A TREE IN PARADISE
Revelation 21:10,22-22:5

A sermon given by the Rev. Richard H. Taylor
May 16, 2004 / Sixth Sunday of Easter

This sermon started with a song.

Well, not really, because I heard the song over forty years ago. Way back then the song caught my attention. It has a line in it, “There is a tree in paradise, the pilgrims call it the tree of life…” Even back then I was interested in the pilgrims, but didn't know the text. So the song led me to the text, and ever since then this text has been on my mind. It is interesting how Bible texts come to us: from reading, from being mentioned by our friends, from classes we take. This text came to me from a song.

I think that the reason I hadn't known the text was that it was in the Revelation to John. Even back then I had an aversion to Revelation, it is not my favorite book. And this condition of not liking Revelation – way back then was before I learned it had been the hardest book to get in the Bible, and many of the early church leaders had opposed it. I think my problem with it is that so much of the book is violence: violence, war and visions of violence.

In fact I think that what John was doing was reflecting his time. If we think we live in a time of war, and a time of oppression, and a time of moral bankruptcy, imagine living under Nero and Caligula! Christians were being burned at the stake, thrown to the lions, and forced to live underground. Powerful occupying armies dominated province after province.

Much of what John is saying in his vivid images is that the oppressive reality will be overcome, and something new will arrive. John wrote in symbols, and many of his images are not too veiled attacks on the Roman Empire – such as the monster with a crown that sits on seven humps, being a reference to Rome, the imperial city that sits on seven hills. John wants his readers to imagine the end of the empire they live under.

But then, in today’s lesson, John moves away from images that reflect his time, and begins to picture for us what heaven will be like, the new eternity, the place where God reigns. While none of us knows when heaven – the New Jerusalem – will come for everyone; indeed we don’t even know when it will come for ourselves, we can begin to know something of what it will be like.

Indeed, if we don’t have a picture of what heaven is like, then our daily prayer “thy realm come on earth as it is in heaven,” becomes a meaningless prayer. How can we join God in bringing heaven to earth if we have no idea of what heaven is like?

So here we have John’s great vision: a holy city, New Jerusalem, with no temple, but instead the presence of the Lord, filled with light. All the nations will get to walk in this City, and its gates will always be open.

Then there is “the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God… On either side of the river is the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, producing fruit each month; and the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations.”

It is a beautiful picture. I have seen many Sunday School classes try to draw it is a very literal way: a city of exact size, and a tree which kind of straddles the river, apples and oranges for fruit. It is a good way to have children remember the picture by having them color it in a very literal way.

But just as we pointed out that the rest of John’s book is symbolic and metaphorical, we need to allow some imagination in looking at this text as well. Don’t see heaven so much as a specific place, but as a state of mind, a way of acting, a group of principles. That’s the kind of heaven we pray to come on earth.

Let me pick up three images of John and give them some interpretation.

First there is this river flowing bright as crystal. Now back in John’s time they did not have the modern pollution problems that we have. Humanity had been much more benign. But not entirely so. There had been wars and rumors of wars. Caesar had been murdered in the streets of Rome, and his blood ran down the alleys.

Way back in Exodus we had seen mighty rivers like the Nile flowing red like blood. The numerous battlefields of Alexander and Anthony and other ancient warriors had created similar blood red rivers. A lot of war, a lot of violence produces blood red rivers.

Similarly people had experimented with farm practices, stripping hillsides of their trees. People had seen top soil flow away, and once valuable land become choked with mud. John knew the difference between polluted water and clear water. John knew the difference between polluted life and clean living. John knew the difference between violence to others and nature, and the burbling, bubbling ecstasy of clear fresh water. Heaven has clear water.

If you are praying for earth to become like heaven, then you have to pray for an end of violence and an end to pollution. If you are working for heaven to come to earth, you are working for pure and preserved environments.

A second part of the image that John gives us is an open international city with all nations present. The gates of the city are open, and people bring into it the glory and honor of the nations. To me that means that the historic art of Babylon and Iraq, the beautiful carpets and cloths of Afghanistan, the music of Cuba, and the people of Haiti will be there.

John makes it important for us to note that life exists on both sides of the River: in heaven care is given to the rich and the poor, to Black and to White, to American and to Mexican, to men and to women, to children and to the aged, to straight and gay.

To imagine heaven is to imagine a place where all people and nations come and are honored. To pray “thy kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven,” is to pray that all peoples, tribes, nations, and languages will be present. This is not some modern liberal picture of heaven, this is the Bible’s picture of heaven. If we are working for heaven on earth, we are working for inclusion.

And then we come to that wondrous tree in paradise, the Pilgrims call it the tree of life.

Its good first off to know that things grow in heaven. Heaven is not static, not rigid, it is a place of life, and tenderness, and softness, and growth.

Here John completes a story, like good story teller he nests the end of his book with the beginning. In the garden of Eden there was a tree of the knowledge of good and evil. We all seem to know about that tree. But also in Eden is the tree of life, and Adam and Eve are invited to eat of the tree of life. So John tells us that in heaven it will be like Eden. In heaven it will have the same bounty and sustenance that was meant from the beginning.

But what is the tree of life? I think it is at least literally a tree. I love the Connecticut quarter and the charter oak. I love trees: cherry trees, apple trees, pine trees with prickly cones, fruit trees, shade trees. We can allow some literalness in our heavenly city.

But John wants us to notice two things: first its fruit. In heaven there is a fruit tree. And it is something more than bananas and oranges. If you know your Bible, you know that the Bible teaches about the fruit of the Spirit. “You will know them by their fruits.” “In this will all people know that you are my disciples in that ye bear much fruit.”

What are the fruit of the Spirit? We have been given a list: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. That’s at least nine of them. When we get to heaven these things grow: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. If you are praying for heaven to come on earth, this is what you are praying for. In Abu Ghraib prison I pray for gentleness, thy kingdom come on Earth. For people in strange lands carrying weapons, I pray for love, peace, and self-control. In homes where families are raising children I pray for goodness. Thy realm come on earth as it is in heaven.

And then the tree has these amazing leaves. The leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. In ancient cultures large tree leaves were often used as bandages, things to stem the flow of blood, leaves to hold bodies together. But here we have leaves for the healing of the nations. On this health and welfare Sunday we pray not only for our own healing, and not even particularly primarily for our own healing, but for the healing of the nations.

Thy reign come on earth.

I pray for nations without universal health care, where people’s health is a matter of wealth, where the rich live, and the working poor often die, I pray for the healing of the nation.

For the nations of southern Africa, pulled apart, broken by the AIDS pandemic, I pray for the healing of the nations. I pray for available medications, I pray for infirmaries and hospitals, doctors and nurses, who can stay in difficult circumstances. For the healing of the nations we pray.

And for all nations broken in war, stretched out in violence, poverty stricken for the building of weapons, I much prefer heaven. Heaven not only has trees, heaven has healing. Heaven not only has leaves, heaven has life. Heaven not only has light, heaven has peace.

Let us pray. Let us visualize our prayer. Let us imagine the New Jerusalem finding its way into imaginations, into places of decision, into the hearts of those fulfilling civic duty.

Behold the Holy City. May it come.

Amen.