God needed another angel

Rev. Brian Weinberger

Bumper Sticker Theology • Sermon • Submitted 10 months ago • Presented 10 months ago

Revelation 21:1–6

Heaven

New Jerusalem

New Heavens and New Earth

Death

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Notes

Transcript

I know that most of the topics that we have talked about and have yet to talk about this Summer, have negative impacts, but this one is probably the one that is most frequently used by people, and has the potential to be the most harmful. As in weeks past, I want to break down the phrase to help us understand what is actually being said and then look at our passage today as well as some other examples to help us see why we shouldn’t being saying this, but more importantly what we can do instead.

I know this phrase only has 4 words in it, but we are going to break it apart as I said and really look at what we’re saying if/when we’ve said this. So let’s begin with ‘God needed’. Now I want us all to sit back, put our theology thinking caps on, and really think about what on heaven or earth does God need? I’m not going to get too deep into it, but I don’t think God needs anything. God is God. I believe there are some things God wants. God wants to have a right relationship with us. God wants peace, love, reconciliation, and those kinds of things, but that is also dependent upon how we respond to God and to one another.

If we also take another approach to the idea of God needing, especially in this context, it assigns all blame to God and nothing else. First and foremost, I think we need to be careful if we decide to assign blame to God for things. Just like Job I think we can get mad at God for things that happen in our lives, but it was Job’s friends who actually assigned the blame to God and look at how they fared in the story. So if we say that God needed, then we are essentially saying that God caused, or God took, which as I mentioned is placing the blame on God instead of all the other factors that could have resulted in the person passing. I also want to point out that I don’t believe there is any Biblical basis for this comment. Nowhere in scripture does it say that God needed to take someone to heaven for this reason or that reason. God always works through people in their lives here on earth. God works through people and situations here on earth.

Now I don’t think I need to spend too much time on this second part but there is also no scriptural evidence that any human has ever become and angel. I know that it a comment to say that this person is now an angel in terms of the human concept of angel and not the godly term. When we use the term angel we tend to mean it with the understanding that the person is with God, or that the person was a good person and God needs another good person in heaven, but angels and humans are two very different parts of God’s order. Angels are messengers, heavenly warriors, and the attendants. Humans were created to be God’s co-creators here on earth.

Which leads me to another point. We as humans are meant to be a part of the created order. If we were simply meant to be in heaven with God from the beginning, why in the world would God place us here on earth to do and experience all of this? Instead, God created us from the very beginning to be a part of this creation and to help bring the world back to the Eden-like state that it began when God first set up the world.

That’s exactly what this passage from Revelation is trying to help us see. God is showing us that at the end the ideal state of heaven and earth joined together as it was at the beginning is how God wants it to be again. For a time Jerusalem was the closest to the ideal situation of the earth since the beginning. It was the intersection of heaven, the ark of the covenant, with people living together following the ways of God. It was, in a way, the intersection of heaven and earth. Revelation reintroduces that idea that the Israelites had, but instead makes it new and permanent. It is a new heaven, and a new earth, and a New Jerusalem. Not only are those things new, but also the sea is no more.

The significance of the sea also goes back to creation when we see that the deep sea was all that was there. It was chaos and it was nothing until God created. God is now creating anew again, and God is away with the chaos and the nothingness this time. We also see that the city is God’s bride. The idea of marriage reminds us also of creation when God says the two will become one. Here God shows us that not just two humans will be come one, but God will also become one with the new creation, and not only will God be one with creation, but God will once again dwell in their midst both like the old Jerusalem with the ark, but also it again reminds us of the days of Eden, when God and human walked together upon the newly formed earth.

Here is where I believe we can really draw from scripture and see what it is that God does in times of pain and crisis and loss. In Revelation 21:4 we see the vision telling us that God will wipe every tear. That is the God that I know and that is the God that we should proclaim to people in times of hardship and loss. God wiping away the tears of those who mourn. What does that tell us about God? It tells us that God cares. It tells us that God is right there beside us when we grieve. It tells us that God accompany’s us along the way and that God’s desire, and ideal for when heaven and earth are once again joined together, that there will be a day when there will be no need for tears, no need for mourning, there will be no pain because all of those things were a part of an old broken world, and with God’s help we have created a world where those things are no longer a part of the world.

So when someone is going through loss, I know it is so difficult to come up with something to say. So one option is don’t say anything at all. Job’s friends sat with Job and never said a word and that was ok. God is pictured here as wiping away the tears of the mourners. Perhaps we can just be present for them. Maybe we can grab them a cup of coffee, or a nice stiff drink. Maybe we could hug them, and let them soak our shoulder in tears. They need our presence not our infinite wisdom in that moment. They need to feel the presence of a friend or family member and through our presence they can feel and know the presence of God beside them as well. Their God who wipes away their tears and who like Jesus weeps over those who are no longer with us. It is the same God who promises to be with us to the very end of the age. It is Jesus who walked this very earth, who knows the pains of this life, and who conquered the pains of this life to show us that no matter what we are going through, God is with us, Emmanuel. So I am sorry, but God did not need another angel, rather God cries with us each and every time we cry the tears of loss, and then God offers hope for the future when none of that will be needed ever again. Amen.