Sorsogon

(The Kingdom of God As a New World, New Universe, New Creation)

our host: Nature and Family in Sorsogon

In this stopover we get acquainted with a synonym of the Kingdom of God, the ‘new heaven and the new earth.’

Heaven-and-Earth = Universe

Not Looking Up but Looking Ahead to the Future. Our signposts have already pointed to salvation and Kingdom of God as being a new world. It is a new earth. This might be news for the Second Look. It is self-evident for the First Look. We look around and see the trees, birds, rocks, oceans, people. We look up and we see the sun, moon, and the galaxies. This is our universe. It is a beautiful universe. But our human hands have wrought wrongdoing, pain, death upon it. It is also a blighted universe. The prayer of the biblical people was not to flee from this valley of tears and go up to heaven; rather they looked forward to a new world, a new universe, a new creation. Notice, in addition, that they used a more picturesque language: a new heaven(s) and a new earth. It is a graphic way of talking about a new universe.

Blue Roof, Flat Surface. Before we talk about a new heaven and a new earth, let us first get acquainted with heaven and earth.

The pre-scientific person looks up and sees a blue roof above. It is the ‘firmament’ or ‘sky’ … or ‘heaven.’ It is not empty space. Like a dome or an inverted bowl, it is solid. Sometimes this roof is seen as having not one but several layers, thus, ‘heavens.’ Onto the downside of this roof, as on a ceiling, are attached the ornaments. These are the stars, moon and sun, set like jewels on the firmament. Yahweh’s dwelling place is in heaven or, more accurately, above the heaven(s). In the Lord’s prayer, we say: ‘Our Father who are in heaven.’

On the other hand, there is this flat surface on which we stand here below. It is called ‘earth.’ Modern science tells us that the earth is round. But for pre-scientific eyes, as in biblical culture, it is flat.

Heaven and Earth; Roof Plus Floor. Thus we have heaven above and earth below; the roof above, and the floor below. Add roof and floor together in simple arithmetic and what do you have? Add ‘heaven’ and ‘earth’ and what do you have? You have the universe. That is the pre-scientific architectural configuration of the universe. Heaven-and-earth or ‘heaven and earth’ (taken together as a composite unity) 38 is the pre-scientific way of talking about ‘world,’ ‘universe,’ ‘creation.’

[Graphic here: Heaven and Earth]

New Heaven and New Earth = New Universe

New Heaven and New Earth. Accordingly, ‘new heaven(s) and new earth’ means new universe, new world, new creation.

Semitic culture in Jesus’ time envisaged the Kingdom of God as a new world. As our roadsigns will show, many New Testament writers held this view. How about Jesus himself? Since most of the roadsigns in our present stopover are not direct quotations of Jesus’ own words, one may legitimately ask whether Kingdom of God as a new world was shared by Jesus. Our response to this is ‘Yes.’ Kingdom of God as a new world is so self-evident to Jesus’ time and culture that, if he did not share their outlook, it would make Jesus an unintelligible cipher among his people.39

Sorsogon. Have you ever been to Sorsogon? It is a province in southern Luzon, Philippines. In the daytime you see the blue sea, throbbing with fish and adorned with fantastic corals. Move your line of sight onto the land, and your eyes meet the various healing shades of green and yellow. There before you are the riches of Asia: ricefields ready to harvest and coconut trees aiming for the sky.

Nestled peacefully and securely in this bucolic world is a rustic house. It is home for a family that lives in harmony with each other and with nature. Violence, oppression, injustice are a comfortable distance away.

Look further up. There are the narras, the molaves and their less rugged cousins—virile and tough, but from a distant perspective, looking every inch like the daintiest hand-woven embroidery. Let your eyes swing up to the pure, blue sky, with a garnishing of clouds here and there. Can you compare its beauty to anything but itself?

Stay till evening and watch the same sky put on its velvet saya and wear its jewels of the night. Complete the cycle. Look at the sea once more, now an eager mirror recording the tiniest glimmer of the farthest star. And when you are done looking, listen. Listen to the spiritual conversation of heaven-and-earth and the human family.

This household of humans and nature, forming one animate whole, are our hosts, for they can stimulate dreams of one possible way to be. They have nothing against development, but they tell us that the toxins we have injected into our living—chemical, noise, greed—are among the worst anticipations of the new heaven and the new earth.

A New Universe Where There Is Justice

What Did God Promise? According to this signpost, the salvation that God has promised is a new world where there is justice:

In both First and Second Looks, God has made a promise and that promise is the basis of our hope. But pause to note the difference. To the Second Look, he promised heaven above. To the First Look he promised a new heaven and a new earth.

What do we find there? What will we experience? For the Second Look: intellectual contemplation. For the First Look: justice.

And for whom is this salvation? For the Second Look: for incorporeal souls or individual persons. For the First Look: for human beings, individually and collectively, and for creation itself.

