The Great Naked Flying Babies Debate

Is heaven there and then?

The streets of gold.  
The crystal sea.  
Togas. 
Endless singing.
And naked flying babies.  

Is this what heaven will be?

In the Scripture there are many images, pictures, and symbolism used to describe heaven. The most prevalent image is that of a city. A kingdom. A community where everything is as it should be. It is a place where the words "Your kingdom come, Your will be done," are not just a prayer but reality.  

When we think, talk, and dream about heaven, we probably most often are thinking about the then and there. Our ticket to somewhere when we die. Jesus seems way more preoccupied with the here and now. With our words and actions, with our relationships and our work. With how we treat each other and all the things we have been given.  

Throughout both testaments there are persistent rumors that, at some point, God will have his way with the cosmos. Patriarchs and prophets constantly call out and search out heaven. The wanderers are looking for a home, finding none to suit them fully. The prophets call out the kingdom of God...telling God's people they are not God's people, telling God's city that it is not God's city. But God insists that someway, someday, He will have His way. He will get the city and the people and the world He has been dreaming of since before there was a world.  

At the end of the story, in a wild ride of a book, John relates his visions of the end (or the end of the beginning). In the book of Revelation, God has His way, with everything. The city of God is described in rich detail, and Jesus is making everything new. Then there's this interesting, profound detail that we will dive into a little more on Wednesday:

Revelation 21

23 And the city has no need of the sun or of the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God has illumined it, and its lamp is the Lamb. 24 The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it. 25 In the daytime (for there will be no night there) its gates will never be closed; 26 and they will bring the glory and the honor of the nations into it;

  
There is more to heaven than naked flying babies. Apparently the glory and the honor of the nations aren't just swallowed up by the fires of God's judgment? Apparently the stuff of the here and now matters a lot more than I used to think.  

Does the glory and honor of Siouxland, of Bangor, of whatever land you come from come into the kingdom of God someday? What does that mean for the here and now?

If you want to check out the message from yesterday centering on this (and many other) passages, you can do that here.