No Temple in the City: Planning Our Own Transformation

Readings: Revelation 21:1-5, 10-11, 22-27, Apocalpse Revealed #918 (see below)
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​Today we begin a series that explores themes from the book of Revelation. The book of Revelation looms large over the imagination of the New Church, over the religious movement that has been inspired by the writings of Emanuel Swedenborg. It is important to us, not because it tells of our future, but because it speaks of God’s vision for us, as individuals and for humanity as a whole. It tells a great cosmic story about the forces of good and of evil, forces that are operative both systemically, in the world, and psychologically, in our minds and hearts. And this great cosmic story is true, not because it happened as written, not because it will come true, but because it’s themes have always been true; it is God speaking to us about what is, both then and now.

Chapter 21 in the book of Revelation is a triumph, a moving and poignant climax for the whole of the biblical story. It describes the descent of the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven, accompanied by a loud voice “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people…God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes.” (21:3-4) The city is unimaginably big, with twelve gates that never close, walls made of precious stones, and streets made of gold so pure that it is transparent. There is no night there, nothing that hurts or diminishes others. “The glory and honor of the nations will be brought into it.” A river flows down the middle of the city, and on either side there are fruit trees which grow different fruits each month. 

To Swedenborgians, this descent of the holy city is our guiding star, our reason for being. As in heaven, so upon the earth; this is the future that we pray every week in the Lord’s Prayer. We wait not for a tribulation that will destroy the earth, we wait not for a rapture that will take us away from here. Rather, we look to, in the words of Verna Dozier, “The Dream of God” for the whole earth, the New Jerusalem. We don’t expect a literal descent, but a spiritual one, a new consciousness for human beings leading to a new way of living. A new future wrought one changed heart and mind at a time, each life transformed placing a stone. 

And so while not literally expected, the vision of the New Jerusalem in the book of Revelation tells us something symbolically about that God’s dream looks like. In just a few of the details, we can see that the city is big enough to hold everyone and is always open to whoever wants to enter. But it is not without walls or boundaries; those who want to hurt and destroy cannot be a part of a city community dedicated to collective thriving. There will be no night there; no darkness that clouds our vision of truth, no falsity that convinces us to forget the command to love others, and to forget that God loves us. The “nations” are welcomed; we will retain our individual identities, our uniqueness, our relationships, but all will walk together by the light of a higher power. In the middle of the city there are symbols of abundance and plenty; water flowing down the center, ready to refresh and renew; trees that feed and heal, and all will have access. There is much to aspire to in this beautiful, symbolic vision.

Our little church takes its place in that story, named for the holy city for which we work, strive and yearn. There is one interesting aspect of the holy city Jerusalem that I would like to explore in particular, and I quote from verse 22: “I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple.” Perhaps we might find it more than a little ironic that our church should be named after a city in which there will be no temple, and no churches. What are we to make of that? Are we to aspire ourselves out of existence?

Perhaps. Certainly, we can identify this line of thinking in the bible if we wish to see it. In the gospel of Matthew, it is made clear, in the words of one of my commentaries: “Immanuel, God with us, is not housed in a building, but is met in the persons of the hungry, the thirsty, the naked and the imprisoned.” (1) And Karl Barth, arguably one of the most important Christian theologians of the past century wrote of this chapter: “…nothing is more finally significant than the church’s complete absence.”

Swedenborg, however, looks at it a little differently. As we heard in our reading, to him, having no temple means symbolically:

…that the New Church will have no external element divorced from an internal one, because it turns to the Lord Himself in His Divine humanity, from whom comes everything connected with the church, and worships and adores Him alone.

John's not seeing a temple in the city does not mean that the New Church, or New Jerusalem, will not have any temples in it, but that it will not have any external element without an internal one.

In Swedenborg’s spiritual worldview, all external earthly things are created and maintained by the spirit that flows into them internally. When we acknowledge that inflow of spirit, we can consciously connect with it. But, that inflow of spirit will often call us to grow and stretch and love in ways that we do not want to. So we sometimes confine ourselves to the natural, external side of things, we put our blinders on, because it is more comfortable to be blind. However, true connection with the spirit requires alignment with the spirit’s purposes, alignment with what God’s presence calls us to. So when Swedenborg says the church will have no external element divorced from an internal one, he means no faith without the willingness to love and serve others, no empty rituals, no automatic creeds. There shall not be a place where we can go purchase our salvation, some box we can check that will absolve us without doing the work, no place where we can just say the right things and then go about our business. No place that we have to go to “find” God, or request God or invoke God, because we believe that God isn’t in our day-to-day spaces. In the New Jerusalem, God is in all things, and specifically, the Lamb, God’s Divine Humanity, the part that reached out to us and died for and with us, permeates the city. God walking with us, God crying with us, God present with us, God holding the umbrella, God being the flashlight that shows us the way. God close, like a friend, like someone who knows us, like someone who was us. So therefore, in the holy city, there will be nothing external, nothing good that we can see or or hold or create that we can pretend doesn’t come from God, or isn’t filled with God, or isn’t connected to God. Nothing that we can pretend to hide from God. “The Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple.” The Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are to be found everywhere, and are to be given praise everywhere. No external element without an internal one.

