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The following message is delivered by Reverend Dr. Bruce Wheeler Thielman. Today's sermon is entitled "The Gates of Pearl." We shall continue in worship by giving reverent attention to the reading of God's Word as it is recorded in the book of the Revelation, the 21st chapter.

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I begin the reading at the verse which is numbered 15. "And he who talked to me had a measuring rod of gold to measure the city and its gates and walls. The city lies four square, its length the same as its breadth. And he measured the city with his rod 12,000 stadia, its length and breadth and height are equal.

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He also measured its wall a hundred and forty-four cubits by a man's measure, that is an angel's. The wall was built of jasper while the city was pure gold clear as glass. The foundations of the wall of the city were adorned with every jewel. The first was jasper, the second sapphire, the third agate, the fourth emerald, the fifth onyx,

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the sixth carnelian, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth chrysoprase, the eleventh jacenth, the twelfth amethyst. And the twelve gates were twelve pearls, each of the gates made of a single pearl. And the street of the city was pure gold, transparent as glass.

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And may God bless to us and to our understanding this reading from his Word. Pray with me. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, amen. I would like to talk with you this morning about heaven.

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Now, I know that as soon as I suggest such an idea, there are some who call the notion of heaven quite ridiculous. They suggest that it is nothing more than an escapist idea, pie in the sky, by and by. To these people, I would make three responses. In the first place, because something is escapist, that does not necessarily make it untrue.

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I may say to you, for example, there is a tunnel under the prison wall. That is an escapist idea, but it may also be quite true. The proper question to ask about heaven is not whether it is escapist or not, but whether it is true or not. The second response that I would make to these people is that they cannot demonstrate the truth of their claim.

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When they say that heaven is escapist, they are accusing the Church of falsehood. But they offer no evidence to defend this accusation. And indeed, if it turns out that there is a heaven, then these critics will be the ones who have been escapists. The third response I would make is this, that the concept of heaven is basic to humankind.

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Our bodies are made out of the elements that are quarried from this planet. And yet, there is within us some expectation of heart that looks beyond this planet. Sociologists have never found a people anywhere on the face of the earth who did not have some idea of an afterlife and of heaven. It seems to be of the warp and the woof of our very nature.

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We are like arrows shot by the eternal into time and beyond time to some target which the eternal has in mind. Thornton Wilder put it this way in his play Our Town. He has one of the principal characters say, "All the greatest people who have ever lived have been telling us for over 5,000 years that there is something way down deep that's eternal in every human being."

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So I am prepared this morning to yield nothing to the critics of the idea of heaven. They call it escapist. That does not mean it isn't true. I have more evidence to offer concerning the reality of heaven than they have to deny its reality. And I respond also that when I merely speak of heaven, there is some indescribable longing,

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some flutter of hope in every heart, the heart of the believer and the unbeliever. We come into this life, as the poet says, "trailing clouds of glory." And it is built into us that we can look forward to a future even more noble than our past. I speak this morning of that for which every heart longs, of heaven, and specifically of one detail of it.

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Attempting to describe heaven, John writes, "The twelve gates were twelve pearls, each gate made of a single pearl." Now, the gates of pearl remind us, first of all, that the glory of heaven is utterly beyond our measure. I read of an infant that went blind, and when the child was about six years of age, through a series of very exotic operations, the sight of the youngster was restored.

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When the bandages were taken away, the little girl looked at the face of her mother, and then looked through the window and ran to the door and saw the beauties of the world outside, and she said, "Mother, Mother, why didn't you tell me it was so wonderful?" And the mother replied, "I tried, but I just didn't have the words."

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That was John's problem, to try to describe it and yet to be without the words. The Apostle Paul writes, "No eye has seen nor ear heard. The heart of man has not conceived what God has prepared for those who love him." Have you ever considered the fact that in the biblical narrative,

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those who have gone to heaven and returned again say nothing about it? There is no description of heaven from the lips of Elijah, or Moses, or Lazarus, or the son of the widow of Nain. Paul had a vision of heaven, but with regard to that vision, he said, "I heard things that cannot be told, which man may not utter."

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Even Jesus made little attempt to describe heaven. He said it was a place of many mansions, or more accurately, a place of many rooms. And he did tell one parable about it in Matthew 13, but that parable is only one sentence long. He said, "A merchant, looking out for fine pearls, found one of very special value.

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So he went and he sold all that he had and bought it." Here we have a man who's an expert in pearls. He's amassed quite a collection. He has moved from Persia to India, seeking these stones.

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And remember, please, that the pearl was the most precious stone in the first century. The diamond was unknown to these people. And then this man hears about a perfect pearl of such purity, of such opalescence, of such sheen, that when he sees it, he immediately sells all that he has, his home, his property,

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all of the other pearls that he has collected, in order that he might be able to buy this one pearl. And Jesus says of him, "As this pearl is, so is the kingdom of heaven." We hear a lot these days about so-called NDEs. I refer to near-death experiences.

