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"Heaven is a Sacred Romance"

Isaiah 11:1-10

by Clancy Nixon

December 9, 2007

Church of the Holy Spirit

Ashburn, Virginia

www.HolySpiritAnglican.org

When you think of Heaven, what images come to your mind? I've asked various

people this question, and I've received some interesting responses. Some people went to

the Hallmark Card images of clouds and harps and fat baby angels. I heard people tell of

the heavenly banquet, of a garden of Paradise, and of the end of the world as we know it.

One spoke of unending worship of God around His throne. Several people said, "I don't

know." Almost everyone in America today has some hope of heaven, and most people

think they are going there. But most of us, even believers, don't think of heaven much.

I've been challenged this week with the notion that one measure of spiritual maturity is

how much we think of heaven. A disciple wants to be like his master; Jesus is our master;

and Jesus is in heaven, that is His perfect world; so we should know what it is like so we

can prepare for it, can help bring the Kingdom in here.

The truth is, everyone longs for a better life for themselves. On a deep level, we

understand that our world is not the way it's supposed to be. Even here in Loudoun,

where most families are intact, and we have amazing abundance in material things, there

is still so much striving, so much discontent. Beyond the level of basic human needs, we

long for something more, something we can barely put into words. John Eldredge says

this: "We long to be alive, to be in love, to live an adventure of intimacy that

will never end. Our dilemma -- the dilemma of every person that has ever lived

-- is this: where will we find what our hearts most yearn for? It's the deepest

question of the human heart and therefore the central theme of most novels,

films, songs and poetry." (John Eldredge, Uncovering our Dim View of Heaven,

Christianity Today, 1998) The postmodern conceit and deception is that in order to be

authentic and true to ourselves, each of us must cut a new path for our souls'

journey through life. What a lie that is. As Augustine of Hippo said, "Our

hearts are restless until they find their rest in Thee." Whether we know it or

not, we long for the love of the God of Heaven.

Right before chapter 11 in his book, the prophet Isaiah describes for us one of the

darkest days in the love relationship between God and His people. He is writing around

the year 690 B.C. Turn up Isaiah 5:7 in your blue pew Bibles, page 679. In chapter 5,

the nation of Israel is depicted as the Vineyard of the Lord Almighty. I believe that God

uses this image of the God's holy nation as a Vineyard because a grape vine must submit

to the care and pruning of the gardener in order to be fruitful. Father God has indeed

planted and tended his Vineyard carefully, lovingly, in this Sacred Romance. But the vine

has not been faithful to submit to the wooing of the gardener. Look at verse 4: Israel has

not produced good grapes, but bad; not sweet grapes, but sour. This is a reference to the

idolatry of the people, what the prophet Hosea called their adultery, to their turning away

from their love relationship with Yahweh God. They ran after fertility gods, to sexual

promiscuity with shrine prostitution in the worship of Baal and Ashtoreth. The branches

refused to submit to the painful surgery of the pruning knife, so instead, the root of the

vine receives the ax, which is destruction by the Assyrian army. The hard truth is that

running away from the love of Yahweh God does not give us real freedom, but instead

leads to our destruction.

For Isaiah, chapter 11, a stump is all that is left of the glorious promises of the

Davidic Kingdom. The Assyrians destroy many of the people and carry off others to

exile, where they become the ten lost tribes of Israel. Isaiah predicts that the same fate

will befall the southern kingdom of Judah at the hands of the

Babylonians. "The golden era had not just tarnished, it had been

melted down into coins and sold off." (Jason Hefner)

Look at Isaiah chapter 11, verse 1, the hope of God begins to

grow in God's people, at first imperceptibly, subtle-ly. Isaiah speaks

forth prophetically of a shoot from the stump of Jesse that will bear

good fruit, because the spirit of the Lord will rest on him. The tree of

Israel may be cut down, but it is not dead; is not a rotten stump, but a

living stump; it will give shoots, that produce seeds, that will grow and rise again! The

branch of Jesse is a live root. In Hebrew it is called a "nehtzer." The root of Jesse is an

image of messianic hope, a glimpse of heaven to come.

The New Testament writers saw in Isaiah many prophecies of Messiah that were

fulfilled by Jesus of Nazareth the suffering servant of chapter 53 among them. In

Romans 15:12, the Apostle Paul says that Isaiah wax speaking of Jesus Christ as the root

of Jesse.

