Saturday 01 November 2008
- Bible Book:
- Revelation
"After this I looked, and there was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, robed in white, with palm branches in their hands." (v.9)
Background
Written during a time when Christians were facing conflict andpersecution, this passage from Revelation denies any possibility ofa narrow Christianity for 'those like us'. The people who comebefore God are from everywhere - from those who are 'like us' andthose who are very different; from those we understand to those wedo not.
When being persecuted, it is normal and natural to play safe, toinclude only those like yourself - only those you know can betrusted.
But here, yet again, we see Jesus abandoning all that we believemakes us safe - all the boundaries that we erect for ourprotection. Isn't this another one of those biblical paradoxeswhere the Christian way just does not make sense from the logic ofthe world?
It seems that if we want to preview something of the new heaven andnew earth pictured in Revelation 21, then we had better get busyremoving the barriers and distinctions that we have built up overthe years, as Jesus won't be respecting them. In the New Testamentwe see the struggles that the early Church had understanding thatthe gospel was for all, and working out whatwas cultural and did not apply to all people (see
In beautiful poetry, the passage points to a common destination androle for people across the whole of humanity, worshipping the Lambtogether. So often this is opposite of the worship we experiencetoday which is fragmented by our different preferences andprejudices.
We could connect inclusiveness to the behaviour of Jesus as seen inthe Gospels, showing his wrath to those who created rules to keeppeople from worshipping God and to exclude people from hispresence.
Over the centuries the Church has done far more than its fair shareof excluding people, yet this is done in the face of a god whoaccepts and welcomes people from every area of the spectrum ofhumanity.
To Ponder
Who do you exclude through your behaviour andthoughts?
What can you change to include people fromeverywhere in the invitation to God's kingdom?
Who would you struggle to be alongside as youworship God? What is this image of the kingdom, as described inRevelation, challenging you to do about this?