New Creation Love

In this episode, I reflect on the themes of love, transformation, and divine presence, drawing from Revelation 21 and 22. I explore the symbolism of the sea, traditionally seen by the Jewish people as a place of fear and chaos, and its absence in the new creation, representing the removal of suffering and darkness. I emphasise the importance of community and the call to love, inspired by Jesus’ teachings and the power of the Holy Spirit. As we journey through Easter towards Pentecost, I encourage you to intentionally practice love daily, embracing God’s presence and sharing His love with others.

00:00:00 One of the things that I really enjoy doing is just walking along the shoreline, walking along the beach. It’s such a, you know, just a way to calm, to to really connect with the environment and just to, you know, to see the different colors and hues depending on the weather, the force of the waves or the complete absence. And so it kind of comes as a bit of a surprise when we get to the very end of the story of the Bible in Revelation 21 and 22, the final two chapters of the scriptures, when we’re told that there will be this new heavens and the new earth. And then John the Seer kind of just mentions in passing, and there will no longer be any sea. And we’re like, the sea is a lovely thing. Why would you say that? In the new creation, the new heavens and the new earth? The sea is no more. Well, I think for the Jewish people, a bit like me, you know? I like walking along the ocean.

00:01:05 If it’s a warm enough day, I might kind of paddle, waddle into the water and get a little bit wet. But, you know, I’m not a strong swimmer. I’m not someone that, you know, goes swimming very often. And, you know, unlike my friends who are surfers that they, you know, go out and face the elements are much more, you know, content kind of watching things a little bit of a distance. And I think the Jewish people were a bit like that. The sea was a fearful thing. The sea was the place where the sea creatures dwelt, you know, when they had to get onto a boat. And you see this in the writings of Saint Paul, there’s a lot of consternation. Or when you read the prophet Jonah, you know, he is so fearful and overwhelmed by the power of the ocean or indeed the disciples is like, you know, even though they’re fishermen, as they cross the lake in the boat, there is that sense of fear.

00:02:03 Particularly when the storms blow up and when the storms come, you know you don’t want to be out there in the middle of the ocean because it’s just this frightening, fearful place. And that’s where Leviathan, that’s where the dark sea creatures kind of dwell. It’s this place of fear and dread. So I guess perhaps the the author of this, the seer kind of thought, well, of course you’ll get rid of all those places where there is disease and sickness and fear and darkness, because to live in this new creation, surely it’s about this experience of transformation. As he said, there will be no longer any darkness, any tears, any sickness, any death. All of that will have been overcome. All of that will have been conquered. Because in the new creation, the gift of all of that is that God will dwell among us. You know, in the Gospel of Matthew, we have that prophecy about Jesus, that his name will be called Immanuel, the with us God. And then at the end of the Gospel of Matthew, we hear as Jesus commissions the disciples to go into all the nations, to baptize them, to teach them, but above all to make disciples, that he promises them, I will be with you always until the end of time.

00:03:25 That promise that we are part of a community that is in relationship to the with us. God, the God who is wanting to be there in our lives. I will be your God and you will be my people. That was the call that we first hear actually in the book of Leviticus. But we hear it again and again, particularly in Isaiah and Jeremiah, this, this call, this reminder that that’s the God that we are in relationship to, the God who wants us simply to be his, a God who loves us and longs for us to experience his presence and his power. That transforming love. That is at the heart. That’s the the heartbeat of our faith. That call to be in community, to be changed and transformed by his love. So then in turn, we are able to love all those around us. But we need ultimately so many things for that to happen. We need to give to Pentecost first. We need the power of the Holy Spirit to be active within our lives.

00:04:30 Like when Jesus invites us to love in the gospel today, it’s from a moment of darkness. It’s from a moment of despair. They’ve just had the feast of the celebration of the Passover. They’ve passed the different elements, the bread that’s been dipped into the cup. They’ve had the the cup of wine that has been shared and passed around. They’ve remembered the stories of God’s liberating power in the past. They remember that they were once slaves in Egypt, but God, with mighty hand and outstretched arm led them from that place of darkness and slavery into the new light of the Promised Land. But also, we’ve had the moment where it seems that the Satan that the accuser has entered Judas and Judas has decided to betray Jesus, even though he’s one of the in a group, even though he’s been there to hear the teaching of Jesus right from the very beginning. The Judas makes that decision to walk away. And John tells us that as Judas leaves the room that Jesus says, go and do what you have to do.

00:05:35 Do it quickly, that it is night. Of course it is night because it’s darkness. It’s a place where there isn’t that presence of light, and it’s in that moment that Jesus then speaks the words that we hear in the gospel today. This call to love, this call to receive his, his goodness, his grace, his kindness. And it’s in the midst of that darkness. And before they leave the the upper room to go and to face the darkness of the Garden of Gethsemane, and then the events of the passion and the dying of Jesus. All of that is, is the the brackets around which this invitation to love takes place. This call to love reminds us that we can only do it. As I said in The Power of the Holy Spirit and the gift of the New Creation, they’re the two markers that shape the hope of the Christian people. That we never do this alone, that we’re invited to love in those four different ways, to love the Lord our God with all that we are.

00:06:38 The power of the strength, all of our understanding, all of our heart, all of our soul, all of that. To to love the Lord with everything, but also to love ourselves. That we’re invited into that experience of receiving that love. But that love then has to be manifested in two more ways to love our neighbor and to love our, even our enemies. That we can’t do any of those things without the hope of the new creation. We can’t do any of those things without the power of the Holy Spirit being present within us. We won’t receive the gift of the new creation until we’re able to experience that love. That’s the very heartbeat of our lives. And we do it because we worship a God who is not distant, not separate, but who is the with us God. The God who walks with us. The God who knows what it’s like to suffer. The God who knows what it is to be betrayed. The God who has experienced all of the darkness that we have sometimes faced in our own lives.

00:07:40 But the God who walks with us, the God who is even there on the surface of the waters, the God who is longing for us to experience his presence. As we continue our journey through this season of Easter, as we long for the gift of the Holy Spirit that we will receive in a few weeks time at Pentecost. Let that longing, that desire, be at the very heartbeat of our experience. Let it be the thing that drives us and motivates us to receive that love and to share that love. The the Commission. This this call to love isn’t something that just happens in the abstract. We need to focus it, and we need to choose it each day to make that decision to love in this moment. Let’s pray for opportunities to love. Whether that’s with our enemies, with whether that’s with our neighbors. To pray for that chance, to demonstrate that love, to express that love. The only way that we grow in love is by practicing it. There’s a there’s an art form that forms a part of that experience of love.

00:08:47 So we need to make that decision to choose to love, to choose to do those things that express that love. So let’s indeed make that choice to be people that embrace that love and allow God to be with us as he invites us into this new creation experience today.