Dreaming of a New Earth, with No Sea

Every year, when Christmas is over, someone in my family will, without fail, say “I don’t like the way the Christmas tree looks without presents.” And when we pack away the trees and the lights and the decorations, every year, I pass room by room and wake up to how empty it all seems “back to normal.”

The Christian year spends a full 4 Sundays leading up to Christmas, preparing for his birth. And many churches are adamant about not singing Christmas carols until Christmas, so we sing songs of longing (often in minor keys), “O Come, O Come, Emmauel,” “Prepare the Way, O Zion,” Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus”…and others we know less well. When we finally get to Christmas, the church celebrates 12 days from December 25th to January 5th – those are the 12 days we are supposed to sing Christmas carols, at most 2 Sundays. Then, January 6th is Epiphany, when we celebrate the arrival of the wise men to worship Jesus. And the following Sunday, the lullabies are over, it is Baptism of the Lord Sunday. Jesus is ready to begin his ministry – the greens get boxed and the manger and baby put into storage until next year. I always experience it as a bit of a jolt awake. Time to return to adulthood, reality. School starts back, the disruption in work schedule of the double holiday of Christmas and then New Years is past. No more lazy days together as a family. It’s time for the Christmas bills to come rolling in, for New Year’s Resolutions to be broken, for long-awaited, must-have toys to sit untouched, for our answer to “How are you?” to return to “Busy.”

The hopes and fears year after year seem the same. The writer of Ecclesiastes knew these rhythms of life. Vanity of vanities! All is vanity. The Hebrew word translated vanity is “hevel” and it is the word for vapor. Like your breath on a cold morning, you can see it, but you cannot capture it and as quickly as it appears, it is gone. Ecclesiastes is not a book of optimism. The message? Life is short. Eat, drink, and enjoy what you do for work. Understand there are good times and hard times…that’s life.

For God, though, the writer of Ecclesiastes writes, it is different. Whatever God does endures forever, and while there is wickedness now where there should be justice and where there should be righteousness, God will judge the righteous and the wicked at the proper time, when God creates a new heaven and a new earth.

God spoke through the prophet Isaiah, “I will create a new heaven and a new earth; and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind. I will take delight in my people;
the sound of weeping and of crying will be heard in it no more. They will not labor in vain. Before they call, I will answer. The wolf and the lamb will feed together. They will neither harm nor destroy.” All of life will be one continual act of worship.

It is this time that John saw as he sat in exile on the island of Patmos and recorded as what we now know as the Book of Revelation. This time will come, when God’s vision will be fulfilled in a new heaven and a new earth. These words are trustworthy and true, “It is done,” says the one seated on the throne, “I am Alpha and Omega, beginning and end, origin of all and completion of all.”

The time will come when the old ways will pass away, when the sea will be no more. Remember back to the beginning, the second verse of Genesis Chapter 1, when the earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep; and the Spirit of God was moving over the face of the waters? The first day, God called forth light. The second day, God divided the water from the sky. The third day, God gathered the waters together and allowed dry land to appear.

So, God passes over the sea, God contains the sea, and finally there will be no more sea. The seas are dark and deep, turbulent and unpredictable; in ancient times the sea represented chaos, danger, evil, division, and the unknown. And the one seated on the throne declares “It is done.” You see, we live in the midst – between God passing over the sea and there being no more sea. We experience the sea – there is dry land, for sure – but there is also still sea in our lives.

I read a poem by Claire Smith, of Guyana, her dream for the world. Guyana is one of the poorest countries in South America, over a third of the population lives in poverty with inadequate healthcare and education. And yet, Claire dreams. These are her words:
I dream
Of a loving world
Where we see each other
With God’s eyes:
I dream of a resourceful world
Where we cherish the unique gift
Of each other;
I dream
Of a hopeful world
Where we recognize the power
of God’s grace
To transform and make new;
I dream of peace.

-Smith, Claire. “A Peace Dream.” Timeless Prayers for Peace: Voices Together from Around the World. Compiled by Geoffrey Duncan. 2003.

The prophets spoke God’s vision, John sees God’s vision. At Christmas, we are invited to dream God’s vision as well. And then wake up, and live the dream. For certain, the sea is still present, but we stand on dry land, revealed on the third day of Creation. For certain, turbulence and violence and rage are still present, but we hold the Prince of Peace, swaddled and placed in our arms. For certain, divisions and uncertainty continue, but we are now drawn together as the Body of Christ, to live together as one, with no seas of separation.

And yet, we live in alienation. We argue. We fight. We label. We divide. We live without purpose and worry that our life is no more than vapor, eating and drinking and working. Too often we feel as empty inside when Christmas is over as our house looks when the decorations are put away.

Dream. Dream of a new earth, with no sea, and wake up to see the world and the people around you through God’s eyes.