6th Sunday of Easter - 2025c

Old Testament - Psalm 67:1-7

New Testament - Revelation 21:10, 22-22:5

 

“Tomorrow-morrow Land”

 

INTRODUCTION: In George Miller’s critically acclaimed series of Mad Max movies, people fight to eke out an existence in a dystopian Australia  turned barren and empty after a worldwide environmental collapse and the resulting wars as nations battle over ever diminishing resources.   

 

The movies are bleak and dark affairs to say the least. And humans, as you might guess, rarely come off looking all that good. Or as a narrator, quoting from a T.S. Eliot poem, wonders at the end of one of the movies: "Where must we go, we who wander this Wasteland, in search of our better selves?"

 

And yet amidst the bleakness and chaos that pervades the movies, hope is also a constant and recurring theme - especially when it comes to the idea that there is a better, more humane, and just world on the other side of the dry and violent wasteland that dominates the scenery in each movie.

In one of the movies, Max, the titular character, finds himself teamed up with a small group of survivors living in a hidden desert oasis after their jetliner went down years earlier when the world first started falling apart. 

 

And longing for a better world to call home, the small band of desert dwellers talk dreamily about a place they call “Tomorrow-morrow Land.” For the desert dwellers, Tomorrow-morrow land is a safe haven. It’s a place where people live in peace and the violence of the desert is a thing of the past. 

 

And sure enough, after assorted twists and turns, Max helps the small band of people eventually make it to Tomorrow-morrow Land, which, it turns out, is actually the remnants of Sydney, Australia. And while the city has seen better days, it is also a safe refuge and shelter from the violence and destruction that haunted them in the desert.

 

And so at night, the small band of desert dwellers gather in what appears to be an abandoned church to tell the story of their journey and celebrate that they have, finally, made it home.                      

           

ONE: Well, the Book of Revelation, believe it or not, is pretty similar, I think, to all those Mad Max movies. For in a world it also thinks has run horribly amuck, Revelation can’t help but talk about its own Tomorrow-morrow Land. Except for Revelation, It’s a place it likes to call the New Jerusalem.   

 

But before getting to that New Jerusalem tumbling down out of the sky full of jewels and gold and that River of Life, Revelation, you might recall, uses all kinds of wild imagery to depict the world as yet one more fiery hot mess.

   

There is that pregnant woman, clothed with the sun and the moon under her feet, being chased by that great red dragon across the sky and earth.  Even after the Angel Michael defeats the dragon, it pursues the woman.   

 

Then there’s that beast that rises up out of the sea with ten horns and seven heads, which the people of earth worship proclaiming, “Who is like the beast, and who can stand against it?” 

 

And how about that second beast, which then rises up from the earth and is sort of the first beast’s right-hand man? And last but surely not least, there are those Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse causing all kinds of havoc and destruction.  

 

So the world is kind of a dystopian trainwreck in Revelation, as well. And yet by the closing chapters of Revelation, all those things have given way to a new heaven and a new earth. Jerusalem is coming down out of heaven as a bride adorned for husband and all the troubles, trials, and dark days are now over.

 

Most people when thinking about the Book of Revelation tend to focus on all battles and mayhem, but such focus ends up missing how the book ends - with a new heaven and a new earth and a brightly shining Jerusalem at its center. It’s own version of Tomorrow-morrow Land. 

 

TWO: And did you notice what’s actually missing in John’s vision of the new Jerusalem? If you’re not paying attention, it’s easy to miss John’s bold and radical claim about what’s not found in the New Jerusalem: “I did not see a Temple in the city,” declares John, “because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its Temple.”

 

Well, as you might imagine, such remarks from John have long been considered pretty shocking. For when God’s new world finally arrives there is one thing that will be missing - and that one thing is, of all things, religion. More specifically things like the Temple and even the church will be considered cultural artifacts from some by-gone era. 

 

And the reason the church will be missing? Well, because it will no longer be needed. After all, when all people know and live in God’s presence, as Revelation promises, then what need is there for a church?

