Sanctification
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying,
“See, the home of God is among mortals.
He will dwell with them;
they will be his peoples,
and God himself will be with them and be their God;
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.”
Revelation 21:1-4
Homily
Steve Martin, reflecting on his 1981 autobiography Born Standing Up, said that the book is actuality a biography “because I am writing about someone I used to know.”
Steve Martin studied philosophy at California State University and considered being a philosophy professor instead of an actor-comedian. Drawn by the adulation he received standing on a stage before audiences, he was deterred from following an academic career.
At age 10, Martin started his career at Disneyland selling guidebooks in the newly opened theme park. In the decade that followed he worked in the Disney magic shop and the Bird Cage Theatre at Knott’s Berry Farm, performing his first combination magic and comedy act a dozen times a week.
Steve Martin was noticed first as a writer for the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour and became a frequent comedian guest on The Tonight Show. His stand-up comedy performances were big in the 1970’s, though he found even more success when he started acting in the 1980’s. Some of his most famous movie titles include Cheaper by the Dozen, The Pink Panther, and Father of the Bride.
In 1981 he quit show business forever. Born Standing Up is, in his own words, is the story of “why I did stand-up and why I walked away.” Martin illuminates the sacrifice, discipline, and originality that made him an icon. To be this good, to perform so frequently, was isolating and lonely. It took Martin decades to reconnect with his parents and sister. Martin, in his book, also painted a portrait of his times: the era of free love and protests against the war in Vietnam, the heady irreverence of The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour in the late 60s, and the transformative new voice of Saturday Night Live in the 70s. These are values that he promoted, and that he realized now how adversely they affected society.
Only with compassion and an understanding of the importance of family and friends, and not audiences, did Steve Martin become a recreated individual. His autobiography is about someone he once knew, and the person whom he no longer is.
The religious message that always seems forefront at the beginning of each new day is this: is there going to be a religious transformation in my life today. It is the question of whether or not I am going to be more loving, giving, forgiving today than I was from the day before.
Though we will always spiritually stumble, it is still possible to change, grow, mature, and improve upon ourselves. This is the theological doctrine of sanctification, which the Marion-Webster Dictionary defines as “the state of growing in divine grace as a result of Christian commitment after baptism or conversion.” To be in the process of sanctification acknowledges that with the dawn of each new day I will be a better Christian, not a perfect Christian, but better Christian one than I was the day before.
A central tenet of the United Methodist Church is sanctification. This theological doctrine was foremost for John Wesley, the denominations eighteenth-century founder. He wrote on this topic frequently, with this these words possibly being his best summary of the doctrine of sanctification, “By justification we are saved from the guilt of sin…by sanctification we are saved from the power and root of sin.”
So, when John the Seer wrote, “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth,” his reference may be more than just to the end times. It could also be a little more practical that with the coming sunrise will people see me, will people see you, as a new heaven and a new earth from the preceding 24-hours.