BACKGROUND - In one of the episodes from the Back to the Future trilogy starring Michael J. Fox, Biff-the film’s bully-steals a copy of an old sports almanac and somehow manages to bring it with him into the future. Achieving a 100% accuracy of all sporting events that he bets on-with, of course his cheat sheet-he immediately becomes independently wealthy overnight. However, not without character change. Biff has become a self-serving, spoiled, it’s all-about-me bad guy. What the future looks like according to Biff is probably as close to Babylon as one could get! It is a wasted, dark, oppressive world where drugs, lies, and deceit have made him the overlord of darkness. Every so often enough of us muck up the present world sufficiently enough to truly need a New Jerusalem.

NEW HEAVENS AND EARTH - John sees a new heaven and earth replacing the ones that have vanished. The holy city-the new Jerusalem-descends out of heaven; earlier (chapter 18) we are introduced to another great city, Babylon which becomes a curse on humankind. Babylon and Jerusalem are subtly juxtaposed and contrasted; the New Jerusalem will be God-present neighborhood and thus, a blessing to all those who dwell there.

List the "old things" that hold you in bondage to your past-the hidden addiction that fills your heart with fear, the destructive habit that brings death to your hopes and dreams, the unhealed memories that cause you sorrow, the damaged emotions that inflict pain on you spirit. Then, at each point, read and affirm Revelation 21:3. When you sense in your spirit the reality of God’s loving presence with y0ou, hear God say, l ‘I am making all things new!’ [1]

Should the preacher wish to work with this text as the main passage of the worship service, they may want to focus on the contrast between Babylon and New Jerusalem; or the focus could be on the qualities and characteristics of the "the city that God built."

Whoever lives in this New Jerusalem, they are all called God’s "peoples" (in the Greek text, people is in the plural form). Luke’s inclusiveness comes to mind here-"every tribe and language and people and nation." That’s a pretty broad description of potential candidates for God’s New Jerusalem.

Notice what is missing from the New Jerusalem: tears, death, mourning, crying, pain, first things. No place in God’s city for mortuaries or cemeteries, and no need for Kleenex, therapists, or IRS forms. Even the "first things" are replaced by "new things."

The final command from the enthroned one: "Write this, for these words are trustworthy and true." Is this a reference to the promise to make all things new? Perhaps, but it may also extend further back to include God’s promise to dwell with people.

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[1] The Spiritual Formation Bible (Zondervan 1999), page 1653.