This new world, according to the simple (or is it grandiose?) faith of biblical religion, is the ultimate destiny that God has promised.

Thus while the Second Look looks forward to a heaven in which souls see God face to face, the First Look looks forward to a new world where humankind and nature will experience God, justice and total well-being. The aspiration of the First and Third Looks is for a new Asia, a new Philippines. Our Sorsogon hosts feel they are living in anticipation of an even more beautiful new Sorsogon.

Justice or Righteousness? Some translations of our signpost, 2 Pet 3:13, read: ‘… new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.’ In other words, in some translations, you will read ‘righteousness’ instead of ‘justice.’ ‘Righteousness’ is a generic term and means uprightness, saintliness, godliness, piety. A person who prays often may be called ‘righteous.’ ‘Justice,’ specifically social justice, is more pointed. It can refer to anything between fair wages for employees to agrarian reform for peasants. Both ‘righteousness’ and ‘justice’ are possible translations and in fact, the author of 2 Pet 3:13 most likely meant the former. However, Isaiah 65:17-25, which is the source and background, clearly meant a new world where there is justice.
 

All Things New. Those who wish to have some detailed specifics about the new heaven and new earth will find it in Rev 21:1-5.

Before we proceed let us attempt to clear away a possible mental block. This text from the Book of Revelation and the ones to follow seem to speak in symbols, and so they do not mean to be taken at face value. As a response, I would say that the language is not purely symbolic. They are paintings. Although, therefore, they are not photographs, they mean to convey some life-reality. Thus ‘new heaven and new earth’ cannot point to anything other than a new world. Certainly, not heaven. The bride ‘coming down’ cannot suggest anything but that salvation is a descent to earth rather than an ascent to heaven.

Rebirth of the Universe. There are two other noteworthy passages, Mt 19:28 and Lk 22:29-30, which speak of a new world. Once more, justice is singled out as its attribute.

Justice Is Its Trait. And justice is the attribute of this new world.

This requires a little explanation. In certain biblical contexts, to ‘sit on a throne’ ‘to reign’ ‘to be king’ (mlk) mean doing justice for the poor and oppressed. ‘To judge’ (shpht) likewise means to vindicate or confer justice to the poor.

So goes a prayer for the king:

Give the king [mlk] thy justice, O God,

and your righteousness to a king’s son.

May he judge your people with righteousness,

and your poor with justice.

May the mountains yield prosperity for the people,

and the hills, in righteousness.

May he defend the cause [shpht] of the poor of the people,

give deliverance to the needy,

and crush the oppressor. (Ps 72:1-4)

The language may not sit well with our anti-feudal sensibilities, but in biblical culture, ‘to sit on throne,’ ‘to judge’ means to execute justice in behalf of the poor and oppressed. Thus, quaint as the language may be, Matthew and Luke give us this picture of salvation: Jesus and his disciples will oversee a world where there is justice.

Universal Restoration of All Things. Let us move on to another roadsign. This is the scenario: Jesus ‘ascends’ into heaven. The apostles look up to heaven. They are told to go back to their normal lives. They are told that God will eventually send Jesus back to earth as the Christ. In the meantime, heaven will keep Jesus until the ‘universal restoration.’ All reality will be remade, rehabilitated, rejuvenated! It is a new universe at the end of history. And in it, an even lovelier Sorsogon! One can almost hear the dance and re-assembly of the planets in the sonorous Greek words, apokatastasis panton. Since purple-blue is a color close to the Divinity, our hosts wonder whether the universe will then take on much of the blue of their skies and seas.

The whole of creation—both human and natural—long for full salvation. We humans, who already possess the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly, longing for our bodily resurrection and thus become children of God.

But not just we humans. Nature too. Nature, according to Paul, has been subjected to meaninglessness, perhaps by God, but not without hope. The theological fact is that creation itself will be set free from its enslavement to decay and it too will obtain the glorious liberty that we humans will enjoy as children of God. Meanwhile, the whole creation has been groaning like a woman in the birth pangs of labor.

Nature and humans long for liberation; we humans, from death; the rest of creation, from decay; we humans, for our resurrection; nature, for its transformation.

Jesus and the New Testament: Simply and Splendidly

Jesus, Simple As Usual. Our roadsigns then point to the Kingdom of God as a new world, a new creation, a new universe. And Jesus said it quite simply:

The Biblical Vision. ‘New heaven and new earth’ is another name for salvation or Kingdom of God.

My childhood theology hoped for beatific vision in heaven after death. The Bible hopes for a new earth where a new humanity and the rest of creation will experience and participate in a new history.

The biblical culture sees the new universe as creation totally transformed, where there will be a new and beautiful capital city. The people of this new world will be God’s covenanted community. There, God will make his home and be at home. Pain, sorrow and even death will have been destroyed. After the destruction of all the powers of evil, all reality will finally be summed up in Christ, and God will be the Energy permeating the unity of all transformed reality.
 

Be Still and Know …