New Heavens & A New Earth: Some Beautiful Nonsense

The Rev. Brad Sullivan
Lord of the Streets, Houston
April 20, 2025
Easter Sunday, C
Isaiah 65:17-25
Psalm 118:1-2, 14-24
Luke 24:1-12

“I am about to create new heavens and a new earth,” God said in Isaiah 65. “Be glad and rejoice forever.” Jesus was raised from the dead, and we saw something of this new heavens and new earth. Life that is not ended in death. Death that has lost its terror because death has become a gateway from life to life. Such is the new heavens and the new earth that God promises and gives us a glimpse of on Easter, with Jesus’ resurrection.

To some, it may sound like nonsense. Sometimes even to me it sounds like nonsense, except that God creating something new is the story throughout scripture, a story of hope. New heavens and a new earth sounds like hope, hope rooted in God’s creative love for us and for all that God has made. “Behold,” Jesus says in Revelation 21:5, “Behold, I am making all things new.” 

So, the new heavens and the new earth are what God has in mind for humanity, which sounds amazing. The idea of a new heavens and a new earth is captivating for humanity, so much so that we have countless sci-fi films about living on other planets and what the mysteries of the galaxies may hold. We’ve been to the moon, sent a probe out beyond our solar system, and we’ve had robots land on Mars so we can explore the mysteries of our neighboring planet. 

Now, we even have talk of people colonizing Mars. There are ideas of setting up bases where people can live, and there are even ideas of eventually terraforming the planet to make it habitable for people. Those are the dreams of some of humanity, that our new heavens and new earth will be the red planet. Ok, on the one hand, that sounds really, really cool: making a whole new planet where people can live and getting to travel there on a spaceship. That’s like all of the coolest sci-fi movies. 

On the other hand, however, colonizing Mars as a new planet for humanity to live on, sounds like nonsense to me, not because it’s not possible. I’m sure it’s possible to colonize a dead planet and make it habitable for humans. I mean, we live in Houston where we have about one and three-quarters seasons throughout the year, so I figure we can make just about any place habitable. 

The idea of making Mars a new earth for humanity sounds like nonsense to me because we’re already wrecking the earth we’ve got. The idea that after the Earth is wrecked, humanity will have another place to go, a new paradise for humanity that we’ve created on Mars, nonsense. That truly does sound like science fiction. Colonizing Mars is nonsense because of the almost certain reality that the only people who would get to go to this new earth, this new paradise, are the extremely rich and those with skills necessary for them to survive. 

That’s how things tend to work on this earth already. The extremely wealthy have more than they need for many lifetimes, while in the same economy, others work hard, remain in poverty, and become homeless. So, humanity’s idea of a new heaven and new earth is probably gonna follow the same pattern.

God making a new heaven and a new earth, however, means God is making something truly different. Some rabbis understood this new heaven and new earth to mean that God was bringing about a new social and world order: new rulers in the heavens, new rulers on earth, rulers who would follow in the ways of justice, mercy, and love. 

We seem to have had a taste of that in the early church, a new order with new leaders. The first apostles in the church, the first people Jesus appeared to after his resurrection, were women. “Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the other women with them” were the first apostles in the church, and they went to the male disciples of Jesus and told them that Jesus had been raised from the dead. A new way, with women as the first apostles and the men becoming apostles too, although, when the men heard what the Mary and apostles had to say, their “words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them.” 

Now, that part sounds less like new heavens and a new earth and more just like the status quo, but things were different for a while. There were early churches that were led by women, and in the earliest days of the church, we did see people living together in harmony, caring for one another, not seeing the privileged as blessed and the poor as burdens. For a while, there was something new in the church. It didn’t last, but it was a taste, a taste of things to come. 

Jesus rose from the grave as a promise to us all that life does not end in death, but there is new life after death. There is something new, something beautiful, something truly to hope for, and not just for the rich and powerful among humanity. God’s new heavens and new earth are something truly new, truly different, where justice, mercy, and love truly are the ways we live. That new heavens and new earth of justice, mercy, and love, that is the resurrection life that Jesus promised us when he was raised from the tomb. 

God became human as Jesus of Nazareth. He preached justice, mercy, and love. He healed people and lived justice, mercy, and love. Because of that humanity decided we needed to kill him, and as we did, Jesus said, “Father, forgive them.” When God became human, we killed him, and God said, “I forgive you,” and I am going to show you the beginning of a new heavens and a new earth.

