A NEW HEAVEN AND A NEW
EARTH
The Rev. Harold Shepherd, CD, M.A., S.T.M., LL.B., LL.M.,
Ph.D.
Sermon from Advent 2002
For I am about to create new heavens
and a new earth; the former things shall not be remembered
or come to mind. But be glad and rejoice forever in what I
am creating; for I am about the create Jerusalem as a joy,
and its people as a delight… The wolf and the lamb
shall feed together, the lion shall eat straw like the ox;
but the serpent- its food shall be dust! They shall not
hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain, says the LORD."
Isaiah 65:17-25
History books are often written from the point of view of
political institutions. One dominant theme is the use of
military conquest to achieve social, economic or political
objectives. History of civilization is often conceived in
terms of the history of war. Armed conflict seems to have
been going on since time immemorial. The Hebrew Bible bears
witness to this in the Ancient Near East. After the
destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians in about 587
B.C., the population was exiled. About sixty years later,
the Babylonians were overthrown by the Persians who allowed
the Jews to return to Jerusalem. In this post-exilic
context, the prophet looked forward to the day in which God
would create a new heaven and a new earth which would be
characterized by peace. Wolves, lions and serpents would no
longer kill. All life will be respected as sacred. This
marks a paradigm shift with respect to one's view of the
world. Rather than being a place where one is free to
plunder out of self-interest, it is a place in which all of
God's children are free to develop their talents and
abilities without hindrance by selfish, greedy or ruthless
people. This type of conversion is not easy. One of the
more notable examples of this in history can be found in
the life of Brother Bartolomé de las Casas.
De las Casas was born in Seville, Spain, in 1484, some
eight years before Columbus discovered the New World. In
1502, at the age of eighteen, he moved to the island of
Hispaniola with his father and uncle. This is the island
which now contains Haiti and the Dominican Republic. He and
his family assumed the typical life of well to do
Spaniards. They owned land in a feudal system known as the
"encomienda." This form of land ownership also involved
ownership of the aboriginal peoples who lived on it. In
exchange for work, they were granted the protection of the
Crown, instruction in the Christian faith and a small wage.
As they were not free to leave, it was, in fact, a form of
slavery. As time went by, distinctive clothing was used as
a means of identifying the estate the person came from for
purposes of control. During this time, de las Casas
participated in military campaigns in addition to
supervising his estate. In 1507, at the age of 23 he went
to Rome to be ordained a Dominican priest, then returned to
Hispaniola. In 1512, at the age of 28, he sold his land and
accompanied the Spanish Conquistadors in the conquest of
Cuba as their chaplain. In return for his services, he was
granted an estate in Cuba which he operated for several
years. Up until this point, de las Casas lived a fairly
typical life as an affluent Spanish landowner in the New
World. His service with the Spanish army, both as a soldier
and as a chaplain, clearly placed him on the side of the
Conquistadors. He saw first hand the brutal measures they
took to suppress the local people, including the use of
torture, mass murder and slavery. While in Cuba, he
preached on a passage from Ecclesiasticus: "The sacrifice
of an offering unjustly acquired is a mockery." This got
him thinking about the means by which he and his
compatriots had acquired wealth, and led him to the
conclusion that this ill-gotten gain was an affront to God.
He underwent a personal conversion that set his life in a
significantly new direction. He set his slaves free and
spent the rest of his life championing the cause of
aboriginal peoples in the New World. He traveled back and
forth to Spain ten times to advocate for respect for
aboriginal peoples in the Spanish royal court. He condemned
the brutality of Spanish colonization and argued against
the prevailing notion that aboriginal peoples are an
inferior race. He wrote that they are "fully rational
beings with a culture which, the certainly 'primitive' in
its technology and in a large number of its practices, was
equal to anything which the Old World had produced." In
many respects, de las Casas exercised a prophetic ministry
that called the Spanish to repent, turn from their
practices of slavery and brutal suppression of native
peoples, and to respect all people as equals before God.
His vision reflects that expressed by the prophet Isaiah in
today's reading. Where God reigns, respect for the innate
dignity and worth of all people prevails. Those who would
destroy other human beings to advance their own cause will
be undone. As Christians, let us pray for peace- not only
as the absence of war, but as the presence of love, mutual
respect and common decency in all our relationships. May
God's peace- Shalom- with us all. Amen.