Scripture: Revelation 18:1-2a & 9-17, 21:9-11 & 22-27

I've borrowed a title from Charles Dickens today, as our scripture from the book of Revelation describes a tale of two cities: two great and opposing cities: the old Babylon, and the new Jerusalem.

In Revelation, the meaning of the symbols often moves from the particular to the universal. These two great cities therefore represent all of the cities of the world, and at the deepest layer of meaning, they represent the height of human civilization. However, Babylon and Jerusalem are Jekyl and Hyde--complete opposites. The old Babylon, where the Jewish people were taken into captivity, represents the evil that civilization produces. The new Jerusalem, the great city that will emerge from the ashes of the City of David and the site of the temple that was destroyed, represents the good that can be found in human civilization if it turns to God. The underlying truth is that human civilization--which in many ways comes to its height in the great cities of the world--has always been Jekyl and Hyde. Both great good and great evil can be found there.

I spent my college years in a big city, metropolitan Los Angeles. On the good side, it was a place of huge opportunity. People moved there from around the country and around the world. That was one of the things I liked the best about living there--the huge variety of people, the way you heard different languages on the street or in the mall or even in our college classrooms, the clash of cultures and the many different lifestyles.

Los Angeles was full of cultural opportunities--and I think that's why a lot of people choose to live in the big city. Only large cities can afford to support the arts at their height, not to mention the best of sports, education, commerce, medicine, etc. Because I was in the Los Angeles area, if 'd been ambitious and had the money I could have gone to a top school like Cal Tech or UCLA. But being shy and Brethren, I went to the University of La Verne--where even at that small and unknown school I had huge opportunities that I wouldn't have had elsewhere. Even as a poor college student, I went to symphonies, plays, museums, baseball games, art films...and the list could go on and on.

One summer during college I volunteered for a school program called "Summer Service," and I ended up working for the Pomona Valley Council of Churches at their food bank. I interviewed people who came in for assistance and spent the summer listening to them talk about how they were trying to make it in life. Many supported families on minimum wage, others had better paying jobs but also had additional expenses like medical bills, or they were single parents with only one income. We knew that some were illegal immigrants but citizenship wasn't important to us--what mattered was their need. Somehow they were all trying to survive in the big city. Somehow they had to get enough food and clothing for themselves and their children, try to find medical care they could afford, and still be able to pay the rent and the utilities and the car insurance and have money for gas. One of the people I remember best was a public school teacher, a single parent, who came in only at the end of the summer, when the money she earned during the school year began to run out.

The other part of my job was to drive our ancient pick-up truck to get food from the county distribution warehouse--and there I saw how much food there was. Often the warehouse had government subsidized butter and cheese. The explanation I received was that this subsidized food was bought from farmers by the government to balance the economics of the industry. If too much butter and cheese were produced, the prices went down to a level at which farming no longer paid, and so the government bought the food and distributed it to places like our food pantry. Some days I came back to the Food Pantry with the whole back of the truck filled up with butter and cheese.

Then there was the experience of going to the Price Club--a Southern California institution--to purchase food in bulk, with money donated through the Pomona churches. I had never seen so much food--shelf upon shelf of food, mounted up to the warehouse-high ceiling. Also awe-inspiring was the amount of money donated to pay for our purchases. It convinced me that people really do care about hunger and poverty, and they are willing to give what it takes to overcome these evils. But what stayed with me, from my summer at the Pomona Food Pantry, is the irony of what we were doing--giving out food to people who were poor and hungry, in a place where there was too much food available. Great abundance, and great need.

Human civilization produces great good and great evil. The book of Revelation understands this truth. Both the old Babylon and the new Jerusalem are places of power. In the vision of Revelation, Babylon's power was used in service to the empire, to carry out the political ends of its rulers--and we must remember that this was the empire that conquered and enslaved the Jewish people. The power of the new Jerusalem, on the other hand, is at the service of God, and it will carry out God's end, which is salvation. God's salvation will bring true freedom to the people of the world--freedom from hunger and poverty and all the other evils from which human civilization suffers.

Babylon took for herself all the best that the world could produce, and used those goods to become wealthy and live in luxury. The new Jerusalem, however, will honor and respect the best of all the nations, and the many peoples and cultures represented in that great city will bless each other and the world.

Babylon was proud--fatally proud, to the point of contributing to its own destruction. Babylon never imagined that it could fail, and never imagined that it would need God's help. The new Jerusalem, on the other hand, will know that it needs help, that it needs God. In its humility, the great city will depend entirely on God, and in so doing it will become the dwelling place of God. God will live with the people of the city, and will be among them to comfort them and to keep them.

Two great cities, two aspects of human civilization, a story of good and evil. How does the story end? At the end, Revelation says, humanity will leave Babylon behind, and will enter into the new Jerusalem. At that time, the evils of human civilization will be over and only good will remain. Humanity will no longer serve earthly empires, will no longer use each other to become rich, will no longer scheme for luxury and wealth, will no longer pridefully rely on itself, will no longer imagine that it is invulnerable.

Instead we will serve God, we will honor each other, we will depend upon God for our lives, and our differences will be blessings to each other and to the world.

And then, in the words of Revelation 21:1-5, we will see "the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband." And we will hear these words: "See, the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them as their God; they will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them; he will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more, for the first things have passed away." And God who will be seated on the throne will say, "See, I am making all things new."

Sources: NRSV Harper Collins Study Bible