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Revelation 21:10, 22-22:5; John 14:27
A Sermon for the Sixth Sunday of Easter
Today we again have a reading from 21st chapter of the Book of Revelation. Last week we had that fantastic picture of the new heaven, the new earth, and the New Jerusalem coming out of heaven. Today we have more about the New Jerusalem.
Our text cuts out some verses in the middle of the 21st chapter which give the dimensions of this beautiful city. In those missing verses it says there are so many gates with the names of the tribes and the foundations with the names of the apostles. Then it says the city is 15 hundred miles wide, 15 hundred miles deep and 15 hundred miles high. And with this wall going around it which is about 100 feet high.
Suddenly we see that these aren’t real dimensions and real geography. Something else is going on here. Then there are two verses that describe the twelve foundations which are adorned with jewels, and it names them: Jasper, sapphire, age, emerald, onyx, carnelian, chrysolite, beryl, topaz, chrysoprase, jacinth, and amethyst (Rev 21:19-20). Why bother mentioning these? Boring. It seems irrelevant until you realize that these semi-precious stones are the signs of the Zodiac. [To be sure, there’s a slight difference because over several thousand years these things have changed a bit, but basically these are the signs of the Zodiac.]
We say of something: “It’s written in the stars.” We think that there is that which is guiding us, fate, or chance, or the whole of the universe. Or as in Star Wars: “May the Force be with you.”
We are also tempted to look up our horoscope and wonder: “How can I see where it’s going?” We are tempted to think: If something is written in the stars, then it will happen.
As we do this, we may think: “Well, here it is in the 21st chapter of the Book of Revelation.” The reason this Book is so tricky is that it does not go as one might expect it to. In fact, it’s totally different, by which I mean: The signs of the Zodiac are listed backwards. The order is reversed. Why? That’s because, as it goes on to say: The Lord is Lord. The Lord is Lord over that ancient and continuing religion of astrology. He is Lord, not the Zodiac.
Even though modern astronomy has made astrology into as a kind of silly game, still people imagine that maybe there is something in the stars?
What the text is saying is “No,” the Lord has broken the powers of all kinds of false gods.
Much more serious is a wider problem in our life today of determinism and fate found in modern atheists. Take Daniel Dennett (1942-2024), for example. He just died last year. He was an American philosopher and was known as one of the “Four Horsemen” of modern atheism, along with Sam Harris, Richard Dawkins, and Christopher Hitchens. He had a long beard, was very friendly and popular with the press.
He argued that mental states are simply the result of physical processes in the brain. Simply put, he said that we are like robots. You’re a robot. I’m a robot. And he said (paraphrase): “I defy you to prove otherwise.” The press was fascinated and thought that when he said: “No one can answer me,” that that really must be the case.
Basically, what he was saying is like that old saying: “Philosophy bakes no bread.” In other words, philosophy is disconnected from the pressing concerns of everyday life. It’s a way of pooh-poohing the life of the mind and saying: Let’s forget about it; it’s frivolous.
But instead of that, let’s raise three of the basic things that have been thought about in Western philosophy for at least the last two and a half thousand years.
The first is: Why is there something rather than nothing? You may say that question doesn’t bake any bread, but it is a question of: What is it all about?
The second: Why is there something other than chaos? There are patterns. There seems to be that which is other than simply chaos. What is that about? Where is this structuring coming from? And with that: Is it all static, or is it moving somewhere? Is it moving in a circle or is it going toward some goal?
And third: What about self-consciousness and mind? Are these just illusions? Denett says that they are more illusion than real. Those are simply atoms moving about, causing things to happen. There’s no real consciousness and no mind. Philosophy bakes no bread.
The philosophers who roll their eyes at this kind of thing ask a couple of basic questions. Remember this doesn’t have to do with religion. This has to do with: What it’s all about? Is it all simply baking bread?
The first thing that comes out of this kind of thinking that we’re all robots is: Well then, whatever you do, it is not something you are responsible for.
In the second place, you mean that there’s no meaning to anything? The world and everything is just there?
And finally: It means might is right. It’s robots all the way down, and there’s no difference, no meaning, and no justice. We are just determined; we’re just machines, and that’s it.
Over against that thinking, the text from Revelation says: “No.”
It says “No” because here we have a basic difference between this atheistic way of thinking that life is a matter of determinism, or fate, and how God acts. This can be seen in Rev 21:22-23: “[There is] no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb. And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine upon it, for the glory of God is its light, and its lamp is the Lamb.”
When we hear the word “Lamb,” we know it echoes John 1:29: “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!”
In struggling as people do about the Book of Revelation, it’s important to see, as we noted last week, that it’s all there in a different way in Romans 8:31-39. In those 9 verses it’s the same thing as the Book of Revelation.
If, then, someone asks you, a Christian: “What about the Book of Revelation?” you can answer: It’s all the same as what is there in the closing nine verses of Romans 8.
There Paul writes: “What then shall we say to this? If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all, will he not also give us all [good] things with him?” (Romans 8:31-32)
In other words, evil and all the questions of evil have been conquered by the Lamb dying on the cross. The problem of evil has been solved.
We think: “Fine, but that was then, and what about now? Where is that for us now?”
We remind ourselves of the famous place in 1 Peter 5:7: “Cast all your cares on him, for he cares about you.”
Remember the birds of the air and the lilies of the field. Since he cares for them, how is it possible that you can imagine that he doesn’t care for you? He cares for you and me now.
That’s why when Daniel Dennet says (although he doesn’t use those words): “Philosophy bakes no bread,” you can remember the famous answer: “Man does not live by bread alone” (Deuteronomy 8:3; Matthew 4:4).
We, then, because we have God coming to us directly through Jesus Christ and his Word, and also through Baptism and Communion, know that he cares for us continuously and now.
Paul spells this out in Romans 8:35: “Who shall separate us from the love of God in Jesus Christ?” Whatever it is that we are facing and is troubling us, Paul says: “No, that’s not the end. That’s not determining the universe.” Rather, as he writes: “In all these things we are more than conquerors.” How is it possible?
Then come that famous list of ten items. They are not just random items.
“For I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities”—what are they? That means all this toying with all those fake powers that we imagine are around.
“. . . nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor heights or depths.”
If you look at the original, it has big fat letters for “heights” and “depths.” In the original language those are technical terms for astrology. Even astrology has no power.
“. . . nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
As it says in the Gospel text: “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you.” (John 14:27).
Amen.