BACKGROUND - We have in this lection about a chapter’s length of description of the New Jerusalem. The entire notion of a "new Jerusalem" that replaces the "old Jerusalem" reflects the ancient platonic paradigm that held to the view that a perfect heavenly model existed for everything on earth, including cities and temples. Playing largely into this view were astral speculations that connected sun, moon, planets, stars with light for the heavenly cities, persons of import, etc.

NEW HEAVENS AND EARTH - Eden emerges every once in awhile in literature as the place of sublime, perfection of environment. Here, Eden and the New Jerusalem get smooshed together, conflated. Merged together, we have a place with healing waters, a Lamb and the Almighty God who becomes the Temple, the tree of life restored, and unending worship.

THE NEW CITY - The new Jerusalem may be from heaven, but humans can be the means of channeling God’s grace into it. So we have here some support for the notion of ‘building the kingdom’. It is not all left to some eschatological miracle. Human agents infused with the Spirit of the new creation may contribute to that future reign of God here and now in the midst of the debris of the world. [1]

Churches may be absolutely necessary for Christian community, but in Revelation 21, a strange ambivalence exists concerning sacred space and buildings. Do we put too much investment in our buildings of worship vis-à-vis a face-to-face relationship between God and humanity? [2]

Be the prosecuting and defense lawyer of our enormous investment in church buildings through the centuries! List reasons for and reasons against the wisdom of such an investment. Suggest some healthy ways that we could be more God-relational and less building-dependent?

I would take the opportunity to visit the various ways Christians have come to the book of Revelation. For example, some come to the passage for comfort in the presence of death and dying. Dietrich Bonhoeffer exhorted people to listen to the book of Revelation for the distinction between the world and those who are Christians, but also in order to be more fully at the service of "those who suffer violence and injustice." You could mention its opposite-escapism-which some Christian communities take from this book. So recall how people come to this book and this text in particular.

Restate the vision and wonder with the text what that kind of a world might look like in post-modern images and metaphors.

How can we keep our faith buoyant in the future new city of God while yet slogging through the old version? Suggest ways that people of faith could work through the Spirit’s initiatives and live now as if God were already building the city of God through their words and actions.

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[1] The Interpreter’s Bible XII (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1998), page 729.
[2] The Spiritual Formation Bible (Zondervan 1999), page 1653.