From our Pastor
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Looking Forward to Our Eternal Vacation
Revelation 7:9-17, Psalm 149, Matthew 5:1-12 November 3/4, 2007
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Almost everybody likes to go on vacation. It doesn’t matter how much you enjoy your job. A break in the routine, doing things you wouldn’t normally be able to do is something we enjoy. People enjoy different kinds of vacation. Some like to head for the beach, some for the golf course, some enjoy shopping or the spa, others prefer to relax at home. Some vacations are very busy, packed with activities. Others are very relaxing.
Sometimes, when people have enjoyed themselves so much on vacation, they run out of superlatives to describe just how wonderful it was. Finally, they just say, ‘it was so wonderful, it was like being in heaven.’ Let’s talk a little bit about how heaven is like going on vacation. Let’s plan for our vacation.
When you’re getting ready for a vacation, you have some things to do to get ready for the vacation. The lawn should be mowed, the house needs to be cleaned, you stop delivery of the newspaper, you’ll need a passport if you’re going out of the country… all sorts of details to get ready to go. There’s work to be done before we go on our heavenly vacation, too. Jesus clues us in to some of things we can be doing before we leave for our permanent vacation in heaven. He talks about being poor in spirit, that is, being people who are convinced of our spiritual poverty, being aware of our need for God. Blessed are the mourners. People mourn for all kinds of reasons, but what seems to be in mind here are people mourning their spiritual condition. Blessed are the meek. We’re not talking about spinelessness here, but people who would rather suffer than to inflict injury. Jesus said blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. This is an extreme desire for righteousness for myself, and righteousness for others. We can only be made righteous by Jesus. If we really desire righteousness for ourselves, we confess our sins and live closely with our Lord. If we desire righteousness for those who are away from the Lord, we’ll tell them the good news about Jesus. Jesus further tells us that we are to be people who show mercy and are peacemakers.
All this is work to be done before we go on vacation. It is certainly not what earns us a vacation. This work we’re talking about is not going to pay our way. These are just things we want to accomplish before we go. Clearly this is not payment for our vacation, because we have an all expenses paid vacation. And everything is included. It’s like winning a raffle for a luxury vacation. Travel is paid for. The hotel, food, all the entertainment, tips, taxes, you name it… it’s all paid! It’s free.
When we take a look at Revelation 7:14 we get an idea of how much our vacation cost us. It was at the cost of the blood of the Lamb. The Lamb is our Lord Jesus Christ, who was the perfect sacrifice for us to pay for our sins. In Old Testament times animals were used to pay for sins. But it took a never ending supply of animals to pay for everyone’s sins, day in and day out. Jesus pays for our sins as our sacrifice, and he makes us perfectly clean. You can tell that we do not deserve to go to heaven, because our robes had to be washed. But our robes are made white by the blood of the Lamb. That is, we are forgiven; we are washed clean through Jesus’ death. Our vacation is paid in full.
We don’t plan our vacation. No need to get out a map and try to decide where to go. We don’t choose where to go. We don’t try to decide what would be a better destination. God has a much better plan for our vacation than we could ever come up with. Sometimes people say things like, well I don’t want to go to heaven if I can’t play golf there, or if I can’t go shopping there, or if I can’t do whatever your favorite thing to do is.
That shows we really have no concept of how wonderful heaven will be. The joys of heaven will so far supersede any joy you’ve ever experienced. Do you enjoy skydiving and think that’s exciting? In heaven skydiving will seem dull compared to what’s going on there. Whatever you enjoy here will be so uninteresting in heaven compared to the overwhelming perfection and delight. So we don’t plan our vacation. God does that for us.
We also don’t plan when we’ll go on vacation. A lot of us have things so backwards. We don’t want to die. We don’t want to leave this life. We don’t want our loved ones to leave. We want to preserve our lives as long as we can. That’s normal. We spend huge sums of money to prolong life. But isn’t that backwards? Who works really hard to put off their vacation for as long as they can? Only a workaholic, and that’s not healthy! Most people are eager to go on vacation. Some people can hardly wait for vacation, even counting the days. While we don’t schedule our eternal vacation in heaven, we ought to be eager for that vacation to come. St. Paul was eager. He wanted to be on vacation as soon as possible, as soon as God says it’s time to come. But in God’s good timing.
We should be eager for our vacation, because it will be a dream vacation, really a vacation beyond our dreams. Matthew 5 describes a little what it’ll be like. Verse 8 says we’ll see God. Moses asked to see God. God had to hide Moses as he passed by. Moses just glimpsed God’s heel. That’s all he could handle. So many people talked with God, but couldn’t see him. The disciples had a glimpse of God’s glory, but they had to cover their faces on the Mount of Transfiguration. We will see God. We’ll see him in all of his glory, face to face. Really you don’t have to say anymore. It doesn’t get any better than that. All the rest of the descriptions of heaven just illustrate what it’s like to be so very intimately close with God. We’ll be called God’s kids. That’s our relationship: children of God. It will be so wonderful that, as Revelation 7 describes it, we’ll praise God for all we’re worth. “Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanks and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever.” (12) Can you hear all of heaven praising God? Can you imagine being part of it? All suffering will be done there. Every tear will be wiped away from our eyes. (17) How wonderful it will be.
There is a bit of heaven here on earth. For though we don’t see God face to face, we’re already his kids, he’s already with us, even in us! He’s washed our robes with his blood. We can celebrate now already. That’s what Psalm 149 calls us to do. Praise God! Sing a new song to the Lord. Find joy in your Creator! Rejoice over your King! Praise his name with dancing. We have a little trouble with that one, I admit. The pews make dancing a little difficult. But the Bible calls us to dance. Make music to him with tambourines and lyres. Celebrate. Celebrate for all you’re worth. We’re going to go on vacation. It’s all paid for by Jesus. And our everlasting vacation is way beyond luxurious. Celebrate!
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MOUNT OLIVE LUTHERAN CHURCH
2001 N. Alpine Rd.
Rockford, IL 61107
815-399-3171
Pastor Ken Krause: kkrause@mtolivelutheran.com