Revelation 21:10, 22-22:5 is in the place of the Epistle
lesson suggested by the Lectionary for next Sunday. It is from the vision of
the New Heaven and New Earth and the New Jerusalem coming down out of heaven
from God. Reflecting on this, I also looked at the spectacular imagery of the
city walls (21:12-21). I have seen some folk suggesting these walls as a
justification for boarder walls, which strikes me as tantamount to blasphemy.
Then in 21:25 I read that the gates in those walls will never be shut by day –
and there will be no night there, so the gates will always be open. These are
gates of welcome, not exclusion. Yes, nothing unclean will enter, nor anyone
who practices abomination or falsehood (21:27). The point is God’s home with
people, and God will wipe away every tear; and death, mourning, crying, and
pain will be no more. These gates welcome suffering people to God’s home of
peace and healing. I will acknowledge that if the walls of the New Jerusalem
are not a suitable analogy for boarder walls, neither are the gates a guide to
contemporary immigration policy. Nevertheless, I do believe this whole metaphor
is a glorious climax to the consistent call of the Mosaic Law and the Hebrew
Prophets to welcome outsiders, the weak, the widows, the orphans, the poor with
compassion and justice, with Jesus’ consistent welcome and mercy for the
rejected people of his day as well as the early church’s open welcome to people
regardless of status, race, ethnicity, class. Whatever the policy this or any
other nation, churches can begin now to celebrate and live into the glory of
welcome gates that never close.
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