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Those who have the understanding that they have died, have crossed over, and then somehow come back again. The most scholarly study on the near-death experience, of which I know, is that of Dr. Carol Zaleski, who wrote her PhD thesis on this theme for Harvard University. It has been published now under the title "Other World Journeys."

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And Dr. Zaleski holds out the possibility of there being near-death experiences. But quite frankly, I doubt it. And I doubt it because the descriptions that these people bring of what they have seen are almost always limited by their culture.

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You see, we've been recording these near-death experiences for more than 1,500 years. And if you go back, for example, to the Middle Ages, the common picture of the entrance to heaven was a narrow bridge over a great chasm. And you had to walk across that bridge in order to gain heaven.

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And if at any point you failed, you would fall from the bridge into destruction. Now at the time when that idea was commonly held, the people who had near-death experiences all reported that they saw a bridge that they had to cross over in order to gain heaven.

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In other words, what they saw was influenced by their time and not by eternity. I bring up these near-death experiences simply to point out that 49% of the people who have had them are able to say nothing whatever about what they have experienced. And those who do describe what they have seen speak almost invariably of light or of warmth

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or of other similar generalities. In my life, I've been privileged to see some magnificent sights and to hear some remarkable sounds. I've seen the rising sun coming up above the Bosphorus at the Golden Horn. I've seen the colors of evening stain the sides of Ayres Rock in central Australia.

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I've rode a boat under the Isle of Capri and looked at the mysterious blue in its fabulous grotto. I've seen Mount Kilimanjaro, its snowy crown turned to pink by the twilight. I've heard the roar of an unseen leopard in the wilderness of Ambroselli. I've heard the harmonies of a Thomas Tallis cannon.

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I've seen and heard a great avalanche rolling down the side of Mont Blanc. But none of these things, none of these things that I have seen or heard or seen and heard, none of them can match the glory of heaven. So John, straining for a simile, says, "There were twelve gates, each gate a single pearl."

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And by saying that, he is saying that heaven is beyond our measure. But the gates of pearl also speak to us of heaven's greatest treasure. Who or what is it that is worthy of pearl gates before it? Who or what is it that is worthy of such splendor at the point of entrance?

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The answer, of course, is God, the Holy Trinity, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. He is the treasure of heaven. And there is within all of us a kind of profound urge to go to be with him. Just as a homing pigeon does not understand what happens to it,

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how it is drawn once again to the place from which it came, so we feel within ourselves this drawing power of the divine, this call into the presence of the Holy. The psalmist writes, "As for me, I shall behold thy face in righteousness.

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When I awaken, I shall be satisfied with beholding thy form." Jesus, speaking to his Father God, says about heaven, "I desire that those also whom thou hast given to me may be with me where I am in heaven." Now this does not mean, of course, that we are going to see the face of God.

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God is too great and grand to be comprehended by humankind. The finite can never begin to grasp that which is infinite. All we have to know is that in heaven we will see Jesus and be as he is, and he will give us welcome.

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My late friend Robert Holland, when he was talking about heaven, used to tell the story of when Albert Einstein was working at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton University. On one occasion, a reporter asked Einstein's sister, "Do you understand the theory of relativity?"

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And the sister responded, "No, I do not understand the theory of relativity, but I do understand Albert." Well, in just this way, we cannot plumb what heaven means, but we know about Jesus, and we know about him in such a way and to such a degree,

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that that alone satisfies us. I often think of the way in which people prepare for the birth of a little child. They have no real idea of what that child will be like. The child, in spite of the advances of medicine, still remains a thing of darkness and shadows to them.

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And yet they await it with their arms spread wide, and they make delicate preparations for the arrival of the little one. And that's just the way it will be in heaven. For Jesus says in John 14, "I go to prepare a place for you, and if I go and prepare a place for you,

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I will come again and receive you unto myself." One of the finest men that I have ever known was Dr. Addison Hardy Leach. He was a great man and a good man and a generous man, and I was fortunate to have him as a teacher.

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Now, although he taught for many years in Christian higher education, he was unusual in the fact that he had never been the pastor of a church. And on one occasion I asked him why he had never gone into pastoral ministry, and he responded immediately, "I have a deep fear of hospitals.

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I can't force myself to go into them. I knew I'd have to do that if I went into the pastorate, and so I have not gone into the pastorate." Well, Addison Leach, at a relatively early age, developed bone cancer, and he had to go into the hospital and spend a long time there.

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And as the dreadful disease progressed, his bones became so brittle that every time he moved, he ran the possibility of breaking his bones. So he would lie flat in his bed, his arms resting on two pillows, so that he would not hurt himself.

