Permanently Open

Permanently Open--November 30, 2018

"And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God is its light, and its lamp is the Lamb. The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it. Its gates will never be shut by day--and there will be no night there. People will bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations." [Revelation 21:23-26]

Open gates are a sign of strength.

Open gates are a sign of confidence, of peace, of power, and of not being afraid.

You close the gates when you are afraid of something "out there"--whether or not there really is anything out there to be afraid of.

Closed gates smack of feeling insecure,  of distress, and of weakness.

That's why the story of God's victory in the Slain-but-Living Lamb (Christ!) ends with this scene with permanently open gates in God's new city.

The whole book we call the Apocalypse, or the Revelation to John, is chock full of symbolism.  John the Seer doesn't waste a single opportunity to give us layers upon layers of meaning, from Christ as the Lamb to white robed singers to lampstands and seals and bowls.  Even down to the dimensions of the city of God, the New Jerusalem (which is a cube, curiously enough--a three-dimensional symbol of completeness, perfection, and wholeness), and the number of gates in the city (twelve, which calls back to the tribes of Israel and the new community of disciples that Jesus gathered), every image in the book of Revelation is intentional.

That's why it's worth paying attention to this scene from the tail end of the book at the tail end of the Bible and the way it describes the full and complete victory of God.  There, at the last, John says, God's reign is perfect and complete, so that there is no reason to be afraid.  And when there is nothing and no one to be afraid of, the gates are left open and the doors are left unlocked.  The last enemy--death itself!--has been dealt with, and so there is no threat to God's beloved community.  John gives us this picture of gates permanently left open as a way of saying, "The living God is so strong and so secure that we don't need hide away from anybody anymore.  We don't need to close the gates, because we are no longer ruled by fear--we are ruled by God whose love casts out fear like a demon."

In other words, when John wants to come up with an image of complete confidence and peace, he doesn't say, "And we'll all hide behind the big strong walls and the big sturdy iron gates, so that nothing bad can come and get us anymore." But rather, John says, "At the last, we will finally be done with living in fear and we can leave the doors all propped open and welcome everybody from every nation (a nice touch John is sure to add here), because God isn't afraid of them coming in.  The very fact that all the nations and their rulers want to come into God's city is a sign of God's glory--it is the highest compliment of all that they all come streaming in to be in the fullness of God's presence and God's reign.

One of my favorite places on Earth is a sleepy little town on Lake Erie where my family has vacationed every summer since I was a baby, and one of the things that I like best about it is that it is a place where people still all leave their doors unlocked.  There is no fear that somebody will break in or take things, and there is no fear that our loved ones are not safe.  And so you find friendly faces coming and going, running in and out of their doors to go get their kites or swimsuits, all because they are so confident that they are safe, and therefore don't have to look suspiciously or fearfully at their neighbors.  People come from all across the country to vacation there, and I have never met anyone there who was overcome with anxiety about intruders.  There is a peace to that place, because no one is afraid.  And I think something like that is the image that John wants to give us about how God's victory is finally going to be felt and seen.  It's a community where the doors can be left unlocked.

In the end, God's strength, God's kind of "winning," and God's kind of "toughness" are not found in the locking of doors or in turning away the nations who want to come in.  In the end, God's kind of victory is shown most clearly in gates that are never closed, in a confident welcome to all nations, and in a beloved community who lives at peace because they are no longer ruled by fear.

Now, I know--this isn't how daily life in our world feels right now.  I know that burglars break into homes and thieves come in and steal--even when you DO lock the doors and shut the gates.  I know that this is a world in which countries still invade each other (like Russia "annexing" Crimea) and attack each other (like the war in Yemen), where reporters get murdered in consulates, and where we have all just gotten used to living with a certain amount of fear of the bad stuff that could happen.  And I'm not suggesting you should leave your car doors unlocked when you park it at the grocery store, or that you can leave your garage door open and assume everything will still be in it at the end of the week.

But I am saying that it is worth remembering the future toward which all creation is headed, according to Revelation, and that our hope in God's victory pulls us toward that future now.  We are called to be people no longer ruled by fear.  We are called to be people who recognize that the open gates of God's city are not a sign of weakness on God's part, but the supreme sign of confidence that God is not afraid of anything or anyone coming in.  

We will be people, then, who welcome strangers--to our tables, to our churches, to our communities.  

We will be people who see that strength is expressed in open doors, not in hiding behind locked ones (like the fearful disciples on Easter Sunday).  

We will be people who hear John's description that people from all nations will be drawn together into God's new creation, and we will practice for that day now by widening our circles now enough to get to know people from other nations in the mean time.

If the ultimate victory of Jesus looks like a city whose gates are never closed, into which all nations come streaming into it in welcome, then our lives will start to take that shape even today.  That, after all, seems to be what Jesus has been after all along.

And, as I hope we have seen together over this past year, it's all about Jesus.

Lord Jesus, pull us into your future victory now with open arms, open communities, and open hearts.