A New Heaven and Earth

In 7th and 8th grade confirmation next week, we’ll be discussing these questions raised by our students: Is there a heaven? Is there a hell? Where do we go when we die, and how do we know where our loved ones are?

Behind these questions, I hear an honest yearning for a way to comprehend our loved ones as being at peace and still interconnected with our lives. I hear a yearning in myself, too, for justice and restoration. In a world where so much is wrong, how will God make things right?

All Saints Sunday is a time for us to tap into this yearning as a community, with candles and song. This week we will hear the story of Jesus who wept at the death of his friend Lazarus, then brought him back from the tomb. We will hear the vision of John in the book of Revelation of a new heaven and a new earth, where God dwells among us and wipes away every tear, and death will be no more.

In these stories, we hear not of clouds or fire, nor of some far-off place. Instead, we witness a miracle and receive a promise, that somehow in God’s time we are all pulled into a story that begins and ends with Love.

What are you yearning for? Who are you grieving? You are not alone. God is weeping with you, even as She wipes away your tears. God grieves death even to the point of dying Himself on the cross so that we might know the promise that new life is always arriving, and still to come.