Easter 6C, 2025

Text: Revelation 21:8-14, 21-27

Title: City Life

Alleluia!  Christ Is Risen!

Are you a city person or a country person?

Do you like the energy and the vibrance of being downtown with all the opportunities for entertainment and sightseeing?

Or would you rather be in the middle of nowhere in peace and quiet with your nearest neighbor miles away?

Once upon a time, this was a small country church in farm country.  And there are still a few fields and prairies here and there. 

But overall, the city has grown up around us. And even if we’re not in an urban center like Chicago, or even downtown Naperville, this is more city than it is country.

Over the years, more and more people have been moving to bigger and bigger cities.  It seems like that’s where the jobs and opportunities are.  Small towns and rural communities struggle to keep their young people around and many of these towns are dwindling away.

And yet there’s still a movement out of the cities to the suburbs and exurbs where you can try to have a little open space while being close to civilization.

There’s a lot of good things happening in cities, but there are reasons why people move away and avoid them.  Cities can be places of crime and danger.  You never know who’s lurking in the alleyways or around the dark corners.  Cities can be dirty, trash and litter everywhere.  And in the city, you’re surrounded by strangers who you have to compete with for parking spots and tables at restaurants.

The reason why cities can be bad is because people are sinful.  People are rude, impatient, and short-tempered.  People make messes and don’t clean them up.  People are selfish and push to the front of the line.  In a city you have a high concentration of sinners in a very small space, and so you and bound to have problems.

But what if you could live in the perfect city? A clean city?  A city without crime?  A city full of perfect people who always got along?  A holy city?

That’s the vision that John sees in Revelation 21, a bright and shining city, the New Jerusalem.

This is a city like no other.  The streets are made of gold.  Each gate is made from a giant pearl.  The foundations of the city are covered with jewels and precious gems. It is beautiful beyond belief.

It’s bright all the time in that city.  No night.  No one lurking around a dark corner because there is no darkness.  No danger or threats at all. 

And all the people of God will be there.

The people of Israel from of old, the twelve tribes, the kings and priests and prophets of the Old Testament, folks like Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, Moses, Aaron, and Joshua, Ruth, Naomi, and David, Elijah, Elisha, and Isaiah, all those who watched and waited and prayed for the Messiah, hoping and trusting that God would keep His promises.

And the people of the New Testament, the twelve apostles will be there, too, Jesus’ disciples and followers, the missionaries and martyrs, people like Peter, James, and John, Mary, Martha, and Lazarus, Stephen, Philip, and Paul, Barnabas, Silas, and Lydia, all those who witnessed the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, who heard and believed that He is their savior.

We don’t know all their names, but God does. He’s got a list.  He’s got a book of life.  And your name is in that book, if you are baptized and believe in Jesus.

If you have been made clean by His blood, forgiven of all your sins, then you have a place in His city.  And you will walk through those gates of pearl.  And you will dance on streets of gold.  And you will be there with all the redeemed.

And you won’t have to go to church!
Did you catch that part?

No temple in heaven.  No place to go to worship God.

Because God will be with you.  You’ll be living in His house.  Essentially, the whole city will be a temple.

John says that nothing unclean will enter that city.

He’s not talking about ordinary dirt or litter or pollution.

Unclean is a technical, ritual term.  If you wanted to go into the temple, you had to be ritually clean, undefiled by what you touched, what you wore, what was going on with your body.  If you were unclean, you were not fit for the presence of God.

But there, in that city, you will be clean, you will be able to stand before God in His presence because you have been cleansed, washed in the blood of Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

Now, in those verses that the lectionary skipped this morning, there are measurements of the city.  And John tells us something very odd about this New Jerusalem. It’s square, 12,000 stadia long and 12,000 stadia wide.  That translates into about 1,300 miles.  So, this is a big city.  But the most unusual thing is that it’s also 12,000 stadia high.  This city is over 1,300 miles tall.  To put that in perspective, the space station is 250 miles above us.  The Hubble Space telescope is about another hundred miles above that.  This city extends way up into space!  Why is the city so tall?
Now, the point is not the actual distance. As you probably know, the numbers in the book of Revelation are symbolic.  12 is the number of God’s people (12 tribes, 12 apostles) and 1,000 is a complete number. So 12,000 just means that there’s room in the city for all God’s people.

The point is that the city is a perfect cube, as high as it is wide and long.

Now in Israel, there was only one space that was a perfect cube.  The Holy of Holies, that most holy place where the ark of the covenant was kept, that space was 20 cubits wide, 20 cubits long, and 20 cubits high.  It was a perfect cube.

That place was so holy, that only one person ever entered it- the high priest.  And he only went in there once a year- on the day of atonement.  It was so dangerous that they tied a rope around his ankle so that if the Lord struck Him dead, the priests could reel him back in without going in there himself.

It was a dangerous place to go, because that’s where God was.  And if you were sinful and unclean, you could not stand in God’s presence.

But on that day when Jesus makes all things new, you will be welcomed into the new holy of holies, the place where God dwells. And you will see Him face to face without having to be afraid, without worry of being destroyed.

Because Jesus bore your guilt, your sin, your uncleanness for you.  Jesus experienced the wrath of God for you.  Jesus was thrown out of the old Jerusalem like a piece of trash, so that you could be welcomed into the New Jerusalem with open arms.

You will live in that place of peace and glory and light, the perfect, holy city, the New Jerusalem forever.

Alleluia!  Christ Is Risen!