A NEW HEAVEN

Ruth 1:1 – 18, Ps 146 Ps. 119:1 – 8, Heb. 9:11 – 14, Mark 12: 28 – 34

            Whenever a government changes, or and election is about to happen, we find politicians promising much, a good living, luxuries, security and everything to be new and all this to make living comfortable and easy. And so all are looking forward for change and everything to be new and different and to let go of the past. Only after an election is over that we realize that heaven was promised but what we experience is actually hell.

            Today we are called to meditate upon the theme “a new heaven”. Heaven the dwelling place of God, a place which is being prepared for the saints. It is a place which gives us an identity – an identity that we do not belong to this earth, but to a much better place. A place where what is promised will be received.

            Our OT reading gives us a very good illustration of a new heaven. Ruth leaves her family, her country, her culture, and all what is near and dear to her and takes on a new identity a new citizenship. Her words to Naomi, is a reminder of what our own attitude should be towards heaven and it’s ruler.

            Ruth 1:16 & 17 Where you go I will go – the willingness to let go and journey to a new place. Where you stay I will stay – ready to let go her home and adopt a new home. Your people will be my people and your God my God – the willingness to accept the true God and embrace a new community of people. She entered into an unknown future and trusted in an unknown God.

            This shows Ruth as a woman who is willing to let go of the old for the new. In v14 it says Ruth clung on to Naomi. To cling onto someone shows loyalty and affection. To cling is to let go to what you are holding onto. This is the same Hebrew word used in Genesis 2:24 where a man leaves his father and mother and clings on to his wife. The decision of Ruth is a radical decision. This is more like a marriage covenant. A decision not to be broken but to hold on to, to the end.

            Ruth a Moabite becomes part of the Jewish community. She goes on to become and ancestor of Jesus. This clearly shows that Jesus is not just for the Jews but for all people who are willing to come to him and embrace him as their God. She was willing to look to the new that was before her and not look back at what was behind her.

            This brings us to the truth that the heart of Jesus is a place where there is room for the most unexpected people. Psalm 146:7-9, tells us who these unexpected people are. It is the oppressed, the hungry, the prisoner, the blind, the bowed down, the foreigner, the fatherless and the widow and the righteous. These are all people whom the Jews, whom society deemed unclean, and unfit to be normal members of society. Yet to God they are important, so he transforms them into clean and perfect people.

            We see this from OT times to the NT and from generation to generation. The space at his heart for all these people has not changed. Because this God to whom they all belong to is a God who reigns from generation to generation, a God who never changes. His way of ruling has not changed.

            It is not the fate of the oppressed, the hungry, the prisoner, the blind, the bowed down, the foreigner, the fatherless and the widow that they are in such a situation. It is society, human beings, their actions, their attitudes, their evil desires and greed which causes such a low class of people. The failure to love. Yet, even to people who have evil in their hearts, who are unrighteous, who are the cause of creating another class in this world, there is Good News.

            The writer to the Hebrews in 9:14 reminds us, that the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death.

            How wonderful that we worship and follow a God who gives us opportunity upon opportunity, to return to him to embrace him, to let go and cling to him. The beautiful thing here is once you are washed by the blood of Jesus, you don’t need to be washed over and over again. Which means God doesn’t expect his people to sin. He doesn’t expect his people to create oppressors or hungry or fatherless or blind.

            The blood of Jesus creates an opportunity for the oppressor and the oppressed, the hungry and the satisfied, the blind and the ones who see, the fatherless and those who have lovely families, the bowed down and the proud, for all to have space at the heart of God. It is such a state that is a heavenly state. And this is the state that all are called to strive creating on this earth. So that we will all have a foretaste of what is to come before us.

            If we are to get near this state, Jesus expects one important thing from us. To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices (Mark 12:33).

            People of God we are called to foretaste heaven here on earth. It is not the heaven that the world provides, the parties, the luxuries, the women, the alcohol and drugs and money.

            But by living a life that is contrary to the standards of this world. For that we have being made clean by the blood of Jesus. Those who are cleansed by the blood let go of the past and clinging on to Jesus as Ruth did, and embrace each other as by sharing God’s love, Just as Ruth was accepted by the people of Israel.

            People of God, it is such who are called saints. And it is saints who dwell in the heavens. God has knit us by his grace, that we too may be Saints. That by our virtuous and godly living, we may experience the inexpressible joys God has prepared for those who truly love him and their neighbor.