And this is where I part ways a little bit with Swedenborg, although I imagine we may actually be in agreement in the end. I think this means that in God’s vision of the New Jerusalem, we won’t be needing to have churches. We might want them. We might choose them. But we won’t need them. For this is one of the lies of earthly temples and churches that the New Jerusalem overcomes: that they are needed. Needed for us to secure salvation, needed to get right with God, needed to get close to the sacred, needed to gain forgiveness, needed become worthy, needed to proclaim who is in and who is out, needed for divine access. If there is one thing the New Jerusalem communicates, it is God’s unmitigated love, presence and closeness. The temple is not needed because God dwells with humankind, in our hearts, in our minds, in our actions. We will worship, we will gather, we will love and hold each other by the river, under the tree of life, in our homes, in the marketplace. When all externals are acknowledged to be filled with God, and we strive that all our actions shall reveal the God that is within them, all the world is a church, all the world is a temple, all the world is holy. This we know is true, even now.

Why have church then? When the whole world is a church, what is the point? Perhaps there will be none. But human beings are relational creatures. I truly believe that churches and temples in God’s dream may not be needed but they will be wanted. Not as places that enact boundaries around God but as places that embody our relationship with God, that are dedicated to our commitment to be co-creators of the reality of the holy city with God. Places that celebrate, places that connect, places that express gratitude in the language of bricks, mortar, glass, stone and wood, places where we honor our journeys together. There is a reason that communal barn-raising in rural areas is a time-honored practice, why projects like Habitat for Humanity exist now. Joining our hands together in work is not only practical but connective; building structures and continuing the life held within them, also builds community.

So, here we are today, in church, as we celebrate the New Jerusalem, we look also towards the possibility, nay the necessity, of our obsolescence. Even as we recognize that God’s dream of the New Jerusalem is a long long way from being realized, far beyond our lifetimes, we might wonder, are we being asked to joyfully plan and work for our own demise? I think rather, we are being asked to joyfully work and plan for our own transformation. As the New Jerusalem descends into human consciousness, the world will change and so will the church. And this will be a very good thing. 

In Revelation, right after the the New Jerusalem descends, right after the voice from the throne declares that God will dwell with the people, we hear: “He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” (21:5).  Newness can be scary, but it is also liberating. The symbolism of the New Jerusalem intentionally echoes the story of creation, a story of abundant and teeming newness, where God hovered and planned and then brought something beautiful out of chaos. God is doing the same thing now. May it be. Amen.

1. The New Interpreter’s Bible, p1098
2. The Word of God and the Word of Man, p72
   

Readings:

Revelation 21:1-5, 10-11, 22-27

1 Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,” for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. 2 I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. 4 ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” 5 He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”

10 And he carried me away in the Spirit to a mountain great and high, and showed me the Holy City, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God. 11 It shone with the glory of God, and its brilliance was like that of a very precious jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal.

22 I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. 23 The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp. 24 The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their splendor into it. 25 On no day will its gates ever be shut, for there will be no night there. 26 The glory and honor of the nations will be brought into it. 27 Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life.

Apocalypse Revealed #918

“But I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple.” This symbolically means that the New Church will have no external element divorced from an internal one, because it turns to the Lord Himself in His Divine humanity, from whom comes everything connected with the church, and worships and adores Him alone.

John's not seeing a temple in the city does not mean that the New Church, or New Jerusalem, will not have any temples in it, but that it will not have any external element without an internal one. That is because a temple symbolizes the church in respect to its worship, and in a higher sense the Lord Himself in respect to His Divine humanity, which is to be worshiped… Moreover, because everything connected with the church comes from the Lord, therefore we are told that the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the city's temple, which symbolizes the Lord in His Divine humanity. The Lord God Almighty means the Lord from eternity, who is Jehovah Himself, and the Lamb symbolizes His Divine humanity…