If
You Build It, He Will Come
Revelation
21:1-4
John
14:1-7
You may remember
the movie Field of Dreams. Kevin Costner plays a man who seems completely
crazy to his family and his neighbors.
He clears an income-producing cornfield to build a baseball
diamond. He does this because he hears a
voice whispering, “If you build it, he will come.” Famous ballplayers of the past appear, but
only Costner can see them. Near the end
of the movie, “he” comes. The father
with whom Costner had a strained relationship appears and the two of them play
catch.
But more than these show up. As the movie ends, we see a long line of
cars, stretching to the horizon, coming to watch players they have only heard
of. Costner’s vision has become a
reality, and what he alone could see is now visible to everyone.
Isaiah had a vision of such a future. In 2:2-4 he describes it. “It shall come to pass in the latter days
that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established as the highest
of the mountains, and shall be lifted up above the hills, and all the nations
shall flow to it.” Once God’s house is
established on God’s holy mountain, all the peoples of the world will be drawn
to it. Swords will become the blades of
plows. Spears will become farm
implements (dare we add: guns will be
melted down and become objects for construction rather than for
destruction). When the Lord’s house has
been built, “they” will come.
God shows John of Patmos the same vision. We read about it in Revelation. God will create a new heaven and a new
earth. Instead of us going to heaven to
be with God, God will come to earth to be with humankind. The New Jerusalem will be on earth, and they will come.
The similarity between these two passages is remarkable. In each case God promises to create a place
that will be wonderful—more wonderful than a baseball diamond in a
cornfield—and people will come. Not just
cars full of people, but nations of people from every corner of the earth. God will build it, and they will come.
How do we get to this place? Is it all in God’s hands? Not completely, I think. If Kevin Costner hadn’t listened to his inner
voice, that baseball field wouldn’t have been built. The great players of the past wouldn’t have
shown up. He would not have reconciled
with his father, and the field wouldn’t have become a shrine that people came
to visit. The work had to be done by
someone—the one who was called to do it—or the cornfield would have remained a
cornfield.
Near the end of John’s gospel, at the Last Supper, Jesus
is giving his disciples their final instruction. He will teach them his most important lesson
over the next three days, but this is his last chance to speak with them. He tells them that he must leave, but that he
is going to prepare a place for them. He
will return, and when he does, he will take them to that place. When Thomas declares his cluelessness about
the place and the way to get there, Jesus says, “I am the way, the truth, and
the life.” It sounds as if Jesus will do
the building, and this is true. As both
Isaiah and Revelation demonstrate, God is preparing a place for us, and will
show us the way. But that doesn’t mean
we can sit and wait for everything to happen.
It’s our job to clear the cornfield. It’s our job to prepare the land on God’s
holy mountain for God’s holy city. Jesus
gave us work to do, and expects us to do it.
We have to turn the soil. We have
to lay the foundation. We have to make
sure the world is ready. We have to
build it so he will come—and then, they will come.
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