Trinity Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)

Sermons 

Title: "A Crowded Table"

Text: Revelation 21:10, 22 – 22:5

Even people who are lifelong New Testament scholars

don’t pretend to understand all of it.

In fact, some of it can’t be translated,

not even by scholars of classical Greek.

Parts of it simply make no sense,

and what we find in our English Bibles,

in the various translations,

is in some places just an educated guess.

And even the parts that we can translate …

so much of the language and images are symbolic,

and we have to guess at what they were meant to represent …

We truly don’t know, now,

what it all meant to the Christians

of the late first century.

So why preach on it, then?!

Why not just leave it there,

tucked away at the very back of the Bible,

where it can’t do too much harm?

Well – partly because

it was one of the lectionary choices for today …!

But also, in part, because

this passage, at least, is fairly straightforward.

And, because I think it has

some interesting things to say to us,

and to the times in which we live.

The first thing I found sort of curious,

is that in the city of God,

there is no temple, no church,

no special place set aside from the rest of life

where we go to worship God and do "holy" things.

In one sense, that probably sounds like really good news!

We’d never have to go to another

finance committee meeting, or worship committee,

or whatever committee,

for all eternity!

Never have to put out another newsletter,

or preach another sermon …

Not a bad deal!

… But of course, that’s not really what it means.

Because it goes on to say,

that in the city of God, or heaven,

or whatever name you want to give it,

that the temple is the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb.

That is, the temple is everywhere.

Our lives are touched by God at all times.

No part of life remains untouched by God’s influence.

Nothing can separate us from God.

So, in a sense,

heaven might be more like "continuous church."

Not in the sense of

interminable sermons to put you to sleep! …

But maybe like …

unending hymns of praise …

an eternal retreat to someplace lovely like Mo-Ranch …

maybe even fellowship suppers every day of the week!

In a sense, every meal will be the Lord’s Supper.

No more of this once-every-month-or-so,

nibbles of bread and sips of juice sort of thing.

Every meal we share together

will be a holy communion,

will include the entire community

of those whom God has called, and saved.

And Christ will be present at every meal,

not just in spirit or in our hearts,

but really, visibly, tangibly there.

Another interesting thing in this scripture

is that in the city of God,

the glory of God and Christ the Lamb

are the light of that city.

Forget that just a couple of sentences ago they were the temple;

now they’re the light.

It’s that sort of confusion of metaphors

that makes Revelation so confusing,

even in the places where the translation is not problematic.

But anyhow …

Notice that the nations and kings of the earth

will walk in God’s light.

Imagine that.

What a far cry from

the way that we, and all nations, do our business now.

Much more concerned about our own security,

our own advantage, our own self-interest,

than about trying to God’s will and walk in God’s light.

Imagine a time to come,

in which nations will no longer glorify and honor themselves,

but instead,

will bring their glory and honor into the holy city.

Imagine a time to come,

of no more disputes over boundaries, because there are none,

and no place to build, keep, or hide weapons of mass destruction.

Imagine a time to come,

when we will sit at the table

not only with other Americans, Canadians, western Europeans …

but even with Iraqis … Iranians … Palestinians and Israelis …

Afghanis … Russians … Chinese and Taiwanese …

South and North Koreans.

Sharing our fellowship, and our Lord,

not only with our friends, and those who see the world as we do,

but also with our traditional "enemies."

All of us, together,

walking in God’s light.

The longer I thought about this,

the more it took on the quality of

one of those jokes that starts off with,

"I have some good news and some bad news …"

The bad news is that some day, eons from now,

you may find yourself sitting down at table in God’s city

with Fidel Castro … Anastasio Somoza … Fred Phelps …

someone else that you think is pretty horrible …

The good news is that

if and when that actually comes about,

it will be because we have all made the choice to walk in God’s light,

and to renounce whatever it is

that keeps us in chosen and self-imposed darkness.

It’s still hard to accept, though; I grant that.

I’ve wrestled with it all week and then some.

What happens if we arrive at the heavenly city,

and discover a lot of people there

that we don’t think ought to be there?!
After all, verse 27 does say that

"nothing unclean will enter [the holy city],

nor anyone who practices abomination or falsehood,

but only those who are written in the Lamb’s book of life."

It seems clear that, at least according to the mysterious author of Revelation,

some will be excluded.

But those are pretty narrow criteria …

who among us can truthfully say that we have never practiced falsehood?

If we take this at its literal, face value,

none of us might make it to the holy city.

It would be a pretty lonely place,

with just God and Christ and the Holy Spirit to keep each other company.

But that’s not likely!

At some level,

don’t we all want to have some say

in who God decides to save and not to save?

Wouldn’t we like, at least a little bit,

to get to choose who goes to the holy city and who doesn’t?

Who’s "in," and who’s "out"?

We aren’t at all sure we want all the nations of the earth,

much less certain ones of their leaders,

in there with us!

And of course there are always the neighbors – people we know –

that we think should go the other place …

I know I’ve made reference before to C. S. Lewis’s book The Great Divorce,

in which residents of hell get to make a bus trip to heaven,

and are invited to stay there,

not to get back on the bus and make the return trip to hell.

The catch is that each person is issued the invitation

by someone that they think

has no right to be there in the first place!

And most of them end up not accepting the invitation.

Because they decide that,

"if heaven is a place where person X is,

then I would rather be in hell."

Which, indeed, they are.

I hope that doesn’t happen to any of us,

whether literally or metaphorically …

I hope we don’t ever exclude ourselves from fellowship with God

by excluding ourselves from fellowship with certain ones of God’s children.

The ultimate decision on who is included,

who gets let into the heavenly city,

who gets to feast at the heavenly table,

is God’s … not ours.

So it is likely to be a much more crowded table

than many of us were expecting!

One last thought about all this …

It is not enough for us to say that,

"in heaven, things will be like that."

It might have been enough for the author of Revelation,

who was part of a persecuted minority,

had little if any social power,

and expected the end to come soon,

at least for him if not for everyone!

That is not our belief system,

and not our social location.

We, therefore, have to work toward

crowding that table and that holy city here and now.

That means evangelism and inclusiveness …

working to bring more people into our fellowship,

inviting them into communion with us, and with God in this place.

It means working for reconciliation

between nations, between people of different ethnicities,

between any groups that consider themselves enemies,

or simply estranged from one another.

It means working for justice,

calling upon our nations and all the nations of the world

to begin to walk in God’s light right now.

Heaven – God’s city – is waiting for us,

but in the meantime, we have work to do!

We cannot simply sit and wait

for God to send us better days

and to set things right once and for all.

That’s our job, too.

Neither we, nor any of God’s children,

should have to wait for the life that is to come

in order to be welcomed, and fed, and blessed, and included.

We dream of the day

when we will see the whole crowd of God’s people

gathered in one place.

Let us do everything in our power

to make our own day and time

look like that one.

Amen.

© 2004 Julie Adkins (e-mail: DrJAdkins@trinitypresdallas.org)