So there I was in a coffee shop in Muskegon.  I had an appointment at 9.30 and another one in Muskegon the same day at 3.00.  So I thought rather than come back here for a few hours and go again I’d take the laptop, hang out in coffee shops all day and write my All Saints’ Day sermon.  So I started in Starbucks.  Now maybe I was on some caffeine-fuelled trip, but as I thought about All Saints Day, sitting in Starbucks it occurred to me that if you break up the name Starbucks you get St Arbucks.  And I thought, “mmm … All Saints Day … St Arbucks … maybe there’s a witty sermon opener here.  St Arbuck, the patron saint of insomnia.  Born on a coffee plantation in Brazil, he devoted his life to charging three and a half dollars for a few beans that cost a couple of cents to grow.  Also known as St Bigbucks.”  Then I thought – maybe I should try decaf.  So, I went over to the Barnes and Noble café and had a nice cup of tea and felt much better.  And with a renewed sense of sanity I went back to writing.

Now the reading I want to focus on this morning is that one from Revelation.  And I think it’s a very good reading for All Saints’ Day.  St John, the author, is coming to the end of his extraordinary vision of eternity that forms the main part of the last book in the Bible.  It’s been a thrilling ride through some of the most, to our minds, bizarre and mysterious pieces of writing in ancient literature.  He’s described horrifying suffering, chilling warnings, and the most intense conflict between God and evil spiritual forces.  Yet it’s all been done within a framework of God’s ultimate victory over those things that have enslaved and destroyed humanity since the beginning of time.  And now, here, just a few sentences from the end of the most complicated book in the Bible, John starts building to a climax.  And like a gifted composer he begins to gather his themes and his musicians for a finale that will not just end his book, but put the seal on the entire Bible. 

And it is, after all the blood-curdling material of the precious 20 chapters, a rousing, inspiring description of the victory of God and the resurrection of his people to a place of perfect joy and unity with our creator.  Who here can read those verses we read and not feel just a glimmer of joy, especially on this day on which we celebrate the lives of those faithful, dear ones who have preceded us in death.  I challenge each of you try to be gloomy as I read this – you won’t be able to keep it up for long.  “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the old heaven and the old earth had disappeared.  And the sea was gone.  And I saw the Holy City, the New Jerusalem, coming down from God, as a bride dressed beautifully for her husband.  I heard a loud shout from the throne saying, ‘Look.  God’s home is now among his people.  He will live with them, and they will be his people.  He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain.  All these things are gone forever.  Look.  I am making everything new.  It is finished. I am the alpha and the Omega – the beginning and the end.  To all who are thirsty I will freely give from the spring of the water of life.  And all who are victorious will inherit these blessings, and I will be their God and they will be my people.”  Let those words encourage you this morning as we recall those who have died in the faith of Christ, and also as we seek inspiration for our own lives.

Like most of Scripture I think that the worst thing I can do now is talk about.  Any sermon is downhill from here.  Maybe I should just sit down and let the passage speak for itself.  But I’m not going to, so bad luck. 

I want to point out one or two things.  Like the fact that what God will do, according to this prophesy of the future, is make a new world.  The kingdom that awaits us and awaits those dear ones we celebrate today, is not just a do-over of the old world.  This is something beyond our experience, although we were actually made for it.  It’s a world in which the pains and trials of this life will be forgotten, a world in which it will be impossible to imagine suffering.  It will be impossible to disbelieve – in fact we won’t need faith in God because God will be physically present with us.  We will see him face to face and won’t have to struggle with doubts.  Verse 4 promises no more tears, mourning, crying, or pain. This means perfect, uninterrupted happiness and peace.

Sometimes people say, well what will we do in heaven?  It’s good that there’ll be nothing bad there, but will we not get bored?  Well, no.  God will be visibly and personally in our midst, there will be absolutely no possibility of unhappiness.  Right now, an eternal church service does not really inspire a sense of joy and excitement in us.  But that’s because we can’t imagine actually being in the presence of God.  I don’t think there’ll be any boredom in that place. The emphasis of these verses is that it is God’s visible and personal presence that gives this perfect happiness and blessing and not simply the removal of the sources of our problems.

The Bible actually gives us very few descriptions of heaven.  Just signposts, really rather than actual map or diagrams.  The Roman Catholic Bishop Fulton Sheen was once due to speak at a town hall in his diocese.  And he stopped to ask some boys for directions. They told him where the Town Hall was and then asked, "Why do you want to go there?"
"I’m giving a lecture on heaven and how to get there. Would you like to come and find out?"
"You’re kidding," one boy said. "You don’t even know the way to the Town Hall."

