The Last Word

by Terry Newland

A Foretaste of Heaven

“After this I looked, and there was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, robed in white, with palm branches in their hands. They cried out in a loud voice, saying, Salvation belongs to our God who is seated on the throne, and to the Lamb!” Revelation 7:9-10

Do you know the saying, “You must have gotten up on the wrong side of the bed”? It’s a saying used when someone seems to be in a bad mood. I know some people — maybe you do, too — whose first priority in life should be to re-arrange their bedroom furniture. What else could explain the fact that they permanently seem to have gotten up on the wrong side of the bed?

They go through each day cranky and cantankerous, spreading doom and gloom. These are the folks that always know what new natural disaster has just struck, what local businesses are about to be closed, whose marriages aren’t doing well. They have a black cloud following them around.

The book of Revelation is often perceived as sharing that same sort of bleak perspective, a wrong-side-of-the-bed vision foretelling pestilence, punishment, famine, death and destruction. But the Revelation of Jesus to John is not a narrowed down version of despair or a nerve-racking vision of wrath. Instead, we are often given heavenly glimpses of glory. What might it be like to enlist in God's reign and exist in God's peace?

The divisiveness of nationality, the prejudices of differences, are forgotten as all peoples come together to praise God. There is one congregation, one church, and it joins all its separate voices together in harmony glorifying God. John saw this as the church of the future. John also saw this as an example for bringing the church to life in our own time.

Instead of being just another organization lobbying for what it deems important, the church is challenged by this vision in Revelation  to  itself  become  a foretaste of paradise, a promise of something which is to come in its fullness later.

As Spirit-empowered people we are each called to act as symbols of the ultimate triumph we know Christ's salvation has in store for all creation. On the day of  salvation,  as  the  Revelation text proclaims, all believers will loudly praise God's "blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might" (7:12).

Are you a foretaste of heaven? Does your life attest to the presence of these divine gifts to the world? When others listen to you speak, watch you work, see your home, do they experience that encounter as a symbol of Christ's victory, of God's redeeming love for the world. Our church is called to be a foretaste of the future, human conduits of the divine light offering others little glimpses of the brilliance and the glory that awaits redeemed creation.

God has shown us his love. Now it is our turn to show that love to others.

The Peace of Christ be with you