I realize that like colonizing Mars, that may sound like nonsense, because it’s hard to wrap our minds around, but a friend of mine named Carrie wrote, “even if you will never be able to wrap your mind around the Resurrection, Easter is the promise that impossibly good things can happen after (and even in the midst of) terribly bad things. Terribly bad things are happening…right now, everywhere. We do nonsensical things like dye chicken eggs that somehow are associated with a rabbit. None of these things make sense, but neither does Easter. The world is completely upside down right now. [We] could use the promise of some nonsense that maybe, every valley will be exalted and every mountain and hill made low,” that there will be new heavens and a new earth, a new life that will never end, a life of justice, mercy, and love.  

"To White Shores, and Beyond, a Far Green Country Under a Swift Sunrise"

The Rev. Brad Sullivan
Emmanuel Episcopal Church
October 31, 2021
All Saints’, B

John 11:32-44

White shores, and beyond, a far green country under a swift sunrise.

“Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”

I’ll venture to guess that all of us have felt this way at some point. If you had been here. Where were you? Where are you? 

Lord, if you had been here, cancer would not have killed my loved ones.

If you had been here our city wouldn’t have flooded, children wouldn’t starve, people wouldn’t work three jobs and be in poverty. 

If you had been here, we wouldn’t have people who are feared, harassed, and killed because of the color of their skin.

Lord, if you had been here, COVID wouldn’t have ravaged our world.

Where are you, Lord? Where were you? 

As much as we wish death would not separate us from our loved ones, especially when they are young or the death is brought about by violence, death continues to happen even when God is walking on earth among us. We may wish or sometimes think that because we believe in Jesus, death won’t come for us or our loved ones until we are old and prepared for it, having lived a full life. The truth that we know, however, is that death comes to all of us just as randomly and as certainly as it does for everyone. No right formula of prayer, belief, or ritual is going to stop that. We who believe in Jesus can’t stave off death any more than anyone else can. 

Jesus didn’t come to stop death from happening. Death is supposed to happen. Without death, there is no new life. We know this in nature in the way biology works, in the way the earth works. Things die and return to the earth, and when they do, new life happens. New trees are nourished as old trees die and give nutrients to the soil. The same is true for animals, even for humans. Death brings new life, and a new kind of life.

When we die, we become new life. We are changed, not ended, alive with God.  See,
Jesus didn’t come here to keep us from dying. Jesus came here to keep us living.

Now death can take many forms. Physical, mental, emotional, relational. How often are we and other alive in our bodies, but suffering death in many other ways. These deaths too are going to happen in our lives, that’s the nature of life. Jesus didn’t come here to stop these deaths from happening. Jesus came here to keep us living amidst all of these deaths.

Thinking of these non-physical deaths, I imagine a man who was cheated by a business partner, whose dream company is no longer his, but his former partner’s. He’s angry, as well he should be. Losing his business, his ideas, his dreams, that was a death for this man. I can imagine this man thirty years later still resentful, bitter, and angry. Broken, basically, having never really recovered from the betrayal and loss, he is mostly alone, not trusting, barely loving. His life really ended with that betrayal, and though he’s physically alive, he’s mostly dead inside. 

“Unbind him, and let him go,” Jesus said. I can imagine this man taking a different path than continued resentment, bitterness, and anger. I can imagine this man releasing his past, releasing his hurt, and letting new life take place within him after that death. Thirty years later, I can imagine this man with a great life, a life different than what it would have been, but a life in which he loves and is loved, where he trusts, where he is fully alive, living life abundantly. Part of him died and went into the tomb, but he let it go. He was unbound by that death so that he could continue living.

Now, when death happens for us, all kinds of death, including the physical death of our loved ones, part of us dies too. Part of us goes into the tomb with Lazarus’ body. His body, after four days in the tomb, was decomposing, rotting. There was the stench of death and decay, and the same is true for us when parts of us die and we lie in the tomb. We’re sad, maybe lost, sometimes resentful and angry. “Lord if you had been here, cancer would not have killed my loved ones; our city wouldn’t have flooded; children wouldn’t starve; people wouldn’t work three jobs and be in poverty; folks wouldn’t be afraid, harassed, and killed because of the color of their skin; and COVID wouldn’t have ravaged our world.

