Second Advent hope: the presence of the future

Adapted from a sermon recently preached by Dr. Haloviak.

Then I saw a new heaven and a new I earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the I sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, the 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, 'See, 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; he 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.' And the one who was seated on the throne said, 'See, I am making all things new'" (Rev. 21:l-5a).*

This amazing vision at the end of the book of Revelation is about a renewed, re-created world. The vision is so vast that it over whelms our imaginations; it astonishes, captivates, and moves us. Thus, this vision of a future, renewed realm is able to transform our lives now in our present existence.

As a pastor I have especially seen this trans forming vision "arrive" at funerals, and I've watched people with hearts breaking with grief imagine themselves reunited with their loved one in a new, remade earth. Somehow there is a power in this vision that transforms our present pain. Even though it doesn't eliminate all the heartache of the present, it makes facing another day possible.

Aunt Clara

Everyone called her "Aunt Clara." She was one of the 18 residents of the Hillhaven Nursing Home in Silver Spring, Maryland, where at the age of 16, I worked part time as a nurses' aide. Our youngest resident was 79, our oldest, 101. Aunt Clara was almost 90. She was a delight to care for. Easygoing and kind, she had a wonderful sense of humor.

One evening, while working the 3/11 shift, I noticed that Aunt Clara had fallen asleep in her chair. I went over to gently wake her by placing my hand on hers. As I got closer, something caused me to pause just before my hand reached hers. With my hand right next to hers, I noticed the huge contrast between them. I remember thinking, someday my hand will look like Aunt Clara's; someday I will need a young woman to help me get ready for bed.

That evening, standing next to Aunt Clara, I glimpsed the future, imagining myself at 90. My "vision of the future" indeed caused me to think quite differently about the present.

A glance into the future transformed the way I saw the present.

John glimpses the future

In a much more dramatic way, John, the seer of Patmos, had the same kind of experience. He did not merely see the aging of an individual, he saw the aging and the restoration of the cosmos! He looked into the future, and what he saw transformed his present.

The future became so real, so present in his own experience that it changed not only the way he saw the world but how he responded to that world. It transformed, too, the way he shared his faith the way he called out to others to view the world.

While John's contemporaries looked out at a world dominated by the Roman Empire, a world where power won all arguments, John's vision allowed him to see a different reality.

John might have seen only a world in which those who proclaimed Jesus were a small, seemingly insignificant sect, apparently on the verge of extinction. That was the "reality" others saw in that turbulent first cen tury. But they didn't have the vision.

Instead, this banished man of Patmos, old and alone and soon to die, saw a world where those who proclaim Jesus as the Christ would stand victorious.

Instead of a world where Caesar was lord and Christ seemed little to nothing, John saw a world where the holy God sits upon the throne with "every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth" paying Him unbridled homage (Rev. 5:13, KJV).

After John's commission to write to the seven churches of Asia Minor and the seven letters that follow in chapter three, the first words of Revelation 4 read: "After this I looked, and there in heaven a door stood open! And the first voice, which I had heard speaking to me like a trumpet, said, 'Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this.'"

Typically apocalyptic literature begins with the seer being taken off in vision through distant lands and strange eras, with an emphasis on the huge gap between God's realm and our human, earthly existence. However, the book of Revelation is written from the perspective of one who believes in Emmanuel (God with us!).

In other words, this is a Christian apocalypse. This book about the future includes a God who entered human history in the past and whose spirit continues to be with the churches. This book about the future is expressed in scenes that John's audience can under stand they are scenes of worship!

It's all about worship

In verses 2-8, John attempts to describe the indescribable throne of God. He says that it appears like jasper and carnelian, and has a rain bow that looks like an emerald. There are strange creatures with eyes all around. Then he hears the familiar sounds of worship: "Holy, holy, holy, the Lord God the Almighty, who was and is and is to come."

