Sunday, May 29, 2022
/The Seventh Sunday of Easter
Acts 16: 16-34; Psalm 97; Revelation 22:12-14, 16-17, 20-21; John 17: 20-26
The Rev. James M.L. Grace
In the Name of God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. AMEN
If you are paying attention today, you will have probably noticed that our reading from Revelation jumps all over the place. We hear verses12-14, then skip over verse fifteen, then we read verse 16 and 17, then skip over verses 18 and 19, and then read verses 20 and 21. Whenever we skip over verses like we do today in Revelation, I want to know why. So I opened to Revelation chapter 22, which you all can do with the Bibles in your pews if you want, and read the whole passage, including the verses omitted in today’s reading: verses 15,18, and 19. It is ironic that verses 18 and 19 serve as a warning to anyone who would attempt to edit or take away, any of the verses in revelation, a warning the editors of today’s lectionary reading ignored, and removed the passages saying “don’t remove this” from today’s reading. Curious.
The other verse, verse 15 I will read together with verse fourteen, which begins [and you can follow along because this is printed in your bulletin]: “Blessed are those who wash their robes to that they will have right to the tree of life and may enter the city by the gates. [the omitted verse fifteen begins here] Outside are the dogs and sorcerers and fornicators and murderers and idolaters and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.”
If we read the verses as they are printed in your leaflet today, we have the image of heaven where resolution seems to be complete, judgment is past, there is a new heaven and a new earth, a new city of God, and all may partake of the tree of life. Beautiful, right? If we add in verse fifteen, the image changes. Even if there is no longer a boundary between God and human beings, verse 15 informs us that there are people outside the gates of the city: “dogs (a pejorative term used to designate a people as outsiders) and sorcerers, fornicators, idolators, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.”
When I read who in the Bible is outside the gate – the idolators, the people who love falsehood – well, that includes me, and may include you. But I do not want to be outside the gate of the heavenly city – I want to be inside drinking from the water of life. How do we get into the city? We walk through the gates, because they are open to us if we want to pass through. But moving through the gate into the city to the tree of life will cost us. The price we must pay is the cost of discipline. Discipline of yourself is necessary before the power of God can be given to any of us. Before we drink from the water of life, we must first wash our robes and discipline our hearts.
Recently my email was hacked, and many of you all received an email from someone claiming to be me, asking you to give eBay gift cards for cancer patients. Throughout the pandemic, I have emailed several St. Andrew’s parishioners whom I have not seen and received no response. I have called them on the phone, no response. But when these parishioners receive a false email from me, they are one of the first to say “Hey, Jimmy, I think your email got hacked.”
And I am astounded because it took, a false email to get them to respond to me! I emailed them back “great to hear from you, can we meet for coffee and connect? I will buy.” No response. There are many people who are not ready to walk through the gate, they want to remain outside, even though what is inside is so much better. I cannot push them through the gate. They will have to choose themselves, if they wish, that is their job.
God is the Great Allower – God welcomes us into the heavenly city if we choose, and God allows us to stay outside of it among the dogs if that is our preference. The good news is that none of us need to live outside the gates, none of us need to be outsiders, unless we choose that for ourselves. AMEN.