(Photo is a model of a city on an altarpiece in the church of Pinacoteca di Brera in Milan Italy. Done in 1482 by Artist, Carlo Crivelli (1430-1500). Parallels between actual towns and the Heavenly Jerusalem were frequent during this time period. Used under Creative Commons license.)
Lectionary Scripture - Revelations 21:10, 22 - 22:5 (NRSV)
And in the spirit he carried me away to a great, high mountain and showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God. I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb. And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God is its light, and its lamp is the Lamb. The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it. Its gates will never be shut by day--and there will be no night there. People will bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations. But nothing unclean will enter it, nor anyone who practices abomination or falsehood, but only those who are written in the Lamb's book of life. Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city. On either side of the river is the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit producing its fruit each month; and the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. Nothing accursed will be found there any more. But the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him; they will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. And there will be no more night; they need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever.
There Will Be No More Night!
Regarding the above scripture, my denomination asks a couple of questions. It asks what you and I and can do so our faith communities help the larger community become so close to God that there is no need for a church or a temple? It also asks that we express such a vision in our own individual words.In my mind these are critically important questions if we are persons residing in cultures and societies now skeptical and dismissive of organized religion. For me, it seems that we can respond in one of two ways. We can engage in serious discernment and response to the issues involved and dramatically change our ways or we can act as though nothing is wrong and that our faith communities are fine as they are or at most just need a bit of tweaking.
For those who favor the tweaking response, good luck. Your faith community will probably be among the vast majority of houses of worship closing shop in the next ten to twenty years according to researchers studying the public’s penchant for moving away from organized religion. Trust me that there will be no amount of lipstick on a pig that’s going to save things for you. Furthermore, I doubt that Jesus is going to drop down out of the sky to save your faith community from itself. The kind of help you’re actually going to need my friends is open heart surgery. It’s about the only way to escape a fatal ending but you better plan on healing and recovery being long, uncomfortable, and quite painful. Lastly, like most heart patients, you’ll have to learn new ways of living if you want an enjoyable quality of life and prefer not be under the knife again anytime soon. For some, this kind of undertaking will be worth it and the choice will be clear. Yet there are those who will say, “Nothing about me or my way of doing things is going to change. The only way I’m going out of this situation is feet first.” There’s not a whole lot I have to say to the “feet first” persons other than to hope that God provides you opportunity to enjoy your fantasy in some way or another on the other side of the veil. Meanwhile, those of us left behind will be hard at work helping the world of faith become what it needs to be for the generations that have felt ignored, treated dismissively, and ultimately discounted for contributing anything meaningful to our world’s healing and reconciliation.
So while those who chose to calcify continue that particular journey, what I have much hope for is those of you who take seriously the question of what you and your faith community can do to make your city shine like a New Jerusalem; that is a New Jerusalem so close to God there is no need for a church or a temple. So what would you say that such a thing looks like, feels like, and act like in cultures and societies that are suspicious, violent, or skeptical that any such collective of faithful can bring genuine healing and transformation?
Well if I’m to give voice to such a vision in my own words then I must first acknowledge how limited I am in my own perception. I might be able to voice that vision in terms of being an educated middle-class white American male living in Washington State in the community of Vancouver however I will not be able to voice that vision for my ministerial colleague living in Orissa, India. I wouldn’t even be able to voice that vision for a fellow disciple in some rural setting of a Canadian province.
But understanding that limitation -- and understanding that even in seemingly disparate places certain things can still resonate and speak to us no matter where they might originate from -- I therefore share these thoughts for healing and transforming my skeptical and dismissive community into a shining New Jerusalem. I begin first with adopting something Gandi once said, “You must be the change you want to see in the world.” Therefore I’ll forego the notion of expending energy, time, resource, and effort trying to persuade any existing faith community to join this endeavor if calcification is well underway.
Next I will go to family, friends, neighbors and associates in the community and share a concept for touching and healing lives that’s substantive, real, personal, hands-on, inclusive and fully just; all of which will be understood as a new form of worship lived out while in the very act of helping and caring for others no matter who they are or what they have been or the particular path of faith or philosophical belief that has guided their lives. All will be welcomed and all will be served to the extent we have means and resources for doing so or can achieve such through joining forces with any others who seek after the Common Good (i.e. the greatest possible good for the greatest possible number of individuals). There will be no litmus tests such as, “Got Jesus?” Though being a follower of Jesus, or Mohammed, or Buddha, or some other great teacher and prophet will be fully affirmed and acknowledged.
In this new combined form of worship and service and fellowship, we will sing and pray and teach and share our stories with one another in the very moments that we’re also alleviating pain, suffering, hopelessness, and helplessness. Doing so whenever and wherever it best suits the needs of those immediately involved whether that’s in someone’s home, coffee shop, public meeting place, restaurant, shopping mall, or brewpub.
At first, we’ll gather the tithe or alms or whatever to resource and support functional needs directly related to this ministry and the expansion of it in our community. In time and with expansion, we’ll also use these resources to project our voice through entities capable of amplifying our message and mission so its witness can be useful and beneficial elsewhere. But ti shall also be our means for constantly re-evaluating and repositioning ourselves to provide the greatest benefit, service, and ministry possible.
Above it all however, will be our goal that the faces of children, women, and men in our community will shine bright with new life and empowerment for as the scripture says, “People will bring into it the glory….” And they will say, “Had it not been for these people who cast off their church walls and cloistered communities, I would still be suffering. I would still be hopeless and spiritual death my lot in life. Instead my life shines and because of the light of my life joins the light of many other lives here, there is ‘no need of sun or moon to shine’ for God resides in us and ‘there will be no more night’.”
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