Sermon given at University Church, July 8, 2018
We
live in apocalyptic times, y’all. I’m
not talking about the absolute end of the world, nuclear annihilation, or
disastrous climate change (though I could).
I’m talking about inescapable evil boiling up to the surface of our
daily lives. “Apocalypse” literally means “uncovering” – revealing the truth of
a world that has become so polluted by human greed that God cannot let it stand
any longer. That’s kind of how I’ve been
feeling about the world these past couple of weeks, and so the Scripture that I
chose for today is an apocalyptic text: Revelation. Before I read the passage,
I want to set the stage and put it into some context.
The
Seer of this vision is identified as John.
John and his 1st century Christian community had just
witnessed the end of their world in real time – the Romans tore down their
temple, rounded up their communities, labeled them traitors and rebels, and slaughtered
entire families. So its not surprising
that the first 20 chapters of this book spend a lot of time Empire and
oppression. I didn’t feel unpacking the
Whore of Babylon, the Beast, and the Horsemen – I don’t really need to. You can just check your news feed and get a pretty clear understanding of the evil
our society is capable of, and the suffering that it inflicts. What is
important to know for today’s sermon, is that the vivid and terrible images in those
first 20 chapters is necessary to better understand God’s ultimate vision for
Creation by contrast. So, let me sum up those first 20 chapters: Things are bad. Really bad.
Plagues, woes and sorrows, beasts and demons, seas boiling, mountains
tumbling, lakes of fire, even zombies.
Let’s
spare a moment of pity for John, who must have been terrified out of his mind
at these sights. And then he was given a
vision that has captivated believers for millennia. And maybe close your eyes and try to see what
he saw. This is from the book of
Revelation, chapter 21, verses 1 – 6 and 10 – 23.
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the
former heaven and the former earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. I
saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made
ready as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. I heard a
loud voice from the throne say, “Look! God’s dwelling is here with humankind.
He will dwell with them, and they will be his peoples. God himself will be with
them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes.
Death will be no more. There will be no mourning, crying, or pain anymore, for
the former things have passed away.” Then the one seated on
the throne said, “Look! I’m making all things new.” He also said, “Write this
down, for these words are trustworthy and true.” Then he said
to me, “All is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end.
To the thirsty I will freely give water from the life-giving spring.
He took me in a Spirit-inspired
trance to a great, high mountain, and he showed me the holy city, Jerusalem,
coming down out of heaven from God. The city had God’s glory. Its brilliance was like a
priceless jewel, like jasper that was as clear as crystal. It had a great high wall with twelve gates. By the
gates were twelve angels, and on the gates were written the names of the twelve
tribes of Israel’s sons. There were
three gates on the east, three gates on the north, three gates on the south,
and three gates on the west. The city
wall had twelve foundations, and on them were the twelve names of the Lamb’s
twelve apostles.
The angel who spoke to me had a
gold measuring rod with which to measure the city, its gates, and its wall. Now
the city was laid out as a square. Its length was the same as its width. He
measured the city with the rod, and it was fifteen hundred miles. Its length
and width and height were equal. He
also measured the thickness of its wall. It was two hundred sixteen feet thick,
as a person—or rather, an angel—measures things.
The wall was built of jasper, and the city was pure gold, like pure glass. The city wall’s foundations were decorated with every
kind of jewel. The first foundation was jasper, the second was sapphire, the
third was chalcedony, and the fourth was emerald. The fifth was sardonyx, the sixth was carnelian,
the seventh was chrysolite, and the eighth was beryl. The ninth was topaz, the
tenth was chrysoprase, the eleventh was jacinth, and the
twelfth was amethyst. The twelve gates were twelve pearls; each one
of the gates was made from a single pearl. And the city’s main street was pure
gold, as transparent as glass.
I didn’t see a temple in the
city, because its temple is the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb. The
city doesn’t need the sun or the moon to shine on it, because God’s glory is
its light, and its lamp is the Lamb.
