Revelations 21:1-6
September 30, 2001
Sermon preached by Rev. Donald Ng at the First Chinese Baptist Church of San Francisco.
Last Tuesday Joy and I along with a group of church friends found ourselves in the middle of the Pacific Ocean ready to lose our breakfast because of the rough seas and choppy water. All day the strong winds and spitting rain hit against our Ocean Princess.
The sea. It is an image of chaos, of life threatening abyss in a watery grave. On Tuesday night, we looked out from our stateroom deck and all we saw was darkness, clouds, and mist. The foghorn was blowing its signal to warn away any other ships in its path. We wonder if an iceberg was nearby.
The Sea of Destruction
In Scripture, there are rich passages where the sea is a place of watery chaos, death, and destruction. Job says that the sea is constantly pushing at the boundaries that God established for it at creation. God says to the sea, “Thus far shall you come and no farther, and here shall your proud waves be stopped.” (38:8-11).
Isaiah promises a time when God will at last subdue the great, chaotic monsters of the sea (Isaiah 27:1). When the Israelites were able to escape from Egyptian slavery by the parting of the Red Sea, it is viewed as God’s great creative act of pushing back the sea and making the land dry again.
When Jesus walks on the sea (Mk. 6:45-52) or calms the raging sea (Mk. 4:35-41), it is seen as a revelation that the power of God is with him, that he is not victim of the sometimes destructive and chaotic forces of nature. And in Revelation, it says that the beast that arises from the sea, whoever he might be, will be subdued and cast into the lake of fire at the end (19:20).
The sea is a scary place where waves cannot be stopped, chaotic monsters live, and forces of destruction threaten us.
All of these maritime, oceanic images find a common root in the story of creation. Here we see a continuing conflict between the forces of chaos and the forces of order. This dualistic tension appears to be unresolvable and accounts for much of the difficulty and struggle between good and evil in life. But in Genesis, chaos is subdued by God in order that there might be life and order, and creation.
In the beginning, God encounters and creates out of the tohu, that “formless” mass that characterizes the cosmos before divine creativity pushed back the waters and created the dry land. This order by God is called “good.” God, the one in whom “all things hold together” is the one who pushes back the sea and keeps it back.
Floods in Life
But we know that there are times when the sea comes too close for us. And dry land is not to be found.
Before God began creating the world in Genesis, the earth was “without form and void.” In Hebrew, the earth was tohu wabohu. Even if we don’t know any Hebrew, it’s like you know what those strange words mean. Tohu wabohu. It was this dark, bubbling, watery chaos that the creator God spoke the words, “Let there be dry land.” And it was. And God called the dry land, “good.” That which was left after the dark, tohu wobahu was pushed back was deemed “good.”
Thus, creation began when the sea was pushed back. Yet, just a few chapters later in Genesis, the dark waters gush forward. There is the great flood wiping out every living thing from the face of the earth, save those on the ark. Once again there was dry land at last after the flood, and the rainbow with God’s promise never again to let the tohu wabohu get the best of us again.
But somehow, this tohu wabohu seems to come too close for us.
In Pennsylvania where we lived for over twenty years, we were always worried about thunderstorms, hurricanes, and flash flooding. With our house built on yellow clay, water seeks its own level—right into our family room! Our carpet and furniture were ruined. We get out the mops and buckets. The sump pump going on and off. And there was a time when we had to stuff towels in the door threshold to push back the water. There are times when the sea comes too close for us and no dry land is to be found.
The sea is an image of the human experience when we are facing chaos and disorder. Our lives are flooded by life’s difficulties. The tohu wabohu encroaches on our lives and we forget what a rainbow looks like.
A woman described what it felt like to lose her husband in an accident, to be left all alone with a couple of kids to raise, “I feel like as if I am going down for the third time.” It’s an image of drowning.
On Tuesday, a freak and horrible accident happened on the Oakland Bay Bridge when a 2 ½ ton steel panel accidentally came loose crashing down on Anthony Menolascino in his Toyota pick-up and killed him. Sometimes we just don’t know when tohu wabohu will happen!
Smooth Sailing
Twenty days ago, our lives were more or less smooth sailing. I get up in the morning and pick up the Chronicle on my driveway. I read the headlines about a possible BART strike or how we are saving energy. I check the Sporting Green and start thinking about next spring training camp for the Red Sox.
Now everything is changed. We read about America under Attack. America’s New War. America’s Operation Enduring Freedom. With the economy slumping already and the disruption of the stock exchange, the fears we have now about the future have created a spiraling downturn.
We feel like we are going down for the third time. We feel that the floodwaters are rising. We gasp for air as we tread water and it’s our turn for a little taste of the old tohu wabohu. That’s why we started to play football again. That’s why Michael Jordan decided to play basketball again. We want to get out of the tohu wabohu and stand on dry land again.
Last week was Joy and my very first cruise. For only two nights, we were on this fancy, new ocean liner, the Ocean Princess. It was a floating “city on the sea.” When we embarked in Vancouver, it was a warm and sunny day. We stood on the deck and enjoyed sailing under the Lions Gate Bridge framed against clear blue skies.
