Text: Revelation 21:1–7, 22–27, 22:1–5

I have been to two weddings in two weeks. (One of the happy couples is right here in our midst!) So it is no wonder that imagery that what spoke to me most poignantly from John’s vision in Revelation 21 and 22 is that of a bride preparing herself for her spouse and of God and the new Jerusalem as wedded partners. 

For the scripture reading this morning I did adapt the language from the Common English Bible, which originally reads, “I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband.” I was sensitive to that very hetero- language because as I was writing this I was picturing my cousin Katie and her wife. 

Each of them had carefully prepared their outfits to coordinate with each other – down to their matching embroidered Vans – Katie with Saskatoon berries for Saskatchewan roots, and Sarah with blackberries for her BC home – now their home together. And all of the details that they so thoughtfully prepared for each other and their community.

In a time full of pain and longing for better in the world, in a time of crises and calamity, a wedding is a glimpse of promise and hope. A reminder not only that these two people love and are committing to each other but that we all have the capacity for love and community and covenant. 

Poet Kate Baer (whom I have followed for a while but just learned is a graduate of Eastern Mennonite University while I was looking her up this week) wrote a poem that gets to this. She writes:

Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today

to join these two in the ancient tradition

of promising love. To witness the pursuit

of it. The risk it carries. To stand before

such its pomp and natural thrill.

 

It seems we are all too dead from this world.

 

What a privilege to, even for a moment,

revel in the reminder that no matter its failing,

there is something to be gained from the

celebration of a tender and ordinary love.

A tradition so ancient that it’s captured in Revelation – even more ancient than that. .

God’s people as bride in Hebrew Scripture – brides and grooms and espoused people have been lovingly and tenderly preparing for their wedding for millennia. The prophets especially love to use this kind of tender and intimate imagery for God and God’s people.

The ‘celebration of a tender…love’ is what speaks to me from Kate’s poem and from the imagery in general. This is the happy ending of the Bible. I think that every week as I have preached through Revelation, even when we’ve encountered scenes of great joy and praise, it’s always with the looming understanding of suffering. But here at the close of the book, we’ve been through the tribulation and the suffering and we’ve reached the moment of triumph.

It strikes me – maybe it stuck you too – how often the word ‘new’ is repeated in the first few verses of Revelation 21. And again I was thinking about the ways that weddings mark a time of newness. Amy and Wes chose the bit of Song of Solomon for their wedding from 2:1-12 that says in part, “for now the winter is past, the rain is over and gone. The flowers appear on the earth; the time of singing has come.” 

I sometimes say during wedding ceremonies that a wedding doesn’t actually change anything about the relationship between two people. They loved each other before. They still love each other. They were committed to each other and they are still committed to each other. Often these days it doesn’t even change their living arrangements. 

What a wedding does is covenant and celebrate that love and commitment in a new way. A new beginning – and especially for folks who have been through it, whether in the rigors of life or in other relationships – a new covenant is indeed something to be celebrated

It’s not a mistake that John envisions God not only making all things new with a bridal/marital image. For him – like for some of the Old Testament prophets before him – it’s a contrast with unfaithfulness and wantonness and abuse and injustice in relationships.

John has previously given all of these qualities to Woman Babylon, that beautiful and deceitful rider of the dragon, the face of empire. That woman who represents everything that opposes Christ the Lamb and the way of justice and compassion, is the antithesis of this picture of new life, love and tenderness.

Last week I talked about how I don’t really like horror movies, but I appreciate some because of the allegory or the quality of the film making. I like a movie where the “bad guys” aren’t vanquished but restored to relationship. Where there’s character development rather than destruction. 

And we kind of get that here! The kings and nations who were getting cosy with Roma, who were the many partners of the faithless Woman Babylon, they too are here in the New City. Where once they were seduced by the lure of injustice and oppression, here they’re a part of the renewed and intimate picture of life, where God walks among them. 

It calls to mind what Kevin preached about earlier in the summer: A God who comes to us and walks with us. God at our level, in intimate relationship. And that’s not a coincidence either! In fact, one of those stories of God walking is in the first chapters of the bible – in the garden that God created and which was marred. 

This version of the earth is God’s re-creation. The beauty and wholeness is restored. The tree of life flourishes. There is no death, no pain, no tears. The River of Life flows on.

Years and years ago I officiated a wedding for a couple from Sri Lanka. As a part of their wedding ceremony they joined hands and had me pour clean clear water over their hands. It was almost like a baptism of their union. A common South Asian ritual to mark the purity and newness of what is being created in the marriage.

Flowing water has been that marker of what is new and clean and restored since Creation itself. And the river of life that offers healing and ‘opens prisons doors’ and ‘sets the captive free’ (as we sang) is yet another feature of this re-newed vision of God’s Reign.

I feel like I need to point out again that this is not an architectural schema for what heaven looks like. It is not literal, nor is it a specific prediction. It is a vision, an imagined understanding of life in God’s presence. That said, what John’s vision – literally John’s apocalypse – offered to the first century Christians it can still offer to us. 

I mentioned that I like a bad-guy to good-guy character arc. I also love a romantic comedy that ends in a wedding, so this part of Revelation is right up my alley. I love a movie where there’s conflict and struggle and separation but you know for sure that those crazy kids are going to get together in the end.

Revelation is not romantic (that’s a metaphor) and it’s not a comedy, that’s for sure. And it’s not a portrait or map of heaven or the afterlife. But there is a certainty about it. There is a certainty that God the Creator and Christ the Lamb are going to triumph. We don’t know for sure exactly what it will look like, but we can know for sure that God will dwell among us, that there will be restoration and welcome and abundance. 

We can thank God for the glimpses we see of this beautiful vision each time we celebrate with those who covenant with each other and for all the other expressions of love, justice, connection and compassion that God’s people show in the world. May God’s Reign come on earth as it is in heaven. Amen.

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