Wow. What a
sight to see – God’s dream for Creation. This vision of New Jerusalem was given
to God’s people as a source of gladness and hope in dark times. And this is what I want to spend my time on
today – not on the world as it currently is but the world as it should be.
Let
us pray. Almighty Creator, speak through
me, speak in spite of me, so that the words of my mouth and the meditations of
all our hearts may be pleasing to you. Amen
A
few years ago, my sister was visiting Chicago and we found our sightseeing
plans ruined by a cold and rainy day. We
were downtown and ducked into the Chicago Cultural Center – which we had never
been to before – and decided to wander around.
We were, of course, impressed with the architecture as we walked
through, but nothing compared to Preston Bradley Hall—the hall designed by
Tiffany. Walking into that space was
overwhelming. Until then, I didn’t know
it was possible to create a room that beautiful – polished marble painstakingly
inlaid with mosaics of brightly colored glass and that perfectly constructed
kaleidoscope of a dome. We just stood and stared in silence, drinking it all
in. The next time my parents visited, I
took them to the Cultural Center and my mother actually burst into tears when
she stood under the dome, she was that overwhelmed by the beauty surrounding
her.
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| I tried to find a photo that would do PBH justice -- I couldn't, but this is 20% of the way there |
My
first sight of Preston Bradley Hall is the reference I have to somehow
understand John’s experience when he first saw New Jerusalem. It is something to marvel at, to drink in. What a gift it must have been to those early
Christians who were overwhelmed by the calamity of the world around them.
Something so beautiful and grand that all they could do was wonder.
It’s
not just the overwhelming physical beauty of the city, with its walls of glass
and gold, foundations of precious stones.
What makes New Jerusalem transcendently beautiful is the complete
reconciliation of God and humanity. For
in this city, there are no borders between the mortal and the divine. This is a city where justice really does roll
down like waters and righteousness like an everlasting stream. It’s a city that
contrasts completely with Babylon, defined by the oppressive systems of
Empire. Empire is all that John and his
community knew, it is all that we know. This vision seems impossible. And yet, God
tells us that New Jerusalem, in all its impossible beauty is coming.
Recently,
I have been thirsty for this kind of vision.
A vision of the world as it could be that is so awe-inspiring, so
ambitious, so beautiful that I have to stop and marvel at it. Right now, there is a lot of Bad News that
just keeps coming and coming – children sent to detention camps, people killed
in cold blood by an organization that claims to protect them, entire
communities decimated by incarceration, cities with poisoned water, White
Nationalism rearing its ugly head once again.
I thirst for a vision that reminds me of the world’s capacity for good
and God’s sovereignty in in it.
Throughout
the Hebrew Bible and now in Revelation, New Jerusalem serves as a tangible sign
of the Covenant between God and humanity.
This is emphasized with the reiteration – twice – of this promise in
verses 3 and 7, new remixes of the original – “I will dwell among them…They
will be my people and I will be their God.” We do well to remember that this
covenant is not a one-sided relationship, humanity has promised to work with
God for the reconciliation of Creation.
New Jerusalem is not just a Divine dream and initiative – it is ours as
well. And over time that vision evolves
and becomes even grander. In his vision
John sees not just the names of the sons of Israel, but the twelve Apostles
inscribed on the walls and the foundations – a testament to how this dream
grows with every passing age. If John was granted this vision today, I have no
doubt he would find the names of Martin, Malcolm, Susan, Oscar, Rigoberta, Ida,
Mohandas, Angela, Dolores, Thunderhawk, Harvey, and Nelson. Those who have lived
under the heels of oppression and have had the most wild, beautiful, and
“impossible” dreams – dreams that inspired action and transformed the world.
