The principal aim of Hebrew Scripture is to tell the story of a people loved and chosen by God, a people sent in mission to build Jerusalem, the holy city envisioned by God through the patriarchs, the judges and kings and sages and prophets. And once built, scripture tells us, this same Jerusalem is in urgent need of restoration…an eschatological irony to be sure: We arrive and yet we are not yet there…an emblem of the life of faith. The people of Israel are rescued from slavery in Egypt and sent out to build the city of God, a city in which the lowly and abased are raised up, a city that protects the orphan and widow, a city in which self interest is cast out for the sake of the whole. Throughout the Biblical narratives there is a dynamic tension between that which is, and that which might be; between the reality of despair and poverty, violence and disease, and the way of hope and healing, justice and abundance and peace…the people of God the tipping point.
New Testament literature continues the theme and names this enlightened and intentional way of life, the Way of Christ: the way that is predisposed to sacrifice, living our collective lives for the outcast, the least and the lost; this the the way of vulnerability. We are told by our spiritual forebears that such a way engenders abundant living, a life in the heart of God, a life of true joy; to build and tend a city, a gracious commonweal, within whose bounds the truth is spoken in love, and enacted with courage and grace; in which creativity governs instead of fear.The bounds of this city are no bounds at all, but portals of welcome and hospitality…portals to life and light.
To build this city in our own time is our life’s work, and this work can and will be complicated, controversial and unsettling at times, but such is the way of the cross, that symbol of our life and labor, offered in unyielding sacrifice….and with humility and a good sense of humor. The new Jerusalem, the new heaven and the new earth waits to be born at the hands of the human community, worn hands that bear God’s very life; the ropey veins and arteries a map of the world….Hands called into a labor of love.
The purpose of the church is to nurture, and encourage and celebrate such a vocation; a place of refreshment and empowerment for the way ahead; enabling our place in the way upon which many have already walked and given courageously their life and labor. We are heirs of their craftsmanship, of their enlightened industry…the new builders of this city to be…this city whose portals open as we speak to all who would come and build…and there we will find welcome and rest…and it is marvelous in our eyes, this peaceable and glittering city of God…We are not yet there and yet we arrive.
