Audio Lecture #1:
Audio Lecture #2:
Dabney Ecclesiology Lectures
Fall 2006
Lectures #3-4
A Biblical-Theological Vision of the Church
from Revelation 21-22
Hermeneutical background
Reading the text as symbolic architecture
Statistics, stories, and structures – 3 ways to describe a people
What does it mean to be an American citizen? What does it mean to be a citizen of the kingdom of heaven?
Has God left us without a heavenly blueprint in the new covenant? Is there a “law of temple” for new covenant?
Is this vision a place or a people?
A great deal of the Bible is taken up with describing symbolic architectureal structures; ultimately these are all descriptions of the people of God
These symbolic structures here are both present and future (the already/not yet dynamic); features of the church “now” and the church “not yet” are blended; this is part and parcel of the NT’s inaugurated eschatology
These symbolic structures are both indictative and imperative, promise and precept, what we are and what should strive to become
This is the capstone of numerous biblical themes, an intertextual matrix/collage of images drawn together and recombined into one new image; this kaleidoscope vision cannot be understood apart from the canon of which it is a part – we need to look for and explore connections with the rest of Scripture
How do we know this is vision describes the church?
Mixed metaphors
City/New Jerusalem
Temple/Most Holy Place
Bride
Garden imagery
Core covenant promise/Immanuel promise
New creation language in the OT
Reading the text properly requires something of a poetic imagination; we must train our imaginations in the images, types, symbols, and figures of Scripture (though undoubtedly, the literature and music of Christendom can help, as it grew out of the biblical tradition and unlocks many of these poetic pictures for us so that we can “break the code”)
Key features of John’s vision
New creation/new heavens and earth
Mountain of God (pyramid shape; cf. Heb. 12)
Cube shape (Temple/Most Holy Place)
Light (cf. Mt. 5)
Walls
Gates
Foundation stones
Gems
Pearls
Garden/Edenic imagery
Tree of Life
River of life
Applications
The fundamental structure of the Christian life: Be who you are! Be who you will be!
Ecclesiology and Ethcis
Eschatology and ethics
Key question: Are we fulfilling these symbolic pictures in our community life together? Are we living as the new temple-city-bride-mountain-garden-priesthood-tree-river-humanity? Do we measure up to the dimensions and descriptions given here?
Specific applications of the vision to church life:
Note: We have to be careful in making applcations. Jesus did not reveal this vision to John simply so that we can tranlate into theological or ethical prose. The vision itself has to make its impression on us as a vision. If Jesus could have said it any other way, he would have done so. The visionary form matters. We must learn to inhabit these pictures and symbols, not simply make a mental translation of them into more familiar categories. To recast the vision in more common language is reductionistic; we lose something if we break the vision down into its constitutent parts because in a symbolic text like this, the whole is always greater than the sum of the parts. Strictly speaking, John did not see a number of images, but one image. We must deal with the vision as a literary, artistic, and theological unity. We must seek to grasp it as a whole, even if we also analyze its constituent parts.
Temple/City – the church as temple gathers for worship in heaven; as city, she scatters for service in the wider culture (the city on a hill of Mt. 5 – this is the city on the mountain)
City/Garden – the church combines the best features of both agrarian life (respect for family, tradition, community) and city life (diversity-in-unity, cultural maturation and beauty, care for the marginal, openness to the new); the church is both an alternative polis and the telos of the old creation; we are the city and the garden of God, so we should show forth the beauty of God comprehensively
Contrast with Babylon and the harlot in Rev. 17-19; the new Jerusalem is made from the spoils of Babylon (Jesus is plundering the strong man’s house to build his own)
New covenant worship/liturgy (mountain top people – access to heaven, cubed people — priestly community)
Descending down out of heaven = conclusion of the heavenly liturgy in the book of Revelation, the benediction/commissioning aspect of the service, as we are sent into the world to serve and spead the gifts of the kingdom (“the liturgy after the liturgy”)
The city-temple is suspended between heaven and earth, just like Jesus as he was “lifted up” on the cross; in Christ, the church becomes a bridge between heaven and earth
The church serves the world best when she worships faithfully; we act as priests on behalf of the nations, and invite the nations to forsake their idolatries and join the worship of the living God; nothing has the power to transform and heal as much as “the divine service”
Service/healing (mercy ministry, discipleship – the church exists for the sake of outsiders, for the sake of the nations; we cannot grow to maturity unless we are learning to serve and heal others by giving our lives sacrifically for them)
Light of the world (“star light” – cf. Phil. 2:12; light = truth and goodness shining into the darkness; in the old covenant, the light of the shekinah glory inside the temple could not be seen by the outside world, but the new city-temple has walls like glass so the light shines out into the world; the church is to make the shekinah-glory of God visible)
Evangelism/open gates on all sides (hospitality, mission, catholicity, diversity)
Walls (ethical separation from the world, commitment to truth, hard edges to “push back” against the world; protection against sin and error)
Descending out of heaven (a colony of heaven on earth, living counter-culturally, heavenizing earth)
River of life (the Holy Spirit flows out of the church as the new Eden; the Holy Spirit makes the bride and her works beautiful; you stepped into the river of the Spirit at your baptism – now go with the flow!! Don’t quench the Spirit’s flow!!)
Tree(s) of life (one tree or a whole forest/orchard?; always in season = always bearing the fruit of the Spirit; the fruit is also the holy food of the gospel, the Lord’s Supper, the fulfillment of the sacramental meal offeredd to Adam and Eve in Eden; trees are central to the biblecal story – Gen. 2-3, Ps. 1, the cross, etc.; Tolkien’s use of tree imagery)
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