New
Jerusalem isn’t only a spectacle to wonder at and a source of comfort, but a
beacon that guides us in apocalyptic times. This is a vision that not only captivates, but
motivates us. It’s a lens that allows us
to look at the world and discern how we are called to act. We need that vision
of New Jerusalem contrasting with Babylon to reject the oppressive systems of
Empire and align ourselves with God’s justice and righteousness in all aspects
of our lives. When we find ourselves incapacitated by the barrage of Bad News
that is coming at us from every direction, visions of New Jerusalem remind us
of our ultimate destination and gives us the strength to arrive. And that’s what we need right now, a vision
that we can keep in the forefront of our minds, that we can fix our sites on
and inspires us to not only resist, but persist. I’m getting weary of always fighting against;
what I need in this apocalyptic moment is something to fight for.
I
want to return to the text now, to a very specific verse that you probably heard
but didn’t register, just as I did before I read the footnotes. It’s a verse
that – for me – reveals what New Jerusalem might look like today, and who is
carrying that vision. Verse 16: “now the
city was laid out as a square. Its
length was the same as its width. He
measured the city with the rod and it was fifteen hundred miles. Its length and width and height were
equal.” Unless you’re a Hebrew Bible
Scholar – or perhaps someone from a 1st century Jewish community –
you probably didn’t catch the reference to 1 Kings 6:20, which describes the
innermost part of Solomon’s temple, the place of the Holy of Holies– the
sanctuary.
The
idea of “Sanctuary” has always been powerful.
In its earliest form, it was the place where God dwelt, the thin place
between the divine and mortal realms.
Even today, sanctuaries exist as thin places, where we really feel the
Spirit move, where God’s Law is the only Law.
It is the place where justice and compassion are not only celebrated but
lived out in worship. In a Sanctuary, we
work with God towards a reality free from oppression. In this Sanctuary, the
borders between the current world and the new world fall away. This church
takes the idea of Sanctuary very seriously, not only in worship but in mission. By granting Sanctuary, we have rejected the
demands of the American Empire to detain and deport and we have protested the
criminalization of movement and affirmed the right to pursue a better life. In
the New Jerusalem, the Sanctuary has expanded to encompass the entire city. So
if we were to expand our idea of Sanctuary out, past the walls of this
building, past the neighborhood of Hyde Park, to the City of Chicago, what might
it look like? What kind of city would it
be?
Like
John and his community, whose very identity was criminalized by the Roman
Empire, the dream of a new world is given to those for whom the apocalypse is
not imminent, it is happening. And these
communities are already dreaming of a New Chicago. They are proclaiming marvelous visions of a
city that is truly a Sanctuary in the way that we – University Church – understand
it. And this is what they have seen:
A
city where everyone feels welcome, no matter what neighborhood they’re in.
Where no family is separated by incarceration, because there are no jails or
prisons. Where reparations have been paid and everyone earns a living wage. Where
everyone knows what fresh fruits and vegetables taste like and no one goes
hungry. Where all children – all people – have access to quality education and
healthcare. Where no one is afraid of being shot, because there are no firearms.
Where a person’s immigration status has no effect on their right to live and
thrive.
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| artist Edd Baldry |
When
I imagine that city, all I can do is marvel. It is wondrous to behold. It’s a dream worth fighting for – that gets
me excited to work with God and this new generation of Seers to bring it closer
and closer to reality. This vision gives
me a lens through which I can examine every action of my life and determine
whether it’s going to bring that destination closer. It’s a dream that inspires me to think beyond
what I have been taught by the American Empire.
An Empire that tells us that these things are impossible. But the Good News, today and every day, is
that these dreams of a New Jerusalem – of a New Chicago -- are not only
possible, they are promised.
So in this moment of silence, I invite you to think about the dreams that you have heard that seem to be too beautiful, too bold, and too grand. Take some time to marvel, and wonder. And if we knew it was possible, what else would we dare to dream?
Chicago organizations that are dreaming big and beautiful: Organized Communities Against Deportations (OCAD), Black Youth Project 100 (Chicago chapter), Let Us Breathe Collective
