Sermon: God is Reconciling

 

There once was a king who had everything, he piled it all up in a corner behind a fence and invited his subjects to try to take something from the pile, and if they could, they got to be the next king.

Now a little boy, the son of a farmer who had a field on the other side of the fence…
so the boy came to the gate, and the guards frisked him, and then let him in to harvest his father’s turnips.
He came out with a wagon full of turnips.
The guards carefully looked through the turnips,
and did not find anything the king owned hidden there.

The next day the boy came again, was frisked, and came out with a wagon full of carrots.
The guards dug through the pile of carrots and found nothing amiss.

The third day, it was much the same
—frisking, a wagon full of potatoes, a search, and the boy headed home.

The boy became the next king…
because he had 3 of the king’s wagons.
The wagon was absent each time the boy entered into the gate…

 

Just as the guards needed to pay attention to what was absent
—so do we, when we read the book of Revelation, when we consider the City of God.
There is no Temple & no Night,
No closed gate,
and no curse found therein.

Each of these things points us to a different type of reconciliation found there:
In the City there is reconciliation with God,
In the City there is reconciliation among humans,
and In the City there is reconciliation of all creation!

 

Let us pray

                Look, there is no Temple & no Night! Instead, the Almighty and the Lamb dwell in the Holy City; they shine forth, despoiling forever the need for celestial light.

                No temple
—that space where God is said to dwell
—that building with a whole priestly and civil structure set up to preserve its Holiness
—an assumption of holiness emanating out of it,
excluding many for the well-meant good of preserving and honoring the dignity and otherness of God, present within.
Sacred rules, to make distinction between Holy and Profane, Pure and Impure.

                The Glory and Presence of God, so often associated with light
—from pillars of fire in Exodus
to Ezekiel’s wheel of flame and lightening and sparking coal, leaving the Temple.

                No more the dangerous approach to God in the Holy of Holies,
no more the blinding associated with direct encounter with the Divine.

                I’ve been reading Steven Paulson’s 3-part work: “Luther’s Outlaw God” in which he makes a distinction between the Preached and Unpreached God
—the latter, the Unpreached God, always involves separation
—grasping, peering for a glimpse—and always left aghast
—aghast at the awful holiness of God.

                But Look! No more of that!
Now the Almighty and the Lamb, they dwell here!

                But Look! No more of that!
Now the Glory of God is a light to our path and a lamp unto or feet!

                I’ve told you before, a new word had to enter the English language when William Tyndale translated Scripture into the vernacular—Atonement—At-One-Ment. In the City we have reconciliation with God!

                God abides with us!
Every place, a place of prayer!
See the Spirit, the Advocate is among us!
No Temple, No Night!

               

                Look, the gate shall never close, for there is no night. Instead, the light of God’s glory is a beacon for ALL people! They are drawn into the City of God!
They see the Tree of Life:
the 12 fruits feed the Nation,
and the leaves heal the Nations, plural.

                No shut gates—Nation and Nations overlapping and coming together,
isn’t that what we talked about last week, the Council of Jerusalem considering Cornelius
—the story of Peter’s preaching and the Spirit’s work going beyond the bounds of religious and ethnic decency
—working even among an enemy
—a Roman Centurian
—an occupier, overcome by God’s goodness…
Peter too overcome,
overcome by God’s wide and wild welcome! “Call no person impure!”

                There are so many things that divide—all kinds of isms, from Sexism to Classism.
So many breaks that need binding, both large and small,
between peoples and in relationships,
and even within individual human hearts
so many people crying out like the Macedonian in Paul’s vision “help us!”
and so many who choose not to cross over to Philippi, and find God at work there too!

                But Look! No more of that!
Now all those written in the Lamb’s book bring glory and honor into the City of God!
Find healing and offer worship!
In the City there is reconciliation among humans! The gates are never closed!

               

                Look, there is nothing accursed found there!
Lies and hateful practices and all those things that ruin this good world, they shall not… they shall not be in the City.

                Nothing accursed! This here, the Book of Revelation, is the end of the Bible,
but back at the start—In the Beginning, to coin a phrase—there is a story of a curse:
one built upon distrust and hubris,
becoming curved in upon oneself and hiding and wallowing in shame,
one ultimately about finger pointing and blame,
“Not me, but the woman,
not me, but the snake,
not me but the ground I crawl upon!”
A story that becomes one long
“I am not my brother’s keeper”
and “Surely not I, Lord.”
A story of alienation from nature and work and love and neighbor.
All of creation yearning—aching—for redemption,
for blessing not curse, good not loss.

                But look! No more of that!
John reveals to us a prophetic re-purposing of creation
—the beginning foreshadows the end,
the goal of reconciliation!
—Walking with God in the Garden again,
a time before the need of a temple,
a time before the evening and morning of the second day,
before lights set in the dome,
before seasons and times,
before God spangled the sky with starlight.

                John takes all that and says, “no more accursed!”
In the Lamb there is blessing!
Follow the stream to the Tree of Life—where all receive openly from it!
Receive Peace—not as the world gives, but as is present with the Lamb and the Almighty!
In the City there is reconciliation of all creation! Nothing accursed!

 

Don’t miss the wagons! Pay attention to absence
—no Temple, night, gate, or curse!

In the City of God there is much reconciliation
—Atonement, Healing, Blessing.

Thanks be to God! Amen.