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One afternoon, his family was gathered about his bed. Leach's eyes were closed. Suddenly he opened them, looked up, and raised his arms and said, "Oh, Jesus," and was gone. Now death is not always so beautiful or dramatic,

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but that we are welcomed by Jesus is always true. There is only one great enough to dwell behind gates of pearl. The measure of that splendor belongs to heaven's greatest treasure, the glory of God. And God in Christ waits for us with his arms spread wide.

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Still, sometimes our going in death is very painful, and that leads me to the last thing that I would like to say about the gates of pearl. They also speak to us of the pleasure of heaven. You know, pearls are produced by oysters,

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and the oysters that produce pearls live at a depth of about 150 feet. I have watched free divers dive down. They dive deeper than any other free divers in the world in order to harvest these oysters. And this says to me that there is no place or situation in life

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that is so deep and so dark that it is beyond the reach of heaven. The pearl is also the product of pain. A tiny grain of sand, a sharp-edged bit of quartz insinuates itself into the oyster's body, and the pain causes the oyster to begin to secrete a kind of plastic, milky substance

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with which it covers over that grain of sand again and again until a pearl is produced. A pearl, you see, is beauty wrapped around trouble. A pearl is the tear of an oyster. And this says to me that no matter what pain, no matter how heavy the burden,

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no matter what the agony or the hurt of our human experience, heaven will still be for us. Just a few days ago, Miss Eleanor Love of our congregation died. Miss Love was the second oldest member of our church

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in terms of the number of years to which she had belonged to this congregation. She lived in a residence for older people, and she was quite content there. But every time you would visit with her or talk with her or receive correspondence with her, she would say at some point that she was anxious to go home, to go to heaven.

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I thought it beautiful and altogether appropriate that she would think of heaven as home, as the place where she belonged. Home, you see, is not only a good place, but it's our place. It's where our fullest identity is revealed,

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where we have the opportunity to display the skills and talents given to us by God to the utmost. And home is where we are made welcome. Nothing is required. We are led there by our elder brother, the Lord Jesus Christ, and the gates are thrown wide.

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And home is the place where we can stay forever. It is eternal. Now, that does not mean that it is changeless. Something can be eternal and still be constantly changing.

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Heaven will not be boring. It will be endlessly blessing because God says, "I make all things new." And heaven is the place. Home is the place where we will be forever loved and with those we love.

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Did you ever stop to think of the fact that love is the only thing that does not die before death? The eyes dim, the limbs weaken, the tongue falters, the intellect slows. But love remains. And love is the atmosphere of heaven.

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It is nothing less than the breath of the eternal. It is what we will know at home. During this last week, many of us have watched, I am sure, the series of television programs on the public broadcasting system which related the history of the Civil War.

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Let me share with you an incident from that war which was not noted in this television history. It was when the Battle of Vicksburg was being fought. It was in the evening. The Federal forces were lined up on one side of the Mississippi.

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The Rebel forces were lined up in the city of Vicksburg on the other side of the Mississippi. And in the coolness of the evening, a Union band began to play the Star Spangled Banner. When they were through, a Rebel band on the other side of the river began to play Dixie. And then the Federal band would play one tune and the Rebel band would reply with another tune.

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The Union band would play one thing, the Confederate band would play another, and then the Union band began to play Home Sweet Home. And as they played, the Confederate band joined in and played with them. They played together.

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And when they were done, some soldier boy from the north or the south, no one knows, cried out, "Three cheers for home!" And forgetting that they were foes, united by that love which is older than the world itself, by that love which is stronger even than death, these sun-bronzed men, who on the morrow

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would hurl themselves at one another's throats, joined, singing about home. And they returned to their tents, and it is said that as they went to bed, their cheers turned to tears. There is no instinct in the human heart that is greater than the yearning for home.

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When H. B. Laird, the great saint, lay dying, his son said to him, "Dad, how do you feel?" And Laird replied, "My son, I feel just like a little boy on Christmas Eve who's going home." The twelve gates were twelve pearls, each gate made of a single pearl. This speaks of the measure of heaven, its glory.

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This speaks of the treasure of heaven, that the Lord who loved us even to a cross waits to welcome us there. And this speaks of the pleasure of heaven, that no matter what hurts or agonies we have known in our living or in our dying, when we get there, there will be no more weeping

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or pain or sorrow. All of these former things will have passed away, because we will be at home. I think old John did rather well when he sought to describe the indescribable by saying, "The twelve gates were twelve pearls, each gate made of a single pearl."

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Let us pray. O God, thy servant Augustine wrote for all of us when back across the dusty centuries he scribbled the words on papyrus, "The heart is restless until it rests in thee." We will live out the lives to which we are called here, but there will be in us always

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that which awaits what's over there, here and hereafter. We thank thee for the promise of heaven. Amen. [BLANK_AUDIO]