Instead of a future time and a totally unfamiliar realm, John knows he is in the presence of God, in a wor ship scene like that of Isaiah and the prophets before him. John watches, and then participates. And through his account of the vision, he invites those who read the account he writes to do the same; for worship scenes invite participation.

Such worship surrounds each key moment in Revelation. This book, so strange and troubling at times, is full of worship scenes. Sixteen songs fill its pages, along with other aspects of worship, such as prayers, offerings, and proclamations. Even when judgment occurs, there is singing! The frightening scenes of warning and judgment are surrounded by images of the redeemed singing and celebrating.

The worship scenes are not only relegated to some future time; they involve the present. When we enter the worship scenes, we experience the presence of the future. When we enter the worship scenes, the future transforms our present lives.

The Second Advent present even now

The first song in the book of Revelation is sung by the four living creatures day and night without ceasing: "Holy, holy, holy, the Lord God the Almighty, who was and is and is to come."

The only other time in Scripture that we hear the song "Holy, Holy, Holy" is in Isaiah 6, when the prophet Isaiah enters into a heavenly throne room scene. In the verses that surround this scene, especially those before it (Isaiah 1-5), God agonizes with Judah to turn from wickedness and to follow the holy God, who "shows himself holy by righteousness" (5:16).

In Revelation 4, John sees the worship of the holy God and, in the experience of worship, this God is present. God is not far removed in time and space, but present in worship. The One who is the Almighty, the One who is God of all time ("who was and is and is to come"), the God of all creation (verse 11), is present with John and with all believers who worship.

This God walks among the candle sticks and welcomes people into the throne room at the center of the uni verse. This song proclaims the presence of the future. All who sing Revelation's songs proclaim the experience of God in the present.

This song, like the experience of worship itself, calls us to embrace a different reality from the one we see. The name revelation means "unveiling" or "pulling back"; it implies a revelation of things as they really are, not as the world portrays them. Worship always calls us to see what's real, and then to act accordingly.

Such worship has this way of transforming our present. Those who worship anticipate a new heaven and a new earth.

The future enters their present now, and they live now as they will live in the future.

• Because God's future will be an earth full of justice, worshipers now seek justice.

• Because God's future will bring peace on earth, worshipers act now for peace.

• Because God's future will be an earth with plenty for all, worshipers act now to end hunger.

• Because God's future will be existence without tears, worshipers act now to comfort and to heal.

• Because God's future will be life without death, worshipers act now to fight disease and death.

As worshipers anticipate a new heaven and a new earth, the future enters their present, transforming it and calling them to live now as they will in a new heaven and a new earth.

Embodying the Advent hope

One Easter Sabbath, while living in the San Francisco area, I attended a small Seventh-day Adventist Church in St. Helena, California. I walked in, having never been there before, and sat in an empty seat three rows from the front. Surrounding me on both sides were people in their 80s and 90s. I was reminded of the years I worked at Hillhaven.

When we stood together to sing "Christ the Lord Is Risen Today," I noticed the words as never before. I watched people who have lived decades longer than I have, and I listened to them enthusiastically sing, embodying in the present their hope for the future:

"Lives again our glorious king, Allelujah! Where, O death, is now thy sting? Allelujah! Once He died, our souls to save, Allelujah! Where's thy victory, boasting grace? Allelujah!"

After the pastor's powerful sermon, we prepared to sing the closing hymn.

The woman directly across the isle from me was rubbing her knees. When the congregation stood to sing, I saw that it took her the entire first stanza to straighten out her arthritic knees. But she stood! She stood and she sang.

She has no idea how she blessed me. She embodied those singing before the throne, those whose hope in the future transforms their present. It was as if she were saying, I stand to sing now, because I will stand quickly and lightly some day. I look ahead through cataracts now, because I will see clearly someday. I worship and I sing now, because I will sing "Holy, holy, holy, the Lord God the Almighty, who was and is and is to come."

Of course, the Advent hope focuses on the future, but it's here—now!