Thomas J Parlette
“A New Heaven and a New Earth”
Rev. 21: 1-6
5/18/25, Confirmation/Celebration Sunday
The Book of Revelation is one of the most fascinating books in the Bible. It is also one of the most misunderstood. John’s Revelation is filled with strange images – a great red dragon, sea monsters, an epic apocalyptic battle, and of course, the final judgement. When the seventh trumpet blows, we learn of God’s plan “for destroying those who destroy the earth.”
For years, people have made a cottage industry of trying to match the events described in Revelation to our modern day, to predict the end of time. Many people put John’s Revelation alongside the works of Nostradamus and approach it as a book of predictions about the future.
Contrary to popular opinion, destruction, doom and damnation are not the final word in Revelation. The book actually ends with a vision of a new heaven and a new earth, and the restoration of the Garden of Eden.
The conclusion of Revelation is the promise of “a new relationship with God,” writes Henry Brinton in Interpretation, “one that is both intimate and eternal, in which people live in harmony with God and with all that God has made. The bond is a restoration of the original creation in Genesis, and it contains the best of numerous biblical images – a new heaven and earth, a city, and a garden.” (1)
Despite its accounts of apocalyptic warfare, Revelation is not intended to scare us straight – it is not intended as a divine threat to fall in line, or else. Instead, the vision is meant to provide a message of comfort and hope, written to Christians of the first century and to the Christians of any era, including our own. In fact, the word “apocalypse” simply means unveiling or disclosure. In the apostolic tradition, apocalypse is not so much the end of the world as it is the beginning, the disclosure, the unveiling of a new creation ushered in by Jesus Christ, the Lamb Upon the Throne.
This morning, we skip over the disturbing images of the first 20 chapters and turn to the end of John’s vision – starting at the beginning of chapter 21, in which John describes the new heaven and the new earth. This new creation is one in which the past is forgotten, and even the sea, which is a symbol of watery chaos, is “no more.” This transformed creation fulfills the hope of the apostle Paul that “the creation itself will be set free from its enslavement to decay.”
Professor Barbara Rossing, who has written a book on Revelation called The Rapture Exposed: The Message of Hope in The Book of Revelation, once said, “Revelation is not a prediction of the end of the physical world as depicted in popular culture. When it was written, Revelation pulled back the veil on “the illness and sickness of the Roman Empire. Today it can be viewed as “urgent warnings” to address pressing issues, such as world hunger and climate change, before it’s too late.
“Yes, it is apocalyptic rhetoric, but I’m reclaiming the word “apocalypse” to say it is the vision of renewal,” Rossing once told an audience at Elmhurst University. “It’s not just reserved for a far-off future, after Armageddon and after the whole world is blown up. Its purpose, when it was written, was to guide the ethical life of its readers in the present time.” (2)
When we use Revelation as more of a manual for Christian living, instead of a divine threat to scare us into submission, we discover that it still speaks to us today. In so many ways, we are struggling with a creation that is enslaved to decay. We look around and see decay in the fouling of our air, land and water, and in natural disasters that threaten our future. We look at our relationships and see sinful brokenness between friends, colleagues, spouses and family members. We look inside ourselves and see the deterioration of our morals and aspirations.
Fortunately, Revelation gives us a vision in which the past is forgotten, chaos is no more and creation is free from enslavement to decay. That’s a world we all want to live in. We are given hope in Revelation’s vision of a new heaven and a new earth. In this place, creation itself will be liberated from deterioration, redeemed from sin and moved into a right relationship with God.
Next, we have the image of a city. John sees a vision of the “holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.” New Jerusalem is the new relationship that God has made with the followers of Christ, a bond as loving and faithful as the relationship between newlyweds. This holy city is the beautiful place where God and humans will live together eternally, a city that comes down to earth instead of remaining in heaven.
When we read Revelation as a manual, we discover that it is not simply giving us a vision for the future. No, as Professor Rossing writes, “The New Jerusalem” is meant to be God’s vision by which we live our lives right now.” (3) In New Jerusalem, the virtues of peace, generosity, freedom and life replace the old vices of violence greed, captivity and death.
In this city, the voice of God speaks from the throne, “See, the home of God is among mortals. God will dwell with them, and they will be God’s people, and God will be with them.” God is making it clear that God desires to be with the people, in a restored and renewed paradise on earth. The loving heart of God is revealed in this passage, as it promises that God will wipe away every tear from our eyes. Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more, for the first things have passed away.”
God then says, “To the thirsty I will give water as a gift from the spring of the water of life.” This gift of life-giving water reminds us of the importance of fresh, clean water for the continuation of life on earth. It also points to the importance of the spiritual water given by Jesus when he speaks of “a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.” In the city of God, water is needed for life, both physically and spiritually.
Finally, Revelation speaks of a garden – a garden of Eden, restored in the center of the city. It begins with “the spring of the water of life” in chapter 21, and continues with the description of a garden in chapter 22. This is a powerful message about God’s desire for the human world to exist in harmony with nature. This garden in a city serves as biblical support for practicing what we now call Creation Care.
When we use Revelation as a manual for living, we discover that God, in this new creation wants harmony between people and God, among human beings and between the garden and the city. We catch a glimpse of this when an angel shows John “the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city. It is meant to be reminiscent of the Garden of Eden, in which a river flowed out of Eden to water the garden.
Now, on “either side of the river is the tree of life” in New Jerusalem, and “the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations.” This is the place where creation is renewed, brokenness is repaired, and the curses are removed. The message of the garden is that God wants to heal our world. We participate in this healing work whenever we show compassion to a hurting neighbor, provide shelter to a homeless family, work for reconciliation between fighting family members, or, as we see today, welcome the next generation into full membership of the church and participation in worship.
Yes, the Book of Revelation is full of strange, otherworldly images that are difficult to understand. It’s easy to get bogged down in trying to make sense of it all. That’s probably why it has attracted so many conspiracy theorists and crackpots over the years. But John’s Revelation is meant to be used as a book of comfort and hope as we try to align ourselves with God’s goal for human life – which is a new heaven and a new earth.
May God be praised. Amen.
1. Henry Brinton, “Between Text and Sermon: Revelation 21:1 – 22:7.” Interpretation, January 2016, 84-86.
2. “Book of Revelation Is About Renewal, not Apocalypse, Says Barbara Rossing”, Elmhurst University, October 25, 2012, www.elmhurst.edu.
3. Barbara Rossing, The Rapture Exposed: The Message of Hope in the Book of Revelation (New York: Basic Books, 2004), 142
