BRAND SPANKING NEW (18)
Scripture: Revelation 21:1-6
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Brand Spanking New (18)
Lectionary, Year C, Easter 5
Christopher B. Harbin
Revelation 21:1-6
We seem to have a love-hate relationship with all things new. We like new things! We just want them to be just like the old things we comfortably know. We want a new car, but we’d really like it to be the old car, just newer, cleaner, more comfortable, with all the new bells and whistles. Oh, and we don’t want to learn a new way of operating it. We don’t like getting used to a new set of procedures for life. Then God comes along and asks us to do more than minimally adapt the way we live. God wants us to live according to a set of guidelines we’ve never seen in operation and never used. How do we respond when we can’t keep change to a comfortable minimum?
The grammar John employs in Revelation does not obey the standard norms of Greek. He brings elements from Hebrew into the text. Then he offers tweaks particular to Revelation itself. He never uses a definite article when a new character is presented. Once we have been introduced to said character, then and evermore he uses the definite article as a reminder that this is a character we have already seen and is making a subsequent appearance. It’s a peculiar way of writing that makes translation challenging. Knowing this also helps clarify some things for us.
In today’s passage, John’s description is even clearer and more direct than this particularity of John’s use of Greek. He writes that this new heaven and earth are not the known entities refreshed, dressed in a new style, and displaying a fresh coat of paint. This heaven and earth have nothing to do with the old heaven and earth. What he sees and reports is a fresh reality. Rather than refurbishing the kitchen in the old thatch-roofed cabin, here is a completely new kitchen in a new house with central air, insulation, indoor plumbing, instant hot water on tap, and solar power generating windows. It is wholly new. It operates differently. It fulfills other ...
Lectionary, Year C, Easter 5
Christopher B. Harbin
Revelation 21:1-6
We seem to have a love-hate relationship with all things new. We like new things! We just want them to be just like the old things we comfortably know. We want a new car, but we’d really like it to be the old car, just newer, cleaner, more comfortable, with all the new bells and whistles. Oh, and we don’t want to learn a new way of operating it. We don’t like getting used to a new set of procedures for life. Then God comes along and asks us to do more than minimally adapt the way we live. God wants us to live according to a set of guidelines we’ve never seen in operation and never used. How do we respond when we can’t keep change to a comfortable minimum?
The grammar John employs in Revelation does not obey the standard norms of Greek. He brings elements from Hebrew into the text. Then he offers tweaks particular to Revelation itself. He never uses a definite article when a new character is presented. Once we have been introduced to said character, then and evermore he uses the definite article as a reminder that this is a character we have already seen and is making a subsequent appearance. It’s a peculiar way of writing that makes translation challenging. Knowing this also helps clarify some things for us.
In today’s passage, John’s description is even clearer and more direct than this particularity of John’s use of Greek. He writes that this new heaven and earth are not the known entities refreshed, dressed in a new style, and displaying a fresh coat of paint. This heaven and earth have nothing to do with the old heaven and earth. What he sees and reports is a fresh reality. Rather than refurbishing the kitchen in the old thatch-roofed cabin, here is a completely new kitchen in a new house with central air, insulation, indoor plumbing, instant hot water on tap, and solar power generating windows. It is wholly new. It operates differently. It fulfills other ...
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