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I went to Greenbelt for the first time this year, it was awesome – I loved the atmosphere, and I loved all the different kinds of worship – much of it in the open air. When I read this passage I thought about the difference between my usual Sunday church and the worship at greenbelt. Worship without walls.
The URC has been asking the question lately “scrap the church?” – and there has been much discussion. Has church reached the point where it no longer provides spiritual nourishment in a way people need it today?
The writer of revelation saw the new Jerusalem where there was no need for a temple, where there was no building, no tradition, no difficult words – between people and their God.
For centuries the laity was “actively discouraged” from reading the bible for themselves in case they misinterpreted it. It was thought that it needed to be explained to them by a learned priest, in a building with special holy walls and rigmarole. These days we are encouraged to read our bibles, to be theologians for ourselves – there is no longer a layer of mystery between us and the words.
It seems to me that any “temple of the future” might need to have a similar transparency in order for it to be appropriate for the centuries still to come – because there is no longer any need to have that layer between us and our God.
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