 

How does Jeremiah put it when discussing God’s promised new covenant?  “No longer shall they teach one another, or say to each other, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me,” says the Lord, “from the least of them to the greatest.” 

 

I know, I know. It sounds strange. But the church, as far as I know, is the only institution in existence that is supposed to actually work for, anticipate, and celebrate its own demise. Because if the church is no longer needed, well, that just means it has finally fulfilled its mission!

 

Yep, while most organizations and companies spend a lot of their time trying to figure out how to stay alive and to guarantee their future, the church is actually supposed to be busy working to phase itself out of existence. So can you picture it? Can you picture a world without the church, because, well, thank God, it is no longer needed. 

 

John of Patmos, apparently, can. “I did not see a Temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its Temple.”

 

THREE: And did you catch the other striking image? John gets to gazing at that new Jerusalem and he can’t help but notice the gates of the city have been flung wide open permanently.  

 

“Its gates will never be shut by day,” says John, “and there will be no night there. People will bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations.” 

 

Somewhere long ago I remember reading about a pawn shop out in Las Vegas that has no locks on its doors. And it has no locks because since the day the store opened it has never been closed for a single second. It’s been open 24/7 for some ungodly amount of years. Doesn’t matter if it’s Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day, or New Year’s Day. The pawn shop is always open, night or day. And so it will be with the new Jerusalem. Its gates into the city will be welded open rather than shut. 

 

And they will be welded open, of course, because the world will finally be at peace. The nations of the world with their respective rulers will be streaming into the new Jerusalem with their loyalties finally in the right place. It’s a marvelous image, don’t you think? 

 

I have done enough research on the origin of my family name to know that  Yates is actually a derivation of an old English word for gate. The Yates, in other words, were once the gatekeepers into cities during the medieval period. They typically had a home by the gate and had the task of manning it to keep the city safe from marauders and other threats. 

 

Well, in the new Jerusalem, the Yates, apparently, are going to be homeless and out of work! Because there will be no need to man such things as gates anymore. For the nations and their rulers will walk by the light of God and the Lamb.

 

FOUR:  Back in 1581, the German Protestant pastor and theologian Heinrich Bünting created a pretty interesting map of the world. 

 

Known as The World in Cloverleaf, the map, as you might suspect from the title, is a depiction of the world on a giant cloverleaf with three petals floating in a vast sea of water. 

 

One of the petals on the cloverleaf reaching northward, for example, is labeled as Europe with assorted European countries scribbled on it. A second pedal, pointing down to the south is titled Africa with, again, various nations from that continent scrawled across it. And then there is the pedal reaching out to the east, which is labeled Asia with various nations from that part of the world as well. 

 

But here’s the really interesting part about Bunting’s map, I think. In the middle of the flower, in the middle where the petals spring forth? Well, that part is actually labeled Jerusalem. 

 

The map, admittedly figurative, is hardly detailed and surely contains assorted deficiencies a modern map maker would take issue with. And yes, there is a bit of religious and cultural hubris in placing Jerusalem at the center of the world, but theologically we also get it.   

 

For the map with Jerusalem at its center speaks to God’s promised future. It’s a future where the nations of the world will stream to the holy city. Her gates will be flung open wide for easy access and traversing. It’s a wondrous image, don’t you think? A wondrous and astonishing image.  

 

CONCLUSION: Well, as strange as it might sound, the Book of Revelation is actually a kind of comforting book to read, I think.

 

Granted, its initial depiction of the world is anything but rosey. There’s turmoil and havoc and wild and strange creatures causing all kinds of destruction. But that’s hardly surprising, right? We already know the world can be a hot mess. 

 

It’s the way the book ends that makes it worth the read, in my opinion? For it ends, finally, with a world made right and true and good. The New Jerusalem tumbing out of the sky with gates flung permanently open because they’re no longer needed. What a grand and glorious vision. Tomorrow-morrow Land.

 

Of course it’s more than just a vision, right? It’s also a promise.     

         

And now blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever. Amen.