The first coming of the Messiah was a massive in-breaking of the Kingdom of

Heaven. Matthew tells us in chapter 3 that John the Baptizer is a fulfillment of Isaiah's

prophecy of the forerunner to the messiah. John proclaimed, "Repent, for the Kingdom

of Heaven is near... Bear fruit in keeping with repentance....Even now the ax is at the

root of the tree....one more powerful than I is coming after me." His cousin Jesus, that

One more powerful, the root of Jesse, proclaimed a very similar message: The Kingdom

of Heaven is near. So what is this Heaven that it is so near? Think about what Jesus did in

his earthly pilgrimage to bring Heaven near? He came down from heaven, incarnate of

the Virgin Mary. He healed the sick, he raised the dead, he preached good news to the

poor, and proclaimed liberty for the captives. Heaven is filled with the presence of God,

with no sickness, no death, no poverty, and no bondage. As a perfect, loving sacrifice for

our sins, he died on the cross, and opened the way to heaven.

Most people don't think much about heaven today. Have you noticed that even

preachers don't talk much about Heaven today, except to warn you to make sure that you

get there? How many of you have heard a sermon about heaven in the last year that went

beyond such a vague reference? I believe that Heaven is a real place in time and space,

perhaps in another dimension, because we are promised new physical bodies there at the

resurrection. Well, have you ever wondered what will we do in heaven - for ever and

ever? For eternity? Most believers tend to associate Heaven with some sort of religious

experience, like worshiping God forever. I love church services, I really do, and we get a

glimpse of Heaven here as we worship. Even so, if the afterlife were like an unending

church service, many of us would not consider it Heaven at all. I think that's why God

has given us many other biblical images of heaven, because there are many ways to

worship Him. For example, we have the image of the heavenly banquet and reunion; we

have the streets of gold in the heavenly Jerusalem; and Lazarus resting on the bosom of

Abraham. These images speak about relationship with others, about intimacy. Here in

chapter 11, Isaiah prophecies a heavenly peace and reconciliation contrary to the natural

order on earth: the lion laying down with the lamb, the bear with the cow, and a little

child shall lead them. All these images are metaphors, symbols pointing to the

inexpressible mystery that is heaven. We need symbolic language to point to Heaven,

because the reality of Heaven is beyond our ability to express in thoughts or language.

Catholic philosopher Peter Kreeft writes, "Our pictures of heaven do not move us;

they are not moving pictures. It is this aesthetic failure rather than intellectual or moral

failures in our pictures of heaven and of God that threatens faith most potently today. Our

pictures of heaven are dull, platitudinous and syrupy; therefore, so is our faith, our hope

and our love of heaven ... It doesn't matter whether it's a dull lie or a dull truth. Dullness,

not doubt, is the strongest enemy of faith." In other words, you shall know the truth, and

the truth shall make you ... bored? (quoted in Eldredge)

John Eldredge writes this: "Before the Modern Era turned Christian faith into a

program of tips and techniques (three steps for a good quiet time; four ways to better

share your faith), the soul's journey into the heart of God was thought to be the greatest

romance of all. God's invitation to us through Christ is not primarily an invitation to

become a moral person, but an invitation to intimacy, an invitation into the heart of

things, a sacred romance that culminates in the beauty, mystery, adventure and love of

heaven. Our most urgent question is not "how can I be a better person," but "will I find

love and will it last?" Somehow as Christians we've forgotten that, and traded the thirst

of our souls for a program of duty and morality.

Eldredge says, "The Gospel is a Sacred Romance, where God is our heart's true

lover and heaven the culmination of the affair.... We will worship God in heaven, but

that worship will not necessarily look like a church service with no end. Long ago,

wedding vows used to contain this phrase: "With my body, I thee worship." Sexual

intimacy was considered a close parallel to the intimacy of the worship of God. Wow.

The intimacy the soul experiences with God in heaven is not so much a sing-a-long, but

something closer to the union of husband and wife - a vulnerability, an unreserved giving

and receiving, a knowing of each other. And the intimacy that begins with God flows

outward to all the partakers of the Grand Affair. Scottish poet George MacDonald wrote

this of heaven: "I think then we shall be able to pass into and through each

other's very souls as we please, knowing each other's thought and being."

The intimacy that we long for, the connection that eludes us here even in

the best relationships - it will be ours in heaven." After all, we are the

bride of Christ. Sacred Romance is at the ground of our being.

The Kingdom of Heaven is a sacred romance. I believe that God put Heaven in

your heart. Isn't it amazing that our highest calling is to fall in love with God? We are to

love him faithfully every day, in every way. Remember, our most urgent question is not

"how can I be a better person," but "will I find love and will it last?" The answer is yes,

you can find a love that will last forever. Yield your soul in love to God. Allow your

loving heavenly Father to prune you this Advent, to dress you so you become even more

fruitful. And your soul will find your rest in the true lover of your soul. Amen.