I looked, and there was a great multitude … from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb … crying, “Salvation belongs to our God who is seated on the throne, and to the Lamb!” (Revelation 7:9-10).

What a beautiful scene: that great multitude, as “diverse” as we could possibly imagine, gathered to worship, centered upon the throne of God and of the Lamb, and joined in this holy assembly by angels and creatures of all kinds!

What a different scene today, here, “on earth”: every nation greedily pursuing its own interests, tribes at each other’s throats, people drawing hard and fast lines between their in-group and everyone else—and despite the “communication revolution,” it seems that we understand each other less and less, our languages confused and confusing, Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, et. al. as the architects of a new Tower of Babel?

As we’re continuing to think about Race, Power and Healing, this passage in Revelation 7 is an obvious go-to.  But Christ-followers can make two mistakes reading this passage.  On the one hand, we can dismiss or abandon any hopeful work here on earth to address injustice, inequality and oppression by saying, “We just have to wait for heaven, for ‘kingdom come’ to see that reconciliation.”  Or we can claim that it is our job to establish God’s kingdom by our own striving, our job to somehow bring heaven down to earth and make the earth behave itself, without needing or involving God at all.

Jesus taught us to pray, “Our Father … may your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”

Our job, as individuals and especially as churches, is to bear witness to the reality of God’s kingdom, to the presence of the kingdom here, on earth, as it is in heaven.  We are to be signs, pointers to a reality that is already at work, but not yet in all its fullness.  Or, to change the metaphor, a church—our church—is to be a kind of window into the life of the kingdom of heaven.  Never a perfectly clear window, never a large enough window through which to glimpse the kingdom in all its magnificent fullness and spectacular beauty—but a window nonetheless.  The world should be able to peer into our life together and catch a small glimpse of Revelation 7, of God’s kingdom coming, operating, working here on earth just as it is in heaven.

What is one specific way you would like to see Chatham Community Church become a bit more like Revelation 7?  Could you begin praying for that … and be watching for ways that the Lord will call you into being part of his answer to your prayer?