Sermons

Revelation 21:22-27
April 4, 2019

The Temple was missing in John’s vision of the city, the New Jerusalem.

Perhaps after a thousand years God didn’t want to be cooped up in a big old Temple building any longer. God got tired of seeing only one person, the high priest, who visited once a year. God was done with walls that kept others out—or kept God away—from the people. God objected to the sacrifices of animals and birds. God had enough of the economic engine the Temple provided for the priestly class and the Romans.

God got out and took a deep breath, mingled with the people like the old days when God traveled by Ark, and wondered what happened to the concern for the orphan, the widow, and the stranger. This had been the vision of the people, God had talked about it all the time, and now it had disappeared, replaced by ritual, sacrifice, money, and greed.

No wonder Jesus endlessly squabbled with religious authorities, lifted up the impoverished widow who gave her last penny, turned the tables over. At the moment of his death the veil which hid God’s living room was torn in two, and with it the heart of the old economic, political, and religious institutions was destroyed.

God stepped out into the world and Heaven and earth would be forever linked, without a Temple getting in the way.