When these deaths happen, we get to think and feel this way. We get to be sad and lost, resentful and angry. Even through that fourth day in the tomb when the stench of rotting flesh is upon us, we get to be sad and lost, resentful and angry. Such is the nature of death, but we aren’t meant to stay there forever. “Unbind him, and let him go,” Jesus said.

Come out of the tomb, for there is new life after death.

That’s true for the many non-physical deaths which take place throughout our lives, and it is also true with physical death. Jesus didn’t come here to keep us from dying. Jesus came here to keep us living.

So too with physical death, we hear Jesus’ words, “Unbind them, and let them go.” Physical death is not the end, for we continue living on in a way we don’t fully understand. More than physical life, we continue on with life in God. All of us together, unbound by death, the communion of saints, fully alive, even though our bodies have died. 

All of our loved ones. All of the saints in our lives. All of the saints in the church. Past. Present. Yet to come. We are all unbound from death and brought into full life with Christ in God. That is the communion of saints, for death is not the end. As the wizard, Gandalf said in the the movie “The Return of the King,” “Death is just another path, one that we all must take. The grey rain-curtain of this world rolls back, and all turns to silver glass, and then you see it. White shores, and beyond, a far green country under a swift sunrise.”

With the deaths in our lives, we often say, as Mary said, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” Yes he would have. Now “unbind him and let him go.” For Jesus did not come to keep us from dying. Jesus came to keep us living, living fully with God throughout this life and even after this life has ended, gathered together in God with all of our saints and loved ones, gathered to white shores, and beyond, a far green country under a swift sunrise.

We’ll never be transformed if we aren’t willing to walk into the tomb.

Brad Sullivan

5 Lent, Year A

April 2, 2017

Emmanuel, Houston

John 11:1-45

We’ll never be transformed if we aren’t willing to walk into the tomb.

Thinking about the raising of Lazarus from the dead got me thinking about death and the fear of death, and that got me thinking about Star Wars.  To be fair, most things do, but fear of death is a recurring theme in the Star Wars saga.  In Star Wars there is something called “the Force,” an almost divine-like force that some people can tap into and use to perform great feats and do great good.  There are others who can tap into the force, but use it selfishly.  The way they use the Force is called The Dark Side, and through The Dark Side, they bring about great evil.  The tragic hero of Star Wars, Anakin, is one of these good force users, but he is particularly afraid of death and the death of those he loves.  So when he receives a vision of his wife dying, he is terrified, and he seeks the advice of the wise, old Master Yoda. 

Anakin explains this vision of death, and Yoda says, "Careful you must be when sensing the future, Anakin! The fear of loss is a path to the Dark Side."

"I won't let my visions come true, Master Yoda," Anakin replies.

Yoda says, "Rejoice for those around us who transform into the Force. Mourn them, do not. Miss them, do not. Attachment leads to jealousy, the shadow of greed, that is."

"What must I do, Master Yoda?"  Anakin asks.

"Train yourself to let go of everything you fear to lose."

Sadly, Anakin didn’t really take Yoda’s advice and through his fear of death and loss, he ended up acquiring great power through The Dark Side and became an embodiment of evil, the infamous Darth Vader.  Anakin was unwilling to face the tomb, for his life and the life of those he loved, and so he became and brought about the very thing he feared.  

Now most of us aren’t going to become an embodiment of evil because of our fears, and yet Yoda’s advice still applies to us.  “Train yourself to let go of everything you fear to lose.”  Jesus said something similar in his teachings about not worrying and about losing our lives.  Don’t worry about what you will eat or what you will wear, Jesus taught.  “Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today’s trouble is enough for today.” (Matthew 6:34)  Worrying, he taught, won’t change anything or help you in any way, but it will make you afraid and miserable.  Closely tied to not worrying was Jesus’ teaching about our lives.  He taught us to let go of that which we fear to lose.  “For those who want to save their life will lose it,” Jesus said,  “and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it.”

How much of our time is spent, like Anakin, “sensing the future”, worrying about some possible future catastrophe?  How much of our resources are spent trying to stave off death?  We fear, we worry, and we take actions that are guided by our fear and our worry of death and loss, and those actions usually bring about greater death and loss. 

