This blog provides a meditation on the Episcopal daily readings along with a headline from world news:

DENVER BRONCO FANS PUT JESUS ON NO. 15 SHIRTS

star player=Jesus?

Revelation 21:9-21

9 Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues came and said to me, ‘Come, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb.’ 10And in the spirit he carried me away to a great, high mountain and showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God. 11It has the glory of God and a radiance like a very rare jewel, like jasper, clear as crystal. 12It has a great, high wall with twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels, and on the gates are inscribed the names of the twelve tribes of the Israelites; 13on the east three gates, on the north three gates, on the south three gates, and on the west three gates. 14And the wall of the city has twelve foundations, and on them are the twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.

15 The angel who talked to me had a measuring rod of gold to measure the city and its gates and walls. 16The city lies foursquare, its length the same as its width; and he measured the city with his rod, fifteen hundred miles; its length and width and height are equal. 17He also measured its wall, one hundred and forty-four cubits by human measurement, which the angel was using. 18The wall is built of jasper, while the city is pure gold, clear as glass. 19The foundations of the wall of the city are adorned with every jewel; the first was jasper, the second sapphire, the third agate, the fourth emerald, 20the fifth onyx, the sixth cornelian, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth chrysoprase, the eleventh jacinth, the twelfth amethyst. 21And the twelve gates are twelve pearls, each of the gates is a single pearl, and the street of the city is pure gold, transparent as glass.

a diagram of community

The holy city is of course a community not a place, so the details describe the structure of the holy community. It is not built up by its members but received from God (heaven); it is both a gated and an open community, that is, it has gates but there are twelve of them, and as we shall be told, they are open day and night towards the four directions of the world. The gates are numbered for the twelve apostles whose ministry opens the community to the world.

Recently the Church of Scotland hosted a theology called “church without walls” which with the best of intentions put forward the notion that doing almost anything in the secular community was better than doing almost anything in the church community, which was itself characterised as simply inclusive and permeable. The church community of Revelation has walls, that is, it is a coherent community defined by beliefs and customs, based on the witness of the apostles to Jesus. The identity of the community is clear, and the gates are always open. The beauty and symmetry of the city are images of the saving justice of God expressed in the life of the community.

In this ideal community there is no need to distinguish faith from deeds or fellowship from mission, it is a community of people worshipping the one God, through the ministry of the Lamb Jesus, in the power of sevenfold Spirit, living in justice and openness to all. It is only one of the many images of the church in the Bible but it is perhaps insufficiently studied today.

St Margaret of Scotland, whom the world church remembers today lived from 1045-1093 and was the wife of Malcolm III of Scotland. She loved order and beauty in the life of the church and was famed equally for her love of the poor. She would have known and cherished the imagery of the holy city in this passage.

Matthew 17:22-27

22 As they were gathering in Galilee, Jesus said to them, ‘The Son of Man is going to be betrayed into human hands, 23and they will kill him, and on the third day he will be raised.’ And they were greatly distressed.

24 When they reached Capernaum, the collectors of the temple tax came to Peter and said, ‘Does your teacher not pay the temple tax?’ 25He said, ‘Yes, he does.’ And when he came home, Jesus spoke of it first, asking, ‘What do you think, Simon? From whom do kings of the earth take toll or tribute? From their children or from others?’ 26When Peter said, ‘From others’, Jesus said to him, ‘Then the children are free. 27However, so that we do not give offence to them, go to the lake and cast a hook; take the first fish that comes up; and when you open its mouth, you will find a coin; take that and give it to them for you and me.”

Massacio: The Tax (Fishing on left, payment on right)

Scholars differ as to which tax is referred to. One way or another it’s a religious tax, paid for the upkeep of the holy place. God’s children, (those who follow Jesus and have no direct allegiance to the temple?) are always able to come to the father freely, but for the sake of peace in the Jewish community, pay the tax, from the bounty the father gives them, in the fish they catch and sell. For fishermen, every fish they catch has a coin in its mouth. The episode is formalised as Matthew recounts it, but it does bear the mark of Jesus’ humour. The “ecumenical” spirit of Jesus and Matthew is evident in this story.

The community of disciples is the family of God’s children. It needs no holy place as its trust in Jesus gives access to God. The history of the church as creator of holy spaces has given much beauty to the world but it may have been a distraction from its true identity.