Revelation 21: 1-6

There are so many stories about heaven! People wonder what it will be like. Many of us have heard the stories people make up when they take some Biblical quotation literally.  According to Revelation 21:21, the streets of heaven are paved with gold.  A wealthy man had gotten his way on earth with his wealth; he had accumulated quite a bit: in fact he had more than he could possibly spend in his lifetime. Since gold never seemed to lose its value, he asked that when he was buried, that his casket also be filled with bricks of gold.  The funeral director objected, saying it would make the casket unbearably heavy. But he said he was a man of means and he would pay to have a heavy duty casket constructed with wheels on the bottom and a handle on one end for pallbearers to guide it. The funeral director shrugged his shoulders and granted the request. Eventually the man died and he went up to heaven. Proudly he showed up got out of his casket filled with gold, and pulled it behind him with the handle, like a little boy going to a playground. As he approached the pearly gates (so named also from Revelation 21:21), he noticed that Peter and the others, not meaning to be unkind, were all stifling laughter. “What’s the matter?” he asked “What’s so funny?”  To which they said: “We have an endless supply of pavement here and you brought your own!

People take the story in Matthew 16:19 literally too, when Jesus said he’d give Peter the keys to the kingdom of Heaven. People therefore have called Peter Heaven’s gatekeeper. The story is told about a man and his wife getting into a terrible car crash that took them both to heaven. As they met Peter at the gate, he had a question for each one of them.  To the man’s wife Peter said, “Spell love.” “L-O-V-E” she said. “Very good!” said Peter. “Welcome to heaven!” To the man he said “Spell Jesus,” and the man said “J-E-S-U-S.” “Very good!” said Peter. “Welcome to Heaven.” Some weeks later as they were settled in to Heaven, the Lord needed Peter for a moment, so Peter asked the man to cover the gate for him while he was away. To his horror, the next woman in line was actually his ex-wife! “Hello dear,” he said in as celestial a voice as he could muster. “Spell Czechoslovakia.”

And finally since the King James Bible translated a word in John 14 as “mansions” instead of the original “rooms” which were built onto the father’s house in Jesus’ day, so we have plenty of jokes about the Gator mansion, the Noles’ mansion, and perhaps even your mansion! Some hope heaven is made up of mansions and golf courses! But most of what we know about heaven is metaphor and mystery. It was Paul who said, “for now we see in a glass darkly, but then we shall see face to face.” It was Paul who said, “Lo, I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall be changed in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet.” And today it is Jesus’ Revelation to John that revealed these words:

“Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no more sea.” All things were new, and there was no longer a great divide between earth and heaven.

“And I John, saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.” The city was dazzling white, beautiful, and breathtaking. She was a vision to behold! And in that vision there was a voice from a throne, so it must have been Jesus’ own voice, and he said “God wants to live among us. God will dwell with us and be our God, and they will claim him as well!” What a vision! And while God is as close as the one sitting across from you, God can one day take a heavenly handkerchief and dry the last tears that will stream down our faces. As Tom Hanks coached a team of girls in the movie “A League of their Own,” he proclaimed “There’s no crying in baseball!” Today Jesus proclaims to the faithful: “There’s no crying in Heaven!” We won’t go through there what we have gone through here, because there is no more death; it is only once! Also left on earth are sadness and pain: those are human problems of our mortals lives, not our heavenly lives! Our earthly lives will been transformed. And Jesus said that he personally was making all things new! Isn’t it great when someone can give us a brand new clean slate, or a brand new relationship, or a brand new body?! And Jesus then said: “Write this down.” So John … and we … get our pencils poised, and he let’s us know it is really him talking: “Pssssst! It’s me! You know: the Alpha and Omega; the one who was there in the beginning and the one who will be with you in the end! I promised that!”  And as you hear the words of your Savior, and picture his face in ways that perhaps you couldn’t on earth, stories about streets of gold and Peter at the gate and big exclusive mansions pale in comparison to a place where pain, sadness, and anguish are no longer. What would we give to have such blessings amidst the stress and pain of our daily conflicts? Let’s get ready for heaven, with daily faith, hope, and love. Perhaps the drawings children will make today will make God smile with their child-like imagination. And from this day forward we may still laugh at the jokes about heaven. But for now, I am willing to just see in a glass darkly, until I join others in the Kingdom of Heaven, in the sweet by and by. But if you look around you, sometimes a little slice of heaven shines through the clouds, and we see heavenly things happening even on our most human of days.  Thanks be to God.

Jeffrey A. Sumner                                                         May 2, 2010