. When we know the love of God, we are home.
-Harry Serio
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