Later on in Chapter 21 of Revelation there is an amazing poetic description of heaven.  Streets of Gold, gates of pearl, walls of jasper, the walls are 1400 miles long and wide, and the same height – which means it would take over 50 Sear’s Towers to reach the ceiling.  But this, of course, is poetry, describing what is indescribable in a literal sense.   It’s the same way with some of the numbers in the Bible. Often we aren’t meant to take them literally.  Those dimensions are just pictures of how perfectly magnificent and holy and beautiful and complete heaven is.  For example when Jesus says that we are to forgive our enemies 70 times seven.  He doesn’t literally mean that we should forgive someone 490 times.  You know we’re keeping score here – someone has done you wrong 488 times and you think, “I’ve forgiven him every time, but I’ve only got two more to go.  Then I Jesus says I don’t have to forgive anymore”.  No, 70 times 7 is a symbolic number for infinity. 

One surprising little detail to our eyes is that John’ says there will be no sea.   Why is that?  Well partly it’s because to Middle Eastern people in Bible times the sea was a thing to be feared.   The Hebrews were poor sailors and so the sea with its immense power, its hidden dangers and deadly creatures was a symbol of human powerlessness and mortality.  There is no sea in heaven.  And I think when God inspired John with this extraordinary vision it is quite deliberate that there was no sea.  There’s nothing in heaven to cause us fear.  Fear has been done away with.  There is also no sea because there’s no need for one.  The only body of water is the river of life flowing through the city of heaven, which is there for our refreshment.  So sorry, fellas, that probably means there’s no fishing in heaven.

Another interesting detail is that heaven is described as a city.  The New Jerusalem.  What happened to Eden?  Well, the human story is one that starts in a garden, and finishes in a city. 

Maybe we might ask, “Will we miss the good things of this earth?”  Will we miss love, beauty, laughter, relationships, joy?  No we won’t miss those things because they will be there – only they will be even more so than they are now, free from the limits that they experience now in this decaying and fallen world.  A little girl was taking an evening walk with her father. Wonderingly, she looked up at the stars and exclaimed; "Oh, Daddy, if the wrong side of heaven is so beautiful, what must the right side be like!" 

And this city has been prepared.  Now the city is the Christian Church.  And it has been prepared for heaven by its sufferings and faith.  In other words, right now on Sunday November 1 2009, you and I are being prepared for heaven.  Those faithful departed ones we celebrate today got themselves ready for heaven.  They lived as if each day could be the day when they were going to depart this life.  And they readied themselves. 

Charles Fuller was a pastor in California in the first half of the last century.  One Sunday he announced that he would be speaking the following week on the subject of "Heaven". During that week he received a letter from an old man who was very ill. He wrote:

"Next Sunday you are to talk about Heaven. I am interested in that land, because I have held a clear title to a bit of property there for over fifty-five years. I did not buy it. It was given to me without money and without price. But the Donor purchased it for me at tremendous sacrifice. I am not holding it for speculation since the title is not transferable.

"For more than half a century I have been sending materials out of which the greatest Architect and Builder of the Universe has been building a home for me which will never need to be remodeled nor repaired because it will suit me perfectly, individually, and will never grow old.

"Termites can never undermine its foundations for they rest on the Rock of Ages. Fire cannot destroy it. Floods cannot wash it away. No locks or bolts will ever be placed upon its doors, for no vicious person can ever enter that land where my dwelling stands, now almost completed and almost ready for me to enter in and abide in peace eternally, without fear of being ejected.

"There is a valley of deep shadow between the place where I live in California and that to which I shall journey in a very short time. I cannot reach my home in that City of Gold without passing through this dark valley of shadows. But I am not afraid because the best Friend I ever had went through the same valley long, long ago and drove away all its gloom. He has stuck by me through thick and thin, since we first became acquainted fifty-five years ago, and I hold His promise in printed form, never to forsake me or leave me alone. He will be with me as I walk through the valley of shadows, and I shall not lose my way when He is with me.

"I hope to hear your sermon on Heaven next Sunday from my home in Los Angeles, California, but I have no assurance that I shall be able to do so. My ticket to Heaven has no date marked for the journey—no return coupon—and no permit for baggage. Yes, I am all ready to go and I may not be here while you are talking next Sunday evening, but I shall meet you there some day."

The point is that each Christian for 2000 years has been building their home.  Those departed saints we celebrate today spent their years on this earth constructing their eternal dwelling.  Day be day as they lived for Christ they sent him the materials.  An act of kindness – send God a brick, an act of giving or service – send God a stone, a word of encouragement, a word of witness for Christ – send God some roof tile.  And each day we too are building homes that we will one day inhabit forever.  What are we sending God for that eternal construction – bricks, stones, tile, cement, even marble and gold?  Or are we sending God some other materials – straw, wood, paper?  Is the home we’re building stable and sturdy, a thing of beauty and a joy forever, or is it a bit rickety? 

So friends let us celebrate the love of God and the communion we have with those Christians who have gone before us through death.  And let’s like them, get ready for heaven with lives that are lived in fellowship with Christ.