I was impressed on what was in store for us on the Ocean Princess. Shopping, fitness center, bingo, casino, shows, and food—all the time, 24 hours a day! But even with all these amenities available for us, when this 2270 passenger oceanliner was sailing through the storm, it felt like a tiny boat bobbling up and down, side to side on the hostile sea. Hardly anyone ventured outside on the deck. The waves began to billow and we fought for the chairs with our backs to the watery chaos. Our 77,499 ton boat suddenly was no match for a creation that has become “without form and void.” It’s tohu wabohu.
On this bright September day—beginning of our Indian summer season, all seems relatively smooth. But if you have lived this life for very long, you know that quickly the sky can turn dark, the wind can pick up out of nowhere, and the waves rise. It’s like we live our lives on a thin crust of order and stability. The sea bubbles forth and we began to sink.
New Heaven and a New Earth
Today’s text is from the last book of the Bible, the Revelation. It speaks about the culmination of God’s work in the world, the final leg of the trip, the last stretch of sea before coming on shore. The writer paints a picture of creation brought to completion, God’s work finished. We shall receive a “new heaven and a new earth.” The former earth, place of crying, tears, fears, and heartache, will be passed away. The will of God will be accomplished “on earth as it is in heaven,” as we pray each Sunday.
One way of describing that new earth is, the sea shall be no more. The sea, that dark, primal, watery grave will be drained dry. The land, always threatened by a flood of surging water, will conquer the sea. We who have lived by launching our little boats out into the deep sea will know what it means to be secure.
Look at the very first verse in Genesis. The first words are not, “When God created the heavens and the earth,” as if it was done in the past, finished, completed. It says, “In the beginning.” The story of creation begins in Genesis. And it doesn’t end. God continues to create, continues to push back the dark chaos.
We might think that our economic security and our life-long investments are threatened by the recent lack of confidence in the market. God is saying, creation is still going on. God’s creation is pushing back the dark chaos.
We might think that when our personal lives are threatened by death and suffering. We sense that the tohu wabohu is covering over our lives and we are going down for the third time. Remember that God’s creation is still going on. God is pushing back the dark chaotic sea.
We might think that we can’t even feel safe in our own hometown when we hear a plane flying overhead. When we go to a sporting event with thousands of others around, we are suspicious of people who just look different from us. Or we might think that every significant symbol of our American life might be an object of terrorism. We sense the tohu wabohu. But God in the Revelation is promising that one day, he will finish his creative work. And the sea will be no more.
Clear Sunny Day
This is a good word for us to hear during this time in the history of our country and the world. It’s an Easter message! We think that Easter was a one-time thing that happened only to Jesus and not to us. Think again.
Easter began the final last stretch of the dramatic journey with God as the captain creator and God’s beloved, Christ as his co-pilot. Yet, the cruise is still not over. When Jesus was raised from the dead, God began a final mopping up action on the world. On that sunny Easter morning, God began his work to complete creation.
The church fathers once spoke of Easter as “the eighth day.” It took God six days to begin creating the world. God took one day to rest. The eighth day is when God finally brought his intentions for creation to completion.
It is no fun when the dark, bubbling chaos of death, evil, and pain surge forward in your life threatening to engulf you and all that you love. Yet by the grace of God in Christ, God keeps wrestling the chaos, keeps defeating that tohu wabohu. And one day, according to the promise made by Revelation, the sea shall be no more; all those things that threaten to undo our lives, to overwhelm and engulf, inundate, and submerge us shall be defeated ultimately.
Paul speaks of Christ as the “first fruits.” The risen Christ is the first act of what God plans to do for us, for the whole world. One day, by the grace of God, the sea shall be no more.
On Wednesday morning, we woke up to find blue skies and calm waters. After our Ocean Princess was met by a San Francisco harbor pilot, we sailed smoothly under the Golden Gate Bridge and into Pier 35. The city looked spectacular against the bright sun! We walked off the gangway onto solid ground. The rough seas and choppy water was no more. For me, it was a reminder that by the grace of God, the sea shall be no more.
Believe that, live by that, remember that when you are threatened with the possibility of drowning in such a time as this, know that God keeps wrestling the chaos, keeps defeating the tohu wabohu from your lives.
Nothing, no evil that we or the cosmos can commit, is able to overcome God’s power to redeem.
Nothing that terrorists and other enemies of humanity can commit is able to overcome God’s power to redeem.
Nothing that might happen to us in our little boats sailing through rough seas and choppy water of life is able to overcome God’s power to redeem.
God, in whom all things are held together is the one who pushes back the sea and keeps it back. God promised that the rainbow is with us and chaos shall at last be fully defeated and the sea shall be no more.
Believe this because in Revelation, it says,
“Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first
earth had passed away, and the sea was no more.” (21:1)
Let us pray. Dear God, your promise is to dwell among us, mortals because you want to be our God and we want to be your people. Wipe every tear from our eyes and lead us to believe that mourning, crying, pain, and death will be no more for the first things have passed away and you have made all things new. Amen.