Jesus would prefer that we let go of that which we fear to lose and trust instead in him.  That’s what he showed us in his raising of Lazarus from the dead.  When Lazarus was deathly ill, Mary and Martha sent for Jesus, and Jesus apparently had every intention of healing Lazarus, but only after he died first, right?  Jesus waited around and let Lazarus die before he healed him, and he did so for two reasons:  one so that people could see that he, that God, has power even over death, and two because it was very important to Jesus that people believe in him.

Jesus waited around till Lazarus was good and dead before deciding to go to see him in Bethany “so that [he], the Son of God [would] be glorified through [Lazarus’ death and being raised from the dead].”  See, just before this story, Jesus had been in Jerusalem and had given sight to a man who was born blind, a miracle so great that no one had ever heard of anything like that ever happening before.  Many who did not see Jesus actually perform this miracle, however, did not believe that Jesus had done this, and later, many of them even tried to kill Jesus for claiming to be God’s son. 

So, Jesus left Jerusalem, went away across the Jordan River and then received word that Lazarus was sick.  When he arrived in Bethany which was very close to Jerusalem, with Lazarus already dead, many Jews from Jerusalem were there mourning with Martha and Mary.  Ok so, we don’t know if these were the same people who tried to kill Jesus, but they were from the same place where those doubts and death threats had come.  In fact, Jesus’ disciples were afraid of going so near to Jerusalem, believing that they were going to be killed, since last time they were there, people tried to kill Jesus. 

So, Jesus returned to Bethany to show people from Jerusalem not only a healing, but to show them that he had power to raise the dead back to life.  Jesus wanted these people to believe in him.  It was important enough to Jesus that people believe in him, in fact, that he waited for Lazarus to die and risked being killed in order to show that he truly was God’s son, and those who saw believed.

So why was it so important to Jesus that people believe in him, that he would risk so much?  Because Jesus wanted to heal them too, and believing in him was the healing they needed.  They needed to believe in him who is the light and life of all creation.  They needed to believe in his power over death.  They needed to believe that his teachings were true, that they could let go of that which they feared to lose, and trust in him.  Jesus wanted them and us to believe in him because Jesus knows what our worries and fears bring us when we follow after the ways of our worries and fears. 

Ultimately, our worries and fears bring us to The Dark Side, to Darth Vader.  Consider when we don’t trust in Jesus and don’t follow in his teachings.  Times when we have been hurt and we don’t let go of that hurt, we don’t forgive, and we cause greater strife.  Times when because of our hurt and our perceived righteousness, we retaliate and cause further harm.  Consider how much suffering is caused by our epic battle with death.  How many are killed in order to protect the lives of others.  Consider the suffering caused by our battle with all kinds of death:  physical, emotional, relational, death of goals, dreams, etc.  How often do we try to stave off and prevent death at all cost, rather than accepting death and trusting our lives and our deaths with Jesus?

Trusting in Jesus, believing in him, means letting go of that which we fear to lose.  Trusting in Jesus means being willing to face the tomb, trusting in resurrection, in Jesus’ power over death.  That’s a lot of trust because even trusting in resurrection, we don’t know what’s going to happen.  Trusting in Jesus, we need to let go of that which we fear to lose and accept death in order to be transformed. 

A couple I know and gave some counseling to was limping along with their marriage basically on life support.  Their marriage was dead, but neither was willing to face that truth.  Finally, one did, but rather than simply say, “ok, let’s get divorced,” this person said plainly what their marriage had become and did raise divorce as a possibility.  That was a bit of a shock to the other.  So, together they began facing the tomb in which their marriage had gone.  They looked at what was causing the death of their marriage.  They looked at what they each of them were afraid to lose, what each of them had to place into the tomb in order for their marriage to survive.  They worked together, and they both allowed some things to die.  Some of their dreams of what they wanted their lives to be died.  Some of their visions of what they thought marriage should be died.  Through those deaths, they found new life.  Through their willingness to enter the tomb, their marriage was transformed.  They found new life, resurrection, by letting go of that which they feared to lose and entering the tomb.

See, what Jesus ultimately wants for us is transformation.  That is why it is so important to him that we listen to him and believe in him.  Jesus wants us to be transformed into light and life, and we’ll never be transformed if we aren’t willing to let go of that which we fear to lose and walk into the tomb.  If we trust in Jesus and believe in him, then we can accept and face our deaths.  We can enter the tomb and be transformed.