Revelation 3: 7-13
“Let anyone who has ears to hear, listen.” Without a doubt, these are the most terrifying words in John’s Revelation. Sure, there are plenty of other scary pictures of all sorts of beasts, of swords and battles and of blood dripping drama in Revelation. There are tons of images that seem custom made for children’s nightmares, but the older I get the less scared I am of the beasts and the more scared I am of these words. “Let anyone who has ears to hear, listen.” Petrifying. This phrase is so because the fact that John had to pen those words presupposes the possibility of the converse. If there are some of us with ears to hear, it seems, there are some of us who simply won’t hear what God has to say. The Kingdom of God, the most beautiful and life-giving thing in the world, is also utterly miss-able. It is possible for us to meet Jesus and never know him. It is possible to walk around the Kingdom and never go inside. It is possible to know of salvation, and never know salvation. This, says John, is the delicate, petrifying nature of the Kingdom of God. Some of us will hear the message, but miss it altogether. Some of us will see the in-breaking, and still be blind to its presence. Some will pass right by doors standing wide open to heaven on earth and remain totally unaware that the doors are even there.
I’d like to be able to tell you that since you are good church folk, or if you become good church folk, that the scary possibility of missing the kingdom goes away. Sadly, that’s not true. Part of the reason that this is so scary is that those of us on the inside of the church are just as liable to miss the Kingdom of God as those on the outside. John, after all, is writing to the church in Philadelphia. Simply being a member of the church, or simply having heard the message once does not seem to be enough. If we take John’s Revelation seriously, we are always going to have to be listening, always looking for the Kingdom of God that is always at hand.
It is always at hand for those who are paying attention, that is. This is what John tells the church at Philadelphia. This is the sixth of seven weeks dealing with the letters to the churches as contained in Revelation, so you guys are old pros at this, by now. You know, by now, that John, in writing to the seven churches in Asia. You know that they are all in pretty similar situations, similar cultural surroundings where it is hard to be a Christian. (John, after all, is writing tot hem from prison!) Knowing that they are in this situation, John writes to the church at Philadelphia, “The are the words of the holy one, the true one, who has the key of David, who opens and no one will shut, who shuts and no one opens: I know your works. ‘Look, I have set before you an open door, which on one is able to shut.”
Then, after those words of hope, John begins to enumerate all of the difficulties the church is Philadelphia is facing. They were in a town that loved spirituality, but did not appreciate the particular claim of Christ. The population were pretty well educated, but also fully enraptured by the power of the empire. Philadelphians were pretty familiar with spirituality and pretty critical of those who claimed to follow Christ. It was easy to be Spiritual, to be not easy to be a Christian in Philadelphia. They were even having to deal with people that John was willing to call followers of Satan. In the midst of those difficulties, John encourages the church to refocus their vision.
“Look,” John says to the church. Look around you. Those difficulties that you see, those things that seem like they are the very things that are keeping the kingdom from being fully present are actually doors, opportunities for the kingdom to break in. God is opening doors, all around you, opportunities to live into the Kingdom of God even now. There are doors standing wide open all around you that lead to the Kingdom of God. Doors, standing ajar that if you will look and notice, will lead you to life abundant. Let all you who have eyes to see, look. The Kingdom of God is at hand, and it cracks open when you least expect it.
Like in a television commercial. At least, if you asked my friend Dan, he would say so. Dan is a baptized Christian, because of the commercials for the United Methodist Church. Have you seen these things? They come on at odd times, and there seems to be no real rhyme or reason to their approach, except they, like John, point to the open doors entering into the Kingdom of God.
Dan, it seems he was just going about life, minding his own business when he started to notice these commercials. He couldn’t get them out of his head. He would be watching TV and suddenly, out of nowhere, his home would be invaded by these commercials, and, as he puts it, a crack into the Kingdom seemed to open up. The first commercial he saw was this. [Play Love Letter]
When he saw that commercial, it stuck in his mind and drove him nuts. He says, “I was just trying to have a relaxing evening at home, or trying to think of anything but church on a Saturday afternoon when suddenly, the Methodists had somehow weaseled their way into my world. The commercial came on, and my safe little world was invaded, the door to my heart is opened and my world is bigger than myself. The thing about it is that I know that they are playing on my emotions. I know that they are using the resources at their disposal to invite me, or manipulate me if you’re a bit more cynical, into doing something or being something. I know that the sappy music and the soothing voice are geared to lure me, to play on my heartstrings. That’s not what gets me! What gets me is that it worked! Every time I see these commercials, I hear the music, I heard the slogan, ‘Open hearts, Open Minds, Open Doors,’ I was intrigued and compelled and drawn out of myself, all at the same time. I tried not to like it, I tried to be cynical, I tried to make fun of it, but there is something about the invitation that cut through my sarcasm and gripped me. I started praying. Suddenly, a whole new world opened up to me and everything became an opportunity to see God. The next commercial that spoke to him was this one. [Play More than Sunday]. “Before long,” Dan says, “I was stopping to help the homeless that I walked by every day. I formed relationships with them and was finding them to be ways into the presence of God. I joined the church and am still discovering that doors the kingdom are everywhere, if we’re just looking.”
The doors to the kingdom are everywhere. Conversations with friends and loved ones, the homeless and the hungry that we pass on the street, serving on committees, even our enemies are all doors to the kingdom of God. The good news is that God never tires of holding the doors open, of standing at the cracks into heaven and calling us to step through. The thing is, these doors are everywhere and in the most ordinary of places, like in our neighbors, in our homes, in bread and wine. They’re so ordinary, in fact, that we might just miss them. But they’re there, waiting for anyone with eyes to see and ears to hear to notice that the doors to the Kingdom of God are standing wide open. If anyone has ears to hear…listen.
