No More Ocean?

Revelation 21:1 "...and the sea was no more..."

Everyone has heard Revelation 21 used in a funeral before. It is actually one of my favorites scripture passages to use. Well, it came up on the lectionary schedule for this weekend. I mean, is that even allowed, preaching this on a Sunday without a casket present?

Let's get one thing straight, this passage is not about global warming. It always made my ex-navy buddies in Virginia Beach a little squeamish as well--wait, what's happening to the water? The surfers were a bit disgruntled, too. Although, if you're surfing the coast of Virginia, you should be disgruntled to begin with.

To understand why this would be written in the context of God's new creation, we need to rewind all the way to the beginning. Remember what there was before God spoke creation into existence? No, it was not nothing. There was dark, there was chaos, and there was water. If you asked an ancient person about the sea, they would probably use these same words to describe it: dark, chaotic, wet.

Translating that into today, what would you describe with words like that? Wall Street investment offices. What else? Think about it.

Consider, also, the contrast with the "water of life" from 21:7. There's something the world gives that brings chaos and death, yet something similar is given by God that brings wholeness and life. Proverbs 14:12 "There is a way that seems right to a person, but its end is the way to death."

"...but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life. I am the way, the truth, and the life." John 4:14 & 14:6